Customer Reviews

Magellan USA 3-D Mapsend Topo Software

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I have been using my copy of Topo 3D for 2 weeks now and have been very impressed with the detail of the maps. The street information is based on NavTeq and is much more up-to-date and accurate than previous software versions. The Topographic information is based on a 30 meter grid layout as opposed to the 90 meter grid layout of the previous Mapsend Topo. Needless to say, the topo information is much better.

The biggest Pros for this software:

Better Street Detail, More detailed topography, increased mapsize allows you to download maps up to the size of a 247MB file (with the appropriate SD Memory card) -- previous versions allowed only up to 64MB, 3D view is nice to help visualize an area (you can see it from above, rotate it around to get different angles, and place yourself inside the map to review a given route), lots of Points of Interest (so many that you have to set options on which ones to show so they don't clutter up the map), easy user interface with lots of options for creating routes/waypoints and transferring to your GPS.

Biggest Disappointments:

Trails are not shown on the software. It does give you markers for the trail heads, but it does not show the trails themselves. The software is teamed up with Trails.com as a selling feature which seemed pretty promising. This was HUGELY anti-climactic -- It requires a $30/yr subscription to use the information, and it only provides you access to books/articles/printed maps -- not the ability to download trails to your GPS Receiver. This is the biggest reason for a 4 star rating rather than a 5.

As an aside, the software doesn't sell that it does Autorouting, so I didn't dock it stars for this, but someday Magellan will get the idea that an all inclusive software package will provide the most user satisfaction. Why are Topo maping and Autoroute mapping treated as mutually exclusive products?

All in all, I am very pleased with this product and would recommend it to others. Good job Magellan!

I have been using the Explorist 210 with the Topo-3D USA Mapsend ver. 1.00 software for over a month now, and I am very impressed with both the unit and the software. I have used the software and GPS in the car, biking, and hiking in some of Idaho's wilderness areas and have been fairly amazed at the detail of the software.

There have been a few negative reviews regarding the Mapsend software with the Explorist 210 that, in my opinion, are not deserved. There is a booklet that is sent with the Explorist 210 and another copy is sent with the Mapsend software entitled, "Magellan eXplorist GPS Receiver - Using Mapsend." You must read this booklet in order to get the software to work with your eXplorist - it will not work if you try to intuitively figure out the software from the interface. This is why one of the reasons that I give the software a rating of 4 stars instead of five - the software has been patched to work with the eXplorist series of GPS and should be updated so that you can upload maps directly from the Mapsend interface.

To get it to work, when you select a map region to upload instead of writing that region to your GPS you write it to the hard drive. You then run a separate program included with your eXplorist software called Magellan Conversion Manager to upload the map region stored on your hard drive to your eXplorist GPS. The conversion manager recodes and compresses the maps for use with your eXplorist. It won't work if you try to upload the map from within Mapsend - you MUST use the Conversion Manager.

The contour lines and streams and bodies of water are vector versions of the USGS 7.5 min quadrangle maps and are dead on. The other features, such as springs, that have been taken from the USGS maps are accurate as well, at least the parts of northern Idaho that I have experience with. Trails, however, are limited (only one, out of several trails that were on a USGS map of an area where I was hiking, was on the Mapsend map of the same area) and that trail seemed to be a route that was converted from a track log - that is the trail appeared in Mapsend as a few points along a trail connected with straight lines. You'll occasionally hit the points as you meander along the trail, but you will find your path varies considerably from the Mapsend trail.

The other feature that is not especially useful is the "points of interest" that are in the Mapsend database. Many of them, such as shops and restaurants, are hopelessly outdated and no longer exist. One hot spring marked as a point of interest was at least 1/2 mile southeast and on the opposite side of the mountain from where it actually is located.

Fortunately, when you upload a map to your GPS you have your choice up uploading the topography, roads, or points of interest individually or in any combination. If you omit the topo lines and points of interest from your map upload, you can fit a lot of road data in the eXplorist 210s 22MB memory. Without contour lines and points of interest uploaded, I can fit all of Northern Idaho from the Montana border west through Washington to the Cascades. Including Seattle puts me over the limit - all the roads on the west side tend to use up memory - however there is enough memory to upload a map of all the roads from Salem, OR north through Portland, Olympia, and Seattle along the I5 corridor to the Canadian border, for example.

The roads included with the Mapsend software are from the NavTeq database and are much more up-to-date than USGS maps and cover all but the latest construction. My only complaint with the roads is that if a road is not paved it is listed as a 4WD road. We have a lot of unpaved roads out here that I happily zip up and down in my Mazda Protege. To me, a 4WD road requires at least 8 inches of clearance to keep large rocks from perforating your oil pan.

[...]

All in all this is an impressive piece of software and a great value if you compare to what else is available for other GPS units. If Thales updates it to work more seamlessly with the eXplorist GPS units, it will be a 5 star product.

I have a Magellan Sportrak Pro gps that I use with the earlier MapSend Topo v3.0. It's a pretty good combination, though the maps are less accurate than I would like.

When my daughter needed a gps for hiking, I bought her an Explorist 210, and the 3-D Topo. Unfortunately, this combination works much less well, and it is not clear to me that there is any combination of current Magellan hardware and software that is as good for the outdoorsperson as the older stuff.

On the positive side, the 210 unit is a good gps, and continues the Magellan tradition of working well under leaf cover: important for a hiker. The Mapsend 3-D Topo software is more accurate and more detailed than the older version.

On the downside, the new maps require much more memory, and the Explorist 210's built-in 22 MB memory is really not sufficient. I furthermore at first I thought that 3-D Topo only allows 1 map region to be loaded on the gps (as did another reviewer), because this is what the software tells you. Actually, however, you can put only one region in a given file, but can download several files to the gps. This improves the efficiency of memory use, but it is still cramped.

I was thinking of returning the Explorist 210 and getting a model that allows the use of an SD memory card, since the larger memory would make the 3-D Topo maps much more practical. But there are gotcha's there too (aside from the cost). The Explorist 400, 500, and 600, which take SD cards, have rechargeable batteries. This seems like a truly bad idea for a device that is designed to be used outdoors, away from AC power. Just what is one supposed to do if ones batteries die in the middle of the woods? The Explorist 210, like my Sportrak Pro, takes standard AA batteries, and one can just carry as many sets as one thinks one will need. (BTW, these can be inexpensive rechargeable NiMH batteries.)

There is one Explorist unit, the XL, that allows SD cards and AA batteries. But the XL literally stands for "extra large". It's a massive unit, really not friendly to a hiker.

Keeping CD 3 in the drive *really* bugged me, so as a programmer I created a fix for this! You can find it by searching the Internet for "freightyard mapsend patch"!

You CAN load multiple maps at one time, but your GPS receiver needs to have a decent amount of memory. I have 256 MB and loaded all of CA, NV, AZ and UT at once!

I really liked the detail of the topo contours, but was disappointed that trails are not shown at all. Many of the Trails.com markers are somewhat off position as well.

The software seems good with the exception of two major limitations that make it unusable for me.

1. You cannot upload more than one region at a time to the gps. Previous versions allowed multiple regions. If you are going to travel to more than one destination or a route along a large diagonal area, this will not allow you to load adequate data to the gps.

2. You must keep the cd in the computer in order to use the product. Normally this may be ok, but if you have a laptop with no CD drive, this makes it unusable on the road. If you cannot use it on the road then updating the gps with new regions is impossible.

I will be using the old versions that allow multiple routes and have no severe limititations even if the data is not as accurate. I would buy another product if I found one that suited my needs and was compatible with my SportTrak Pro.

I bought this as a part of a bundle for my eXplorist 210. The version that I got was 1.00 and this product description doesn't say what version you're buying. A newer version might function differently than what I am experiencing.

Overall, it functions well, but the 3D option did nothing except make things fuzzy on my laptop. Is that from the video card or the software? Delmarva is a very flat area - it's not like we have mountains out here.

This software takes up 1GB in "space saving mode." If you install everything on your computer it takes up 1.6GB. This is a lot of space - plan appropriately. The install process doesn't update at all - my screen sat at 28% for about half an hour while it copied and decompressed maps. Don't expect the install process to be quick.

The copy protection is dumb. You need to have CD3 in your computer in order to do anything. What happens if it gets damaged because you're constantly taking it in and out of your computer? You also need to enter the serial number of your GPS, so it only works with one device. What happens if you buy a new GPS and own two? Do you pay twice for the same software and must you use 2+GB of your hard drive to store the same data twice? If they release a patch or update, must you do this twice as well?

It's important to note that this software does not support the eXplorist models. I bought this as a bundle with an eXplorist 210. Every time I want to download a map, the software tells me that I don't have a supported device. I cancel that screen, and have to save the maps to my hard drive. I have to use another program from Magellan to convert this data into eXplorist compatible formats. That's a huge pain and I view it as a critical flaw. I like the eXplorist and it was a good value for the features of the 210, but I'd view this software as the deal breaker if I could afford the extra for a comparable Garmin.

In summary, this is your only choice if you own a Magellan GPS unit. It does the job it was designed to do, but the way that it interfaces with my unit leaves a lot to be desired. The copy protection system is bogus and leaves a lot of "What if" scenerios that could seriously impact your enjoyment of the unit and the condition of your wallet.

If you're shopping for a GPS at the same time you're reading this review, see what people are saying about Garmin's software. I view the PC interface as critical for me, and the computer side of Magellan's solution is extremely weak.

My experience with this product will keep me from getting the driving directions software that they offer - not worth $70 to deal with more quirks and bugs. I'll use Yahoo! maps for directions and the GPS to make sure I'm on the right path.

Don't expect this to be a great product - it's not. But if you're using Magellan, this is your only choice and it should do what you want it to.

I like the product, used previous version, but with Mapsend 3D you must have CD in drive to use. I tried to make a backup (ever had a CD go unreadable), and could not. E-mailed Magellan and got this reply:

The licensing verbiage in DirectRoute version 2.xx and higher (and any other newer MapSend products) has been changed to NOT allow the customer to make a backup copy of the CDs. Basically any new version of our mapping products that have Tages security will not allow the user to run a backup copy and the licensing agreement (which is agreed to when you select "I agree") does not allow making copies. We do not supply free backup copies of the CDs. Copies are not allowed per our licensing agreement with our data provider.

I wrote back to tell them what I thought of their support and was told that if I could provide proof of purchase, I would be sent another CD for only $31.

Magellan has lost me as a customer.

I would definitely recommend this software (I am using it with an Explorist 210). The maps are very up to date and have high detail of content. The only issue for hikers is that it does not contain trails. To work around this somewhat, I use Terrain Navigator to create a route of the trail I am going to hike, then convert it into Explorist/Mapsend compatible routes (using a free problem called GPSBabel). Then at least you can upload the trail as a proposed route and follow it on your GPS.

Another issue for me was that 3-D mode is not working, which I am sure is related to my graphics card or some sort of computer problem. That itself is fine, my problem is more with extremely poor customer service. Their CS contacts are all in India (hello outsourcing) and completely clueless. All they can recommend is childish things as "please reinstall", " did you check for viruses on your system" and similar standard answers of a person that doesn't have a real answer.

The software is confusing and doesn't use the USB port on my Magellan GPS!!! I can't believe they let such junk software ruin their reputation. The program insist on using a old serial communications port. Well guess what? Many newer computer don't even bother to include this port since it;s so old and nothing works with it!

Look elsewhere!

This is Magellan's most recent software program, yet it doesn't support the Explorist 500's ability to connect via a USB port. My laptop doesn't even have a serial port. I had been using my Garmin on an old computer because it only connects via a serial port. I was so excited to get a GPS unit that connectsed via USB instead, and then I tried the software....

I have spent hours trying to get Mapsend to work with the Explorist 500 and have not yet been able to send anything to the unit. Their website doesn' even address the problem and based on all the reviews, I'm not going to bother with customer support.

The Explorist comes with a Mapsend Manager that is suppsoed to help, but even with that I couldn't get it to work. The fact is, even if I could, Garmin's sofware is so much easier to work with, I'll just use that. The Explorist gets excellent reception, so I'll use the unit for that, but forget loading maps.

Also, I like to label geocaches with the cache name, not the waypoint. I hate trying to find the cache on a map with a whole bunch of "CGC..." or "CX...". It is much easier to find "This Cache is King" or something. Well, Mapsend won't let me label the caches with more than 8 characters.

The maps look great on my laptop BTW. I do, however, find them to be a bit overwhleming to look at as there is just too much information. And I have yet to be able to find any of the trails in my area on the map. And I can't figure out how to navigate on the maps. If I want to scroll down, no arrows pop up to let me orient the map like they do with the Garmin. There probably is some way that I'll figure out eventually, but it is not instinctive. I'm not real big on having to read user's guides for the basics. I just installed the Garmin software and was on my way. I never needed the guide or help for anything. Nothing has been instinctive with Mapsend, I mean nothing!

I have never given anything less than a three stars on amazon, but then again I can return things I don't like usually as they are not software, but I believe I just wasted a whole lot of money on this program. I doubt I'll use it ever again unless they come out with some sort of fix that lets it communicate via USB.