National Geographic TOPO! California Map CD-ROM (Windows)

by National Geographic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 6 x 0.8 inches ; 9.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005QYZ6
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

Product Description

Color: California

Amazon.com Product Description

With the TOPO! map of California, National Geographic has taken the interactive topographic map experience to a new level. By combining its own standard-setting maps with the high-quality scanned versions of the actual paper USGS topographical maps, the National Geographic TOPO! State Series offers five levels of map detail that is unprecedented in its accuracy. Professional and weekend hikers alike will be amazed at how indispensable TOPO! will quickly become in the back country.

Simply load TOPO! onto your PC, and you'll immediately begin to see the benefits of this award-winning software. With TOPO! you can customize any of the hundreds of state maps available with your proposed routes, notes and even photos. You can also create and view elevation profiles that will help you visualize your planned trek. By connecting to any standard color or black-and-white desktop printer, TOPO! allows you to select the exact area that you want to print, even if it is larger than the screen or covers multiple quad maps. TOPO! makes it a breeze to add map border information to printouts, including UTM or latitude/longitude grids, scale bars, north arrows, and magnetic declination. With Adventure Paper (sold separately) you can print out waterproof trail maps -- along with all your marks and annotations -- that will survive any rainstorm the wilderness can throw at you.

TOPO! is also GPS ready, with no extensions or upgrades required. Transferring waypoints and routes between your GPS and TOPO! couldn't be easier. And with Pocket TOPO! (sold separately), you can take full advantage of your PDA the next time the wilderness calls. Simply download your maps and notes to your device, and off you go. When your trip is complete, you can upload the field notes you took with your PDA back onto your PC, and you'll have created a detailed record of your hike for future reference. No more worries about not being able to read your notes or misplacing your notebooks. Everything you need for your next hike will be saved exactly where it should be--with your map!

The many advanced features that make the National Geographic TOPO! mapping software the ultimate topographic map experience for all your back country adventures include:

• TOPO! USA Place Finder: Use TOPO!'s advanced search functions to find trails, camps, lakes, parks, towns, and much more in a matter of seconds.
• Export Features: With TOPO! you can export customized maps in a number of different raster file formats (.gif, .jpg, etc.) for use in other applications.
• Import Features: Import GPS and vector data from a variety of sources, including GPS receivers, spreadsheets, and the web, to overlay on your maps.
• National Geographic mapXchange: Download custom map overlays and swap files with other TOPO! users on the National Geographic mapXchange Website.

Coverage
California

What's in the Box
Set of CD-ROMs with topographical maps covering the entire state.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you can only afford one, buy national geographic's topos, September 19, 2003

By 

Mark Guzowski (Idaho Falls, Idaho USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic TOPO! Idaho Map CD-ROM (Windows) (Electronics)

I live in Idaho, and actually, really, go into the wilderness. The level of detail provided by garmin's u.s. topo offering is honestly not sufficient for accurately setting waypoints. National Geographic's state series is indeed sufficient (in fact it's the best for Idaho). Not to be cruel, but being able to download inadequately detailed map source is not nearly as important as being able to download truly accurate waypoints. Buying both packages would obviously be the best solution, but really you can set up all the detail you need (for getting in & out) using just national geographic (whereas you can't with garmin's u.s. topo stuff).

Critical note: I strongly recommend not carrying *just* electronic maps if you really, truly, go into wilderness. Electronic toys aren't foolproof - they break through no fault of your own, they get dropped, can get destroyed if you fall, etc. Paper maps should *also* be carried - ideally ones printed out just for your current trip.

The garmin hardware itself is truly impressive. Their mapsource topo offerings, on the other hand, need a lot of work. It's as if the people who did them never visited the U.S., and/or never really went into many of the U.S.'s real wilderness areas.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great product if your expectations are realistic, January 2, 2005

By 

Stephen W. Hinch "hiker and author" (Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: National Geographic TOPO! California Map CD-ROM (Windows) (Electronics)

National Geographic topo maps are great if your understand their strengths and limitations. First, don't expect to import the actual maps into a GPS receiver. These maps are raster-scanned directly from USGS 7.5' topos; GPS receivers use vector-graphic maps that are only available from your receiver's manufacturer (and they are much less detailed than NG maps). But you should never expect your GPS receiver's display to completely replace a paper map anyway. It's too small to show much detail, and if your receiver fails, you'd be out of luck.

Since these are based on USGS maps, they have the same high quality including tons of detail, but since many USGS maps are more than 10 years old, you won't necessarily get up-to-date information. Since topographic features don't ordinarily change as frequently as man-made features, you're usually OK, but keep this in mind.

These maps allow you do a lot of other things with your GPS. You can create waypoints on the computer, either by placing a marker on the map or by entering in the latitudes and longitudes of your points, then transfer them to the GPS. This is much easier than manually entering the info through your GPS user interface. You can also download tracks from your GPS receiver onto the map to see where you've been. And you can draw intended journeys directly on the map screen, then measure the distance and elevation profile of the route. The elevation profile is a bit noisy, but you get a pretty good idea of how much elevation change you'll experience on a hike. The tool you use to draw the route on the screen could benefit from an improved user interface, but with a little practice you can get pretty good at it. If you make a mistake, hold down the right mouse button to erase the error. One thing I like is that you can print out a custom paper map, and if you print using your inkjet on NG's waterproof paper, you can get a custom color map that really is waterproof.

The major limitation at this point is that the software is not fully compatible with some of the newest GPS receivers. I can't use the USB cable with my Garmin GPSMap 60CS, but it works pretty well with the Serial cable, other than garbling waypoint names. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, March 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: National Geographic TOPO! Mid-Atlantic Map CD-ROM (Windows) (Electronics)

I wanted to use TOPO to map the trails in the parks around South Eastern VA. by importing the GPS tracks obtained from walking/riding the trails. TOPO would almost do what I wanted, but its disappointing lack of editing and viewing tools made it impossible to accurately draw or display the routs.

If I import the tracks as individual waypoints, the waypoints are displayed as HUGE diamonds on the map that overlap and make it impossible to follow the track. The max zoom is insufficient to clearly display the tracks, but the magnify option zooms in nicely. The only problem is the magnify option also magnifies the waypoint icons, so they still overlap. For the Mid-Atlantic map, these waypoint diamonds are about 200 feet corner to corner.

If I bring the tracks in as complete routs, there is no way to make small changes to fit the track to the minor inconsistencies in the elevation map. For example, when the GPS shows me walking a mostly flat section and TOPO has me descending into a ravine; if I remember navigating around the edge of the ravine, it's obvious the track in that area needs to be tweaked to miss the ravine. I might be able to draw a new track if the lines of the existing track were a little thinner, but as with the waypoints, at max magnify the lines are very thick and obscure the topo lines. When I try to start a new track, the draw tool functions as a track selector over the existing (too thick) track, so I can't correct what is already there. The only option is to delete small sections of the map and try to redraw them from memory or a print out. This process might work, but I think I could do it a lot faster in a paint program.

There doesn't seem to be any way to turn off a waypoint or track display completely, since all the waypoints are ultimately displayed in the "All Waypoints" master list which won't turn off. Strangely, if I delete a waypoint in a custom rout, the waypoint is also deleted from the master list, so once a waypoint is added to a rout it can't be removed without also removing it from the entire map.

Overall it's a nice program and probably works fine for mapping out long, straight paths. It's useless for my purposes, though. They need to add some better editing and viewing features, such as interactive rout editing with drag handles on the waypoints, and some control over how and when the waypoints are displayed.

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