Topo USA 8.0 National Edition

4 comments

1. 

   M. J. Walter on December 19, 2009 at 6:49 am

   This is a great product! I do a lot of hiking and off-roading out here in the Big Bend region of Texas, and have installed this product on my little netbook and take it with me whenever I go into the back-country. I still take my paper topo maps with me, but the Topo 8.0 is what I turn to first!

2. 

   Anthony Garrido on December 19, 2009 at 9:35 am

   I’m not an outdoors expert, but I do quite a lot of day hiking and backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas. I obtained this software with my purchase of the PN-40 Delorme Earthmate. I think both are great products.

   Personally, I really like the Delorme Topos, visually. They aren’t as detailed as what you can get from other places, but I prefer the simpler maps. There’s less clutter, and more of what I really want. All I really need on my topo is elevation information that is readable and information regarding the major features that surround me, such as peaks and bodies of water. That what I use to navigate. I’ve heard some people complain about the detail, but as far as I’m concerned, less is more. I’ve used the USGS versions, and I very much prefer the Delorme Topos.

   I’ve heard some people complain about the complexity of the software, but I haven’t really found that to be the case. The software does use a layering metaphor, kind of like Adobe Photoshop, but I haven’t found it to be too troubling thus far. I struggled for a bit trying to get the right zoom detail matched with the scaling for printouts, but after a few tries, I figured it out. It’s nice to be able to put the coordinate grid that you like to use on the maps you print out. I use Lat/Lon. So, when I print the maps, I try to get a good zoom and scale combination that makes it easy to calculate my coordinates without too much difficult math or measuring. This is pretty easily done.

   I think this is a great product, even if you don’t purchase the GPS from Delorme. However, with the Delorme GPS, this software and hardware combination make for a powerful navigating tool, and add a lot of fun to smaller day hikes.

   For longer, more difficult backpacking, I search online for GPX files for my backpacking adventure, upload them to Delorme TOPO USA, edit the file as needed with information that’s important to me, then export the whole route to my GPS. It’s all very easy and very useful.

   For my day hikes, I have a file called AllHikes.tpx. Everytime I go out on a day hike, record my track with the GPS unit, set waypoints for interesting points on the trail, and then when I return home, I upload the entire track into the TOPO USA software. Then, I upload my pictures from the hike right onto the recorded track. TOPO USA looks at the time that I took the photo and matches it to the time on the recorded track, and puts a link automatically on the track exactly where the photo was taken. Very cool. At the end of the day I have a TOPO USA file that contains all my day hike information, time, miles, elevation plus pictures I took along the way. And it’s not even difficult to do. Just hike and record. . . .

   I gave the product only 4 stars because I think the user interface could still be easier to use. The GUI seems a little scattered to me and takes a bit of time to get used to. But once you do, you will really enjoy the software.

   If you are a real map nerd, however, you might be disappointed with the detail of the Delorme topos.

   I also have to mention, with regard to GPS devices, they really are a lot of fun. I like the pn-40, but my guess is that almost any GPS device would be pretty useful.

   That said, a map and compass works just fine. I always carry both. The GPS is really a luxury. I really researched a lot of GPS devices before I bought the PN-40, and, truth be told, I’m sure almost any rugged GPS with plenty of battery power would work just fine. The nicest thing about the PN-40, in my view, is that it comes with the TOPO USA 8. That really is very nice. You can get the spiffy topos on you GPS unit, at no extra charge.

3. 

   Jerry Saperstein on December 19, 2009 at 10:24 am

   I’ve been buying DeLorme map products for years – and with each passing year, my love/hate relationship tilts a little more toward hate.

   My reasons for buying DeLorme Topo are perhaps a bit different than most of its users. I am not an avid hiker, camper or outdoors person. I use Topo USA 8 and its predecessor to scout out good locations for landscape photography. Pretty simple stuff – and Topo doesn’t handle it very well, but it is still the best in its class as far as similarly priced commercial products are concerned.

   The GUI is, putting it charitably, weird. DeLorme insists on using its own graphical interface, eschewing ordinary Windows conventions. At the bottom of the screen are a series of tabs, many of which are of no interest to the casual user such as myself. Fortunately, the tabs can be managed to meet user desires. Everything is cumbersome. If computers had existed in the 1930s, the DeLorme Topo USA 8.0 interface would be right at home. However, this is 2009 and even the act of performing a simple location find is a burden. Zooming in an out of the map is accomplished with a bizarre set of icons, controls or drags on the screen..

   The screen display is divided into three parts: an overview map, a default 2-D map and a switchable panel that provides a 3-D view if chosen. You can choose from three different map styles, only two of which are provided with the program. The instructions on using each of these panels is buried somewhere in the abbreviated help file. I’ve figure out enough of how to use the 3-D function to use it for my purposes.

   DeLorme has become annoying in pushing extra-cost options at the customer, whether it is their handheld GPS map device, aerial imagery or other data. I am sure all these things are useful to some people, but I wish there were a way to disable all the advertising prompts, toggles and switches.

   Map accuracy is better than Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009, but it is still not the greatest. A few days ago, I wanted to find a vantage point for photographing a lock and dam on the Upper Mississippi. It took me a while to figure out that the lock and dam which stretch across several hundred feet of the river are shown on the map as only a single dot.

   As I noted above, my use of the product is a bit unusual and perhaps hikers and others will find the product more useful. Things are not helped by the failure to provide any worthwhile printed information. The help file is sparse, to say the least.

   The program is relatively stable under Vista 64-bit.

   On the whole, I think Google Maps are increasingly more suitable for my specific needs and, of course, are free. This is the second or third version of DeLorme Topo I’ve purchased. The interface has remained essentially the same: awful. The only other product of this kind at this price point that I’ve seen was worse, so DeLorme wins by default. But as I said, Google maps is a strong contender. It offers topographical maps for many locations.

   I would advise caution for the first-time buyer of DeLorme Topo USA. It may not be a product you’ll find usable. DeLorme itself offers a 30-day Satisfaction Guaranty. I don’t know if this extends to products that aren’t purchased directly from them.

   Jerry

4. 

   BookMan on December 19, 2009 at 1:05 pm

   Fortunately, I did not buy this software package as it came as part of a hardware/software bundle for the PN-40 (which, so far, appears to be a great GPS device). I purchased the PN-40 to help keep track of my walking/hiking/kayaking journeys and have been very eager to put it to good use. Topo USA version 8.0, however, has been nothing but a poorly designed headache – I’ve now spent many hours trying to figure out what, exactly, it is capable of doing and trying to get it to connect with the PN-40. While the connection process is quite simple, the usability of the software is a completely different matter – without question, it is one of the most poorly designed and user-unfriendly applications I’ve come across recently. Considering that this is version 8.0 only makes the horrible user interface problem more apparent – didn’t DeLorme bother to subject this application to real users prior to its release?

   I’ve now spent most of the day trying to figure how, exactly, Topo USA 8.0 works but the awful user interface only makes things worse with time – not better. The program lacks many, many “features” common to most other software applications and features are buried behind obscure menus/tabs whose functions are not apparent. Instead of having the menu bar found at the top of almost all software applications, DeLorme made a very bizarre (and stupid) decision to not include one – instead, they only provide an unknown number of meaningless icons that require users to place their mouse of each in order to get a brief description – even that, however, doesn’t truly explain what each function does.

   Many other functions are buried on the bottom half of the application’s window and are hidden behind a large number of tabs – which are also meaningless to the beginning Topo User; these include tabs for “draw”, “route”, “NetLink”, etc.

   There are two presentations of the map you’re using (why, there are two, I still haven’t been able to determine) and unlike most other programs, they don’t function the same way – clicking on an object should allow one to edit it (most other programs allow you to right click, select “properties”, and then edit the object. This does not happen in Topo USA 8.0. Zooming and panning the maps is also painfully slow (on a
   
   Vista 64-bit machine, no less): the only way to zoom in is to use the “Data Zoom” buttons located in the upper-right corner – is is NOT possible to enter a exact zoom amount in the box and there are no magnifying glasses commonly found in other software applications. Panning is another hassle – many other applications use a hand icon that allows users to “grab” a map (or other object) in order to move it around the screen – Topo USA has no such function. Like other elements of Topo USA 8.0, zooming and panning are painfully slow.

   One of the obnoxious things that the designers did to try and overcome the horrendous user interface problems, is to have very annoying pop-up boxes show up to “explain” how each feature works. While it is possible to shut off many of these, they remain very annoying and would be completely unnecessary if the designers bothered to great a decent user interface.

   I would not recommend this program to others. If you get stuck with it when you buy a DeLorme GPS, you’ll probably waste a lot of time trying to figure out how to use it.