From: David (eagle2002@ameritech.net)
Date: Mon May 20 2002 - 08:28:35 CDT
Hello everyone.
I thought I'd share some interesting things we found out this weekend while
trying out the Ranger CD once again.
We have had the CD for the last 4 months. Got it in the first place to help
pick our itineraries.
Since we got it we have had several problems with the software.
1) We purchased the additional GPS software for our Garmin GPS III + and
never did get it to download into the GPS unit (got it to work once using an
old driver from someone else). 3 other software packages work just fine
with the GPS unit and that's how we will load any waypoints.
2) As you scroll through the trek on the map, zooming in and out, your
memory depletes and eventually you have to reboot. (Known in the
programming world as a 'Memory Leak')
3) You can not zoom far enough out to see the whole trek
4) If you browse between itineraries, the software gets confused and
starts highlighting the wrong areas in red.
5) If you start the program up a second time from the "Programs" menu
before rebooting and not from the auto-start by putting in the CD, it does
not know where the database is and you either have to reinstall, or hack the
registry to tell it "d:\data\". For some reason the registry gets changed
when you run it from the Programs group.
6) And saving the best for last......the trek path changes. Yes that's
right. Here's what happened to us this weekend. After reinstalling it, and
adding the 2002 update, we looked at out trek (#3) and compared it to the
maps. Laid out what the trek was. Ate lunch and slipped in the CD again.
To our amazement the trek had changed. The path from Pueblano Camp to Ute
Meadows Camp went in a whole different direction. As it turned out, we had
to re-apply the 2002 update again and the path went back to what we were
looking at earlier. So, if your using the software for laying out your
trek, be forewarned that you may have to re-apply the 2002 update every time
before you use the CD. Also, their estimated measurements between each leg
does not match up with our Delorme Topo-quads software. In some cases close
to a mile off.
Now we tested all these scenarios on 4 different PC's. All different
hardware and operating systems: Windows 98a, Windows 98b, Windows XP, and
Windows 2000.
We don't endorse or condemn the software, but we thought issue #6 should be
known to all on the list who are planning their routes using the CD. The
other issues have yet to be properly addressed by Maptrails. Which could
lead us to issue #7, poor to nonexistent support.
Are there good points to the software, sure, but if you spend money on
something you expect everything to work. It's still a useful tool, you just
have to know its limitations.
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