Mapopolis demo questions

[Wcloud]

Hi,

I have just started trying out the demo of mapopolis and I have a couple of quick questions. I do a lot of nature photography (my source of income) so I drive all over the US. I have a loptop in my car, but I want to start using my new Ipaq 2215 with mapopolis for convienance etc.. here are my questions...

1. Is there an offline method of determining the county for a given location. I am rarely at an internet connected computer (a lot of time driving on the road etc) and I never know the county, sometimes just the city (or even x miles outside of the city). Trying to figure out what county map I need is difficult to say the least, but if I had an offline method (laptop PC) then it would be more viable. As a side note I saw the example on the mapopolis website that used the major roads map to determine the county, but for the life of me I can't find the major roads demo map.

2. Since I drive around from shoot to shoot, and light is as you can imagine is very important, does the mapopolis software give an estimated time to arrival. I am more interested in long distance driving than around town since I know stop lights may confuse things. I was planning on putting in some known routes of mine and seeing how the demo worked, but once again since I can't find the major roads demo map AND I have no idea all the interconnecting counties I can't really test out this aspect.

3. Does anybody know where I can get my hands on the major roads demo map for mapopolis. I like the county map I downloaded to try, (I got my start and destination counties) but choosing all of the counties in route (without already having a route chosen) is too daunting a task even for my patience. I mean I would have to find a paper map that has the counties, choose my route and then upload all of those counties to my Ipaq. At this point, what is the the point of having the mapoplis software?

I would greatly appreciate any answers and if anybody knows where the major roads demo map can be begged, borrowed, or even bought I would love to know it.

-Bests
WCloud

[Sven Johannsen]

The demo suggestion of using the major roads is the one I use to find the counties. Unfortunately I don' t think there is a Major roads demo map. You might try asking the Mapopolis folks for one, they are generally fairly responsive.

They have been known to provide the background files that drive their locator in the form of a text file. Using that you could search the file for a name and get the county, off-line. You could pull the data into a spreadsheet or DB and make it very friendly if you are so inclined.

You don't actually need all the counties between your locations, just the ends and the major roads maps. So on a trip from my home to my Mother-in-Law's, one state away, I need my county, my state, her state and her county, to get door to door routing.

Yes it does give you arrival estimates, based on average speed on the types of roads you are on. It updates as you go, based on your actual speed and stops.

[disconnected]

I love Mapopolis, but having to figure out which counties I need to load for a given trip is a major pain. Even with internet access, the Mapopolis maps showing counties are not great because they don't show cities, so you have to estimate a lot. I've ended up mostly using Microsoft Streets and Trips on my desktop or laptop to locate counties. It's not perfect, but at least it shows both cities and counties, and it's not too expensive. (As mentioned, you don't actually need the intermediate counties for routing, but I like to know what's around me).

I don't know if you've visited www.gpspassion.com
There is a Mapopolis forum there (among others) and some of the posters have tested just about every aspect of the program, and are very good about answering questions (I think one of them actually came up with the method you mentioned of finding counties, and that Mapopolis later added it to their site). A Mapopolis rep also contributes to the forum, and takes user suggestions back to the company, where some of them actually get implemented.