X-plorenow
Adventurer
I have been considering the external HD idea as well. Please let us know if anyone tries it out first.
iOS/Android topo map app capable of caching an entire (or multiple) states?
- Thread starter Rando
- Start date
theksmith
Explorer
i'm currently using a Motorola Xoom 10". it has completely replaced my previous Garmin dedicated GPS. i have not found the need for an external GPS receiver for it, the internal one is accurate and works well overall. i have not yet tried an external HD for map storage, but that is the eventual plan... it has 32GB of internal storage and supports up to 64GB removable MicroSD cards which has been sufficient so far.
- i use CoPilot Live Premium USA for on-road travel. it has a lot of minor and even forest roads. it supports 2D & 3D views, turn-by-turn navigation, lane-guidance, and POI's. you can download the entire US ahead of time and it's all vector maps so it doesn't take up much space at all, probably 2 to 4GB for all of US (you can just download regions too)
- i currently use BackCountry Navigator PRO GPS for my offroad/topo maps. i had asked the developer to fix it crashing when trying to download an entire state at Zoom Level 16 (OSM map types). he responded by saying that it wasn't designed for that and then issued a statement in the help/FAQ to that effect, and then finally updated the app to make selecting an entire state for download at that level of detail impossible. however, despite his unwillingness to help, i still find the app to work with larger datasets better than others.
-- the most important feature of BCN is that it allows you to store maps on the external card, and it does a decent job of allowing you to define multiple map databases. some software (like most Trimble products) do no allow you to put maps on the external storage, thus limiting you to the internal storage which is shared by the OS and all other apps.
-- by doing chunks at a time, i have managed to download my home state to zoom level 15 (Open Cycle Map). this gives me a *decent* trails type map for spur of the moment runs.
-- for trips where i can plan ahead, i download the Open Cycle Map to zoom level 16, a 24k Topo Map to zoom level 16, and an Aerial map to zoom level 16 or 17. depending on the size of the area the trip is in, this could take from just a few hours to all day to completely download.
-- importing .gpx track/waypoints is easy, as well as exporting. i still do my trip planning in a combination of Garmin BaseCamp and Google Earth on the desktop computer.
there are no current Android apps that offer topo/trail maps in a smaller vector format, they all use raster image tiles. this means that each zoom level is exponentially larger than the previous, so it's easy to chew up GB's. hopefully Garmin, Delorme, or National Geographic will eventually release their vector based topo maps in Android app form.
side note, Orux Maps is free (or donation based), and is far superior to Back Country Navigator in many respects. however, i found the 500MB limit per map database quickly created an unmanageable list of saved maps, so i'm not currently using it. someone mentioned that you can change this limit, please let me know how if you see this.
- i use CoPilot Live Premium USA for on-road travel. it has a lot of minor and even forest roads. it supports 2D & 3D views, turn-by-turn navigation, lane-guidance, and POI's. you can download the entire US ahead of time and it's all vector maps so it doesn't take up much space at all, probably 2 to 4GB for all of US (you can just download regions too)
- i currently use BackCountry Navigator PRO GPS for my offroad/topo maps. i had asked the developer to fix it crashing when trying to download an entire state at Zoom Level 16 (OSM map types). he responded by saying that it wasn't designed for that and then issued a statement in the help/FAQ to that effect, and then finally updated the app to make selecting an entire state for download at that level of detail impossible. however, despite his unwillingness to help, i still find the app to work with larger datasets better than others.
-- the most important feature of BCN is that it allows you to store maps on the external card, and it does a decent job of allowing you to define multiple map databases. some software (like most Trimble products) do no allow you to put maps on the external storage, thus limiting you to the internal storage which is shared by the OS and all other apps.
-- by doing chunks at a time, i have managed to download my home state to zoom level 15 (Open Cycle Map). this gives me a *decent* trails type map for spur of the moment runs.
-- for trips where i can plan ahead, i download the Open Cycle Map to zoom level 16, a 24k Topo Map to zoom level 16, and an Aerial map to zoom level 16 or 17. depending on the size of the area the trip is in, this could take from just a few hours to all day to completely download.
-- importing .gpx track/waypoints is easy, as well as exporting. i still do my trip planning in a combination of Garmin BaseCamp and Google Earth on the desktop computer.
there are no current Android apps that offer topo/trail maps in a smaller vector format, they all use raster image tiles. this means that each zoom level is exponentially larger than the previous, so it's easy to chew up GB's. hopefully Garmin, Delorme, or National Geographic will eventually release their vector based topo maps in Android app form.
side note, Orux Maps is free (or donation based), and is far superior to Back Country Navigator in many respects. however, i found the 500MB limit per map database quickly created an unmanageable list of saved maps, so i'm not currently using it. someone mentioned that you can change this limit, please let me know how if you see this.
gahi
Adventurer
Orux supports Garmin vector maps. The whole state of utah takes up 153MB on my phone.
theksmith
Explorer
curious which map you are using? i had tried one a couple minor versions ago and Orux did a horrible job interpreting it.
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gahi
Adventurer
I'm using the free gpsfiledepot ones. I agree it could read them better, especially the info tags. But I turn all that off and just use the topo lines. It works OK for what I do with it. Mostly tracks of where I've been, and marking waypoints along the way. I did use it once to get back to a waypoint (hiking) and that worked well too.
Boost Creep
Adventurer
i have scenic maps on my ipad mini. i have the eastern US map version. uses 2.1gb
http://scenicmap.blogspot.com/
http://scenicmap.blogspot.com/
theksmith
Explorer
looks pretty nice, there's also this for iOS: http://www.benchmarkmaps.com/products-page/mobile-apps
too bad i'm an Android guy!
I use BCN with Mobile Atlas maps...basically you download the maps on your PC and then copy them to an SD card (or tablet memory) and load them into BCN...
For some perspective, I have all of Washington and Oregon for Google Terrain and it takes about 8.5gb total for both states (at the highest resolution)...took overnight to download all those tiles, but now I have Terrain available offline
You can also get other types of maps as well, but I really like having Terrain, it seems to be almost as accurate as the rest, and has the highest resolution-to-size benefit.
I use MOBAC (Mobile Atlas Creator) 1.9 beta 1 to get access to Google Terrain and it has the ability to set them up for use in BCN. MOBAC can also download in Orux format
For some perspective, I have all of Washington and Oregon for Google Terrain and it takes about 8.5gb total for both states (at the highest resolution)...took overnight to download all those tiles, but now I have Terrain available offline
You can also get other types of maps as well, but I really like having Terrain, it seems to be almost as accurate as the rest, and has the highest resolution-to-size benefit.
I use MOBAC (Mobile Atlas Creator) 1.9 beta 1 to get access to Google Terrain and it has the ability to set them up for use in BCN. MOBAC can also download in Orux format
CUMMINSDIESELPWR
New member
ive been seraching for a couple years to find a suitable topo map that doesnt look archaic like the USGS crayon maps that are free... stumbled across MEMORY-MAP.
http://www.memory-map.com/index.html
i have this on a lepan tc970 and they appear to be very similar if not the same maps that Delorme uses. I had used delorme software and find it useful and functional. This software/app is the same. very simple, useful and functional so far. with a 10 day free trial you get to test it out and see how you like it. You have the option of registering, purchasing a single state for a certain price (colorado was $14) the entire continental us up to level 15 zoom is $100, all topo! (worth it in my book). Download it to memory and the license comes with it for that one device. so far i like it!
http://www.memory-map.com/index.html
i have this on a lepan tc970 and they appear to be very similar if not the same maps that Delorme uses. I had used delorme software and find it useful and functional. This software/app is the same. very simple, useful and functional so far. with a 10 day free trial you get to test it out and see how you like it. You have the option of registering, purchasing a single state for a certain price (colorado was $14) the entire continental us up to level 15 zoom is $100, all topo! (worth it in my book). Download it to memory and the license comes with it for that one device. so far i like it!
CUMMINSDIESELPWR
New member
well you got to let it fully download the map first
with 15 detailed layers it takes a bit..*update*
i checked it out again and it seems the trial version wont download the full map but it caches it as you go. ill purchase the colorado map and see how it does, ill be the guinea pig
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I was on a trip this past week and decided to venture off into the Grand Staircase Escalante NM, and so I needed a solution for maps quickly. I have BCN Premium with the Accuterra premium maps, but I tried and tried to get it to download the area maps and it was just painfully slow. Finally, I gave up and just used Google Maps.
Google Maps is so underrated! How come no one is talking about using it? It lets you download very large areas for offline use, I downloaded about 3/4 of the state of Utah's Google Terrain maps, and it took up about 85MB with all the terrain info, trail names, etc. You can also download multiple sections in different sets to complete an entire state, so the download limitation is not really a limitation, so much as a file size limit. I was able to quickly download all of UT, CO, NV in a few minutes. I used the maps while out of service range, and they had all the details I needed.
For all the money I dumped into BCN and the premium maps, when I really needed something to work, work well, fast, and with lots of states, Google Maps got the job done faster, better, and free.
Google Maps is so underrated! How come no one is talking about using it? It lets you download very large areas for offline use, I downloaded about 3/4 of the state of Utah's Google Terrain maps, and it took up about 85MB with all the terrain info, trail names, etc. You can also download multiple sections in different sets to complete an entire state, so the download limitation is not really a limitation, so much as a file size limit. I was able to quickly download all of UT, CO, NV in a few minutes. I used the maps while out of service range, and they had all the details I needed.
For all the money I dumped into BCN and the premium maps, when I really needed something to work, work well, fast, and with lots of states, Google Maps got the job done faster, better, and free.
theksmith
Explorer
because it's missing a lot of features that many people want in an offline backcountry mapping solution. for just one example, how do you manage waypoints and tracks?
thanks for letting us know that BCN's premium maps are slow, i have not purchased them yet. i've never had any problems downloading from the free Mapnik source in BCN, which is a good overview type map. some of the other sources are slower than others for sure.
you may want to check out Orux, it's free (and a donate version if you find it useful), it includes the various Google map styles as download sources but gives you every tool you could want in a backcountry map app.
CUMMINSDIESELPWR
New member
using the back country navigator (purchased) and im liking it already! downloading large tiles. getting the whole rocky mtns in colorado and then all the good stuff in utah. outline the area and download it, that easy! i remember trying it out before with bad luck. but its worth it now.
my thing is i want to download an entire state so i can have all the topo info i need and not worry bout having to download on the go.
my thing is i want to download an entire state so i can have all the topo info i need and not worry bout having to download on the go.
LR Max
Local Oaf
I'd like to start off by saying I love google maps. I use it heavily under normal living conditions (at my computer, on my tablet in a wifi zone, on my phone while connected to 4G). That said, when these conditions are no present, it begins to fade fast. Example being on my last off roading trip. It was a local, afternoon trip. I just jumped in the truck and went. I kinda knew where I was going but half way through, I checked my tablet. My pre-loaded maps on my tablet had magically deleted themselves and I couldn't get any network connection on any of my phones (personal phone & work phone).
Also I've tried using google navigation. It works great if you start off in a wifi zone (did that once to navigate out of Canada), but it doesn't really work if you don't have connection at the beginning.
The pre-loaded maps need more maturing. You can only download a small section at a time.
If you want a strictly road-based GPS. Something you can punch in an address and go. Preload maps by state, download MapDroyd. Works great for this. Used it for a couple pre-trial runs around town. Works great. The maps aren't as detailed as google maps but they are kin to road GPS units from 5~10 years ago. Works well in that function.
I plan on giving BCN a go this weekend. Pretty much going to load everything on it first and then go. See what happens.