GPS Tracklog: National Geographic TOPO! adds support for new Garmin units

August 15, 2008

National Geographic TOPO! adds support for new Garmin units

Ng_maps_logo National Geographic has released TOPO! version 4.5, adding support for Garmin Oregon, Colorado, Edge and nuvi models. A Mac OS X version is also available. This is a welcome improvement, as too few mapping software programs support these models.

EDIT: The update allows transfer of data only, not maps. See the comments at the end of this post for more details.

While there are other great mapping programs out there, TOPO! remains my favorite for generating high-quality printed maps to go with me into the field. My normal practice is to transfer waypoints and tracks to TOPO!, and overlay it with a UTM grid for easily referencing my position.

Shown below is a map similar to one I created for a recent trip on the Eastern Slickrock Trail in DuPont State Forest (photo at bottom).

Ng_topo_map_2

Eastern_slickrock_trail

National Geographic TOPO!

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Aug 15, 2008 5:40:00 AM | Garmin, Maps, Software

2 Comments

Rich,

What does support for the Garmin models mean? The ability to one click upload/download tracks/waypoints/routes instead of transferring gpx files? Or are they talking about map support? I'm assuming the former.

BTW, ExpertGPS also supports the Colorado and Oregon (send to/receive from GPS).

-Scott

Posted by: g.o.cashers | August 15, 2008 at 08:34 AM

Ah yes, I guess I could have been clearer about that. I've sent my Oregon test unit back to Garmin and haven't tried this, but it should mean that you can transfer waypoints, tracks and routes from the Garmin device to TOPO!, and export waypoints and routes back to the device (I understand that better track support is forthcoming). And no, you can't transfer maps to the unit. Thanks for letting me know about ExpertGPS BTW.

Posted by: Rich Owings | August 15, 2008 at 08:44 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

Garmin Oregon 300 in stock UPDATE: Read my Garmin Oregon 300 review For any of you waiting for the Garmin Oregon 300, GPS Now has them in stock as of this afternoon. The price is $499.99, which includes free shipping. Orders placed by 5 p.m. Central Time ship today. The 300 is the same as the Garmin Oregon 400t that I just reviewed, minus the pre-loaded topo maps.

Garmin nuvi 200/260W Mexico Planning a south of the border getaway? Garmin has you covered. Without much fanfare, they've released two nuvi models with pre-loaded maps of Mexico. There is no page for them per se at Garmin.com; the two links below go to the Amazon pages for these models. Garmin nuvi 200 Mexico - Includes pre-loaded maps of the lower 48 states, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Mexico; does not include text-to-speech Garmin nuvi 260W Mexico - Includes pre-loaded maps of all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico; also includes text-to-speech Units sold in the U.S. are bi-lingual so, despite the image above, you don't have to worry about it saying "Llegada" instead of "Arrival" and "Girar en" instead of "Turn in." The Mexican maps use NAVTEQ data, and are the same ones that you find with City Navigator Mexico NT, which have around 12,000 points of interest. A coverage map is shown below: These units are also available from TigerGPS via the following links: Garmin nuvi 200 Mexico Portable Automotive GPS System with US & Mexico Maps Garmin nuvi 260W Mexico Wide-Screen Automotive GPS System with Full North American Maps Related posts: Garmin nuvi 200 review Garmin nuvi 260W review International maps...