Garmin MapSource CD ROM (USA TOPO) Reviews

• Definitely lacks detail

  
  By ALGRQ8MUI5A7X on 2001-09-04
  I got this software for use with my Garmin eTrex Summit, and found it to be less than adequate for my work. As a botanist in the northwoods, I cover a lot of territory each season. I need to be able to view accurate and complete topographic maps, plot my tracks and markers on these maps, and orient locations by legal description -- Township, Range, and Section line -- so that I know, for instance, when I'm crossing property lines, say from public to private land.

  Mapsource's topo maps have few contour lines and omit many dirt roads, small lakes, and many other details. Most importantly, Township, range and section lines are omitted. In it's favor, Mapsource is easy to use. And the price is good: The entire U.S. for $100.

  I later obtained MapTech's Terrain Navigator software, and it works much better for me. The details are almost as complete as USGS topo maps. Township, range and section lines are included, as are complete contour lines and even some abandoned, bermed roads (on public land). MapTech is not, however, as intuitive as Mapsource. And MapTech costs much more in relation to the area covered: I paid for one small part of our state.

  So if you want maps for the whole U.S. and don't necessarily need details, get Mapsource. If you want USGS-quality maps with excellent detail, look at others, including MapTech.
  
  

• Where's the beef?

  
  By A3SVC6GH12XMCL on 2001-01-02
  I recently got an eTrex Summit GPS and bought this software in order to download the trips I take into a printable format as well as to plan hikes before starting out on them. The bottom line is that this 3 CD-ROM set doesn't contain nearly enough information to do that. I took a 4 mile hike this weekend near San Francisco, and downloaded it to the software. It does show the track that we walked, but the topographic information from this software is so coarse that you can't tell that we went up and down, gaining some 500 feet in elevation since the contour lines are so far apart on the map generated. Furthermore, the road into the park wasn't drawn correctly, the ranger station and other services weren't marked and so on. In short, the maps provided won't allow you to plan a hike, which was the point in the first place right?
  
  

• I agree... the detail is lacking

  
  By A1KW4J4EHCQDD7 on 2001-04-11
  I bought this product for hikes and to guide me in navigating rivers. Only very major roads are named so I can't use this very easily to calculate my route there. Most roads are there but they just vanish at some points and reappear in others. Using a real topo map it is immediately obvious that these same roads do not dissapear and in fact continue on their course uninteruppted like a road should. The elevations and detail are very course. No trails are shown. I am not very happy I bought this product and am going to look into the roads and recreation to see if it does a better job. FYI I bought this to use with my Etrex Legend which I think is just great.
  
  

• Great for basic mapping

  
  By A39QWHEOJI7WLC on 2004-08-08
  After reading all the negative reviews, I was very reluctant to take the plunge with this product. However, as the date of my Vermont hiking trip approached, I decided to go for it.
  
  I was very plesantly surprised. Here's what I found:
  
  1. This product provides good BASIC topo maps for garmin GPS (I personally use an etrex legend). If you are looking for 1:24,000 level of precision with every obscure trail, fire road, etc. you WON'T find it here. However, I found the maps to be more than adequate for orienting myself and cross-referencing with USGS paper maps if necessary. (As others have repeated ad nauseam, you should ALWAYS carry paper maps in addition to electronic gizmos like this). Also, as other reviewers have pointed out, you can get good USGS-derived paper maps from Maptech.
  
  2. My experience was that the accuracy was good, once I enabled the WAAS on my unit. I didn't encounter any of the missing lakes, etc. which others have spoken about (I also used it recently in the boundary waters area of MN). That having been said, I don't think it's necessarily the best for roads-- also as other reviewers have pointed out. It is best suited for topographic features. There are other products which are more suited for roads and highways.
  
  3. I didn't have any problems with installation-- went very smoothly. The software is somewhat rudimentary, but that also makes it very simple to use. I was up and running in no time. Downloads were also very easy and straightforward.
  
  4. Can't beat the price!! You get all 50 states-- not like other products that are state by state. You buy it once and then you are done.
  
  So overall, know what you are getting into and you will not be disappointed. DONT expect any bells and whistles like fancy 3d flybys, etc. DO expect a cheap, basic, reliable-- and in my experience-- accurate map which will get you MORE than adequately oriented with your surroundings.
  
  

• Mapsource Topo IS for real!

  
  By A220ZKP90PFUSF on 2003-05-02
  After reading many disappointing reviews for Garmin's Mapsource Topo, I was very skeptical to purchase this product. I previously owned Garmin's "Points of Interests" (by Mapsource)for their E-Trex Venture. The GPS was great, but the software was very limited. It lacked detail of any kind. After time, I upgraded to Garmin's E-Trex Vista. This is probably the best hand held receiver on the market today! Now I needed the mapping software to go with it. Again, I researched the Mapsource Topo, and anything else I could find. Only after reading (one) person's review, (praising it), did I see any hope for Mapsource. I talked with a Garmin rep and he pointed me to a demo of "TOPO" and I thought it looked OK. Now, after buying it, and using it, I am totally satisfied! I would like to raise a couple of points that should clear things up. First, when you begin to view the maps on your PC, set the DETAIL settings(found under Edit) to LOW, as this will allow you to find the specific area you are looking for, without the computer trying to constantly redraw all that detail. Then, when you are in the general area, and zoom size, go back and crank up the detail to HIGH!!! Viola, tons of detail and info. The second point, is to also do this with your GPS receiver under Map settings. I have found that you probably will see TOO MUCH detail at times! And the real kicker for me was, after looking at the map detail on the PC, your GPS will show much better graphics than what's on the computer. Map legends and symbols that are not shown or shown as dots and slashes, come alive on the GPS. I don't know why this is, but it's true. If only I had known this last year, I would have bought it right away. And Amazon has a great deal on the price too. I also use Maptech's Terrain Navigator for viewing and printing Topo maps of New York's Adirondack mountains. It's excellent, but is unable to download maps to the GPS. In closing, I just wonder how so many people could have overlooked this remedy? GREAT PRODUCT!!!
  
  
• How to load US Topo onto your PC
  By A3HZ7Z6LAAWHT2 on 2005-03-10
  Update
  **I have now purchased and begun to use this software. The directions below do indeed work. I copied all 3 CDs to my hard drive and ran the setup from there. I am able to access all maps without using the CDs.**
  
  I have yet to purchase this software (I'm waiting on my GPS to arrive) but was interested enough in it to contact Garmin about its supposed inability to load onto your PC's hard drive (many reviewers commented that you had to use the original CDs each time you wanted to access a map). Here is Garmin's reply. It basically says that you can even though it's not detailed in the manual. For those who have already installed the software, note their comment that you can uninstall and then follow the instructions on loading directly to your hard drive.
  
  "Thank you for contacting Garmin Cartography. There's a "back door" way of installing it to your computer without having to use the CD's every time. Unfortunately, this is not included in the manual. Please feel free to pass this info. along to anyone you know who is encountering the same problem.
  
  What you need to do is put the CD into the drive. Empty/Copy the entire contents of your CD drive to somewhere on your hard drive. Then run the install...Straight from your hard-drive. This will allow you to run the program as normal... without... having to put the CD in every time. For those that already have it installed, they must fully uninstall the program and start these directions from scratch."
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  
• If you can only afford one, buy national geographic's topos
  By A3HLUNEJUT3MSP on 2003-09-20
  I live in Idaho, and actually, really, go into the wilderness. The level of detail provided by garmin's u.s. topo offering is honestly not sufficient for accurately setting waypoints. National Geographic's state series is indeed sufficient (in fact it's the best for Idaho). Not to be cruel, but being able to download inadequately detailed map source is not nearly as important as being able to download truly accurate waypoints. Buying both packages would obviously be the best solution, but really you can set up all the detail you need (for getting in & out) using just national geographic (whereas you can't with garmin's u.s. topo stuff).

  Critical note: I strongly recommend not carrying *just* electronic maps if you really, truly, go into wilderness. Electronic toys aren't foolproof - they break through no fault of your own, they get dropped, can get destroyed if you fall, etc. Paper maps should *also* be carried - ideally ones printed out just for your current trip.

  The garmin hardware itself is truly impressive. Their mapsource topo offerings, on the other hand, need a lot of work. It's as if the people who did them never visited the U.S., and/or never really went into many of the U.S.'s real wilderness areas.
  
  

• Know what you're buying/ use the right tool for the job
  By on 2004-02-21
  I would just like to make a few comments about some of the reviews posted on this page concerning Mapsource's Topo USA software.

  A number of reviewers have complained that this software is problematic or not accurate for cities or roads or neighborhoods. Well, while that may be the case, this product seems designed for the outdoors. It is intended to aid in navigating across wilderness areas (terrestrial and aquatic), not necessarily through the streets of downtown LA or any other city however large or small. Mapsource happens to sell a Metroguide product that is intended to serve city/road-navigation needs.

  Yes, I will admit that the product description listed on this page talks about highways and roads and churches and other "non-wilderness" items and might be slightly misleading, but reviewing the entire product description I think you will see that the main emphasis is on wilderness travel.

  Using this Mapsource Topo product for a purpose for which it was not specifically designed and then complaining about its lackluster performance is not really fair or accurate. You wouldn't use a toothbrush to brush your hair (although some might; I'm not passing judgement here) and it seems just as incorrect to use this product for urban needs. So if you have a StreetPilot or use your Garmin GPS for road/city navigation, check out the MetroGuide software and see if it suits your needs a little better.

  Final point concerns the fact this product's maps are on the 1:100,000 scale. Be sure you know what this level of detail (or lack of detail as this case may be) means. I do not know what the contour interval of this scale map is, but the 1:63,360 scale maps are 100 feet (I believe). The 1:100,000 would have a larger contour interval and therefore, certain hills and ravines or valleys (depending on how big or small) might not show up on the map; they might be "hidden" between the contour intervals. Other software packages offer better mapping capabilities and easier user interface, but the one big drawback is that the topo maps generated by those programs cannot be downloaded into Garmin units; only MapSource topo maps can be downloaded.

  I'm certainly not saying this product is error or problem free. Far from it. But the reviews should be as fair and accurate as possible so that other potential buyers can make well-informed decisions.
  
  

• The problem is not with the amount of detail...
  By A2YIGGYTPGG1KI on 2003-06-02
  The Mapsource TOPO product in theory has plenty of detail for what you use it for. It has the equivalent of a 1:100,000 scale Topo map, showing major features, contour lines, trails, etc. It also provides additional streets, highways and roads that don't come on the Etrex Vista base map.

  However, there is a major problem with the viewability of the topographical map information on the screen of your Etrex. The Mapsource TOPO maps have some sort of background shading. Perhaps this is color detail (e.g. green means vegitation). The problem is that on the screen it is just dark grey. With this dark gray background on your Etrex screen, you can barely, if at all, see any other map features, your route, waypoints or tracks.

  Therefore, loading the Mapsource TOPO map on the Etrex practically renders the Map screen on the Etrex useless in the back country. I found this out the hard way on a hike up in the mountains, when I really wanted to be able to make out what was on the map screen.

  In case you think I just don't know how to adjust the screen contrast on my Etrex, I tried that, with some very minor improvement.

  Other than uploading maps to your Etrex unit, you can use Mapsource TOPO to create routes and waypoints when you plan your hikes and then use the software to upload the data to your Etrex. However, as an avid National Geographic TOPO user, I find these tools in Mapsource to be way less user friendly. If what you really want is software to help you plan trips, routes, etc., you definitely need to buy National Geographic TOPO.

  In summary, if I had to do it all again, I would save the [money] and not buy the Mapsource Topo product.

  ...
  
  

• A Good Companion for Paper Topo Maps
  By AHIEI9NL58TBP on 2005-08-23
  First, before you buy this product, you should understand that it is NOT intended to replace good, high-detail paper topo maps. Relying simply on a sensitive piece of electronic equipment without a good map and compass in the backcountry is not a well-advised decision. ("Whoops! Shouldn't have dropped my GPS on those rocks." "Darn! Coulda sworn I packed extra batteries!" You get the picture.)
  
  That said, I've found it to be an excellent supplement to 1:24,000 paper maps. The detail is surprisingly good; I recently completed a section of the Continental Divide Trail in Colorado and found most (but not all) of the trail information from the 7.5' maps on the GPS map. It's nice to be able to instantly correlate your position between the GPS and a paper map, and the contour lines simply make it easier to visualize your position. It also shows points of interest like small lakes and rivers, and even old mines and such. The contour lines do not always perfectly jive up with higher-detail maps, but are close enough. There does seem to be a problem with not enough contour lines at higher magnifications, so you won't want to zoom in too close if you want to see the lay of the land on your unit. Position accuracy, however, was very good and appeared just about spot-on with my paper maps.
  
  Installation is easy and the data meshes seamlessly with other MapSource products (well, City Select, anyway, which is the other MapSource product I currently own). My Garmin GPS60CS holds a tremendous amount of topographical information in its 64 MB internal memory; I fit in almost the entire west half of Colorado plus City Select info for numerous cities between Colorado and Michigan.
  
  One big downside to having so much information loaded is that map-drawing times are achingly slow on my unit, especially if detail is set on Most and Declutter is set to Off. I found that by unselecting topo information for areas I didn't need, drawing times were improved substantially, though still a bit irritating. Scrolling to a new area and waiting for the map to catch up can be tedious. I usually leave Declutter on unless I need a particular detail in an area.
  
  I did not have the opportunity (or the need) to map routes using this software. I have done so with City Select and found it simple and effective, but don't know how this will translate into Topo. I've heard and read that the National Geographic maps are better for route mapping, but your results may vary. I suspect that this is due in large part to the fact that NatGeo maps are 1:24,000 in detail, much higher than USA Topo, so errors will naturally be smaller. Thus far I have not needed to map routes, as I rely on my map and compass more than my electronics for detailed positioning (and my pencil never runs out of batteries), with my GPS as a verification device. I can see where this would be an issue, however, if you do a lot of off-trail exploring or otherwise have the need for a detailed, precise route through tricky country.
  
  Value-wise I'd say USA Topo qualifies as very good, particularly in light of the fact that Garmin tends to nickel-and-dime you to death with all of their maps and accessories. However, you can get USA Topo online for 75 or 80 bucks, and that includes topo information for all 50 states.
  
  My conclusion is that as an advanced, standalone navigation tool for backcountry climing, canyoneering, and other off-trail stuff, USA Topo is a poor choice. It's fine for trail-hikers and those that don't go bushwhacking, but still no replacement for a good 1:24,000 paper map. However, if you use it as a supplemental tool and recognize its limitations, it's just dandy.
  
  
  
  
  
• Not enough detail; Bought Nat Geo TOPO also
  By A3PTNPZK0BQ1UN on 2004-11-08
  I have a Garmin Rino 130 GPS. I received this software as a gift. I use the GPS primarily for hiking in Colorado.
  
  For many years I have used National Geographic TOPO software to create custom hiking maps. It has served me well. With the newer versions I am able to create routes and download them to the GPS. This is what I had hoped to do with the Mapsource software. But, I found creating routes in Mapsource to not be as user friendly. The maps in mapsource are generated from a database and prove to not be as detailed as the Nat Geo maps, which are scans of USGS maps. Using the freehand route tool in the Nat Geo is a superior way to create the routes. It will also
  create a profile of distance and elevation gain/loss from this freehand route.
  
  I have found it useful to use the Mapsource software to load maps of the area I will be hiking into the GPS unit. It's nice to be able to see the countours, lakes, streams, etc. in the background on the GPS screen.
  
  If you only have $ for one I would go with the National Geographic TOPO over Mapsource.
  
  
• Pure Rubbish...
  By A1MADE1DZXAJ5G on 2005-11-17
  I have been using a Garmin Vista C GPS since it was introduced, and although I have previously encountered serious problems with Garmin products, I decided to take a chance and buy this MapSource CD ROM from them. I solo hike in national forests, and I thought that if Garmin's maps provided any additional information whatever, then it might be worth the $79 I paid for it. I should have known better. This product is absolutely worthless as far as my needs and interests go. It would take a very long time to enumerate all of the product's many flaws, so here's a very short list. The documentation and help files are atrocious. They don't even provide clear information about how to transfer map data to the GPS. The CD ROM (on which the maps reside) must be inserted in your computer whenever you use MapSource, which means there'll be plenty of unnecessary wear and tear on your CD ROM drive. That's right! Proving that they are truly dunderheads of staggering proportions, Garmin's "genius engineers" won't even let you copy these maps to your harddrive...no matter how big it is!!! And once map data are transferred to the GPS, I have found them to be unhelpful and inaccurate. For instance, two water holes shown on the map are mislocated by several miles. If you need water during a hike and you intend to rely on Garmin...GOOD LUCK! One of the most annoying problems concerns the "scaling" algorithm used to display the map data on my GPS. Is this a GPS problem, a map problem, some combination problem? I DON'T care, because both products were made by Garmin...so Garmin owns the problems! Once again Garmin's resident geniuses used an appallingly stupid strategy that reflects a total failure to understand who their customers are and what they're trying to do. For example, when I zoom into get a close look at my location, various forest service roads are sometimes displayed. I'd like to see where they go, naturally, so I zoom out a bit to get a better view of them. WHAM! They suddenly vanish completely from the display! Yep, they are not displayed at all. Instead of seeing them, the screen is crowded with the names of landmarks that are many miles from my location and that have no relevance to what I'm trying to do. My frustrating experiences have led me to conclude that the GPS/map market is dominated by little-league, back-water, third-rate players like Garmin and DeLorme. I have had extensive experience with some of their products, and I have always found them to be totally unacceptable. I hope and pray that a major league player...like Google, Apple, or even Microsoft...will some day take an interest in this market and crush the losers who currently occupy it. Think about it: a Google cell phone with integrated GPS and the ability to download highly detailed topo maps (and related internet data) in real time! WOW! Can't wait for that to happen. In the meantime, I resent the fact that Garmin's hyper-inflated marketing claims have once again convinced me to waste my money on a piece of Garmin trash. I will do my best to avoid buying any other products from them. They should spend less money on marketing and more on customer-centered engineering. In other words, they should start to build some decent products!
  
  
• Good product within its limits
  By A3IOXFF191DDTQ on 2006-08-24
  If you understand this product's limits before you buy it, you'll be happy. It shows topographical contours, rivers and most streams for the entire United States. In addition to that, it shows roads that were in existance 10-20 years ago. These major roads are also named.
  
  The limit is that newer roads don't show up. It also doesn't support auto-routing, even if your GPS does. Garmin sells other products that are tailored for road navigation but you have to do some independant research or logical deduction to figure out that this package isn't suited for it.
  
  The product support could be better. Neither the manual nor web site tell you how to load all 3 CDs on your computer so you don't have to swap CDs when transitioning between zones. The company's web site doesn't give a good explanation of what the software can and can't do.
  
  You'll be disappointed if your expectations aren't grounded in reality. Garmin could help alleviate this problem by making this information readily available.
  
  
• Software good, Customer support bad......
  By A3P629HIDU1NX on 2005-12-16
  It wasn't easy, but I finally got my US Topo software installed so I don't have to mess with the CD's. Garmin needs to get on the ball and make this the standard install. Basically, you need to create a folder on your hard drive and then copy all the files from disk one into this folder. Using the "Copy" command from the drop down menu won't work, so you have to work around this issue. On the second and third CD, you will create subdirectories in the folder you created called "East", "Alaska", and "Hawaii". Once done (it will take a while), do the setup command from the folder you created on your hard drive.
  
  I had called Customer Support for a little assistance with this issue and after waiting on the phone for 20 minutes, I discovered that the Customer support at Garmin SUCKS! I love the GPS, I love the software, but the customer support is a total waste of time.
  
  Amazon.com, was quick with delivery, offered my GPS & software at a fair price, and they were a pleasure to deal with as usual. I will continue to purchase from Amazon.com!
  
  
• Not quite what I was expecting
  By on 2003-06-29
  This software does what it says: it gives you topo maps of the US, and lets you download the actual maps (not just waypoints) into your Garmin.

  The first thing I noticed when opening the map of the area surrounding my house was that my 23-year-old neighborhood wasn't on the map. It shows a dirt road cutting across what has been houses for more than two decades. Many nearby roads are labeled with names that were changed decades ago. Large swathes of freeway are missing. In other words, you can't use this software for any sort of road navigation in an area you're not familiar with.

  Another problem with this software is the way it interfaces with your GPS. Whenever you transfer information from your GPS into Mapsource, Mapsource wipes anything you've done. For example, if you set some waypoints in Mapsource, then upload your waypoints from your GPS, you're left only with your GPS waypoints. Anything you do in Mapsource has to be downloaded to your GPS first if you want to "merge" it with what's in your GPS.

  As for the topo information, that is present. However, features you would expect to find such as 3D viewing or route altitude profiles aren't here. The software is extremely basic in what it can do with the map data.

  I can't say I regret my purchase, but I can't say I'm thrilled about it either. Try to look at a friend's copy before you decide to buy.
  
  

• Good but there are some nagging issues
  By A3UO195ZCOA59U on 2005-07-03
  I break up my review into several phases:
  
  a) Decision to buy. I find that the Garmin map software has compatibility issues in that only some maps will work well with some GPS units. Check the Garmin web site to ensure that this software will work on your GSP unit. Also check out the screen shots. In my area (San Jose) several major freeways are missing from Topo, indicating that the maps are 10-15 years out of date. When I contacted Garmin, their response is if you want roads then buy the MetroGuide or CitySelect (as appropriate to your GPS unit) and MetroGuide has the freeways. I guess that contours don't change much in 10-15 years so that's OK. But get street maps if you want streets.
  Also, Topo does not support routing on the streets. MetroGuide does (on the PC only). CitySelect supports autorouting on some GPS units. If you are thinking of upgrading your GPS unit in the near future check that the map will work with the upgrade candidates.
  
  b) Installation. I installed this over the MapSource MetroGuide North America. The manual is exactly the same as the MetroGuide, and as the CitySelect. Since there seems to be three generations of change of functionality between the different maps, the manual is not terribly helpful. And the default Topo installation - direct from CD - wants to have the CD in the drive whenever you use it. MetroGuide does not have this problem. The solution (as mentioned in other reviews) is to copy everything to the hard drive and install it from there. Once that is done the installation is painless (following the on screen instructions). Although in my case MapSource was not re-installed, all that happened was that the new maps were made available to the existing software, so it was easier for me that it will be for beginners.
  As a side note, I upgraded MapSource from the Garmin web site, and now it writes data files in a format incompatible with the un-upgraded software on the MetroGuide CD. So rebuilding from CD on my PC to recover from a failure will not allow me to read my existing files.
  
  c) Use on the PC. I found the software pretty straight forward to use, although I did not use the manual literally since many of the features described I do not have. The On-line help works and guessing seems to work also.
  On thing that annoyed me is that the countor lines are at even meter intervals (e.g., 500 meters). If you change your preferences to feet the same countour lines are re-labeled in feet (e.g., 1604 feet) Since the contour intervals are now some perverse number of feet, and the labeled contour lines are of preverse numbers of feet, interpolating the contours to get the elevation in feet requires a pencil and paper or a calculator. Or you can change the setup to label in meters (and do it in you head) and then convert to feet on a calculator. It probably was impractical to have both feet and meter contours. Or maybe not, the files are not that large (about 1/10 the size of the MetroGuide files).
  Another annoyance (as mentioned elsewhere) is that the maps were pretty much joined by a cut and paste operation. Sreets, and contour lines jump at the boundaries.
  
  d) Use on the GPS unit. My unit is a eTrek Vista (the B/W version) So I find that it is sometimes hard to tell my route from the roads (when following roads). Due to the screen size and the B/W nature of the unit, I believe that the level of detail is about right for hiking. If you blow up the screen enough to need more detail the area covered is too small to be useful. If you want more detail over large areas, you will need paper maps. You can also control the amount of detail displayed. I do notice some disagreements between the GPS altitudes measured by my Vista (it has an pressure altimeter that can be calibrated by the GPS measurements) and the map altitudes, but I have seen similar problems in paper maps as well.
  
  e) Use with MetroGuide/CitySelect. On the PC the change from one set of maps to another is just a pull down menu selection and the view changes (from Topo to Metroguide to CitySelect). The region displayed, routes, and waypoints are kept. It is fun to go back and forth and see what changes, but most of the changes are what I have seen on similar paper maps, allowing for the age differences. Note that you cannot display both at the same time (e.g. display the Topo contours over the MetroGuide streets). The display on the GPS unit is similar to the PC (but not in color on the Vista, a handicap). However, changing which map to display requires checking or unchecking each map in the entire data set, you cannot simply select Topo or MetroGuide (this is particulr to the Vista). So it is more time consuming than on the PC to change from driving to hiking navigation. I guess that this is a trade of versitility and ease of use. Incidentally, the only driving use that makes sense to me is when there is a human present at act as a navigator. The display is just too hard to read while driving.
  
  
• Good, but could use some improvement
  By AXUJFOFQZNTN on 2003-05-07
  I received the Garmin eTrex Legend for use in hiking around some of the national parks here (notably Shenandoah). I purchased the Topo Mapsource so I would be relieved of having to manually translate waypoints and routes from my paper maps to the Legend.

  I found the software easy to use, and surprisingly detailed. I hadn't expected it to have more than a few of the trails in Shenandoah, but from what I can tell it has 99% of them. This relieved me of having to keep a paper map in my thigh pocket, as I just had the Legend attached to my pack for occasional reference to the route I was taking.

  While I have only looked at a small portion of the maps in this product, I did note several landmarks were in the wrong place....most notably Bear Church Rock in the central district of Shenandoah. It is at least 0.10 mile further to the NE than it is on the map...not a big deal unless you are trying to find it for the first time. My accuracy was right on as well, as I was standing on top of a mountain with a total of 9 satellite locks, three of them WAAS enabled, and I was good to about 15 feet. I tend to think the problem might have been mainly with the map.

  I also found that contour lines were a little off, usually about 100 feet or so. Not a big deal until you're at the end of a weekend and have been hiking uphill all day!

  On the software I would love a feature that would let me do an elevation profile of a given route. As I misread some contour lines it led to a rather nasty surprise when I hit a particular leg and had to go up a rather steep incline.

  Finally, maps of park areas are uploaded with a gray shading that makes it somewhat difficult to easily spot trails and things on the display of the Legend. When I'm in Nav mode I can easily see my route, but other trails tend to blend into the background.

  But these are fairly minor nits. I like being able to upload full topo maps to the Legend instead of simple POIs and routes. And having a good level of detail on those maps made changing my route once on the trail quite easy to do. I just wish there was more attention paid to the planning side of the software.
  
  

• Its not the greatest software, but it is a great value
  By on 2002-07-20
  I recently bought the eTrex Legend for its "bread crumb" trail capability in the mountains. I also bought the Mapsource USA Topo package even after reading the lukewarm reviews. I see the drawbacks that have been elucidated in the online reviews--today I was driving on Interstate 795 in Maryland, but the Legend screen showed no road and gave the impression that I was traversing some open terrain! Even so, I have been impressed with the level of detail in other circumstances--showing small streams, listing major street names, showing basic contour lines, etc. Today, I became disoriented after temporarily exiting a major highway and could not easily find the highway again--the Mapsource maps were more than sufficient to help me quickly and efficiently navigate 5-6 miles and get back on track. My conclusion--I would buy this again anytime....
  
  
• Underwhelmed
  By A3RSLMVR5Z5THT on 2003-05-22
  This software has very limited value. I recently bought an Etrex Legend and love it -- mistakenly thought this would be a good addition to it -- it isn't. Some problems (1) A MAJOR road near me was renumbered several years ago -- the basemap in the Legend had the correct number. Mapsource has the old number -- leading me to wonder how current the data is. (2) Too little detail to be useful. For instance there is a bike trail that runs from Valley Forge Park all the way to the Art Museum in Philadelphia. I have ridden it a zillion times. For the life of me I cannot find it on the map -- even on the PC screen. I guess I will need to go there, set a waypoint and then load that waypoint onto my PC to see which of the several thousand lines that are labeled "road" equates to the bike path. Everything in and near the park is labeled "road" -- the four lane roads, the park raods and the park paths (assuming they are showing up at all). I have been told that the Natl Geo maps have the detail you need. You can't download the maps to the GPS, but at least the maps themselves are useful. (3) When you load a map to the Legend all other maps are erased. So -- if you have 6 megs of maps loaded and you want to load one more you have to highlight all the maps you want and load EVERYHING at once. It would be much easier to load maps in series.
  
  
• Acceptable if you acknowledge it's limitations
  By A33B44XPTW0WOA on 2003-06-28
  I was going to provide a very negative rating for this product but I decided to give it a somewhat undeserved 4. Why?

  1) Installation is CONFUSING! The manual says that you can install all the maps to your hard-disk so you don't need to keep inserting one of the three CDs that come with this product. (#1 USA - West, #2 USA - East, #3 - AK & HI) You can't. PERIOD. Thus you have to keep the CD in the drive to be able to use it. Grrr. That is barbarous. Garmin, this is the 21th century - hard-drives now will hold more than 20MB of data!
  2) There is talk about UNLOCK CODES and an UNLOCK CERTIFICATE. Where is it? Grrr. After an hour or so of trying to figure out what I did with the certificate (I couldn't find it. Why? There wasn't one included with the product.), I finally discovered that it wasn't required; everything was unlocked.
  3) If you expect this product to be useful for urban navigation, with street names, etc. you are going to be very, very unpleasantly surprised. It is primarily topographic rather than odographic. (Try to find that word in the dictionary!)
  4) If you expect this product to have detail equivalent to a USGS topographic map, again, a very unpleasant surprise. It is not there. Contour intervals are 50M and resolution is not particularly good.
  5) There seem to be quite a few errors on the maps. Lakes where there aren't any in Nevada? (Maybe DRY lakes?). Roads with missing segments? Sites misplaced? (I saw one in the ocean off the coast of Alaska. Maybe an underwater city? I'm being sarcastic!)

  All in all, however, it is useful despite it's limitations and it is fun to play with. Based on the current state of technology (ie the memory limitations of, say, a Garmin GPS 76S, which I have) it is acceptable. (Ten years from now technology will allow 1M resolution but not now)

  Garmin is continuously updating the software, fixing bugs, etc.

  All in all, based on the price, this is an acceptable product and it is worth the price. Therefore, if you acknowledge it's limitations, buy it.

  Also, GO BUG GARMIN ABOUT ALLOWING A FULL INSTALLATION SO YOU DON'T NEED THE CDs!!!!! (The manual says that you can but the installation procedure is incorrect - typical is just the program without the map data and there is no complete installation.)
  
  

• Disappointing
  By on 2004-05-27
  Note: This product includes an ancient version of Garmin's MapSource program. You will want to download an update from the Garmin Web site. A patch to the base map is also available there.
  
  Even with these updates, the product is disappointing. There is very little detail. In the areas I examined, hiking trails were completely absent, and even major fire and logging roads were missing. Roads are shown in populated areas, but road names are not available. Newer roads are missing. Portions of the map appear to be at least 10 years out of date.
  
  The density of contour lines is linked to the map scale and cannot be controlled independently. At high zoom factors, the number of contour lines is (barely) adequate, but at low zoom factors there are too few. Because of this, it is impossible to view major topographical features. The Colorado Rockies, for example, are completely invisible because at the scale necessary to see them in their entirety, the contour lines are gone. Even smaller features, such as a mountain 20 miles away, cannot be easily visualized. Without the aid of a GPS receiver, these maps would not be adequate for backcountry hiking.
  
  
  
• It is a basic tool, not a precise insturment.
  By A1MHW5V4GZ16PU on 2005-06-26
  This product is what it is. It isn't a fully detailed set of maps with every contour line and building on it. It is a basic set of TOPO maps that shows most local roads. What do you want for under $100 for a set of maps that covers the entire USA? It doesn't have every street name, the water maps are a little sparce, and some of the feature names are dated. I bought, I like it, I use it for what it is good for.
  
  Bottom line is that this is a tool like any other. You wouldn't build a car engine with nothing but a $5 pair of pliers but you could. You can mow your entire lawn with a $29 string trimer but you wouldn't. This is a basic $100 set of maps of the entire united states, for the price you can't beat the detail.
  
  If I had it to do over again I would still buy TOPO USA because it works for me.
  
  
• Very accurate maps for your garmin GPS
  By A1NVD0TKNS1GT5 on 2000-11-13
  These maps contain a good amount of detail within the confines of existing technology. The maps include dirt roads, hiking trails, streams, waypoint, and of course elevation changes. These maps cover the entire US and are used in conjunction with Garmin GPS units. I would recomend this software to anyone with a Garmin GPS who wants to camp or hike with their GPS as a navigation tool. However, be aware they will not be accurate enough in many situations and you probably want to have a secondary navigation tool available to you.

  My experience with the unit has primarily been driving through forest areas, and short hiking and camping outings.
  
  

• Works well but cannot download full map to PC
  By A2ABAJBEJ9EBW1 on 2004-10-14
  The software works pretty well with my Etrex Vista. Not all trails are marked on the map, even some quite popular ones. Some logging roads are also missing. However the topographic information makes it easy to orient yourself. The city maps are quite detailed although not many of the roads are named. The biggest drawback that i have noticed so far is that you cannot download the fully detailed maps to your PC hard drive. The very generic instruction manual suggests that this is possible but I contacted Garmin and was told that this feature is not enabled for this product. This means that you have to carry the disks with you and load them every time you want to view them which is incovenient especialy if you travel with a laptop(and if you lose/damage the disks you are SOL). The maps use quite a bit of memory and take a while (20 minutes or more for a large mapset)to download to the gps unit (old serial cable technology). I cannot load more than about 30% of the state of Oregon onto my 24MB vista so I have to be selective. One nice bonus of a topo map/vista combination is that you can use the map to calibrate your altimeter/barometer.
  
  
• Garmin MapSource vs. Map Tech
  By A16W37D4AO2WPC on 2002-05-14
  I spent three hours online comparing different software for my Garmin E-Trex Vista, using my favorite little Northern Minnesota lake as my destination. I checked the difference between Garmin Mapsource Topo and Recreational, and found little difference. Sure they showed the lake, with pointy shorelines, and one big hill. It was kinda cool. Then I discovered Map Tech!!! The difference was breath-taking! Every little hill, a swamp, the reeds by the shore, and every subtle curve of the shoreline was shown in amazing detail! Instead of spending [$$] on the Garmin, and only being mildly excited, I spent an extra [$$], and got a map that gave me the confidence and peace-of-mind to explore all those unknown woods around the lake, with the full confidence of knowing every inch of the terrain. But only if you PRINT them. I was dissapointed that you can't load the maps into the Garmin Vista, only waypoints. So now all I can do is mark the trail the map so clearly shows on the computer, as waypoints against a blank field on the GPS. The only thing it didn't show, was the dirt road that led to the lake, which was an official Dept. of Natural Resources boat launch. Go to Maptech.com, and check out your favorite area for yourself.
  If you want to load maps, then go hiking, MapSourse is best. If you want to plan a hike on the computer first, Maptech is best. (Haven't checked Nat'l Geographic).
  
  
• Unfortunately its the only one with downloadable mapping...
  By on 2002-07-17
  This topo set doesn't have the necessary detail and I found myself buying printed maps at the local REI.... The software is very simplistic and map detail very poor. Unfortunately you can't download any other National Geographic Topo or Maptech maps into the Garmin unit so you're stuck with Mapsource. Bummer. I'll stick with printed USGS maps.
  
  
• Updates...
  By A34IC48GLL4U3Y on 2006-12-15
  The topographical software is good but not great. I think you've probably already figured that out from the other reviews.
  
  There does however seem to be some confusion about getting updates. The way it works is when you buy a MapSource CD it comes with an unlock code. You then log into Garmin to see if there are any updates more current than your CD. If so, you can update your software for free using the unlock code. If you want to do another update sometime later in the future, you have to purchase a new unlock code from Garmin.
  
  Please indicate if reviews are helpful.
  
  
• MapSource - Better than Expected
  By A2QT7N0SAJ79MH on 2005-10-12
  I purchased the US Topo 24K National Parks Series last year because I needed topos of Death Valley. This year, I needed topos of Nevada, so I bought USA Topo. I was expecting the detail to be less than adequate, but was pleasantly surprised. Every trail and Jeep road we traveled was shown, as well as all the abandoned mines and quarries we visited. If you don't need the terrain detail of the 24K series, give USA Topo a try first.
  
  The one thing I am disappointed with is the program's insistence of having the CD in the drive to work. This is quite annoying. MapSource City Select and USA Topo 24K both allow you to install all the map files to your heard drive. USA Topo should too.
  
  
• Outdated!
  By A3LLV35EY11475 on 2006-04-09
  I was very dissapointed in finding that the maps on the CD is very outdated. The one cover the areas around my house (just outside Denver) must be over 30 years old. I am also dissapointed by the resolution of the maps. Not even near the picture shown on the box.
  
  
• Inaccurate and out dated
  By A29XG3BQI3GACW on 2006-05-09
  I live in Colorado and am amazed at how terrible the maps on Garmin's mapsource are. Rivers start and stop. Roads that have been there since the 1800s don't show up. None of the trails are named. It's really bad. I would think that if Garmin was going to force us to by their maps, they would make an effort to improve them! I would say that anyone with a Garmin who is going to use it for 4WD roads and hiking trails should buy another mapping program to get waypoints.
  
  

• Garmin MapSource WorldMap
• Garmin PC Interface Cable for Garmin GPS Units (010-10141-00)
• Garmin - Mapsource Metroguide Cd Rom V5
• Garmin MapSource DVD for Garmin GPS Units, US Inland Lakes (010-10774-00)
• Garmin MapSource City Navigator, North America DVD-ROM for Garmin StreetPilot GPS Units

• Garmin GPSMap 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigator
• Garmin MapSource City Navigator, North America DVD-ROM for Garmin StreetPilot GPS Units
• SanDisk Micro Secure Digital 2 GB Memory Card (SDSDQ-2048-A11M) Retail Package
• GARMIN 010-10578-00 Carrying Case
• Garmin eTrex Vista CX Color Handheld GPS