Feature Request: Navigation problem

[malaki86]

OMG - that's exactly what we need...

How big is the splitter program?

[Paracelsus]

Well, it's actually the frontend you use to install the Destinator application to your PDA.

The map selection thing is just a bonus, they do that cause most PDAs have limited space and therefore need cut down maps. Technically, you can also create a map of complete Europe, but that would be a few Gigs big.

I don't see why you could not make a "whole USA" map (with all the details of the maps) in one big file, except that the application might be very slow to operate on multiple-GB map file. But I don't know certainly about that...

[archaic0]

I had sent an email to Destinator and they said the same thing. Although I don't have nor do I know where to get that application from.

I've asked them, but no answer yet.

If I could get that application, it sounds like I could then make my own custom map with the maps I have now and make one map with just my states in it.

[archaic0]

In my case, I'm not really worried about the performance issue. I'm running a full PC with a couple gigs of RAM on board and I can upgrade if I need to.

I've tried such things in other situations though and as the map data gets large, the systems tend to get really slow, so keeping map data small is a good thing.

In my case, and others too probably though, the goal isn't to get the whole of the country in one map, but rather to get the whole of your current trip in one map. Maybe that's across country, but maybe it's just a couple areas together that are now split into different groups.

The split between groups is what is causing our headaches. Destinator is currently confused in a couple different ways when dealing with multi-map routes so getting your current location and destination in the same map is key.

[malaki86]

Ok - I just tried the suggestion to delete the Berlin and New York City maps.

I'm sitting in Portage, IN and going to Reedsville, WV. I selected "New Address", "Change Map" and selected the "USARoads" map. I put in the town name and hit "Go".

It now shows me sitting in NYC (AGAIN) with the "Northeast" mapset showing. It then popped up saying that I can't reach my current destination from my location.

How about fixing this? It's utterly ridiculous about the multi-mapset garbage. I think this is the only program I've EVER used on a computer that loaded maps in "chunks". If there's not going to be a fix soon, how do we go about getting a refund?

[David]

Originally Posted by malaki86

Ok - I just tried the suggestion to delete the Berlin and New York City maps.

I'm sitting in Portage, IN and going to Reedsville, WV. I selected "New Address", "Change Map" and selected the "USARoads" map. I put in the town name and hit "Go".

It now shows me sitting in NYC (AGAIN) with the "Northeast" mapset showing. It then popped up saying that I can't reach my current destination from my location.

How about fixing this? It's utterly ridiculous about the multi-mapset garbage. I think this is the only program I've EVER used on a computer that loaded maps in "chunks". If there's not going to be a fix soon, how do we go about getting a refund?

don't use USARoads, try loading the full map region and setting a route to your destination... Also when testing you do have a GPS signal right?

david

[malaki86]

Yes - I had a perfect signal. I had a signal before I tried using the USARoads and also immediately after with the regional map.

Another problem with selecting the region that your destination is in:
When you select a destination and you're in a different region, CF only knows 1 way to get there. If you drive a different route, CF will always try to reroute you onto that original route it had planned.

Examples (these happened yesterday):
a) I was in Kaukauna, WI and going to Reedsville, WV. CF had me routed to drive almost 100 miles north before coming south again. It took almost 50 miles of driving south on the same road that CF had used to get me to Kaukauna earlier coming from Chicago before it finally rerouted me.

b) CF had me routed through downtown Chicago. I took I-294 around. CF tried to get me over onto I-94 in Chicago until I was at the IN/IL border. I wish I would've taken screenshots to show you the jagged line the map looked like as it tried to get me to exit I-294 southbound, turn around and head straight back north over 30 miles to get onto either I-90 or I-94 to go through Chicago.

c) Shortest/Quickest don't work when crossing regions. Coming from Kaukauna, WI to Reedsville, WV, the shortest route is: US-41, I-94, I-65, US-31, US-30, I-270, I-70, I-79 to local. The quickest is US-41, I-94, I-294, I-90, I-80, I-76, I-79 to local. No matter which I tried, it keeps the same route.

What is the purpose of the USARoads map? If we can't use it for planning, driving, etc, why is it there?

And, I'll restate that you CANNOT select you're saved "Home" or any saved Favorite if it's not in the same region that you're currently in. This is stupid. It shouldn't matter. If I'm sitting in El Paso, TX with a load going directly to my home, I should be able to start CF, touch the "Where to", touch Home and be able to start driving immediately. I shouldn't have to touch "Where to", touch "Change Map", touch "Mid Atlantic", touch "City/Street", type out "Fairmont, WV" and finally touch "Go".

As far as a single map slowing down CF, let's compare:
CF uses Navteq maps. So does Microsoft Streets & Trips. It takes me 30 secs to load Streets and be able to go to any address in North America without doing anything special. ALK CoPilot uses proprietary maps. Again, I can open CoPilot in about 30 secs and select any address in the continental United States without doing anything special. iGuidance uses Navteq. Again - look at the performance.

I know for a fact that I'm not the only person that crosses regional lines on a normal basis. Maybe the Destinator maps are perfectly fine broken into regional maps when using it on a PDA that it was designed for. The thing is, we're not using PDA's. Most computers people are running CF on are at least 1ghz, with at least 1gig of RAM. The computers can handle loading a larger map.

If this issue will be resolved when either:
a) The final version of CF v2 is released
or b) The new map data is released
then I will be fine. I can live with fighting the stupidity of it until it's done properly by the end of summer. However, if you can't say if it will be able to be fixed to do a single large map of an area (North America), then I must demand a refund.

[malaki86]

I'm just about ready to give up on the CF navigation...

This morning I started my day in Bourbon, IN at 9am. I was sitting at a shopping center on US-30.

I put in my destination of Reedsville, WV and it showed an estimate of 650+ miles and an eta of 11pm. It had me routed to go US-30 to I-69 in Fort Wayne, then go north to the Indiana/Ohio toll road. From there, who knows. I tried both the Quickest & Shortest and got the exact same results.

I then opened up CoPilot v9 and put in the same destination. It shows 399 miles with an eta of 4:30pm, which is dead-on, 100% perfect routing.

Come on Flux...

Edit:
Right now I'm sitting at a rest area 16 miles north of I-270 on US-33 just north of Columbus, OH. CoPilot v9 is showing that I have 250 miles remaining to my destination of Reedsville, WV. I opened Centrafuse, put in the same destination and it's showing 411 miles. Oh my God - can it be any more plain that THE MULTI-MAPSET SETUP DOES NOT WORK?

[archaic0]

I've used a ton of GPS computer-based systems on full PCs as well as PDAs. And Destinator acts just like the rest of the PDA versions. I'm sure that's where we're tripping up on this one. Besides the flawed routing between regions, the map splitting is what you have to do in streets and trips for the PDA.

I have been getting messages back from Destinator themselves and they tell me that I should be able to make a custom region given the right software. Their last message to me however indicated that this software is only available to people who have their PDA software.

Here is their last message:
---
Sorry sir but we do not know your device. I have explained you the normal route planning and the cutting maps process with a Pocket PC provided with destinator. The console is a program included in the CD provided with.
We have here for testing just Pocket PC´s and GPS devices run by destinator software.

Please contact your device manufacturer to know better about your device route planning and maps cutting possibilities.
---

I don't know how the EU or other areas are split up, but I would ask that there be a combined map option to download. For me in the US, this would be all states.

It would be absolutely wonderful if I could pick the states I wanted to load at the time of driving to save resources if I wanted to, but if that's impossible, then an entire US option would be great. I'll put 4 gigs of RAM and a quad-core cpu in the car if that's what it takes to navigate correctly.

Maybe there is some way to 'hack' destinator so that it will use the current regions, but load them all or select groups of them and keep them loaded instead of switching off the one you aren't in?

One program I used on my PDA had an option that said to 'auto-load connected maps' and it was a checkbox that when checked would load your entire map library into memory if the areas overlapped. This was a horrible idea on the PDA with the full US because of the small power of the PDA, but on a PC, it shouldn't be a problem.

And I know the CF dev team is listening, so let's give them a litttle break. They have so far given us a great product for a good price and have only so much control over what they can do with Destinator.

I must say that going from 1.2 to 2.0 was a great thing overall. The nav section in particular looks a great deal more clean and polished. Kudos on that part guys.

[malaki86]

I agree. I absolutely love Centrafuse. However, navigation is my #1 priority.