Delorme's Stre= et Atlas Examples
Sun= day, March 04, 2007
8:4= 1 AM
Street Atlas = has a few very nice and, so far, unique features not found in the other personal mapping programs and devices. One I find particularly useful for planning = is the ability to simultaneously display multiple routes and routing informat= ion. It can show the primary route and one= or more alternate routes on the maps. It can also show the summary statistics= of each potential route to allow comparisons of distance, times and even cost projections.
For instance,= in planning a trip from Raleigh, NC to Pearl, MS we considered swinging by my Mom's outside of West Point, GA. By creating a new route with a waypoint (= VIA) by way of her home, SA shows both routes and statistics on the single map.=
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image001.png")
Each route is controlled by a checkbox so adding, dropping existing routes from the disp= lays is just a click away.
If I have con= cerns about Low Clearances I can turn on one or more imported POI (draw) files t= hat have the POIs in them. More about finding and importing draw files, later.=
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image002.png")
Preplanning a= trip usually involves finding places to camp, fill-up and occasionally eat. The Points of Interest (POIs) already in the program can help but often, I am interested only in one type, such as FlyingJ fuel plazas,
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image003.png")
 the US Corp of Engineers campgrounds a= nd/or Escapees parks.
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image004.png")
When viewing a larger area of a map it can quickly become too cluttered to be useful so i= t is usually more helpful to zoom in tighter on an area to display the POIs legibly.
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image005.png")
In this examp= le, the COEs are the small gold square dots on the lake just west of LaGrange,= GA.
I can zoom in closer to see better location details.
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image006.png")
And drill dow= n to street level to see how to get to a COE campground such as Amity
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image007.png")
BTW, the POIs displayed in the DRAW files list came from the large selection available on the www.discoveryowners.com website. I Look in the Campground Finder ( http://www.discoveryown= ers.com/cginfo.htm ) for files of POIs for the type I am interested in.
At this time,= there are usually equivalent files there for Street Atlas, Microsoft Streets and Trips and some for Copilot Live programs. There are a few for TOM-TOM, Mapsource and Waypoints GPS systems, too.
By downloadin= g the file(s) I want and importing them into the DRAW function of SA I can add t= hem to the list of POIs that are available. I can toggle each file's content display on or off with a checkbox click making it easy to show or hide the= m on any scale map I display.
Since I can h= ave from one to many routes and Draw files shown in SA to select at one time I= can do most of my route planning in one session, choose the one we will travel= and then turn off all the others, leaving me with a clean route shown. The hardcopy I may choose to print wi= ll reflect what I have selected, too.
While travell= ing it is really nice to be able to easily respond to questions (whims) that come= up by adding other alternatives "in flight" to see how well they wi= ll work for us.
There are tim= es when the high contrast display mode is helpful to make it easier to view t= he maps under some difficult lighting conditions, too.
![](3D"Delorme'sStreetAtlasExamples_files/image008.png")
Just FYI; Thi= s is the GPS display mode using high contrast colors on the map.
I have used Microsoft Streets and Trips as well as the Delorme series since they began. I still keep and use the = current versions of both because I do prefer some things about the MS presentation= of the information. There is some overlap in the built-in POIs in each but th= ere is a significant gap between what they separately cover.
Many of the complaints on previous versions of Street Atlas have been fixed. It is not nearly as slow to start up as it was and the number of routes and draw fil= es that you can turn on without bringing your system to its knees for map refreshes is way better.
I still find = some annoying things about each program but also I still find them both useful = in different circumstances. I know this is not really helpful to someone new = to using these tools but it just emphasizes the fact that one choice may be a better solution for one person than it is for another.
I have not personally used the current Copilot Laptop version so I really cannot comm= ent on its suitability. My son uses the Copilot Truck version for his Over the Road trucking. I do like the bir= ds eye 3D views it offers and the fact that ALK makes it much easier for owners to report inaccurate map data.
The one thing= that I have noticed, at least with the Truck version, is that the street detail= can get somewhat sketchy or be less accurate when getting away from legal truck routes.
Although prog= ram updates are sometimes available for between new version releases none of t= hese programs offer updates to the map data. One must buy the next program vers= ion to get updated/corrected map data.