[oxoxtro600]

The Mapopolis web site shows the counties of each state. You can download only the counties of the cities that you plan on visiting along with the major highway maps of each state.

[Kevin0306]

I can easily move just the maps that I need to RAM from the SD for a short trip and quick routing. How do you move the maps back to the card from RAM?

[Kevin0306]

BTW, I am running version 2.05

[tjd414]

You can just delete, a copy will remain on your card, assuming of course you "copied" and did not "move" the map to ram.

My question is why are you moving your maps to ram? Mapopolis will read off the card just. In my experience, there is no difference in speed whether the map is in ram or on the card. Just saves you one operation, imo.

[Kevin0306]

Oh, OK. I have most New England maps loaded to my card. It seems to take forever to generate a route. A route that is within my county(MA-Middlesex) takes several minutes. I assumed that if it was reading from the card, it must be searching all of my maps. So, I moved my county map to RAM and generated the route. The copy button transfered my map to RAM it didn't copy it to RAM. Someone on another forum suggested (filez). I am not sure what that does, as I just bought a VZW 600 and the gps unit. I haven't quite been able to figure out the directory examples from safe harbor. Any tutoring for a total gps newbie would be much appreciated.

[Aaron C]

Filez is a file manager for palm os. It will let you copy, move, delete, manipulate files. What tjd414 is refering to is using filez to copy the needed maps to ram, then delete them when done. If you do a copy from the sd card, they are still on the sd card.
There are lots and lots of cool apps that you will need to add to your treo. Just hunt around here and you will start to get a feel for what the treo can do and what apps you need....

Ill start you off with a really imortant one: backupbuddyvfs
backs up your treo to the sd card. Seriously if you dont have this run, dont walk to the pc and download the trial version, be amazed and then fork out the best $30 you will ever spend on this device!

[Kevin0306]

Thanks for the advice. I have had a Treo 180, and then a 270 since they have been available with t-mo service. I had terrible luck with the 270 and could wait to get my hands on a 600. I refused to get locked in with t-mo. Their coverage is painful. I must say that the 600 is very impressive compared to the 270. How do ouy arrange the maps in the folders like safe harbor and silverado are discussing? I feel like an ***** asking these questions that brobably seem simple to you.

[tjd414]

Thanks for the advice. I have had a Treo 180, and then a 270 since they have been available with t-mo service. I had terrible luck with the 270 and could wait to get my hands on a 600. I refused to get locked in with t-mo. Their coverage is painful. I must say that the 600 is very impressive compared to the 270. How do ouy arrange the maps in the folders like safe harbor and silverado are discussing? I feel like an ***** asking these questions that brobably seem simple to you.

Don't feel like an ***** ... we are a forum of treo enthusiasts that want to help those people that have taken the plunge and bought what has to be, imho, the best converged device available today.

To arrange your maps, you definitely should get FileZ as Aaron C suggested. It has a free version and is indispensible in working with your treo. You can get it here. Also, get a backup program. Indispensible as well. I use BackUpBuddy. I use the free version and you can get it here.

Select your sd card and in the root directory create a directory called "/Maps." Make sure you capitalize maps ... for some reason this just worked better for me.

Inside this directory you can create folders (directories) for each state you wish to download maps for your use. Inside this each state directory I have loaded the state major roads map and then the county maps I want to use. You really don't need ALL the county maps if you don't plan on visiting those counties ... just download the ones you want. For example, on my card I have the following directory structure:

/Maps/FL ... in this directory I have mrm, Palm Bch, Broward and Dade counties.
/Maps/GA ... only mrm
/Maps/SC ... only mrm
/Maps/NC ... only mrm
/Maps/VA ... only mrm
/Maps/WV ... only mrm
/Maps/PA ... mrm, Indiana, Westmoreland and Allegheny county maps.

Make sure you assign the /Maps directory in Mapopolis as the default.

Using this directory structure, I was able to plot a route from my driveway to my dad's driveway (almost 1200 miles) in PA in less than 30 seconds. Then all I had to do was drive the green line.

Just one more hint for you ... if you download the maps and try and hot sync them over it will take forever. Go out and get a card reader (I got mine at Circuit City for less than $20), plug your card into it and use your desktop to drag and drop your maps directly onto the card. This is also a very easy way to set up a directory structure as I outlined above. In fact, I did this on my desktop, so it went pretty quickly. This is also a great way to move over your music files (.wma or .mp3) if you use your treo as a music player.

Hope this helps.

[Kevin0306]

Thanks, I have filez, I just haven't quite figured out how to use it. I bought a card reader and using the desktop I created the directory structure as suggested. When I do that I select a directory with my start point, find the start point then I select the directory that contains my destination, and find it. When I go back to navigate my start point is gone and can't be found without switching directories then my destination is gone and can't be found with the find button.

[PAC]

What kind of SD card are you using? And are you plotting this while the GPS is active? I have a Sandisk 128MB card and it's *much* slower reading from the card vs. copying from RAM. Terribly slow, compared to RAM. So slow, in fact, that searching or plotting routes through major cities causes my Treo to reset if the city isn't loaded to memory.

I have problems just routing *anywhere* if the county maps are selected and the distance is greater than about 200 miles or through a major metropolitan area.

Case in point, last weekend we were in downtown Chicago with all of Illinois (general road and counties) selected from the SD card. When we were ready to head for home I requested Mapopolis to plot us a course from where we were (Michigan Ave, by the Art Museum), to my home 4 hours south, Mapopolis sat and thought about it... Now I've driven this route many times, so I know how to get home but I wanted to see how Mapopolis would do, so I kept on driving south on I-55. Somewhere near Joliet (45 minutes later), Mapopolis finished. When it finally started rebuilding the screen to display the route it immediately reset my Treo. When I got home I tested copying just Cook County (all 8mb or whatever it is) to RAM and re-routing. It took about 30 seconds before building the map.

You can just delete, a copy will remain on your card, assuming of course you "copied" and did not "move" the map to ram.

My question is why are you moving your maps to ram? Mapopolis will read off the card just. In my experience, there is no difference in speed whether the map is in ram or on the card. Just saves you one operation, imo.

[tjd414]

Thanks, I have filez, I just haven't quite figured out how to use it. I bought a card reader and using the desktop I created the directory structure as suggested. When I do that I select a directory with my start point, find the start point then I select the directory that contains my destination, and find it. When I go back to navigate my start point is gone and can't be found without switching directories then my destination is gone and can't be found with the find button.

Select "Use GPS when fixed" as your start point. That way you won't have to find anything for your start point.

For your destination, there should be a triangle pointing down ... select this with your stylus and it should show you all of the destination points you have previously entered. Well, maybe not all, but at least the last few you entered. Choose the destination you want and then select "Generate Route" and it should work.

Let me know and I will try and help as much as I can.

[tjd414]

What kind of SD card are you using? And are you plotting this while the GPS is active? I have a Sandisk 128MB card and it's *much* slower reading from the card vs. copying from RAM. Terribly slow, compared to RAM. So slow, in fact, that searching or plotting routes through major cities causes my Treo to reset if the city isn't loaded to memory.

I have problems just routing *anywhere* if the county maps are selected and the distance is greater than about 200 miles or through a major metropolitan area.

Case in point, last weekend we were in downtown Chicago with all of Illinois (general road and counties) selected from the SD card. When we were ready to head for home I requested Mapopolis to plot us a course from where we were (Michigan Ave, by the Art Museum), to my home 4 hours south, Mapopolis sat and thought about it... Now I've driven this route many times, so I know how to get home but I wanted to see how Mapopolis would do, so I kept on driving south on I-55. Somewhere near Joliet (45 minutes later), Mapopolis finished. When it finally started rebuilding the screen to display the route it immediately reset my Treo. When I got home I tested copying just Cook County (all 8mb or whatever it is) to RAM and re-routing. It took about 30 seconds before building the map.

I use a SanDisk 512 card. Not the Ultra or Ultra II. I ran a card test on it and it said that performance was just average.

I have the gps start at the start of Mapopolis automatically. So, whenever I plot, the gps is running and I have a signal.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but I have about 7M free on my treo

When I went on my trip, including county maps (2) and state major road maps (7), the total maps weighed in at 8.446M. This route was plotted from the card with "Highways Neutral" and was done in less than 30 seconds.

Maybe SafeHarbor can give us some idea as to why things work well for some and not so well for others.

One last note ... I have no hacks installed on my treo with the exception of Treo Allegro, and I'm not sure it's even a hack. Do you have any hacks installed on your treo? Mapopolis does not play nice with them ...

[Crashless]

When I went on my trip, including county maps (2) and state major road maps (7), the total maps weighed in at 8.446M. This route was plotted from the card with "Highways Neutral" and was done in less than 30 seconds.

Ah HA! Cheater.

I'm begining to think that too many county maps severly increases routing time. For long trips, it seems to be adventagous (sp?) to create a special directory to use. That way, it doesn't get confused by all the extra frontage roads. I'll run a test tonight.

[tjd414]

Ah HA! Cheater.

I'm begining to think that too many county maps severly increases routing time. For long trips, it seems to be adventagous (sp?) to create a special directory to use. That way, it doesn't get confused by all the extra frontage roads. I'll run a test tonight.

Well, yea, I am!!!

But my question is that if I was only going to be on major roads most of the way, why would I load anything but those (major roads)? I did get stuck one time with a major road having traffic stopped (in WV of all places) and Mapopolis showed me a way around it using major roads. It even replotted my route for me in just a few seconds (well, more like 30). Piece of cake.

Anyway, all I did was follow the manual (odd concept, I know ) where it details just how to plot a route over a long distance. Worked for me, though!!!

I also created a special trip directory called /Maps/Home and copied the maps into this directory and had Mapopolis use this as the default. So, I guess I am a double cheater!!!

Oh, "advantageous" since you asked someone to check for you.

[Crashless]

I really need to get a 512mb or 1gb card so I can setup things like this. I have the CA major road map in ram for major backup, so I guess I just need some folders with common start/end combinations. With a gig, I could have pretty much any combination I could need.

Thanks for the tips!

Separate question, has anyone had an address that mapopolis couldn't find? I had a miserable failure enroute with the fiance where we were going to a photographer's place, and his address wouldn't come up. Had to resort to a phone call and a Thomas Guide. Fiance doesn't trust the gadget at all now. Gets frustrated when I plug it in...

When I got to the address, I was able to tap on the map and lo and behold, it was there, so what gives? I tried widening, and narrowing the search radius and everything.

PS thanks for the spell check, i'm awful at spelling, why don't forums have a spell checker?

[silverado]

Separate question, has anyone had an address that mapopolis couldn't find? I had a miserable failure enroute with the fiance where we were going to a photographer's place, and his address wouldn't come up. Had to resort to a phone call and a Thomas Guide. Fiance doesn't trust the gadget at all now. Gets frustrated when I plug it in...

When I got to the address, I was able to tap on the map and lo and behold, it was there, so what gives? I tried widening, and narrowing the search radius and everything.

PS thanks for the spell check, i'm awful at spelling, why don't forums have a spell checker?

Yes, I had this problem once and when I reached the destination it seemed that the map only had the odd-numbered addresses on that small street for some reason! The address I was looking for was even, so it didn't find it! It was VERY frustrating.

[tjd414]

Fiance doesn't trust the gadget at all now. Gets frustrated when I plug it in...

What? Not trust your gadget! Gets frustrated when you plug it in??? Man, you need a new fiance!

[boardoe]

Yes, I had this problem once and when I reached the destination it seemed that the map only had the odd-numbered addresses on that small street for some reason! The address I was looking for was even, so it didn't find it! It was VERY frustrating.

I have had this problem many times, but the opposite - only even addresses. In fact my own address does not exist in the database (odd number) but my even numbered neighbors do. Also, I have come across streets where I tap on the gps location on arrival and come up with a totally nonexistent address off sometimes by many numbers (219 instead of 31, e.g.)

[silverado]

What? Not trust your gadget! Gets frustrated when you plug it in??? Man, you need a new fiance!

LOL I didn't read it that way at all! Get your mind out of there, tjd

[silverado]

It seems that having a lot of free memory on the device was a common thing among those who didn't have a problem. I only have 1M free. I will try to give the app more breathing room and try again.