TT3 - how does the SW handle crossing maps?

[Fraserp]

Going on a little road trip in August. Route will take me through:- Northern France, Belguim, Luxemberg, Germany all the way to the Czech border. Approx 600 miles, 8\10 hrs. To help me plan and drive the route, I'm thinking of getting TT3 Europe maps. The maps appear to be country specific with the option of running smaller segments if required.

In the UK I dont have an issue as the full UK map lives on one SD card. I'm going to get a single CF card to store all the Europe Maps. (there is a seperate posting with a question on CF cards in this forum). For this journey, though, I'm looking at 3 (possibly 4) regions or segements involved in the route.

How does TT3 or handle the planning of a route that require multiple map regions\segments?
How does TT3 handle the change-over from one map to another on route? What user intervention is required?

Any other other advice on TT3's use in Europe also appreciated.

Thanks
_________________
Fraserp
TomTom 1000
GPSmap 60CSx
SatMap

[carl_w]

I don't have the maps of Europe, but I understand the situation is this: you cannot plan a route across multiple maps. So if you're going through France to the Netherlands, you can plan from France to your entry point to Belgium, then from your entry point to Belgium to your entry point to the Netherlands, then from there to your destination. Of course the problem with this is that you have to know where you're going to cross the borders, and put that in as your destination for each leg. So you can't optimize the border crossings.

However, TTN3 UK comes with a "major roads of Europe" map of about 80MB which is designed for precisely this purpose. So in the example above, if you were going somewhere tiny in NL (I went to Zuid-Beijerland once...) you'd plan a route on the major roads of Europe map to somewhere nearby, then once in NL you'd switch to the NL map for the detail of getting to your tiny town. If you're going somewhere a bit bigger, you may find the major roads of Europe map is sufficient for the entire route.

HTH

[Fraserp]

I've been thinking about this since I posted the question. I suppose I can get away with the major roads of europe for planning the main route. Looking at the UK element, I can get from A2B but there is so much missing!

Does the route transfer accurately from the major roads to the detailed maps?

I could probably drive the route without TT3, as i've done this 5 times before but there's always that uncertainty on such a long journey about exactly where you and where is the next junction\fuel\rest stop etc...
Primary use is for knowing ....

1) where I am
2) where the next stop is
3) planning a detailed alternate of the route gets closed

So unless I hear otherwise, i'll plan the route on the Major Roads and maybe buy the detailed maps for close ups.

Thanks
_________________
Fraserp
TomTom 1000
GPSmap 60CSx
SatMap

[johnmar]

Fraserp

I am off to Italy, through France, in a couple of weeks time. I have purchased Maps of Europe and have loaded the relavent whole and segments on a 512MB Cf card.

If you use the Itinieary feature of TT3, you can plan routes across the various segments and borders. Obvoiusly, only the waypoints on the loaded map are live at any one time, other points are present but 'greyed-out', and you do have to switch maps manually to cross a border or map segment.

I have yet to try this on a journey, but seems to be workable. You will have spend time before your trip 'playing' with Itinieary in order to understand the logic behind this feature.

Good luck
_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[Fraserp]

Thanks for the feedback on my forum posting.

Please let me know how you get on with the TT3 Sw on your trip. I'm not travelling until 13th August. So I still have a little time to plan.

Thanks
_________________
Fraserp
TomTom 1000
GPSmap 60CSx
SatMap

[MikeB]

Fraserp,

When I looked at the Major Roads of Europe, I was suprised at the number of 'B' roads that are included in the data. Surely this is more than enough for the main journey?

When I did my trans europe trip last year I used Destinator to give me the Major roads, and TomTom at both ends. Since TT3 now has Major roads this can all be done in one application.
_________________
Mike Barrett

[johnmar]

MikeB

I would tend to agree that if the need is solely trans europe A to B, then the included Major Roads of Europe is probably quite satisfactory and uncomplicated. As you say it does go beyond "Major" roads.

Where however it falls down, is if there is a need to spend time on stop-overs (maybe not relevant for FraserP) or deviating off-route, possibly for fuel or restaurants etc. Also, there are no included POI's which could be a significant disadvantage.

I shall personally be spending time at several locations so it will be good to have detailed maps whilst there. It all really a case of 'horses for courses' If there is a requirement to purchase the detailed maps, then I think it's worth using them for the complete trip (subject to adequate storage space) rather than utilising Major Roads.. as well.

In the end, it's all down to personal preferences.

It will be interesting to see how my own plans work out in practice.
_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[MikeB]

John,

The problem with the detailed maps is that TomTom does not route over the map boundaries, which is where MRE comes in handy.

I take your point about detours etc, but you would need a lot of storage for the whole of europe especially if you are travelling through many different regions. One of the worst is UK to Italy, where you need, UK, France, Benelux, Gremany, Switzerland, and Italy.

It would be nice if TomTom would recognise and use the maps that are loaded on your storecard, automatically switching to the most detailed when appropriate, but that is on my wishlist for the future.
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Mike Barrett

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