Base camp !!!! How frustrating.

[The Grey One]

Just discovered something interesting which might help new users. On our new hotel PC I have downloaded Basecamp version 4.3.5 . When I looked at a section of the map showing Malta there was very little detail. I used the "Help" section which referred to a non existent bar at the bottom of the map. Par for the source with so called help sections I find. Further investigation found the detail tab under "View" and then "toolbars" Once I adjusted the detail level our place appeared on the map. So the default for 4.3.5 appears to be a medium level of detail which even on a high zoom does not show places like ours. The search is still rubbish but at least if someone finds our village they can zoom in and find us. I have no idea if all downloads of the latest version are like this but if they are it might explain some of the difficulties.

On my laptop, new in May this year I have an older version of Basecamp which started with the "detail" tab on the toolbar so has always displayed our hotel when you look at a local map. Just tried to update to 4.3.5 as Garmin has been telling me for weeks. So far our resident geek has spent over an hour trying to sort it out! I just got the same type of error messages I got last time I tried an update. Good job I don't rely on it.


John

 

[PeeBee]

As i have said before Basecamp is not perfect but as it all i have ever used i had no choice but to work with it, get used to it and make it work for me. I have no real issues with it, actually i quite like it.

dare i suggest that many dont like Basecamp for the same reasons as 11XX owners deride the WC !!

Interesting that you are so quick to deride Mapsource users criticisms of Basecamp when you admit that you have never actually used Mapsource.

 

[RedRick Esq.]

Interesting that you are so quick to deride Mapsource users criticisms of Basecamp when you admit that you have never actually used Mapsource.

I have never used a sextant to establish my global position, neither have i rubbed two sticks together to make fire !

Times change as does technology and the tools available to us so either move on or.... http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showth...ill-it-end-fgs&highlight=when+will+it+end+FGS

 

[The Grey One]

I have never used a sextant to establish my global position, neither have i rubbed two sticks together to make fire !

Times change as does technology and the tools available to us so not keen on Basecamp either move on or.... http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showth...ill-it-end-fgs&highlight=when+will+it+end+FGS

I fail to see how blindly accepting what is offered as automatically better than what went before (and without any knowledge of that forerunner) can be regarded as a good thing. Not a good strategy for ensuring the survival of your genes I would have thought. I assume you put the link in to suggest that those not keen on Basecamp are in some way lower on the evolutionary ladder than those who embrace Basecamp. If it was not so ridiculous that could be taken as offensive!

Technology does indeed change but when you have been around as long as I have you realise that not all change if for the better. But then maybe I have been around for so long because I recognise this.

Trouble is if you have never rubbed two sticks together you can never been sure that matches really are better.

John

 

[iand46]

The detail, compass & zoom bar should reveal itself when you click near the bottom of the map, after a few seconds of non use it fades away

To see all detail on the map you will have to set it to max detail.

 

[RedRick Esq.]

I fail to see how blindly accepting what is offered as automatically better than what went before (and without any knowledge of that forerunner) can be regarded as a good thing. Not a good strategy for ensuring the survival of your genes I would have thought. I assume you put the link in to suggest that those not keen on Basecamp are in some way lower on the evolutionary ladder than those who embrace Basecamp. If it was not so ridiculous that could be taken as offensive!

Technology does indeed change but when you have been around as long as I have you realise that not all change if for the better. But then maybe I have been around for so long because I recognise this.

Trouble is if you have never rubbed two sticks together you can never been sure that matches really are better.




John

John
I find basecamp to be perfectly adequate, it does everything i ask of it. Mapsource may well have done the same and i concede it may have done it in a different or better way. I shall never know. As it happens i have had to do the stck thing to make a fire (long story) and believe me i know matches are better but as said i do not know if base camp is better or worse but i had no choice but to put in the effort and learn to use it.
It is powerfull mapping software that is beyond the imagination of people 30 or 40 years ago that is here now and the best available to us. My point is we can live in the past and moan about what we now have or can adapt and use what is available and embrace it and look forward to further development which will be customer driven i hope.

I had no intention of insulting anyones inteligence or computer skills or indeed anything and my original comment re the WC was partly in Jest

you dont like basecamp, I do

Perhaps the real experts like wapping could do a UKGSer training day like the bike maintainence one recently

 

[The Grey One]

John
I find basecamp to be perfectly adequate, it does everything i ask of it. Mapsource may well have done the same and i concede it may have done it in a different or better way. I shall never know. As it happens i have had to do the stck thing to make a fire (long story) and believe me i know matches are better but as said i do not know if base camp is better or worse but i had no choice but to put in the effort and learn to use it.
It is powerfull mapping software that is beyond the imagination of people 30 or 40 years ago that is here now and the best available to us. My point is we can live in the past and moan about what we now have or can adapt and use what is available and embrace it and look forward to further development which will be customer driven i hope.

I had no intention of insulting anyones inteligence or computer skills or indeed anything and my original comment re the WC was partly in Jest

you dont like basecamp, I do

Perhaps the real experts like wapping could do a UKGSer training day like the bike maintainence one recently

Actually I admire those of you who have mastered Basecamp, Running a busy hotel, the occasional bike ride and ranting on here leaves me little time to get to grips with it. You are right, I don't like it, neither do most if the sample of our guests in in any way representative. In fact an awful lot of Garmin users have never even looked at it, or Mapsource for that matter. As for moaning about Basecamp is this not part of the process that leads to improvement. If we all said how wonderful it was there would be no development. Complaining about the failings of a new system is not the same as living in the past. As I said blindly accepting anything new as being automatically better will not help at all. In the commercial world companies such as Garmin will only actually improve their products if there is a demand. Otherwise they will do the minimum possible to sell the product.

I will continue to dabble with Basecamp when I have the time, who knows one day I might become a convert. Just don't hang by the thumbs waiting!

John

 

[RedRick Esq.]

Actually I admire those of you who have mastered Basecamp, Running a busy hotel, the occasional bike ride and ranting on here leaves me little time to get to grips with it. You are right, I don't like it, neither do most if the sample of our guests in in any way representative. In fact an awful lot of Garmin users have never even looked at it, or Mapsource for that matter. As for moaning about Basecamp is this not part of the process that leads to improvement. If we all said how wonderful it was there would be no development. Complaining about the failings of a new system is not the same as living in the past. As I said blindly accepting anything new as being automatically better will not help at all. In the commercial world companies such as Garmin will only actually improve their products if there is a demand. Otherwise they will do the minimum possible to sell the product.

I will continue to dabble with Basecamp when I have the time, who knows one day I might become a convert. Just don't hang by the thumbs waiting!

John

Well to be sure it will let me find your hotel sometime in the future !

 

[Toddmeister]

Toddmeister has it spot on vis-a-vis reloading start and end points. A Mac does it slightly differently but in essence the same.

Hi Richard - I am using a Mac to to do this
I find the search result I want and drag it across into the folder I've created for that particular route (or set of routes). It then seems to be stored as a place with a flag next to it in the file. I can then use that point as many times as I like in the "create route" function as a start, finish or intermediate place - you just simply drag it from the folder into the route box. This stops the need to do the same search again to find your start point from the place you finished the night before

That's the only way I know how to do it, but if there is another then would be good to know!

 

[Pukmeister]

You've spurred me into action, gonna load Basecamp onto my Mac this weekend and give it another try.

It's a near useless hateful pile of crap when used on my PC, I failed at the first hurdle last time I tried it. Mapsource and a 2610 was a doddle.

Can you buy a "Basecamp for Dummies" ? (a best-seller for BM riders no doubt).

 

[The Grey One]

The detail, compass & zoom bar should reveal itself when you click near the bottom of the map, after a few seconds of non use it fades away

To see all detail on the map you will have to set it to max detail.

I have to tell you that they don't on all four machines here. There is a compass and zoom at the top left but no amount of clicking, hovering etc will bring up anything else. My Geek finally sorted out the updating problem and we have the latest version on two machines with and older version on the others All are the same in this respect.

And my point about the detail is that Basecamp no longer shows the tab as a default. Therefore you have first of all to know there might be such a thing and then go looking to find it. It seems to me that Basecamp demands that the user learns how it works rather than encouraging new users by making things clear.

John

 

[Wapping]

He's not happy, that's for sure

 

[RobertG]

I have to say I agree with the less than user friendly nature of Basecamp and I am fairly computer literate.

I am never happy with the Basecamp search feature.

I have found that what works best for me is to have Basecamp and Google Maps open (works even better on dual screen). Google maps search is by far the more superior, so I search there. Then right click Google map location, click "What's here", highlight the coordinates that it throws up, Ctrl C (to copy coordinates), move to Base Camp and Ctrl F (to open Locate coordinates dialog), Ctrl V (to paste coordinates) and click Create Waypoint. Then put the route together.

 

[blues n twos]

I find the search result I want and drag it across into the folder I've created for that particular route (or set of routes). It then seems to be stored as a place with a flag next to it in the file. I can then use that point as many times as I like in the "create route" function as a start, finish or intermediate place - you just simply drag it from the folder into the route box. This stops the need to do the same search again to find your start point from the place you finished the night before

where was you with your sensible ideas the other day eh!! good tip though and that would have saved me a lot of grief and expletives

 

[Bumpkin]

I have to say I agree with the less than user friendly nature of Basecamp and I am fairly computer literate.

I am never happy with the Basecamp search feature.

I have found that what works best for me is to have Basecamp and Google Maps open (works even better on dual screen). Google maps search is by far the more superior, so I search there. Then right click Google map location, click "What's here", highlight the coordinates that it throws up, Ctrl C (to copy coordinates), move to Base Camp and Ctrl F (to open Locate coordinates dialog), Ctrl V (to paste coordinates) and click Create Waypoint. Then put the route together.

Got to say that I usually work in a similar way. Agree with others that Basecamp needs some work on the search function. Google is likely to always be better in this respect as it's what they do as a primary part of their business. However, there has to be a degree of complacency on the part of the Garmin developers that what they've created is good enough. Well it isn't.

Mapsource isn't really any better, I needed to invest time and effort learning that and the search function was just as bad, if not worse. In Basecamp a lot of the routing functionality is the same, keyboard shortcuts etc. The big difference is the way it stores the user created data, going from file system to database. This works for me and has distinct advantages.

With the legacy version of Google Maps there's a right click widget from Google Labs that gives a 'drop lat/long marker'. This works very well I just cut and paste from this, drop a way-point flag in Basecamp (doesn't matter where) open the properties for it and paste in the coordinates. The way-point then moves to this new position.

Other than that I'm glad I made the transition from being an ardent Mapsource advocate to a Basecamp evangelist. This was on the second attempt as I tried in a hurry the first time. Came back again some months later when I had a free afternoon and haven't looked back. Development of Mapsource ceased at the end of 2010 I believe, Basecamp is still being developed with new features/improvements added with every update. Granted Basecamp now covers the needs of a broader userbase which were previously catered for with separate software so each update/improvement might not be relevant to bike use. Basecamp can do things that Mapsource can't such as change way-points to shaping points.

Given the time I would expand the few tutorial videos I did for an earlier version of Basecamp. Unfortunately I just don't have the hours available these days, it's a project for my retirement...

 

[iand46]

I have to tell you that they don't on all four machines here. There is a compass and zoom at the top left but no amount of clicking, hovering etc will bring up anything else. My Geek finally sorted out the updating problem and we have the latest version on two machines with and older version on the others All are the same in this respect.

And my point about the detail is that Basecamp no longer shows the tab as a default. Therefore you have first of all to know there might be such a thing and then go looking to find it. It seems to me that Basecamp demands that the user learns how it works rather than encouraging new users by making things clear.

John

This may be on Mac's only but worth checking. On toolbar Click on View > Show Navigation Controls.

 

[The Grey One]

This may be on Mac's only but worth checking. On toolbar Click on View > Show Navigation Controls.

Nothing on mine so you may be right, works on a Mac.

John

 

[paul08]

I run BC on a Mac. There is always a little window lurking near the bottom of the map. It is normally 'ghosted' but comes to life when you hover the cursor over it. It offers:
Zoom
Detail
Show: Labels, Overlays
A compass
And a scrolling tool (up, down, left or right)

I checked in the View pulldown menu and could see no option to "Show navigation controls"

btw, I am running BC version 4.2.4

 

[cookie]

it's certainly there on basecamp for mac.

little surprises me about how shit either windows or garmin are though.

i do have "hide/show navigation controls" under View.

 

[iand46]

I run BC on a Mac. There is always a little window lurking near the bottom of the map. It is normally 'ghosted' but comes to life when you hover the cursor over it. It offers:
Zoom
Detail
Show: Labels, Overlays
A compass
And a scrolling tool (up, down, left or right)

I checked in the View pulldown menu and could see no option to "Show navigation controls"

btw, I am running BC version 4.2.4

Latest Mac version is 4.3.4