I have used DeLorme Street Atlas and Topo software for 10 years. Now that Garmin bought DeLorme--these products are not available. Has anyone found another software program runs on laptop for trip planning and GPS tracking while driving?

I'm still using Street Atlas. I've never seen much change in the maps in all the years I've been using it, although I know there must be some. I figure to just keep using it. Eventually I'll have to find something else, but nothing out there works as well for me.

TimandSusan,I too have used Street Atlas for many years (since 2004 and I have all of the upgrade disks to 2015). I think it is the best product available. I plan an RV trip on my portable PC in the comfort of home and then place the PC on the holder in the RV, plug in the GPS & Speaker connections (I use iTunes on the PC to play music), plug in the power and I'm ready to go. Since there is no longer an update to Street Atlas, I purchased a Garmin for the RV and loaded BaseCamp (their 'trip planning' software) on my PC. BaseCamp (in my opinion) is difficult to use and is rudimentary compared to Street Atlas. S0 I sent an email to Garmin regarding their combining with Street Atlas and the reply for their technical staff was disappointing - to say the least. In a nutshell, their advice is to abandon Street Atlas and learn the Garmin way. They did indicate that if I wish to continue to use Street Atlas for planning, I could export the plan file as a ".gpx" file and then import that file to BaseCamp to complete the planning and transfer to the Garmin GPS unit. What a MESS!! The Garmin RV GPS will not connect to the PC for display - which means my map is now 5 inches instead of 17 inches!! 5 inches is OK in for a driver in a car with the unit close, but in my RV, the display is quite a distance away!!The Garmin unit is not cheap! and I'm not sure of a good way forward to be able to plan at home and then easily move the plan to the rig for the actual trip. Right now, I am planning to keep on using Street Atlas as in the past and hope that there may be sufficient negative feedback to Garmin that they will integrate Street Atlas capabilities with Garmin GPS and be able to present the trip progress on a portable PC. They have all of the software and it is a matter of getting them to 'talk' to one another. (Garmin maps are updated more frequently and in that regard are somewhat better than the Street Atlas. I use a Garmin unit in my car/SUV)

Use CoPilot on a iPad mounted on the drivers side window. Less then $15 and can also be used on your Smart phone on the same license. http://tinyurl.com/hw5c9cg

I use Street Atlas for trip planning, then map out the same route in BaseCamp for subsequent transfer to my GPS. BaseCamp sucks for actual planning. Too many roads disappear when you zoom out. Don't expect Street Atlas to reappear. Useful software is being dropped so you will be forced to "apps" instead. Don't like it? I sure don't since I like the large screen to work with. Well, that and the fact I don't have a smart phone. :)

I'm another one that is completely disappointed with the Garmin/Delorme thing. I had been doing the *.gpx to get the plan to the drivers GPS, but that does suck. Basecamp sucks for a planning app even on a big screen. With Delorme SA, I could lay out a plan months ahead and include the End of Day, fuel stops and include the expected time for attractions along the planned route. There is nothing I have found to replace SA. What I do now is plan on SA. Sometimes I do the *.gpx to pass to the Drivers little GPS (the person sitting in the right seat gets to be navigator) and has the laptop and the smartphone watching for traffic as the Garmin traffic receiver proved worthless even before it died and stopped the GPS from working. (The traffic receiver got disconnected and now the GPS works as well as it ever did.It would be so simple for either Garmin or Google to make up a package to do what we would like, but I guess the market for a real traveler's navigation and planning package just does not have any appeal to marketing. I really wish Google would grab this ball. Their maps are more up to date and the traffic note on my phone seem to be pretty good. I can't even imagine the other features that they could incorporate.Matt

Trip Planning and GPS Software | Good Sam Community

J_herb
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
Fizz wrote:
J herb wrote:

I can setup a trip and that works fine than when I go to hookup my antenna to the USB and want to start the trip windows won't find the antenna ( configure GPS )( not detected )it works fine on windows 8.1
I have reinstalled S&T and it didn't help, did you do something special to get yours to work ? I understand that others have had the same problem, they say MS didn't put drivers in windows 10 for S&T antenna.

Sorry about the confusion.
I never ran it with the GPS.
I only plan out my route then upload to Garmin

Fizz, thanks for getting back to me! and yes everything works fine until I go to using the GPS. Im going to have a tech reinstall windows 7 so I can use S&T with the GPS antenna. It's good to know that I could upload it to a Garmin GPS.
fj12ryder
Explorer III
Jan 14, 2017
^^^^^^BaseCamp will do that. I just now input about 20 campgrounds and created a route in the proper order and it took about 10 seconds to create a route to all of the campgrounds. Not a big deal. Find the campgrounds, input them in the order you want, then have Basecamp create the route. There are several ways to configure the routing so you will hopefully end up on the type of roads you want. :)

I usually create routes for several days at a time, that way I leave room for adjustments and changes.
Hdmod
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
Looking for a trip planner/optimizer that I can load 30-40 Rv campgrounds in and it maps out the route. I have not found anything that works off the net.

I used Mappoint in my business and that worked really well........but not out on the road and it is unsupported and I am a google fan now.........
Fizz
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
J herb wrote:

I can setup a trip and that works fine than when I go to hookup my antenna to the USB and want to start the trip windows won't find the antenna ( configure GPS )( not detected )it works fine on windows 8.1
I have reinstalled S&T and it didn't help, did you do something special to get yours to work ? I understand that others have had the same problem, they say MS didn't put drivers in windows 10 for S&T antenna.

Sorry about the confusion.
I never ran it with the GPS.
I only plan out my route then upload to Garmin
J_herb
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
Fizz wrote:
J herb wrote:
I really like my Streets & Trips 2013 and since Microsoft is not going to fix windows 10 so I can run S&T I'm going to go back to windows 7 on my netbook that I use for trips.

I have no problem running S&T 2013 on my desktop or laptop, both are Win 10.

I can setup a trip and that works fine than when I go to hookup my antenna to the USB and want to start the trip windows won't find the antenna ( configure GPS )( not detected )it works fine on windows 8.1
I have reinstalled S&T and it didn't help, did you do something special to get yours to work ? I understand that others have had the same problem, they say MS didn't put drivers in windows 10 for S&T antenna.
Fizz
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
J herb wrote:
I really like my Streets & Trips 2013 and since Microsoft is not going to fix windows 10 so I can run S&T I'm going to go back to windows 7 on my netbook that I use for trips.

I have no problem running S&T 2013 on my desktop or laptop, both are Win 10.
J_herb
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
I really like my Streets & Trips 2013 and since Microsoft is not going to fix windows 10 so I can run S&T I'm going to go back to windows 7 on my netbook that I use for trips.
timandsusan
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
Thanks for the info. I agree with each of you. I plan to use SA until something else appears. Since there are road changes, I use my vehicle based GPS and a Garmin my wife has for some assistance. But for planning it is SA and I like by large screen for seeing the maps while traveling. Let's keep watching for something new.
fj12ryder
Explorer III
Jan 14, 2017
I used Mapsource before Garmin updated it and replaced it with BaseCamp. You can do the GPS tracks with BaseCamp if you wish. Not a big deal. Can easily be downloaded from the GPS device.

Personally I can't see a lot of difference between the two, except BaseCamp has more route configurations.
ORbiker
Explorer
Jan 14, 2017
fj12ryder wrote:
Mapsource is still available, but the new name is BaseCamp. Same program, just updated and renamed.

Mapsource is so much more then BaseCamp ever will be. Basecamp is horrible.

Garmin had a good thing for years, but focused on their security of the programs too much. I've had GPS's from Garmin since they first came out. I was in Lane County SAR here in Oregon for 10 years. Maps are great, but when you jump out into the thick woods of western Oregon it sure is nice to have plotted where the truck is, so that you can safely bring out the lost party and your team.

Here is a screenshot of the laptop after a weeks riding the motorcycle in Eastern Oregon. The GPS tracks what I did and saves it.