[aprssig] ATTN UIview/UIpoint and APRSpoint Users: Cheap 2006 Update for MapPoint North America

[Stephen H. Smith]

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 is now out.    Along with the usual 
Microsoft feature upcreap (it now has talking turn-by-turn navigation 
prompts), it has an updated road data base.  I verified that several 
major roads and a freeway extension that didn't show in the Denver, CO 
area (caused me considerable confusion when I was in the area last week) 
in the 2005 version are there in the 2006 version.

UIview users using the UIpoint add-on with MapPoint, or APRSpoint users 
(APRSpoint uses MapPoint directly as it's display system) can use 
Streets as an inexpensive update to the road data in the now nearly 
three-year-old data set in MapPoint 2004.


I posted several months ago about using Streets 2005 as an update for 
MapPoint. (The original post is re-quoted below).  I have just tested 
and verified that Streets 2006 WILL update MapPoint North America 
exactly the same way that Streets 2005 did.   

I have not yet been able to get a copy of Automap 2006 (Automap is 
essentially the European version of Streets & Trips) to verify that it 
can update the Euro version of MapPoint 2002/2004.   Automap 2005 DID 
work to update MapPoint Europe 2002/2004.


======= PASTE=======

*****   Cheap Way To Update MapPoint 2004 With Newer Road Data     ******


If you are using Microsoft MapPoint with either UIview/UIpoint  or with 
APRSpoint, this can update your MapPoint database very inexpensively.

I  found out about this on a MapPoint developers' message board.  All 
statements below about Streets & Trips apply to AutoRoute as well.   [ 
AutoRoute is the European version of the product called Streets & Trips 
in North America. ]

Microsoft Streets & Trips  is the feature-limited consumer-oriented 
"lite"  version of MS MapPoint.   However both programs use the same raw 
data files for drawing their respective maps.

A new version of the consumer Streets & Trips is issued every year, but 
MapPoint is only updated every other year on the even years (2002, 2004, 
2006...).   

To update MapPoint 2004 with 2005 road data, purchase a copy of Streets 
& Trips 2005. At the present time, this is available at Wal-Mart in the 
U.S. for USD $30 (other places are selling it for $40 with one of those 
nuiscence $10 mail-in rebates).   Do the full install that places all 
the data on the hard disk, rather than running from the CD.     Under 
the main Streets program directory, locate the sub-directory \DATA .   
Select and copy all the files in this directory to the corresponding 
\DATA directory under the main directory for MapPoint 2004.   14 files, 
totalling about 1GB, will be overwritten with like-named files.    [You 
may want to make a backup copy of the \DATA directory before overwriting 
it. Call it something like "DATA.2004" .]

You can then uninstall Streets & Trips to recover the approximately  1 
GB of disk space used by it.  Or you may wish to leave it installed 
since it's built-in GPS handler for stand-alone (non-APRS) real-time 
moving map displays  is so vastly superior to the GPS driver in MapPoint.





Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
EchoLink Node:      14400    [Think bottom of the 2M band]
Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.com

"APRS 101"  Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating
  http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/DigiPaths

Updated APRS Symbol Chart
  http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/miscinfo/APRS_Symbol_Chart.pdf  

New/Updated "Rev G" APRS     http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/aprs
Symbols Set for UI-View,
UIpoint and APRSplus:


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