Garmin has updated its MapSource Windows-based mapping software.  MapSource is included with the purchase of a Garmin map on DVD or CD. Features include:

• Back up important trip data separately from your Garmin device.
• Plan routes from the convenience of your computer instead of on your device.
• Create, view, and edit waypoints, routes, and tracks.
• Plan extensive or complicated routes, in which you travel to several locations in an order you specify.
• Transfer waypoints, routes and tracks between your computer and your device.
• Transfer selected map from your computer to your device.
• Find items, addresses and points of interest included in the map data.
• View your maps in detail on your computer screen.

You can even download a MapSource tutorial at http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapsourceTutorial.html.

Changes made from version 6.16.1 to 6.16.2:

• Improved handling of invalid gpx files from devices
• Improved handling of missing components, MapSource will now display a message indicating the missing component
• Changed number of most recently used files from 4 to 10
• Fixed some untranslated strings
• Fixed an issue with saving as gpx and dxf in the Dutch localization
• Fixed a routing issue with third party map products
• Fixed several other routing issues
• Fixed an issue where MapSource would not remember the icon size setting correctly
• Fixed an issue with deleting waypoints from a route
• Fixed a map drawing issue
• Fixed display of ampersands on the map
• Fixed an issue with creating waypoints on certain features

Garmin is obviously putting a lot of effort into BaseCamp.  Only three weeks after releasing version 3.0.4, Garmin has released version 3.0.5, which includes fixes for 15 different issues and localization for 18 languages.  The added features and fixes increased the size of this download from 70 Mbytes in v3.0.4 to 125 Mbytes in v3.0.5.

BaseCamp is software to view and organize your maps, waypoints, routes, and tracks and send them to your Garmin device.  It works very similar to MapSource.  BaseCamp displays topographic map data in 2-D or 3-D on your computer screen, including elevation profiles. Then you can view and rotate the maps from any angle.

Features:

• View 24K or 100K topographic maps and other topographic data.
• Displays maps in 2-D or 3-D, including elevation profiles.
• View and rotate maps at any angle.
• Create waypoints and routes on your computer and transfer maps, waypoints, routes, tracks and geotagged photos between your computer and device.
• Transfers satellite images to your device (with the purchase of BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription).
• Shows animated playback of routes and tracks over time.
• Supports geotagged photos.
• Easily organize data into folders.
• Prints full-page, color maps.
• Exports user data for viewing in Google Earth.
• Includes advanced geocaching support; can import data from geocaching.com.

Changes made from version 3.0.3 to 3.0.4:

• Added localization for the following languages: Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish
• Added the ability to unlock BirdsEye Imagery for a specific device
• Added support to recognize European Topographic cards as retail products
• Improved map projection when printing BirdsEye Imagery
• Change to preserve subfolders when writing Garmin Custom Maps
• Change to correctly resolve relative paths in links on waypoints received from devices
• Change to use a more reasonable zoom level when selecting ‘Show on map’ for a single find result or waypoint
• Change to update the database to reflect missing images when doing a ‘Restore’ when the images were excluded from the backed up
• Change to preserve selection of device when starting BirdsEye wizard, if a device was previously selected
• Change to read maps on SD cards written to the \Map subfolder
• Fixed auto-routing issues on certain maps
• Fixed copy/paste of geotagged photos from a device not copying the photo
• Fixed possible issues when launching an external file or URL link
• Fixed issues when reading geotagged photos with invalid timestamps
• Fixed displaying postal code twice in POI property balloons in some European maps
• Fixed issues geotagging photos with Asian language paths

System Requirements

• BaseCamp requires an IBM-compatible PC running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later operating system or any Intel-based or PowerPC G4 or later Mac OS.
• Microsoft.NET framework 2.0 SP1 is required. A current version of .NET will be installed if needed.
• A video card that supports OpenGL version 1.3 or later is needed to view 3-D terrain.
• If you experience problems when interacting with the map views, please make sure that you have installed current video card drivers.

It looks like Garmin is on a four-month update schedule of its MapSource Windows-based mapping software.  MapSource is included with the purchase of a Garmin map on DVD or CD. Features include:

• Back up important trip data separately from your Garmin device.
• Plan routes from the convenience of your computer instead of on your device.
• Create, view, and edit waypoints, routes, and tracks.
• Plan extensive or complicated routes, in which you travel to several locations in an order you specify.
• Transfer waypoints, routes and tracks between your computer and your device.
• Transfer selected map from your computer to your device.
• Find items, addresses and points of interest included in the map data.
• View your maps in detail on your computer screen.

You can even download a MapSource tutorial at http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapsourceTutorial.html.

Changes made from version 6.15.11 to 6.16.1:

• Added support for 64-bit USB device drivers.
• Added generic label descriptions (less ‘unknown’ features).
• Added support for importing relevant data from TCX files.
• Added very small and very large symbol size selection.
• Added support for editing waypoint address and phone number information.
• Added New Zealand TM grid.
• Added display of the total length of all selected tracks/routes in the status bar.
• Added numeric sorting of routes, tracks and waypoints.
• Added ability to send error reports directly to Garmin after a crash.
• Improved memory issues when running MapSource under Windows 7.
• Improved map projection for many map products.
• Improved speed of ‘finalizing’ step when transferring data to SD cards.
• Changed mouse-wheel functionality to zoom in and out.
• Changed ‘seasonal closures’ avoidance option to ‘date and time closures’. MapSource will now route over roads that have time-of-day and seasonal closures if this avoidance option is not checked.
• Changed route via point symbol to small black dot.
• Fixed various categories and subcategories that affected find operations and the display of POI categories and subcategories.
• Fixed some auto-routing oddities.
• Fixed remembering ‘Find Nearest’ dialog search category.
• Fixed issues with ‘Save As’ file dialog (in some cases, existing files were overwritten without prompting).
• Fixed some issues with the Swedish grid.
• Fixed issue with address search when a city name was supplied.
• Fixed loss of mixed-case characters when transferring routes to some USB devices.
• Fixed an issue with the refreshing of the route avoidances dialog.
• Fixed an issue with finding elevation features.
• Fixed an issue where the comment field would be incorrect after creating a waypoint from a find result.
• Fixed an issue where transferring data from a mass-storage device would fail.

Only two weeks after releasing version 3.0.2 of BaseCamp, Garmin has updated the software to version 3.0.3.  BaseCamp is software to view and organize your maps, waypoints, routes, and tracks and send them to your Garmin device.  It works very similar to MapSource.  BaseCamp displays topographic map data in 2-D or 3-D on your computer screen, including elevation profiles. Then you can view and rotate the maps from any angle.

Features:

• View 24K or 100K topographic maps and other topographic data.
• Displays maps in 2-D or 3-D, including elevation profiles.
• View and rotate maps at any angle.
• Create waypoints and routes on your computer and transfer maps, waypoints, routes, tracks and geotagged photos between your computer and device.
• Transfers satellite images to your device (with the purchase of BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription).
• Shows animated playback of routes and tracks over time.
• Supports geotagged photos.
• Easily organize data into folders.
• Prints full-page, color maps.
• Exports user data for viewing in Google Earth.
• Includes advanced geocaching support; can import data from geocaching.com.

Changes made from version 3.0.2 to 3.0.3:

• Added display of which devices a BirdsEye Imagery is unlocked for.
• Added the ability to control which map feature lines are shown.
• Improved memory usage for Garmin BirdsEye Imagery and Garmin Custom Maps.
• Improved user feedback while transferring to folders and devices.
• Improved reported information when Garmin Custom Maps cannot be imported.
• Changed to allow transfer of partially downloaded BirdsEye Imagery.
• Added ability for BaseCamp to attempt reading all Garmin map images (.img files), regardless of name, from removable media.
• Fixed issue when using Find with a map that does not have a city table.

System Requirements

• BaseCamp requires an IBM-compatible PC running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later operating system or any Intel-based or PowerPC G4 or later Mac OS.
• Microsoft.NET framework 2.0 SP1 is required. A current version of .NET will be installed if needed.
• A video card that supports OpenGL version 1.3 or later is needed to view 3-D terrain.
• If you experience problems when interacting with the map views, please make sure that you have installed current video card drivers.

BaseCamp is software to view and organize your maps, waypoints, routes, and tracks and send them to your Garmin device.  It works very similar to MapSource.  BaseCamp displays topographic map data in 2-D or 3-D on your computer screen, including elevation profiles. Then you can view and rotate the maps from any angle.

Features:

• View 24K or 100K topographic maps and other topographic data.
• Displays maps in 2-D or 3-D, including elevation profiles.
• View and rotate maps at any angle.
• Create waypoints and routes on your computer and transfer maps, waypoints, routes, tracks and geotagged photos between your computer and device.
• Transfers satellite images to your device (with the purchase of BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription).
• Shows animated playback of routes and tracks over time.
• Supports geotagged photos.
• Easily organize data into folders.
• Prints full-page, color maps.
• Exports user data for viewing in Google Earth.
• Includes advanced geocaching support; can import data from geocaching.com.

Changes made from version 3.0.1 to 3.0.2:

• Eliminated error messages at startup with blank SD cards.
• Fixed several printing related issues.
• Fixed issue when hovering over the 3D view after turning off lines or areas.
• Fixed issue when importing a KML file that didn’t contain any visible ground overlays.
• Fixed issue with track and route join.
• Fixed issue with track and route insert.
• Fixed issue with geotagged photos on devices not being read.

System Requirements

• BaseCamp requires an IBM-compatible PC running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later operating system or any Intel-based or PowerPC G4 or later Mac OS.
• Microsoft.NET framework 2.0 SP1 is required. A current version of .NET will be installed if needed.
• A video card that supports OpenGL version 1.3 or later is needed to view 3-D terrain.
• If you experience problems when interacting with the map views, please make sure that you have installed current video card drivers.

Garmin updated its Communicator Plugin on April 6, 2010 to the 2.9.2.0 version, an upgrade from version 2.9.1.  The Garmin Communicator Plugin is a free internet browser plugin that sends and retrieves data from Garmin GPS devices.  The Garmin Communicator can send and retrieve data from any supported website.

The plugin works with IBM-compatible PCs running Windows® XP or Vista operating systems with Internet Explorer 6+ or Firefox 1.5+ Intel-based or PowerPC G3 or later Mac OS 10.4 or later with Firefox 2.0+ or Safari 2.0.  It is not compatible with Windows 2000 computers and will not install and/or function properly.

Changes made from version 2.9.1 to 2.9.2:

• Added support for 2GB aviation data cards.
• Made GetBinaryFile function available to non-Garmin websites.
• Switching to indeterminate progress if the calculated progress is greater than 100%.

Garmin’s Communicator Plugin page is located at http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/

• Problem Note 39149: The SAS Enterprise Guide editor’s width of caret position panel within the status bar does not accommodate for large row and column number schemes
• Problem Note 38003: Unable to edit existing parameter in SAS® Enterprise Guide®

Enterprise Guide 4.1 Hot Fix 41EG14 (66)

• Back up important trip data separately from your Garmin device.
• Plan routes from the convenience of your computer instead of on your device.
• Create, view, and edit waypoints, routes, and tracks.
• Plan extensive or complicated routes, in which you travel to several locations in an order you specify.
• Transfer waypoints, routes and tracks between your computer and your device.
• Transfer selected map from your computer to your device.
• Find items, addresses and points of interest included in the map data.
• View your maps in detail on your computer screen.

You can even download a MapSource tutorial at http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapsourceTutorial.html.

Changes made from version 6.15.7 to 6.15.11:

• Improved performance for custom draw elements.
• Made sure waypoints of type ‘Geotagged Photo’ don’t crash MapSource.
• Allowed the import and export of unlock codes.
• Made sure unlocking changes get propagated without needing to restart the application.
• Phone numbers that were imported from gpx files were not written back out again. This is now fixed.
• Added support for enhanced map security.
• Fixed unlocking issue.
• Implemented Asian 6-level address search.
• Improved trimming performance for some Asian map products.

Garmin updated its Communicator Plugin on November 10, 2009 to the 2.9.1.0 version, an upgrade from version 2.8.3.  The Garmin Communicator Plugin is a free internet browser plugin that sends and retrieves data from Garmin GPS devices.  The Garmin Communicator can send and retrieve data from any supported website.

The plugin works with IBM-compatible PCs running Windows® XP or Vista operating systems with Internet Explorer 6+ or Firefox 1.5+ Intel-based or PowerPC G3 or later Mac OS 10.4 or later with Firefox 2.0+ or Safari 2.0.  It is not compatible with Windows 2000 computers and will not install and/or function properly.

Changes made from version 2.8.3 to 2.9.1:

• Added support for aviation devices like G3X/G300 and aera.
• Added support for AOPA aviation updates.

Garmin’s Communicator Plugin page is located at http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/

Garmin updated its Communicator Plugin on October 16, 2009 to the 2.8.3.0 version, an upgrade from version 2.8.2.  The Garmin Communicator Plugin is a free internet browser plugin that sends and retrieves data from Garmin GPS devices.  The Garmin Communicator can send and retrieve data from any supported website.

The plugin works with IBM-compatible PCs running Windows® XP or Vista operating systems with Internet Explorer 6+ or Firefox 1.5+ Intel-based or PowerPC G3 or later Mac OS 10.4 or later with Firefox 2.0+ or Safari 2.0.  It is not compatible with Windows 2000 computers and will not install and/or function properly.

Changes made from version 2.8.2 to 2.8.3:

• Fixed a myDashboard-related issue.

Garmin’s Communicator Plugin page is located at http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/