Thread: Mapping software recommendations

It’s just gotta be OziExplorer doesn’t it?

I’ve used it for a good number of years now with just a laptop and a handheld Garmin12. Whilst it may not be for the computer challenged amongst us, it’s really not that hard to drive if you spend the time getting to know how it works.

I have been known to scan the street directory out of the Perth UBD….. calibrate the image with data from Google earth and navigate my way around suburbia with confidence.

Went on a fishing trip to Crayfish Bay late last year (just south of Steep Point WA) and prior to going, I made a whole series JPG images taken directly off Google Earth. These images were mainly around the 1200 metre elevation, so each image covered around 1km in any given direction. I then calibrated each image with the data from Google Earth and used them in OziExplorer to navigate my way around the place using the moving map feature.

Unbelievably accurate all the way from well south of False Entrance to well past Thunder Bay in the north and at no time was I any more off track than by the width of the track itself. It gave me a top down view and enabled me to navigate the sand dune area between Crayfish and False Entrance which cut well over an hour off the normal trip.

The top down photographic/satellite view saved us heaps of times from going down the wrong tracks and potentially around in circles in an area I hadn’t been before and the track feature ensured we mad it back to camp every time. Also took the trip up to Steep Point using a larger map image which showed all the tracks and gave a very good indication of where we were at any given time and roughly how far we needed to go.

It also just seamlessly moves from map to map as you leave one map area and aproach the next.

Go on…… get yourself a copy and have play. You’ll never look back.

As someone else said… It’s Aussie made and in my opinion, it’s nothing short of brilliant and it's cheap. I’m now in the market for a TFT touch screen so my passenger doesn’t need to carry the laptop for me.

Regards
M.
(PS. I have nothing to do with OziExplorer other than having been fortunate to discover their fine product)