Back to hillwalking and backpacking!
The new implementation of Anquet Maps for the Mac OSX operating system (implemented by Mac software house Virtual Programming) has taken a bit of stick here in the comments section of this blog. The main complaint has been that Mac users who have Anquet running under Windows are not able to transfer their existing maps to work with the new program. This highlights the reality that the new mapping solution is being sold direct by VP Mapping rather than Anquet itself.
To be strictly fair about all of this I thought it was a time for a review of the Mac product in its own right. How does it work and how does it compare to the existing competition?
Preferring Native OSX on Macs
I should make it clear at the outset that I have only recently joined the world of computer mapping, buying the Routebuddy system when it was announced. I know that a number of Mac users have been working with Anquet maps for some time, using Windows emulation programmes on intel powered Macs. I suppose the growing Apple user base in the UK means that it is now worth exploiting it. For many years the big PC programs such as Anquet and Memory Map happily announced that they had no plans to move to OSX — you could always use emulation. But emulation is not for many of us.
Like many Mac users I prefer to work in OSX rather than muck about with Windows. I do use Windows from time to time but generally find Mac OSX to be more intuitive and easier to use. My backpacking route planning utilises other programs that are only available on the Mac. In particular, most of my route planning is done with the aid of Devonthink. Devonthink is a free-form database into which you can throw anything, text, pictures, web snippets, URLS and multimedia files. Anything can be tagged with anything. But what makes Devonthink special is its use of Artifical Intelligence technology to learn how top catalogue things for you. Import a piece of data, click on classify and the program will know where to put it. This is superb technology as your database becomes bigger and bigger. And the same AI technology helps make searching results more accurate. (Devonthink is no cheap but any serious Mac user would be well advised to experiment with it).
I now have so much Scottish data in Devonthink that I really do not want to have to switch between operating systems.
In many ways Routebuddy is a superb system but it lacks some key features for hillwalkers, most notably the ability to calculate height and the cumulative, or total, height gain for any calculated route. Routebuddy also does not give you spot OS grid references which is really frustrating. While these features are due to be added to Routebuddy they are not on the immediate horizon, a reminder that hillwalking must only represent a small percentage of usage of computer mapping. More about the comparison of Routebuddy and Anquet later.
Getting Set up for Anquet Maps Mac
The Anquet program is free to download (as opposed to Routebuddy which will set you back the best part of £100). The installation process prompts you to open an Anquet account. I’m not quite sure whether this is a new Mac/Anquet account or not, not having used Anquet before. Once you have set up your account the program downloads completely and starts to download a series of demo maps.
If your completely new to digital mapping this is where you might have the first problem. These are big files and they take quite a long time to download. But there’s not much of a clue that this is happening! Open the Maps window and you be presented with a pop-up with a number of tabs on it. Explore these to find a graphic representation of download progress — similar to that which Apple uses for system downloads.
The demo maps are quite impressive. You get demos of both 1:25 and 1:50 OS maps., plus a demo of the A to Z Guide for Birmingham and a number of other maps (including some antiquarian maps which might be of interest).
Play with these for a while and you’ll quickly see how the system works. Waypoints and route planning are all pretty intuitive, especially if you use the right-click mouse button for on screen options. You’ll then need some maps!
The VP map store (note VP and not Anquet) is available from the Maps pop-up. A wide range of UK maps are available including complete coverage of the country in both 1:50 and 1:25. OS maps are available individually or in popular bundles. You can also buy the complete country in both scales. Aside from OS you will find some of Harvey’s Maps, most notably the Lake District collection. These are the traditional Harvey’s series — the new BMC 1:40 collaborations are not available at the time of writing.
I bought two maps, the 1:50 OS collections for North West and North East Scotland. The combined cost of these was £20. This compares well to Routebuddy who’s equivalent maps are about the same price — but you will have had to pay for the program download. Routebuddy ask users to think about their map purchasing as their pricing can become more competitive the more maps you buy. However, for my use their is little competition. I have the entire UK in 1:50 format on Routebuddy; the Anquet equivalent map collection would cost the same — about £100 (but remember the program cost on top).
Downloading the maps took a long time, which it always does on any system. As I mentioned earlier there is not really much indication from the main program window of a download in progress. At first I kept finding that I couldn’t reach the download window, or rather couldn’t remember where it was. The trick — I think — is to play around with the demos more thoroughly. In any case, make a real effort to remember which tab of the Map Window shows download progress. For me, the Map window is not an intuitive as it could be but then this seems to be the way Anquet has always worked on PC.
If you get lost the ‘Map Manager’ is bought up by clicking the Download button in the tool bar. You should do this whether or not you have an internet connection. If there is no internet connection you will get a ‘login error’ but then the Map Manager pop-up will appear. At the top of the pop-up is a list a buttons that include the Map Store, My Maps and the Download (progress) tab. This is all very clunky and — I hesitate to say — not what you expect these days from OSX!
I would like to see some additional download information available from the main window. Perhaps a simple status line could show up on the bottom of the main window, perhaps showing Apple’s ‘moving cog’ icon to demonstrate that something ‘is happening’ out there on the net. Apple users instinctively look for the cog these days.
Using the Maps on Your Mac
Having downloaded your maps you’re ready to go. The main window is split into three or so panes in the standard Apple style. The map is shown in the main pane on the right and on the left are various other details — such as waypoint data, file database selected and so on. If you have used Routebuddy the effect is similar although Routebuddy seems to be closer to a typical Apple software interface.
Plotting a waypoint is easy. Just move your mouse to your chosen point on the map and right click. The mouse menu will give you the option of inserting a waypoint or beginning a route.
Insert a waypoint and you will immediately see one of the benefits of Anquet over Routebuddy. The waypoint pane will immediately display the full OS co-ordinate (include the alpha characters at the beginning of the reference.).
Adding to your route is a simple process of them mouse clicking at regular intervals. The right click menu gives you the simple option of ending the route.
Routes are listed in the pane in the top left. It is worth playing around with this a bit as it’s not always clear (to me at least) what you are doing. This pane lists ‘databases’ although it creates a default called Unfiled_Database. Your route will show in this pane. Right clicking on the Databses pane allows you to do extra things. Right click on the database name and you can create a new route. Right click on an existing route and you’ll see that you are creating a subset of it — which is indicated by tabbed text. This has taken me a little while to get used to but once mastered it is quite easy to add to routes, join routes together or to create multi day routes under one route heading.
Play around with this on the demo. The program allows you do do everything you want, but it is not always that clear as to what you are doing. Routes and inserts take a bit of practice.
Once you have plotted your route you will want all of the data associated with it — and this is another area where Anquet scores over  Routebuddy.
Once the route has been completed you will find all of the route information in the pane on the bottom left of the window. This gives you everything that Routebuddy does not, including:
Start Point (OS Grid Ref)
Finish Point (OS Grid Ref)
Flat length
Max & Min height
Height ascended and height descended.
One word of warning. I keep finding a kind of bug when I plan routes without saving them first in the databases pane. Here the height information does not come up immediately and is only visible after jumping through different windows and menu options. I’ve not had this problem at all when planning a route properly using the database window. Start a route in this window and when you move to the map and right click the menu will give you the option of starting on the route that you have just named.
It is worth opening routes and folders in the database window with a bit of thought. Routes that are subsets of routes in the database pane will show you route stats (including height) for both individual days and for the total route. Select any route and the Route Profile button in the main window will being you a pop-up with the profile in it.
Printing routes is easy, via. the print button in the main window although note that the dialogue box does not give you an option of previewing or printing to PDF — again features that you take for granted on Mac OSX.
Screen Use
The maps look good on the screen and scale pretty well. You can zoom in and out, zooming up to 600%. At 600% the quality begins to suffer a bit although up to 200% everything is pretty sharp. The bigger magnifications are usable though and really useful to anyone with a visual disability.
I’ve used Anquet Maps Mac on both my desktop and laptop machines. My desktop has a large 24 inch screen and this shows off the maps brilliantly. My laptop only has a 13 inch screen, although Mac screens are superb. The program is very useable on 13 inches and at 50% zoom you get a lot of legible map area.
In Summary
Anquet Maps Mac work very well and give me everything a want for my backpacking route planning in the UK. Those moving over from PC versions will have no problems using this program. Those using Anquet for the first time might find some niggles with it and they might find it takes a while to plan with real confidence but the learning curve is not too sharp. Support though is a bit clunky also. Help and support are available from the menus as you would expect but these are not always that easy to navigate and you can find yourself back at the Anquet PC site in a rather mysterious way!
I have no hesitation for recommending this program for hillwalkers in the UK.
Anquet maps are also available on the iphone with the iphone app being downloadable from iTunes (around £20). Your downloaded maps and routes can be synched with the iphone version. And of course, you can export routes and waypoints to any GPS — although you need to just check export formats to do this successfully.
But before I go it is worth reflecting a little on the competition.
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And the Competition?
On Mac OSX we are really talking about Routebuddy. Routebuddy is not a cheap program although I guess competition might have an effect on pricing. While Routebuddy does not offer the hill walking functions of Anquet there is much about it that I prefer.
This might be a bit subjective but the maps look a little crisper to me on Routebuddy. Despite the route planning functions not having OS grid references and height data there is much in their route planning approach that I like.
Routebuddy really scores in the way it patches maps together. On Anquet when I get to the end of my NW Scotland map I have to select the NE map and then start in a separate screen (I have yet to see how this effects global route planning). On Routebuddy maps integrate more effectively. For example, I have a 1:25 map of the Fettereso Forest. On screen the program seamlessly blends the 1:50 and 1:156 data together in a really impressive way.
I shall still use Routebuddy when looking at routes around the country but for planning things like the TGO CHallenge I will automatically move to Anquet. Routebuddy may yet give us the features we need although I fear that — for hillwalkers at least — Anquet will simply become the default OSX program. It is worth allof us bearing in mind that these companies — Routebuddy and VP — are small companies and progress will be slow. Routebuddy seem to have their eyes on other markets and other uses.
There is, of course, still competition on the PC side of things.
Memory Map is a serious competitor even though it has no plans (as far as I can see) to port to Mac OSX (it has been ported to the iphone). Memory Map score because it is beginning to open up non-UK mapping — they are now producing maps for the Pyrenees (and other areas) that are of real interest to me. For some users international mapping might just enough for them to stay with a PC program run under an emulation program like Parallels which — after all — performs at full PC speed.
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If you’re using any of these programs I’d welcome further feedback.
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Yes, when I logged into my Anquet account to ask a Mac question, it closed down and told me to contact Virtual Programming. An appalling state of affairs. I’m tied to Windows by Anquet who are claiming they support Mac which they don’t. Virtual Programming support Mac and you have to pay twice to get your maps onto their platform, which isn’t Anquet.
Really not impressed with Anquet on this one.
Glad to see you’ve stopped cutting up your OS maps – that always upset me a little for some reason.
Great write up, as a PC user I genuinely had no idea that Mac users were under-represented when I came to computer mapping.
Phil — I’m still cutting up my maps
When these programs first appeared the Mac user base was probably too small to be significant but dramatic growth in recent years has probably had an effect on the market and perceptions of what it might be. For a long time Memory Map and Anquet were adamant that they were not going to produce Mac OSX versions of their software.
Routebuddy broke out and have produced a very good and professional programme — there are limitations of course and these are in the review — namely no provision of height data and no easy gathering of OS Grid references.
When just looking at a map I prefer to use Routebuddy. When working on a route I will automatically turn to Anquet.
One thing everybody should realise is how small these companies are and how much time it takes to implement changes. Routebuddy, for example, are very upfront in their forums about developments and their development path. The main problem for us is that Hillwalking appears to be a small part of the commercial market that they are targeting.
Finally, I agree with Alistair about Anquet.
Anquet had a beta testing program before product launch and I did apply to become a part of it but by then the program was full. I would have certainly been asking about the transfer of data.
Ultimately this is VP’s program and with this business model they make all of their cash by selling maps. I guess there is little incentive for them to allow people to transfer. This highlights a problem in this particular business model.
So, if you have never bought the PC version and only use Macs this program will give you something new! If you are using Anquet through Parallels or something then you have a choice, of kinds!
Andy,
It’s interesting to read this blog post and there are certainly some further items for us to comment on as soon as we can find the time to do so (this is the height of the outdoor season for us).
Just four key comments to make initially though:
- You’ve incorrectly quoted our 99.50 price as GB pounds rather than $99.50 US Dollars, which does make quite some difference (about £40 less). We are a UK company but do export maps to a worldwide market, hence the price in dollars.
- If costs are an issue then I think our more in-depth knowledge of map and software pricing would lift the lid on what ‘seems to be a good deal’. Free software or not.
- VP maps are not a map company but a games company and they are employed by games developers to port games to the Mac, or iPhone, and also make their own games, so what you are looking at is a PC port to the Mac. The difference is RouteBuddy Ltd. specialise in digital maps and geospatial software on Mac OS X, and have the support system and knowledge base to back it up.
A good look at VP’s site, Twitter page and FaceBook pages (http://www.vpltd.com/) shows where their core business interests lie. Games.
Looking at the capabilities of this ported application then 18 months was a very long time to bring it to market. Given that fact, a consumer then has to consider future support (will there be more money in games or maps at any given time?) and whether there’ll be any ongoing development. If support stops then what does a user do with all the new maps they own, which then aren’t usable anymore when an OS X upgrade comes along?
- Software doesn’t stand still. It seems to have been assumed that ‘Routebuddy seem to have their eyes on other markets and other uses / not the walking market in this country’. Not so, we are just building a better product and one that will give better use of Ordnance Survey maps, but it does take a little longer than just building a map viewer with a DEM plotter. Working with geospatial software is a complex and lengthy process, especially on the very demanding Mac OS X platform, where far bigger companies than our own UK ones have come unstuck in the past.
RouteBuddy 3.0 timeline: Late Summer/Autumn
neil
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CEO RouteBuddy Ltd.
On the VP site it says: “Users cannot currently export Anquet maps from their Windows PC to either Anquet Maps iPhone or Anquet Mac Maps”. It does say “currently” but it surely means “permanently” for the latter. I am surprised by the iPhone statement though.
The MAC screenshots do strongly suggest a straight port from the Win app, unsurprisingly. Neil is right to point out the risk of investing in maps when support may stop in the future, leaving users high and dry with unusable maps eventually, but this also applies to the Windows side with Anquet (and recent versions of Memory-Map too, which is why many have stayed with older versions).
Memory-Map have supplied foreign maps for a long time, notably the French IGN series. Many other non-UK areas are also available, though often without good (or any) elevation data.
grough routes at about £1.70 a month and all the maps to view and works a charm on my MAC. Saying that I want my own maps as I went over to a MAC this year and cant use Memory Maps now. Damn shame. I might wait to see what RouteBuddy can bring to temp me with v3.
I use PC and Mac, and Iphone (in a waterproof pouch, and spare battery pack) as a sat Nav, I started out with anquet, and had invested about £100 in maps. I got bored with waiting for the mac os and iphone apps, and started to use the Memory Map iphone app. After a few bugs, is has now settled into a usable piece of software. Straight from the iphone, you can buy 1/25000 scale, as much or as little as you need, no minimum charge, from online credits. They give you ground ranger for free, and any PC memory maps you own can transfer to the iphone. You can plan routes on the iphone, and email gpx’s back to your pc/mac.
There is a free app to try, with sample maps, and some free credit to download your favourite route to try out in 1/25000. Support is great on the forum. User interface is a bit clunky until you get used to it, and screen doesn’t scroll as smoothly since the port to the iphone 4, but still much brighter and faster to use than satmap or Garmin
I am not happy that I cant use my old anquet maps on the iphone, as you can with Memory map. Very disappointing. I think this may well stop the SW from gaining momentum, and as such I am worried about future development.
I posted on this, this week, as well but your review is so comprehensive, I’ll link into it when I do my own if that’s ok. I have not had a lot of time to get to know Anquet and I’ve not used it before. I am not going anywhere near Windows on my Mac as I have just got sick and tired of using it – Snow Leopard is simply amazing and I am a true convert. The fact that there is no 3D flyby view is a shame and, apparently, no plans to introduce it at the moment. That said, it is not the most important feature by any means but it’s useful when you’re showing the route to someone not used to reading maps to teach them about contour lines and navigation generally.
All in all, it’s still a very good product with the possibly height problems I noted with the Snowdonia mapping.
My impression is that this is a one-off port from Anquet. I was told by one of their people that the PC version is identical. When I pointed out one or two features missing then I was told that there were no plans to develop them. Equally I fear that the V3 of RouteBuddy will not have what we want as hillwalkers. Simple stuff, like being able to split routes, add new bits of route and insert waypoints are all harder to do / impossible to do on RouteBuddy at the moment) I have explained to them the whys and wherefores of this…). And, unlike Andy, I never have quite been able to be convinced by RouteBuddy – managing the accumulated waypoints and routes is not easy for me. It might be a pity that Anquet is only V1.0, and not with the Mac interface standards that we know and love, may never get to 2.0, but it does let you plan routes and manage theses in a pretty straightforward way. If you are a touring cyclist, then I’d recommend the GroundRanger series of maps for ~£30. Take forever to download though, and I cannot recommend trying to set the whole lot downloading and walking away – or even 2 or 3 – the app. crashes – regularly (and no, there is not a button to download them sequentially). Upshot: Anquet does pretty much what it says on the tin and is useable. RouteBuddy is prettier, but is in the wrong tin (‘cos is displays OS maps but does not speak to them in x,y or z).
PS: Apropos Andy’s comment about walkers (I’d include kayakers and cyclists) not being a major chunk of the market: I cannot figure out who is buying all the Routebuddy OS maps, so who their target audience is… who else uses that detail(1:50 and especially 1:25?
FWIW for overseas maps I use a SatMaP active 10, and wear out the rubber nipple…
Ian – I know what you mean about Routebuddy. Quietly there are a lot of things being hinted at for RB 3 and I’m hoping to get a sneak preview/info before launch. I hope they really do crack it this time. Otherwise Anquet for Mac may not be developed but it does what I need it to do!
I used to use the original version of Anquet on my old laptop, before the hard drive failed and took a load of personal data with it. Anyway, I found that version very easy to use and had linked walks all over Scotland together over the years. Path creation was easy, and it was simple to link paths or sections of paths together to make larger routes.
Since the loss of my PC I moved to Mac and have never looked back – the single drawback was not having mapping sofware available. So I was delighted to see that Anquet had released a Mac version.
But after having used it for a few days(trying to use it…) I found the user interface terrible. Creating a single circular route is fairly easy, but if you want to go up and down the same way, look out. And if you want to combine part of a previous walk within a new one, forget it. The system depends heavily on the database, which seems to force you to copy routes from within other folders(or sub-sub folders if you dare to split a route into ‘Legs’), which you have to copy and paste into your new folder. You have to ‘copy’ a route, paste it into your folder, then right-click to ‘reverse’ the route if you want to return via the outward route. However, this seems to create ANOTHER route on the map exactly below the first one, which can prevent you seeing a highlighted route and also the red dot on the walk profile window. I’ve tried using the right-click to create a route – they have an option called ‘Start Route with Route “Route”‘. I kid you not. But this insists on drawing straight lines between random waypoints that I don’t want. It also crashes more frequently that all my other apps put together. I’ve e-mailed VP’s support and got a very terse response, asking if I had read their tutorials(I had) and if I had the latest version(I did). The tutorials on their website are hopeless. The Help option on the software is slightly better, but again doesn’t clearly explain the route-making process. In retrospect, I might have been better to buy a copy of Windows and install it with Boot Camp and dig out my old Windows version of Anquet. But I really didn’t want any Microsoft software on my Mac. Although that is exactly what I have got now – a typically badly written piece of PC software thinly veiled as a Mac application. And having now spent my cash I can only hope that VP will improve what is the most user-unfriendly piece of software I have ever had the misfortune to come across.
Raymond – let’s see if Routebuddy 3 can get it right!
Hi. I’ve been testing anquet osx, and while the desktop experience is fine, every time i print a map the scaling is incorrect, which would lead to innacurate bearings and measurements.
Anyone else experienced this?
Must test this over the weekend!
Does anquet export routes to a gps? I can only see an option for saving a database to gpx. is this what i have to do?
thanks
just tried creating a simple route, exported the database as a gpx. opened with no problems on garmin basecamp.
Not pretty but it does work.