Software Review

National Geographic Topo!

1. route profiling extremely useful
2. 3D rendering fun to play with
3. low (printing) resolution
4. overall: highly recommended

Mapping software has come a long way from its early days, with National Geographic's Topo! series now well-established as the king of the hill.

Topo! has a sophisticated set of route-profiling features, and the package has recently been upgraded to include 3D rendering tools.

Topo maps, of course, are invaluable to the backcountry traveler. They're also bulky and short-lived. Previous to software-based mapping, if you want the complete set of California USGS Quads, you'll need to buy and store over 2,800 paper maps. Good luck!

The obvious solution is to switch to scanned maps on CD or DVD, ala Topo! Aside from the considerable convenience of being able to instantly access any quad at your desktop, Topo! allows you to draw routes directly onto the maps, and then display complete route profiles: elevation, distance, slope angle & aspect.

Want to see just how miserable that slog up Williamson's east side was? Retrace your route in Topo!, read the results, and weep.

Concerned about that approach to the Kaweahs? Draw your planned path in Topo! and pack extra trail mix.

Using the Pencil tool, Topo! lets you draw a route anywhere, on any map.

Topo also interfaces with GPS devices, allowing you to upload or download waypoints between the two—a very handy feature, if you're a GPS user.

Just create waypoints on your GPS as you're hiking. When you get home, interface with Topo!, and the software will show you your exact route, point by point—pretty nifty, no?

You can edit the route if needed. Once you've created a route—say, from the Brewer Creek Trailhead to the top of Mount Shasta—Topo! will build a profile of it.

Topo! then displays a bevy of useful information about the route you've created, including a scaled cross-section profile. In this case, we can see that it's 4.73 miles from the trailhead to the summit, with a formidable elevation gain of 6710'

Topo! also lets us "zoom" in on certain sections of the route. Here we see we've selected the top 1000', visible between the two red bars. According to Topo!, the average grade of this section is 71% (unfortunately, you must convert this to degrees on your own with a calculator and a little math).

The ability to instantly generate routes and display total mileage, vertical, and grade has become an essential tool for my route planning. I use these features almost daily, and I can't stress enough how useful they are if you're planning a hike.

Such route-creation and profiling features are easily the most compelling reason to get this software. The flashiest feature, however, is obviously Topo!'s ability to generate three dimensional views from USGS quads.

Topo's ability to turn flat, lifeless USGS Quads into vivid 3D-renderings is simply stunning. No longer will the map-challenged among us struggle to visualize topography from all those tiny, wavy lines.

While the rendering is top-notch, however, the navigation tools are not. If you've spent any time with today's top 3D games, you'll quickly realize that National Geographic's 3D rendering engine is old technology.

Simple tasks like zooming, panning, and moving the camera are annoyingly tedious. You can't drag the map in 3D to see bordering terrain, nor can you create your routes by drawing on the 3D view (which would be particularly useful). Finally, the 3D engine is processor-intensive, despite options to shrink the view. You'll want a powerful computer & video card if you spend much time using this feature.

In general, Topo!'s interface is awkward. Topo! requires extra clicks to do simple tasks (again, especially where navigation is concerned). You can't simply grab a map and drag it, you have to switch to a centering tool.

I should probably put these interface/usability issues in perspective, though. Compared to the first generation of topo software (such as DeLorme's Topo USA), National Geographic Topo! remains a big improvement.

Not so easily dismissed is the disappointing scan resolution of the map pages. My best guess is that National Geographic scanned the original USGS quads at around 75-125 dots per inch to save disk space. That's fine for on-screen viewing (provided you don't zoom past 100%).

For printing, however, I find this resolution barely adaquate. 300 dpi would be the minimum I'd want for printing, preferably 600. As expected with such a low resolution, printing Topo! maps produces visibly fuzzy pages. I guess we'll have to keep using those paper USGS Quads after all.

That doesn't diminish Topo's powerful route-profiling abilities, nor its impressive 3D renderings. But it does open the door for a competitor to sneak in with a better product—someday. Until then, if you want the convenience of having an entire state's worth of USGS 1:24000 Quads on your computer, National Geographic Topo! is your best bet.

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