MapFactor Forum

Last three weeks i used PC Navigator free on a holyday trip through Germany, Poland, The Baltics, Finnland ans Sweden. I was very happy to have PC navigator on my tablet and the whole thing was really amazing and a great help, and i really acknowledge the work of the mapfactor people and the osm community. So please take all the following as suggestions for the further developement, not as critisizing...

No this is what i noted during the voyage...

DETAILS:
My major wish ist to be able to see many more details on the particular zoom levels. If i travel on a minor road, i only can see the road in a zoom level that shows the next few meters, but never gives any overview where the road is leading to. If y use a zoom level giving me some overview, i don't see any smaller roads. Highway exits always end in the nowhere when selecting a zoom level showing only the next kilometer. The screen is almost empty except on very detailed levels. All this might be useful for the small screens of navigation systems, but on a tablet/notebook screen i would prefer to see much more details. So why not add an option into the settings to select an overall detail level, or, maybe much better, why not adding two buttons like the zoom buttons onto the screen which anable you to change the detail level whenever you like, just like the zoom level? For me, this one simple feature would extremely increase the pc navigator usability.

FONTS
Also, i would like to select much bigger fonts at the Name Tags for cities and street names. I used the map-setting for ega-solution, but still it's like a 5-point-font and i can merely read it from the drivers seat.

STRUCTURE OF MAP VIEWS
When you navigate and select the second map view style, the non-3D-detailed one, the map section does not move while driving – so your position moves out of the map very soon. Therefore I could not find any use of this view style.

When you don't navigate and select the third map view style (the one where the map keeps your psoition centered and always turns so your direction is on top), it would be nicer to find your own position not in the maps center, but at the bottom, just like when navigating. Even when you select the second style, the one which keeps north on top an you in the center, it could be a nice alternative to have yourself positioned not in the center, but with your back to the map window border, e.g., when your are driving southbound, on the top, when you're heading southwest, on the top right and so on... Or would it be too irritating when using curvy roads?

From the map view, i can always activate the navigation by clicking the button with the little car on it. I would appreciate to keep this button in the navigation view as a stop button to return to the non navigating map view.

For me, the autozoom did not do anything usable. I don't know why, but to make it usable, i would like to be able in the settings to define the speed/zoom-level-Relation (and, as mentioned above, to define a correlation between zoom-level and detail-level.

But there might be a chance to chenge the basic structure of map display styles. For me, three map styles would be enough: 3D-View with your actual position at the bottom, Top-Down-View with your actual position at the bottom and your heading direction on top, and Top-Down-View with North on top. In any of this view styles you should be able to switch on/of the display of the routing-line, and in any of this views you should be able to switch throug the zoom levels (and, as mentioned above, through the detail levels). In addition, when routing on display, you should be able to select auto-zoom. For me, this would be a very handy structure.

WAYPOINT LIST
When clicking „Route“ and „Waypoints“ i see the waypoint list. I would have liked to find a „add“ button on that screen, so i can add waypoints from there. Also, i would have liked to be able to define the order of the waypoints manually instead of the automated effect of the „optimize“-button. Finally, i would have liked to be able to change start and goal into waypoints and vice versa when being in this list.

PANES
On my tablet screen, as there is so much unused area, i would also appreciate to be able to select more then three panes. Me for example, i like to keep the speed, the actual time, the time of arrival, the remaining distance and the height above sealevel in view all the time...

ROUNDABOUTS
It might be rather a problem of the osm-maps than of the navigator software, but the symbol for roundabouts, indicating in which direction you have to leave it, is always showing pure phantasie. It never meets the reality. Sometimes it says „Take first Exit“ and shows a three quarters turn, sometimes it shows somewhere like 2 'o clock when you have to make a three quarters turn, and once it even showed an 360 Degree-Turn which in Reality was just straight on, second exit. The Exit number ist nevertheless correct in 95%. So maybe you should just abolish the attmpt to create an roundabout icon showing the real situation and reduce it to a standard roundabout symbol with the exit number in the middle.

WAYPOINT DEFINITION
When defining a route for navigation, i often use smaller villages as waypoints in order to force the use of a diffent route then the one navigator proposed. It was a bit inconveniant to be forced to select a special road or the „town center“, cause then the navigation was not content until i definitly passed exactly that very point. For me, a selection „passing“ would have been helpful, meaning that  the navigator just sends me through the village, but already routing optimized for the next waypoint.
 
PROGRAM WINDOW
I would love to have the Choice to run Navigator in a normal Window with its standard features

FINISH PROGRAM
clicking the „Finish“ (Schließen in German) – Button ends the program, but it does not disapear from the screen until you cklick somwhere into it. A bug?