colbysmith
Active member
Just thought I'd start a new thread to talk about pre-planning cruises and the use of Garmin's Mapsource or Homeport softwares.
Routinely, before, during and after a cruise, I'll use both Mapsource and Homeport on my computer to mark & update waypoints, tracks and routes. I use the Mapsource to produce & update SDHC cards to fit my Garmin GPSMAP 541, and Homeport to produce & update SDHC cards to fit my Garmin GPSMAP 840. Homeport and the 840 are newer and seem to handle much larger sized data files. Homeport also creates a larger file than the Mapsource does, however I'm not sure what additional data the one software is producing over the other. After exporting the GDB file from Homeport, it appears the Mapsource product can still load it, although given the same waypoint, route and track data, the Homeport produces a file about 3x the size of the Mapsource file...
I also mark new waypoints, tracks and routes on my Garmin devices as I use them, and later transfer that data to my computer to update my various cruise files, for use at a later time.
Colby
Routinely, before, during and after a cruise, I'll use both Mapsource and Homeport on my computer to mark & update waypoints, tracks and routes. I use the Mapsource to produce & update SDHC cards to fit my Garmin GPSMAP 541, and Homeport to produce & update SDHC cards to fit my Garmin GPSMAP 840. Homeport and the 840 are newer and seem to handle much larger sized data files. Homeport also creates a larger file than the Mapsource does, however I'm not sure what additional data the one software is producing over the other. After exporting the GDB file from Homeport, it appears the Mapsource product can still load it, although given the same waypoint, route and track data, the Homeport produces a file about 3x the size of the Mapsource file...
I also mark new waypoints, tracks and routes on my Garmin devices as I use them, and later transfer that data to my computer to update my various cruise files, for use at a later time.
Colby