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DeLorme Topo USA Version 3.0

by Joe Clark, LACS

Topo USA is a topographical map program that shows 3-dimensional views of an area. Installation is almost automatic. The program does ask what directory, file name, and drive you want to install it in.  If you like the recommendations, click yes and sit back. If you need the program installed in a special drive or folder, make sure you copy all path names before you click browse. You will have to fill the information back in. To install information on a Palm you need to install a "Handheld Tab". Just answer yes when the installer asks if you have a Palm. The package comes with a small instruction booklet, an installation disk, and six regional disks. Most of the instructions are on tutorials. Tutorials are run from inside the help tab.           

What does Topo do? Locate any place in the USA by place name, geographic feature, or latitude/longitude. Calculate routes using point-to-point, door to door, or trail routing. Profile map routes for linear distance, elevation, and grade. View 2-D and 3-D terrain at 20-foot contour intervals. Customize and print your routes/trails with stock symbols or your own customized symbols. Print 3 pages by 3 pages for mural prints, or a cross-sectional profile of your route. Download maps or routes to your Palm. Use GPS with either a Palm or your laptop (of course you need a GPS receiver, not included). And you can copy data from the CDs to your hard drive, so that you do not have to carry extra disks when on a trip.           

Topo USA follows the same directions as Delorme's other map programs. Some of the tabs are in a different location, but otherwise the controls are the same. To get started, you place a regional disk in the CD drive and start the program from the start menu. To plan a route, use the mouse to cover the start point and right click on it. A pop up menu appears. Click on route, then start. Move the mouse pointer to the end point and right click again. This time, click on route, then end. In the menu bar, click on the Navigate tab and click on road as the type of map you want. You can add waypoints or special stops while you are adding the start and stop points, or afterwards. In Navigate you could have made the map point-to-point or trail.           

To print the map, click on the print tab. You have several choices: travel package, overview map, or city map. The travel package is an ink hog. A two hundred-mile trip took fifteen pages. The directions, printed on the map, list the streets or roads that you will be using and the time and distance. The maps also show contours and type of land use. If you are like me, open the program and start using it. A better way would be to read the tutorials and find out what the program does, before you spend your day discovering everything on your own. There is helpful information in these tutorials that will make it easier to use, and will help you use parts of the program you might have overlooked.           

To run this map program at its fastest I had to turn off all the programs running in the background. One was Norton Anti-Virus. To map a point-to-point route of several hundred miles, I would use one of DeLorme's other map programs. But for scenic areas or trail travels use this one. Just remember that you will be using a lot of paper and ink. If I had to use only one program, would I use Topo USA? Yes, I do a lot of mountain driving, and this program would benefit me. Would I rather have two programs? Again, you bet.