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AUTOMAP
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1994-09-08
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6KB
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Automap
by Hugh W. (Chip) Cox
To use the words of my neighbor who is the sales representative
for a large corporation handling the southeast corner of the United
States, "WOW!" Automap is a software package that helps plan how to
get from here to there in the most efficient way. On the basis of a
starting city, ending city, and any cities or location you want to
visit in between, Automap calculates the fastest, shortest,
preferred or alternate route which meets your criteria.
If all that seems like a lot from a program, it is. Having never
seen Automap before, it only took about ten minutes to plan my
neighbor's next sales trip once the program was installed. Automap
came up with a way that he had not thought about going before, and
it would save him about 30 dollars in gas costs. Automap not only
plans one stop trips, but it also allows you to indicate what cities
or locations via which you would like to travel. There is a limit
of 4 locations that can be entered as "VIA" locations for stopovers
between one location and another. If you are planning a trip and
want to stop several places, the best way to set it up will probably
be as several small trips between the locations of interest. For
example the picture below shows the route Automap came up with for a
round trip from Memphis TN, and back via Clinton MS, and Panama City
Beach FL. The gray lines are other routes Automap determined will
get me where I want to go. They are not as good a choice though
based on my preferences. ò Sections of highway can also be marked
as "avoid" if you don't want to go that way for some reason. For
instance, by telling Automap to avoid highway 78 in Mississippi I
get the following map.ò Installation from a CD-ROM was quick and
easy. The documentation handles both floppy and CD-ROM
installation. The entire installation to a hard drive only takes
approximately 5.5 megabytes. This ensures that it will easily fit
on any laptop. I tested Automap on a 386-33 under Windows 3.1 with
a CD-ROM drive, 16 megabytes of Ram and a 500MB hard drive. I found
the response to be fast and crisp even when drawing the entire
United States' road system. The minimum requirements for the CD-ROM
version of Automap are Windows 3.1, CD-ROM drive, 4MB Ram, and 2MB
hard disk space. These values assume a partial installation of the
software in which the databases remain on the CD-ROM drive. A full
installation requires 4MB ram and 5 1/2MB of free disk space. While
this version of the software did not provide city street detail it
was able to find all of the small towns we were looking for. Detail
maps of several cities can be purchased. Automap has several
overlays available to show rivers, lakes, and other geographical
formations. Places of interest are also identified. A nice feature
not currently included in Automap would be a tie in with city
information. This information would indicate which hotels,
restaurants, gas stations etc. are located in each city.
Another feature I would like to see is the ability to set dates and
times for the directions. For example, the following trip from
Memphis and back via Nashville TN would generate the following set
of directions.
TimeDist Instruction Road For DirTowards
12:00AM0.0DEPART Home location (Memphis) on theLocal road1/2
miles12:00AM0.4Take theI2401 mileN 12:01AM1.2Take theI2402 milesN
12:03AM3.0Turn off ontoU792 milesE 12:06AM4.9Go ontoI40193 milesE
2:41AM197.4Turn off ontoU7012 milesE (Opryland)2:52AM209.3Turn left
ontoU311/2 milesN Nashville2:52AM209.8ARRIVE Nashville
(TN)2:52AM209. 8DEPART Nashville (TN) on theU311/2 milesN (Berry
Hill)2:53AM210.2Turn right ontoU7012 milesS 3:04AM222.1Bear left
ontoI40193 milesW Jackson5:39AM414.6Go ontoU792 milesW
5:42AM416.5Turn left ontoI2402 milesS (Memphis
Airport)5:44AM418.3Take theI2401 mileS 5:44AM419.1Take theLocal
road1/2 miles5:45AM419.5ARRIVE Home location (Memphis)
This appears to assume that I am going to start out at 12:00 AM and
not spend any time in Nashville. Having the ability to modify the
times listed to indicate a lunch break, meeting or rest stop would
allow this listing to be used as an itinerary for my secretary.
In closing, Automap is well worth the expected street price of
$49.95 for anyone who travels extensively or wants to take a
vacation in the family car. I found Automap to be stable, easy and
intuitive to use. By the way, my neighbor made it back alive.
Automap Inc.
1309 114th Ave SE
Bellevue, WA 98004-6999
(206) 455-3552
Estimated Street Price $49.95
┌───────────────────────────┐ ┌─┐ . (c) 1989-1993
│ USR HST/DS (216) 381-3320 │ ┌┘ └┐ │ PC-Ohio, Inc
├───────────────────────────┤ ┌┘ └┐ ║|║
│ HAYES V.FC (216) 691-3030 │ ┌┘ └┐ ┌┼·┼┐
└───────────────────────────┘┌┘..:::..└┐ ┌──────┐ │■■■│
┌───┐ ▓▓▓▓│:::.:::::│▓▓┌─┘::::::└─┐ ┌┘...└┐
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▓▓█▀▀▀▓▓█▀▀ ▀▀
▓▓█ ▓▓█ ▓▓▄ Sysop: Norm Henke
▀▀ ▓▓█ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▄ ▓▓▄ Asst. Sysop: Doc White
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█▀▀▀▓▓█ ▓▓█ ▓▓▄ Asst. Sysop: Joyce Henke
▀▀▀▀▀▓▓█▀▀ ▓▓█ ▓▓█ ▀▀ Post Office Box 21411
▓▓█ ▓▓█ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▄ ▓▓▄ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▄ Cleveland, Ohio 44121
▓▓█ ▓▓█ ▓▓█▀▀▓▓█ ▓▓█ ▓▓█▀▀▓▓█ The Best BBS in America!
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