Need advice on a program similar to Topofusion for MAC

[boatmana]

Title says it all.  Purchased a Mac and Im trying to find a program similar to Topofusion, any comments, suggestions, advice is greatly appreciated.

[Moyo]

If you are happy and competent with Topofusion, I've read a thread on the TF forum where some folks managed to use TF on a Mac using paralell desktop-type programs.
I've asked folks the same question you have and the answer is most often Garmin BaseCamp or even Google Earth.
I just typed out a much longer response regarding my crude and convoluted route creation/management methods, but I finally realized your question at this point is only about finding a program.
I am mostly illiterate with this sort of thing so I've already told you about all I know.
I'm sitting here hoping somebody else like Scott writes a much better response. Partly so that you don't end up more lost than when you started, but also so that I can figure out how the hell to work with this stuff.

[bmike-vt]

You can run Windows ??.X on a Mac using boot camp - it sets up a partition and you install windows and run the OS when you boot up.  If you want to run windows within OSX then you need to also buy parallels (or similar).

Topofusion runs fine in parallels for the most part - but you likely will crash if you do the 3d visualization.

For quick updates or tweaks I would run TF in parallels (same goes for autocad and other programs I have). For heavy lifting you are better off booting directly in Windows from bootcamp.

Lately I've been using a combination of ride with GPS and basecamp, which is garmins software. Works pretty well for most of my riding. If I need to use the simification, network or analysis features (or all the cool maps) in TF I'll boot up my second Mac in windows and share back and forth using DropBox.

[AnatolyG]

You might want to check out QGIS (http://www.qgis.org/en/site/) as well. It's a more power-user oriented tool, but it works great for trip planning as well. It's def. adept at slicing and dicing tracks, I'd argue more so than Basecamp. With a tiny amount of work, you can add any "slippy-map" (google, open street map, open bike map, etc) as a layer, even with topo, so you can see the track as it traverses mapped terrain. It may be overkill, but I think it has a place in the quiver.

[THE LONG RANGER]

Basecamp - oh man, the horror. I do like it because I can load up the same map that's on my eTrex, as I can on my Mac, so that's a plus. That's about it.

I used to use Bikely to do route planning, but it now refuses to save what I make, which is super annoying. I just found Strava has its own route creator, it's all Bikely wanted to be, but isn't. Follows trails just fine.

[geekonabike]

Us Linux user have the same problem. I keep a partition or old PC running windows, basically just for Topofusion.


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[geekonabike]

Take a look at Qgis  http://www.qgis.org/en/site/   It's a free open source ArcGIS like app. Much harder to use/learn than TopoFusion, but more powerful.


what don't kill you only makes you smell stronger. ; -)