Price: Free
System: Mac OS 10.4+
Current Version: 2.0.0.8 (In Beta)
Rating: Four stars
Download: http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/
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There are some great discoveries born out of necessity. This one was born out of a desire to convert a previously multi-platform GPS experience into one that is totally Mac-based.
And it all has to do with a programme called Garmin Bobcat.
Bobcat is essentially a Mac version of Garmin's popular MapSource products for Windows. Previously, in order to use MapSource to install maps, waypoints, routes and edit tracks, Mac users had to load up VPC, BootCamp, or one of the several other programmes available to run XP on OSX. Now, however, Mac users can use their PPC or Intel-based system to take much more control of their handheld, without the need for pricey software. And yes: PPC computers, meaning there isn't a need to have the latest and greatest from Apple in order to take advantage of this programme.
Bobcat, while still being in relatively early stages of development, is showing a lot of promise. While driving from Geelong to Coonabarabran earlier today, I decided to take it through its paces with my Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx.
First, I needed some maps.
As I had previously used Windows running under BootCamp on my computer at home, and I only had a PPC PowerBook G4 with me, and I had forgotten to load maps for Victoria onto my GPS, I jumped onto Shonkymaps and downloaded their full topo map set. The next step involved installing them into the GPS, which was a surprisingly painless experience. Using Garmin MapManager and then Garmin MapInstall, the process essentially took care of itself, while I happily sat back and watched my maps moving from my laptop onto my handheld. Once satisfied they were there, I loaded up Bobcat and took a peek at what it looked like with my new maps. What I saw made me smile. The interface looked very similar to its Windows cousin, and in some respects, easier to use.
The toolbar along the top of the main window is something that any Mac user will instantly relate to. There, the most common functions such as device menu, the send-and-receive buttons, the waypoints, routes, select and zoom buttons and the find tool could be easily seen and accessed. Anyone who has used MapSource before will need no introduction to what they do, and even if you haven't, it's pretty easy to figure out. Waypoints allows you to place waypoints on the map, Routes allows you to create routes using waypoints, Select allows you to select various map elements such as waypoints, POIs and geographical features, and then the Send and Receive buttons allow you to send your freshly-edited data directly to your GPS or receive tracks from it.
The main Map window also needs no introduction, however it does have several nifty Mac-like additions that help it blend into the interface. Down in the bottom-right corner of the frame is a grey HUD-like box that plays home to your Map control features. Up the top are a set of four arrows that allow you to move your way around the map, if you don't feel like using the Hand tool located in the toolbar. The first thing I noticed when I tried to use this (and the Hand tool) is that it is chunky. Really chunky, even when moving very small distances. However, I put this down to the fact that I had the Detail slider set to maximum, which meant that Bobcat had displayed every map element it could find. Once I put the slider back down to something more sensible, the slowness was still there, but not as painful as when it was set to the highest setting. Obviously, the 'chunkiness' will change depending on your system specifications, and in retrospect, the chunkiness I experienced was actually not too bad, considering I was using it on a PowerBook G4 with 768mb of RAM.
There is also another frame located on the left hand side of the main window, containing a logical library feature that allows you to organise your various personal map elements. At the start of the first frame is your Collections folder. Simply put, it contains every map element that you have added in Bobcat or on your handheld, including active and saved track logs. If you're a keen outdoors person, you'll quickly find that you're Collections folder fills up pretty quickly with various archived tracks and waypoints that you didn't want to waste. Luckily, Bobcat allows you to add more folders to this list to allow you to organise your data the way you want. It even has the option for you to add Smart Folders, although the rules you can place on these are limited compared to the Smart Folder feature found in Mac OSX's Finder. Once a new folder has been created, it is simply a matter of clicking (or shift clicking to select a list of continuous items, or apple-clicking to select scattered list items) items in the frame below to select them, and then dragging them into the folder that you just created. Bingo, organised files.
So now I had my maps loaded and was familiar with the interface, I turned on my GPS and headed off. On several occasions during the trip, I had the need to turn my GPS off while refuelling. As such, my active track log was broken into several bits, which was a dilemma I encountered when I reached Coonabarabran and loaded the data onto my laptop by clicking the Receive button. Instead of one, simple track log being displayed in Bobcat, I was confronted with three different logs. The problem was that I didn't want to compile the data from three different logs to read: I wanted one. Luckily, Bobcat allows you to join track logs together quite easily, using everyone's good friend, the Contextual Menu. The problem was solved by firstly selecting track log 1 and 2 together. Then, by right-clicking (or control-clicking for those trackpad users) on the two selected tracks, a menu appeared with the option for me to join the two tracks together. Once clicked on, another window pops up asking for the order in which the tracks should be joined. If you zoom in on the map to the point where the two tracks meet, Bobcat actually draws a little orange, dotted line between the end of the first track and the start of the second to allow you to see where your join will be created. If you find that Bobcat wants to join the start of the first track with the end of the second, there's no need to stress. Simply click the little cog button at the bottom of the Join window to swap the order of the two tracks around. Shortly, I had managed to join all my three tracks into one continuous track. Now I wanted to see what data was available about it.
To see the info on my new track, I right-clicked it in the Collections window, and selected Get Info. Up popped the Track Properties box, displaying a list of all waypoints in the track, and some extra info down the bottom of the waypoint that was currently selected. I selected all waypoints in the list by shift-clicking the first and shift-clicking the last to bring up the total data in the info bar below the waypoint list. I now had the data I was interested in, except for one thing.
I wanted a profile of the track I had driven.
Bobcat provides for this as well. Simply select all the waypoints you want data on and then click the little brown and green button on the right of the button bar at the bottom of the Track Properties window. And there is the plot. Of course, you can get data such as distance between points, total vertical distance and various other bits of information by clicking anywhere in the top-most graph to place the first and second 'data points' to get the data from.
Bobcat had done everything I had wanted, and all without the need for Windows. Despite still being relatively new, the programme worked as I had hoped, and provided me with the opportunity to edit maps easily without using my GPS or XP. There are a few performance issues, but as with any programme, this depends entirely on what your computer's specifications are. Also, I'm wondering if it is possible to display downloaded POIs on the Map window, and to get them to display in the Collections folder. It would be useful if this was possible. But there were no glaring bugs, which is a positive sign.
A trend that I have noticed in Garmin products recently is how no one product contains every feature you need, or expect to be there. Sadly, Bobcat is no different. Why Garmin has created three programmes to manage maps seems somewhat odd. It would be nice to see Bobcat have the power to manage, install and modify maps within itself, instead of having to rely on MapInstall and MapManager. Further, it would be good to have a few more options in regard to data plotting, for example, the ability to plot speed and air pressure, features that can be found in Garmin's training software.
All up, Bobcat is a programme that is showing a lot of potential, and is recommended for any Mac user who wants to streamline their GPS usage.
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Pros:
- Works on a Mac
Good interface
Ability to organise data
Does a good job of doing expected tasks
Didn't crash (for me)
- Lacks several more impressive features, such as greater plotting options
Requires maps to be installed using two other programmes
Lacks the ability for live tracking (we're still waiting on nRoute for Mac)
CaleD
