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Walks in The Lake District |
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Walks in The Lake District |
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
In the third of four articles, Graham Hughes of Anquet Maps gives a brief overview of how Anquet Maps can be used whilst out walking.
For a quick overview of the Anquet Maps system, please view the video introduction on the home page of our website at www.anquet.com.
Anquet Maps on your PC at home is the perfect tool to allow you to plan your desired route, or research routes that you have downloaded from the internet. However, Anquet's involvement with your walking goes beyond just the planning stage, as Anquet can also help you with your navigation whether you do that by the trusty compass, a GPS unit, or by using Pocket Anquet.
Having planned your route in Anquet, you can now print the map with the route plotted on it along with a route card. You can either print exactly to scale, or if you would prefer for ease of reading you can enlarge the map. The procedure we are now seeing being adopted by a lot of our users is to print a map so that the route fully fills the page and then print a second map on either a different scale of mapping, or at a reduced zoom level and then these two maps are put back to back inside a waterproof map case. The first map is used for navigation and is easy to read only covering the area you are walking, whilst the second map can be used if a change of plan should be needed, or simply to identify the scenery you are walking through as it covers a much larger area of mapping.
We advise users of digital devices to also print these maps for safety reasons.
A GPS can be used in a number of ways with Anquet. In a very basic form, you can just read off a grid reference from the device, and then refer to a paper map you have printed from Anquet.
However, most users having plotted their route in Anquet, simply connect their GPS to their PC, and download the route's waypoints to their GPS unit. They can then ask the GPS to 'navigate' the route for them. The GPS unit will then tell them how far to the next waypoint and in which direction to walk.
On returning from a walk with a GPS unit you can simply connect your GPS unit to Anquet, and upload to Anquet the track of where you have walked. You can now view on the map exactly where you have been and save this for later reference.
Pocket Anquet brings the best of both worlds to one device. Not only do you get the functionality of a GPS unit, but you also get to view your position on the mapping that you planned the route on.
Pocket Anquet is the perfect companion to the PC application. You can plan a route on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale mapping on your PC and then simply transfer the route and the mapping to your Pocket PC or Microsoft enabled Smartphone.
The Anquet Virtual GPS which is part of Pocket Anquet gives you all of the necessary features of a traditional GPS unit but with the addition of being able to view your position on the same mapping that you planned your route on.
Pocket Anquet will show you exactly where you are on the map and the route that you are following. The Anquet Virtual GPS not only gives you your position and a compass, but also tell you in which direction the next waypoint is, and how far away it is making navigation very reliable and easy.
Pocket Anquet will also create a tracklog of where you have been as you walk which you can either review on Pocket Anquet, or simply upload to your PC to view it on the larger screen.
As Pocket Anquet is a cut-down version of the full Anquet PC software, the interface and usage is very easy for Anquet users, as menu options and commands all remain the same making sure that everything is to hand just as you would expect.
Anquet is free to try. You can download the software and sample maps from www.anquet.com with no obligation.
The majority of our maps are now purchased by download (prices start from £10), but we still produce CD products for those who would prefer the physical item.
Our sales team are available 9am-5pm Mon-Fri on 0800 033 7030 or sales@anquet.com.
Graham Hughes, Managing Director, Anquet Technology, July 2009.
