PathAway GPS 4 - Standard Edition
What's New

Revision Notes on Latest Updates

The latest update to PathAway GPS 4 - Standard Edition is . For information on these incremental updates see the Release Notes. All minor updates to the software are Free. Simply download at re-install over your existing implementation. Ie. If you have 4.00.19, and the latest posted release date starts with '4', then the update is FREE.

New Features Added for PathAway GPS 4 - Standard Edition

PathAway GPS 4 is designed to meet the next level of power and usability on the latest Pocket PC and Palm OS mobile devices.

PathAway GPS 4 sports new features such as Track up navigation, improved Bluetooth communications, Satellite Sky View and Compass View screens, Picture and Audio waypoints, new map calibration options, measure distance between 2 two points, plus many more.

Here are the new features added between Pathaway GPS 3 and PathAway GPS 4 - Standard Edition.


New Features on Palm Powered Handheld:
 

- Multimedia Points. Add Photos and Sound to captured points. Included support for Camera phones for Photo capture. Click on points and play their sound or display the picture. Proximity indicator shows a thumbnail of the nearest point (if there). Click on the thumbnail for a full view of the picture.

- Track Up Navigation: Automatic or manual Map rotation in 90 degree increments.

- New View Screens. GPS Sky View, Satellite Data View, and Compass View.

- Goto Location: Enter specific location coordinates to position map

- PocketMode Feature : You can now track via your GPS, and save battery life at the same time. Once you enter PocketMode, PathAway turns off the screen (or backlight depending on device), and locks the keys but continues to record GPS data to your track log. If you using a Bluetooth GPS, simply connect the GPS, enter Pocket Mode, and put the handheld in your Pocket! No need to worry about accidentally hitting keys to issue unwanted commands. Use the special key sequence (or power button) to exit Pocket mode and return to the View screen.

- Split Track Here: "Click on a track point and "Split" the track into two at the selected point. Great for dividing up lengthy tracks that only need to be in separate segments.

- Calibrate by 3 or More Known Points: Now you can Calibrate maps that do not have horizontal and vertical longitude and latitude lines, and do not have a known projection. PathAway 4 features new algorithms to accurately calibrate maps by choosing 3 or more known points. Map no longer needs to have perfectly horizontal latitude and vertical longitude lines. Calibration can be done via Map Manager, or on the handheld by selecting the known points on the map.

- Primary and Secondary Position Coordinate Display: Choose two different Position coordinates to display on the dashboard. Now you can show both lat/long and UTM (or any other supported Grid format) at the same time. Or choose a different Datum to display in.

- Optimization for Datums other than WGS84: Previously, there was much overhead when displaying maps and data in different datums. Now there is no perceptible difference in performance across all Datums and Coordinate grids.

- New Coordinate Grids: Quebec-MTM, MGA, GGRS87, Swedish Grid, Irish grid, Israel Grid

- New Datums: RT90, GD94, EGSA87

- Toolbar Hide/Show. Expand your view of the screen by hiding the toolbar. Windows Mobile versions can hide the toolbar, or the top Taskbar to give you the entire screen for viewing.

- Manual And Proximity based Route Point Targeting. Manual means user must select "Advance Route Point" before PathAway will target the next point in sequence. Proximity means you must enter within a proximity of a route point before the next point will be automatically targeted.

- Measure distance between 2 points: Want to know the distance between 2 points on the map? Simply select Measure... from the Popup menu, and click on the 2 points.

- Large size Icon and Text Menu display: Double the size of the icons for better viewing, or enlarge the text on the menus for arms-length viewing, or easier finger selection.

- Coordinate Grid Lines on Map: Show the latitude and longitude lines on the map. Automatically determines best gapping between lines to keep the screen uncluttered.

- Import GPS data from Data Logger NMEA file: Download data logged in your Data Logger GPS, (I.e.. RoyalTek BlueGPS.) and import the NMEA file directly into PathAway.

- Support for SDIO GPS: Now use your SDIO slot as you GPS receiver. Direct support for SDIO GPS devices added. Ie. Stellus StarNet SDIO GPS.

- New Data Import Formats: GPX, LOC Supported via PathAway PC Conversion Tools, or handheld from the new "Import..." option via Database dialogs. Great for GeoCache users.

- Elevation alarms and warnings: Receive audible alerts when you rise above or fall below specified elevations in relation to the track or route you're following.

- GPS fix acquired and lost alarms: Receive audible alerts when a GPS fix is acquired or lost.

- Custom Alarm Sounds: Add your own sound clips to be used for any of the available alarms. Even attach a sound to a specific point to be played as the "in-proximity" sound.

- On-Map Display of Estimated Travel Time. PathAway displays the ETE on the map by showiing rings indicating the time to reach points on the map. By default, ETEs are set in 1,2, 5, 10, 30, and 60 minute intervals. Customizable in the Preferences>Time dialog.

- GPS Connection Retrys: Option to maintain trying to connect to GPS even if communications are temporarily lost.

- Set Speed and distance decimal precision: Now modify the decimal places to show on the screens used for reporting distances. Preferences-System.

- Depth Tracking: Option to record "Depth" (if available) in elevation data field instead of altitude. Preferences-System.

- "Auto Detect" baud rate. Turn on Auto Detect, and system will cycle through baud rates until if begins to receive a valid stream. GPS Configure Dialog

- Elevation Correction: Automatically adjust elevation to correct for SIRF II Elevation error, or set a fixed elevation adjustment to be applied to all elevation data received from GPS.

- Folders Management: Select Folders on Storage cards for accessing maps and Data.

- Bluetooth Detection: Remember last Bluetooth Device connection.

- Hard Key Mapping: customize or disable the hard key buttons

- Time zones: Now select in 1/2 hr increments.

- New Dashboard info: Time to Next point, Time to next Turn.

- GPS Configure-Advanced Options: Parity, Bits, Stop, and Timer Comm, moved to "Advanced" dialog. Added option to set the timeout between checking GPS data, and communications buffer size.

- Line to Next Point, Line to Next Turn, Circle Next point: In Preferences-Map Display, options to show/hide Line to Next Point, Line to Next Turn, Circle Next point and turn using Proximity distance parameters.

- Calculate Area of a Route or Track: Track or route must be set as Activated, or Follow. Context menu (click on map) Route Menu > Calculate Area or Track Menu > Calculate Area.

- Pinpoint feature to improve the accuracy of a captured point.

 


New features for PathAway Map Manager
 

- New Calibration Type: Known Points. For calibrating non-rectangular maps of unknown projection.
- Palm OS Send - Now send directly to PalmOS storage cards
- Map Scaling: Zoom In, Zoom Out, Zoom Fit and Actual Size views.

 


New Features Added for PathAway GPS 3

Here are the latest features added between Pathaway 2 and 3.

Windows Mobile Device

  • Pocket PC 2002
  • Pocket PC 2003
  • Windows Mobile 5 - Pocket PC
User Interface
  • Expanded and Improved Pop-up Context Menus
    • Always shows selected position coordinates at top of menu
    • Quick Map Show/Hide
    • Add to Route at Start, to End, or Insert at selected position
    • Choose Map Layer by Name and Size (+) or (-)
    • Quick Point Information screen by selecting Point Name
    • Multiple Points selectable from Points Menu Pop-up.
  • Built-in World Map View (Goto Menu). For quick location re-positioning
  • New Route on Startup option.
  • New enhancements designed for quick glances at the screen
    • Color and thickness setting for track/route lines.
    • Choice of 3 different Current Position Pointers, with Color and Size.
    • Dashboard Color set. Contrast dashboard to your maps
    • Hide Dashboard and Top Toolbar. See the map using the Entire Screen
    • Dashboard Text Size - Small - Normal - Large
    • Auto zoom to Highest detailed map when connected to GPS
Databases
  • Visibility of Point/Route/Track Databases switchable on/off.
  • Added support for Track and Route file support on Cards. Now all databases may be stored on external cards. Note, Icon and Vehicle databases stored on cards will make the application run much slower.
  • Shows Vehicle and Point Icons on List.
  • UTM, OSGB formats added
  • Sort by Map Scale
  • Transportation type settings for all databases including Points and Maps.
  • Select the specific Point database to write new Points to.
  • Hide column data indicator to view long point names
  • Icons now shown with Point names
Navigation
  • Single Point Routing.
  • Vertical distance and Angle To.
  • Improved "Position Along Route" algorithm for more accurate Time and Distance along track estimation.
  • Improved Route and Track rendering performance by over 800%.
GPS
  • Garmin Positioning protocol.
  • Trackpoints can now be set dependant on the distance traveled.
  • Garmin Waypoint Symbols.
  • GPS Communications now Interupt driven. Preserves batteries for sled-based GPS devices, and improves program responsiveness.
Upload/ Download From GPS:
  • Track start/stop markers recorded on download of tracks.
  • Magellan NMEA data upload/download support.
Maps
  • Map Datum and Ellipizoid support. Maps can now plot accuraratly for non-rectangular maps.
  • Map Projection support in separate Shared Libraries. No need to waste valuable memory for unused projections.
  • Scaling of maps for zoom In and out. (Recommended use for Palm OS5 handhelds)

Trial

  • 15 Days.
  • Restricted to 10 minutes of GPS connectivity