Trailer Life RV Campground Navigator 2007
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and Answers
(Click on a question, below, to see the answer)
Service Pack 2 Available, Click to Download...
(Includes all modifications in Service Pack 1, as well)
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Answers to the Questions & Solutions |
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Your alternate setup instructions tell me to select Start, Run
but I can't find the "Run" option in Windows Vista.
The Run option is there, but unfortunately, in Vista, it is hidden by default. You can customize the Start Properties to make it appear as in Windows XP, or you can use the following shortcut to make the Run box appear any time you need it.
To make the Run
box appear use the key combination: Winkey-R
Winkey is the special Windows key found in the lower left area on most keyboards. It has the Windows logo and sometimes the word "Start" on it. So, while holding down the Winkey Press the R key to make the Run box appear.
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Black Campground Info Dialog - I installed the software and
everything appears to be O.K., but when I highlight a campground
location the area where the campground info is supposed to be
displayed is black
We have not been able to duplicate the behavior on any systems here. However, we've hard reports of "some" systems experiencing the problem (mainly on Toshiba Laptops and some Dell Laptops). It's possible that on some video drivers, the color of the Windows RichEdit control, that the program calls to display the information, does not get initialized to white, which is what the program expects. So, when the program attempts to display black text on it, you get black-on-black which is invisible.
A modification was made to the program to force the control surface background color to white. Note that this does NOT modify any of your system settings, nor does it affect the behavior of any other programs on your system.
The modification is part of Service Pack 2
which was just made available for download from this site.
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Every time I plan a trip and try to
get directions, I get the message: "Unable to Route. Try un-checking
Ferry exclusions, un-checking state travel restrictions." How do I
remove these restrictions?
The wording of the dialog may vary a bit, depending on the Service Pack of the program installed. Both exclusion and restriction options can be set through the Plan Your Trip dialog, by selecting "Customize" and then selecting the "Options" tab. State Travel Restrictions refer to the "Use Trailer Restrictions" in the dialog and are restrictions based on the overall size of the RV and the generic state restrictions listed in the document accessible from the menu Tools, Travel Guides, Rules of the Road, i.e., they are not restrictions for specific roads, bridges, tunnels, etc.
It should be noted the restrictions set by the user through the menu option Plan a Trip, Set Routing Exclusions, can be cleared by selecting Clear Routing Exclusions from the Plan a Trip menu.
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"I am running Trailer Life 2007 on my Mac using Virtual PC. The
operation is extremely slow. It takes 10 minutes or so to calculate
a route and even scrolling down in the calculated directions takes
10+ seconds"
The most likely cause of such sluggish performance is system resources. Many users set up such virtual environments with only 256 Mb of RAM. Although the program will run, 256 Mb of RAM, is the *minimum* to execute it, and it will not run very well - even on a Windows-based computer. You need to increase the amount of memory available to the "virtual" windows environment to at least 512 Mb, to get the increased performance you expect.
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I cannot delete any of the entries made in the Search for a
campground dialog (and other search and trip planning dialogs).
Only ONE entry field is available in the Search for a Campground dialog!
What users are referring to is the 10-most-recent entries list that is part of most dialogs in windows applications. That list is not managed by the user. Each time the user enters a search string, it is added to the top of the list for convenient access at a later time. When the list is full, then when the user types in a new entry, the oldest entry in the list is deleted to make room for the new one that is added to the top of the list. The user cannot add/delete entries to that list directly, and those entries have *no* bearing in any of the calculations, unless one is "clicked on", in which case it is transferred to the dialog's main entry field.
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I downloaded the Service Pack, as instructed, then loaded the
trip file that I was having problems with, clicked "Get Directions"
and the problem is still there.
A couple of different factors could be causing that behavior.
Just because you downloaded the Service Pack from the web site, it does not mean it was also automatically installed. You need to run the program, once the downloading process is finished, to install it on your computer. You can confirm if the Service Pack was indeed installed, or not, by selecting Help, About while running the program. The version number listed right below the Program's name should be 7.1.00.99 or later. If it not, then the Service Pack has not been installed. If you have confirmed that the Service Pack has been installed, then what you are experiencing is probably the following...
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How do I set a default starting point, and default options for all
new trips I start?
You can set up as many default starting points and set of options as you want. Open the trip planning dialog, start a new trip and enter the starting point you want (your address, or any other starting point). After the point has been added to the router, set any other options you want (Start/Stop driving times, Highway preferences, etc.). Then, simply save the trip file under a name like "Homebase", or "MyStartPoint", etc..
Now, whenever you are ready to start a new trip, just open the trip file you saved earlier (which will have your starting point and your default options), add the desired stop points and calculate your route. Remember to save the new trip, with any additional points to a new trip file, so that you do not over-write your "Homebase" file when you exit the program.
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In earlier versions of the program, when I highlighted a campground
icon, on the map, the information about the campground would appear
on the screen. With this version, there is no information
about the campgrounds.
The information for each campground is displayed in the 2007 version, as well. When a campground icon is selected (highlighted) on the map, then the name of the campground will appear in the Campground Information dialog.
Clicking on the Show button will open up the dialog and display the information about that campground.
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I am trying to search for a Longitude/Latitude and cannot find
it, no matter if I use positive or negative values. What am I
doing wrong?
You can’t just use any format and put minus signs at random.
The formats for specifying Longitude and Latitude are:
123.45678 or -12.345678
123:45:12 or -12:34:56
123:45.6789 or -12:34.5678
Positive or Negative Values?
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When I am looking at a campground and the "Display Ad" button is active (indicating that the campground has an ad in the program), I click on the "Display Ad" button and nothing happens.
In order to see the information in the Ad files you need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your system. If it is not, then you can download and install a copy from Adobe's Acrobat web site, http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
If Acrobat Reader is already installed, it is possible that the File association between PDF files and the Acrobat Reader program, may have been corrupted in Windows (BTW, this has nothing to do with the Trailer Life Campground Navigator program). Here are some sample instructions to check and correct that if you are using Windows XP (Refer to Windows Help for more details on File Associations).
Note: For more details on File Associations check the Windows Help facility. |
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I changed the daily Star/Stop driving times, but it did not make any difference in the calculated trip directions, i.e., the daily start and stop driving times in the directions did not change.
Changing the Daily Start/Stop drive times in the Customize tab of the Trip Planner dialog, only affects stop points added to the trip, subsequently to the drive time changes you make. Otherwise, if you had spent all sorts of time customizing the drive times for each individual leg of the trip, setting the times in the Customize tab, would reset them all to a single Start/Stop drive time set.
The drive Start/Stop times for any Stop points that have been added to the trip prior to changing the Customize Start/Stop times, can be modified individually by clicking on the small stopwatch icon that appears to the right of each Stop point, in the main Trip Planner dialog.
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I e-mailed technical support, but never got a response.
An increasing number of technical support e-mail messages, sent out to answer questions asked by users, end up in a response asking us to fill out short forms to bypass the user's spam filters, for the message to be delivered. Unfortunately, if we were to do that for every message we respond to, it would be a full time job.
We try to respond to technical support requests promptly, however, we cannot fill out forms for emails to get through user spam filters - our responding process will ignore any such requests.
If you want to make sure you get a response to your email from us, make sure that emails from support@undertowsoftware.com are white-listed and get through whatever filters you have set up.
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Problem: Can I run the program from the CD-ROM disks, without
installing? Answer: No, in order for you to run the program, you need to install it on your systems Hard Drive (it requires about 1.5 Gb of disk space)
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Problem: All of a sudden I cannot see any streets, all I see is
either a blue or a yellow background and city names. How can I
correct this problem? Solution: Somehow, your TLCN-2007 configuration file must have gotten corrupted, and the paths are not pointing to the appropriate data folders. Click on File, Program Options and select the map data folders. You can type in the correct data folders, or click on the ellipsis button (to the right of each field) and navigate to the appropriate folder. If you used the default disk drive and destination path, during installation, then the paths should be as follows:
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Question: How can I make the program calculate a route going over
highways, or roads that *I* prefer? Answer: There is no way to specify a highway name or number that should be used by the program. However, you can force it to follow a certain route/road by adding Via points to your trip, along the road you are interested in using, by the "Shift-Click" method. You can add as may such points as desired, to make the router follow a certain path, since it has to go through all specified Via points.
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Question: How do I make the program avoid a certain area, when
routing? For example, making sure it avoids going through a
certain city and bypassing it, instead? Answer: One way would be to force the router to follow a certain route/road, around the area you want, by adding Via points to your trip, along the route you are interested in following. The other way is to use the menu sequence, Plan a Trip, Set Routing exclusions, and highlight the areas that you do NOT want the router to go through.
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Question: Which GPS do you recommend and where can I buy one?
Answer: Any GPS device that sends NMEA sentences should work with the program. Although we do not have any vested interest in any particular GPS manufacturer, and do not have a specific recommendation, based on user feedback, the programs seems to be working well with these GPS receivers, among others...
You can purchase GPS devices in most electronics stores, as well as on-line.
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Question: The software is not working with my GPS
receiver (USB Device) Possible Solution (1): If you are attempting to use the software with a USB GPS receiver, you will need to get a USB to COM Port software driver from the GPS manufacturer. This driver will capture the information coming in to the USB port and internally divert it to a COM port. Most GPS unit manufacturers use *proprietary* COM emulations in their USB devices, anyway, and they have recently made software device drivers available for free (on their web sites) to allow *other* mapping applications to work with their hardware. Find the manufacturer of your GPS, go to their web site and look for a USB serial emulator driver.
For example, here is the description from the Delorme web site (and the link to download the appropriate device driver) http://www.delorme.com/support/supporttemplate.aspx?id=217 (this location is valid as of 4/5/2006 - Note that the location on their web site may change, in that case go to www.delorme.com and look for the appropriate device driver).
Possible Solution (2): You need to make sure that the settings on your GPS receiver, and/or any USB/COM emulator drivers, are the same as the settings in the TLCN-2007 software (e.g. the COM port #, the Baud rate, etc.)
See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...
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Question: What do I have to do to use my BlueTooth GPS device
with the program?
Answer: Bluetooth devices internally use a serial (COM) port to communicate with the computer. What you need to do is...
See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...
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Question: Can I use my Delorme Earthmate USB connector GPS
with the program? Before you go any
further, please make sure you have a Delorme Earthmate Device!
Answer: Yes, you can use the Earthmate USB devices with the program. You need to download and install the appropriate device driver from the Delorme web site, that allows their devices to communicate with third party NMEA compliant programs (like Trailer Life Campground Navigator 2007). The link to download the appropriate device driver is http://www.delorme.com/support/supporttemplate.aspx?id=319 (this location is valid as of 12/1/2007 - Note that the location on their web site may change, in that case go to www.delorme.com and search for the appropriate device driver).
After you install the device driver (following the Delorme instructions) make a note of the virtual COM port that the device is assigned to. Also, make sure that the port is configured to out put NMEA data. Then, run the Trailer Life program, select GPS and the GPS settings and set the Port number in the dialog to the same number as the virtual port the Delorme device was assigned to, above.
Note that if you have problems, it could be that some other driver or device is trying to use the same port. In that case, you may access the Delorme device driver settings again (from the utility provided by Delorme), and set the virtual COM port to a different number. Then, run the Trailer life program again and set the COM port, in the GPS settings dialog, to that new number, as well.
It has come to our attention that sometimes, the Delorme device will not transmit NMEA sentences to the COM port until after it has been stopped and restarted. That is done from the utility provided as part of the serial emulator by Delorme, prior to attempting to track from within Trailer Life.
The Trailer Life program simply listens to the specified COM port and gets any NMEA positional data arrives there. if your GPS device is NOT sending any data to the COM port, there is nothing for the program to use and calculate your current location.
See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...
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Question: How do I get my Deluo USB GPS to work with the
Program?
Answer: We have reports from many users of the Trailer Life program using the Deluo USG GPS, without any problems. Deluo, like many (most) GPS USB devices, internally use a virtual COM port to communicate with the computer. In order to get your device to work with the program, you first need to determine what virtual COM port the GPS is using, and then select *that* port in the GPS dialog of the Trailer Life Campground Navigator program.
Review your Deluo device documentation, visit Deluo support on the web (http://www.deluogps.com) or Deluo and ask them "how to determine what virtual COM port the Deluo device is using".
This is what Deluo's FAQ says... (as of 5/1/2007) "DeluoGPS Toolkit Our development team has just released a new application that will help you configure Streets & Trips software and your Deluo GPS. It will also tell you to which COM port the GPS is connected to and even change the Baud Rate to make it compatible with virtually any mapping application."
See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...
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Question: Can I use my GPS, that came with MS Streets and
Trips, with your program (Pharos)?
Before you go any further, please make sure you
are using a Pharos GPS Device!
Answer: As far as we know, the GPS receiver shipped with MS Streets and Trips, is manufactured by Pharos. Based on Pharos' web site, indeed, you should be able to use their device with ANY NMEA compliant software. Here are some brief instructions (from their site, http://www.pharosgps.com/support/faq-faq2.htm paraphrased here to refer to TL Campground Navigator 2007)
To make sure that the
software is reading the appropriate Com Port, check the Device
Manager to see which Com Port the driver as been assigned to.
Once you know which Com Port the device is located on, you will be able to go into TL Campground Navigator 2007, in the GPS Tab, GPS Settings and set the same Com Port for communication to begin.
See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...
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Question: Will my Garmin USB GPS device work with the
Program?
Answer: Garmin USB devices use a proprietary protocol to communicate with their own software packages (rather than the standard NMEA compliant string). They make this proprietary protocol available to third party developers and it has been implemented in the TL Campground Navigator 2007 program. Select the Garmin USB (*) communications protocol in the GPS Settings dialog. Note: a modification was made to the program in Service Pack 2, to accommodate Garmin GPS devices that use the Garmin USB protocol. Based on user feedback, the following Garmin GPS devices are used with the program without any problems: Garmin 60CSx, Legend eTrex, GPS III, Garmin 18 USB, Garmin C320, and more...
(*) This applies to Garmin USB GPS devices. For Garmin devices with a serial interface, the "NMEA Serial" protocol option should be selected in the GPS settings tab, and the COM port used by the device to communicate with the computer should be set.
See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...
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Question: What is a good value to use for "Recentering Buffer"
when I use my GPS device?
Answer: When the currently tracked location, as determined by the GPS supplied coordinates, has changed by the amount specified by this Buffer setting, the map redraws itself with the current location at the center of the viewport. So, a low value means the map will be redrawn when the current location has "slightly" changed. Depending on what scale the map is at, attempting to redraw the map every few milliseconds (as the GPS position changes), can result in your systems CPU becoming overwhelmed and not be able to perform operations requested by other applications that may be running at the time (almost continuous hourglass cursor). The optimum setting is probably unique to each system, and it better determined empirically by the user. If you are GPS tracking with the map at about 1 mile, for example, set this buffer value to 20%, or so, and see if the resources used at this setting tas your systems CPU. If so, increase the value to 30%, 35% or higher. |
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Question: How can I add a specific point on the map to the trip
planner, by clicking on the map, without having to search for an address? Answer: (1) while holding down the Shift key, on the
keyboard, place the mouse pointer on the spot you are interested in
adding to the trip, and press the left mouse button.
Since at different scales, a pixel on the screen represents a different distance, and the user can only click on a pixel, it should be noted that the accuracy of the placement of Via Points, when Shift-clicking, depends on the current scale of the map. It is therefore recommended that when placing such points the user is zoomed-in to a scale below 2 miles, so that appropriate, accurate placement can be assured.
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Question: I am searching for well known parks and campgrounds
(Death Valley, Yosemite,...), and I can't find them, although I can see
them on the map when I zoom in. Am I doing
something wrong, or is the data missing?
Answer: There are so many ways to search for things, in the 2007 version, that it may get overwhelming at times. To search for any of the 13,000+ campgrounds and RV park facilities in the Trailer Life database, you need to click on the "find a Location" button, either on the splash screen or on the main screen, or select Search, Find a Location from the menu bar, or just press the F9 key while in the main mapping screen.
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Question: How can I tell the program to stop at a specific
campground, and then tell it that I want to stay there more than one
night? It only lets me stop where it thinks I should, based on
my end of the day stop time.
Answer: After you calculate your route based on the Via/Stop points you have selected, the program calculates the "end-of-day" stop time and displays the closest campground at the end of each day. There is a button that allows you to add those campgrounds as stop points.
Also, in the trip planner Customize dialog, if you click on (highlight) any one of the stop points, there is a little timer icon that appears to the right of the point description. Clicking on that icon opens a dialog that allows you to specify the number of hours or days that you want to stop at that point.
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Question: The program seemed to work fine, but all of a
sudden, I will search for a Campground, then click on "Goto
Location", the map is relocated to the right spot, but the
campground is not marked on the map, and the Info Tab says "No
Location Selected".
Answer: The "Find a Location" dialog allows you to search the whole database for the desired campground. However, the display of Campgrounds is controlled by the user, through the filter settings in the Info Tab. Most likely, you have set filter options that filter out the Campground(s) you are looking for. For example, if you have set the filters to "Pet Friendly", only campgrounds with a "pet Friendly" rating will be displayed on the screen. Make the Filter settings less restrictive and the campgrounds should appear on the screen.
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Question: I have a hard time finding any addresses, or
cities I am searching for! For example, even if I type "Boston
MA" (no quotes), I get "No Matches Found". Are these
places missing from the database, or am I doing something wrong?
Answer: Humans can decipher all sorts of variations in the format of an address, but computers need to follow certain rules. For example, if you typed
100 Main St North Andover MA
it's impossible for the program to know if you are looking for
"100 Main St North" in "Andover", or "100 Main St" in "North Andover"
Although the program tries to guess at what the user "meant" to type, the format for entering a search string is that one enters:
SomeStreetAddress, SomeCity, SomeStateTwoLetterAbbreviation, SomeZIPCode
Note the "commas" - they are important. They are used to eliminate ambiguity as to what the user is searching for. The only optional comma is the one after the state abbreviation.
So, in the above example of not being able to find a city, entering "Boston, MA" with the comma should result in a successful search.
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Question: I am searching for places in Canada (like
Montreal, QC or Perce, QC) and I can't find them, although I see
them on the map.
Answer: These are French names and need to be entered the way they appear in the database and on the map. Entering the appropriate French names, e.g.
Percé,QC or Montréal,QC
should find the place you are searching for.
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Question: I do not seem to be able to enable the button
"Add Closest Campgrounds" when I calculate a trip, although I can
see that there are campgrounds within less that 5 miles from the
route calculated by the program.
Answer: You have probably set up a trip, with
user-specified stops, in such a way that there are no "end-of-day"
stops automatically calculated by the program. Since the
program doesn't see the need, or get the chance to calculate
"end-of-day" stops, based on the travel times you have specified, it
presumes that you have already decided where to stop, and therefore
does not see the need to calculate closest campgrounds, either,
that's why the button is never enabled. |
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Question: I have added two points to my trip planner (one
is my start point and the other is my first stop/via point).
When I click on either point, in this dialog, I do not get the
little stopwatch so I can specify the length of my layover.
Answer: If there are only two points in the list, one is the Starting point of your trip and the second is the Endpoint of your trip, by definition. It does not make sense to have the ability to specify the length of layover for the starting point and the end point of a trip! You can only specify layovers for intermediate stop points.
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Question: I have saved a number of trip files (10+), but
there appears to be a limitation in the program, because when I try
to open them, later on, I only see 3 of the trip files I saved!
Answer: Most of the time, the files are there, but the user has, probably unintentionally, saved them with a different file extension (rather than the default .trp) extension, or has saved them in a different folder. A tip, if you attempt to open a trip file and the list of files presented appears not to include all the trip files you have saved, then
(a) Make sure that the folder you are looking at is the same as the folder where you saved your trip files, and
(b) In case you somehow saved them with a different file extension, go to the "File Name:" field, of the File Open dialog, type *.* and press Enter. That should display ALL files in the folder, regardless of the file extension. Browse the list and see if the other trip files you saved are in that list.
* The dialog that appears when the user attempts to save/open a file, is a standard windows dialog. There may be additional details in the Windows documentation of how such dialogs operate.
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Question: Is Trailer Life Campground Navigator 2007
compatible with the new Operating System, Windows Vista?
Answer: Yes, Trailer Life Campground Navigator 2007 has been tested and runs in the Windows Vista Operating system without any problems. The only problem may arise if the user installs the application without being logged on to Vista as the Administrator (because of the new security options in Vista).
If you get error messages that some "OCX" or "DLL" module or one of its components is not installed or missing... or ...Can't find device path or file, you may not have the appropriate permission to access them or ...if you get a dialog asking you to register every time you run the program, then it's very likely that you are experiencing this type of problem, i.e., not having installed and/or running under the "Administrator" account. Note that in Vista, an account with Administrative privileges is NOT the same as the "Administrator" account. You can try running the program by right-clicking on the icon/shortcut on your desktop and selecting to "Run as Administrator", or uninstall the program, log on to Vista as "The Administrator" and install the program again.
If you encounter these problems during the installation process, and for some reason you cannot log on as the "Administrator", then you may want to try installing by following this process...
* Note that on many Vista installation, the Administrator account may be originally hidden, for Vista security purpose. The link provided below contains information on how to access the Administrator account, if you are interested in doing so.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555910/en-us
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Service Pack 2 is now available for download. Service Pack 2 includes all the modifications in Service Pack 1, as well. All you need to do is download and install this Service Pack 2 (Pleases see details below and follow these steps carefully).
Service Pack 2 addresses a number of issues with trip calculations and GPS communications. It is recommended that users of Trailer Life Campground Navigator 2007, download and install the Service Pack. Here is how you can determine if you need this service pack. Run Trailer Life Campground Navigator, select Help, and then select About... Check the version number that is displayed in light blue, right underneath the program's name (not the MapPro76.OCX version number !)
A. If the version displayed is 7.1.00.99 or later, then you do NOT need to download this Service Pack.
B. If the version # displayed is 7.1.00.98 or earlier, then follow these 4 steps carefully, to download and install Service Pack 2.
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(2)
A popup menu will appear, that will give you the opportunity to add this
point as the starting point for your trip, add it as via (intermediate)
point, or adding it as the stop (end) point of your trip.
