MapForums

Ability to import "Cross Street" on a search. This function works on a "Find" but not on an import.

Allow setting both fill and line around textboxes to not visible. I am using the textboxes as labels and the border lines around the text makes the map too cluttered.

An alternative would be to add a label object with different font types and sizes and both scalable and non-scaling fonts.

Import Street names from a file

1. Improve the search engine (this is really a disaster in Europe (Belgium), especially for streetnames with names in it: e.g. "Avenue Jules sartiaux" (when you insert "Avenue Sartiaux", it should at least return "Avenue Jules Sartiaux". Now it returns a whole list of streets in other cities, but no "Avenue Jules Sartiaux"). Very hard to sell your product if only 80% of the adresses are quickly found.

2. Ability to change streetnames, and save this in the local database (since they sometimes aren't correct). When there's an update, you should be able to check the changings, and update your personal street information with the updated database.

I really hope this will be achieved shortly !

While dates are not written in stone. My source tells me that MapPoint 2006 is scheduled for release on November 7, 2005.

I know this isn't going to come out on 2006 or for any GIS system on the market. The realtime drivetime zones. Yes, this is still too new of a technology for it to be incorporated in any GIS system. There are many factors that are involved when dealing with drive time from weather, wind, time of day, road construction, traffic lights, accidents, etc.

Ideally, I would like to see what NavTech and a few other organizations are doing with traffic on navigation systems do on GIS software. However, right now the traffic information is limited and has a lot of bugs to fix. However, I think the biggest complaint with drivetime in real time is that on the same exact day of the week and time without any accidents on the road and no major events, you will find a two hour drive turn into a five hour drive due to rain and windy conditions in the city. This means instead of expecting a vehicle out for 5 hours for a round trip, you have the truck out for 11 hours.

I've pondered over all the components that factor slow traffic conditions, however it seems we are at least a decade or two away before GIS software has the infrastructure to support realtime drivetime. Currently, mappoint's drivetime is mediocre at best, especially for urban areas where traffic is not always predictable.

Anybody here ever use navigation with traffic? There's only one car that has it stock and I believe it is an Acura RL. Only one aftermarket indash navigation system with NavTech traffic which is Pioneer. And as of the second half of 2005, there have been several portable devices with Traffic rerouting features. Then there is traffic.com and the many state websites. They have a lot of limitations. It is much like when cell phones were first released to the public. It's still in its infancy. However, it would be a nice feature to have 2006 with some sort of basic traffic features such as what these devices offer. Limited in their coverage and accuracy, but overall useful and constantly improving.