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HuntStand, OnX, Spartan Forge - thoughts? compare and contrast?

mazzgolf said:
Wow. Cal topo has that range-circle thing out of box ..I had to hack something for SF and it's just not possible in HS. But cal topo has an awesome feature.. You can draw any number of circles of any distance you want, and you can make different colors, and styles of lines for the circle. This is really cool when you need to map out your safety zones.
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A new navigations trick for me! I'll put a marker at the exact spot I'm heading based on my huntstand data. Thanks!
 
Omg. Cal topo is really good! I totally dismissed it when looking for Hunt Stand replacement but after playing with the app, it has alot of what I am looking for. I'm gonna pay closer attention to it and play with it some more. It even has folders that you can organize your data if you want (like Hunt Stand's hunt areas). But with HS, it's not optional, you have to use hunt areas. Spartan Forge is the opposite... You can't organize your data into maps like hunt areas. Cal topo you can, but are not required, to organize things like that (I think it's not required, but I'm not sure)

And check this out. The exact safety zone ("buffer" zone) feature I'm looking for! You draw around something in the map, and cal topo will draw a buffer zone around it given a buffer distance (like 150 feet or 450 feet).

For example, suppose I want to hunt near some houses and a playground. States have required minimum distances you must be away from buildings and playgrounds, so use cal topo to draw you a safety zone buffer so you can know your current location is outside the safety zone:

 
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I would buy a sub to CalTopo today if their public lands overlay was useful for the east coast. Is it me, or are public lands only really populated for the west coast? I see barely anything in NJ (and we have lots of public WMAs and state forests that should be shown). And there's no state lands for PA either. I have to believe I'm missing something - some setting I need to turn on?

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WEST COAST:

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EAST COAST:
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mazzgolf said:
I would buy a sub to CalTopo today if their public lands overlay was useful for the east coast. Is it me, or are public lands only really populated for the west coast? I see barely anything in NJ (and we have lots of public WMAs and state forests that should be shown). And there's no state lands for PA either. I have to believe I'm missing something - some setting I need to turn on?

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Yeah, the public lands button on CalTopo doesn't show the state lands here in northern Michigan either. But, if I click the MapBuilder Overlay button it does show the boundries between public and private land with a purple line.
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Meh - I see the purple lines - SOME are WMAs, but others are showing boundaries for.... I don't know what. Around a portion of a housing development?
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Other WMAs don't have those boundaries at all.

Shame. This is some major data missing from CalTopo, but otherwise, I really like it. I'm going to test it's tracking next time I'm out in the woods. That's a big feature I use a lot.

BTW: I was able to export my safety zones from CalTopo in GPX format, and import it into Spartan Forge, so I can see it in SF, which is nice.

BTW2: I'm just now realizing Spartan Forge doesn't have the ability to "export" data - so they are locking your data in as well (unless I'm missing it somewhere)
 
I know OnX has a way to export. I would be surprised if SF doesn’t.

If I weren’t such a cheap-skate I would renew OnXelite. I got some holiday deal that was discounted from $100/yr by some 40-45%.
 
mazzgolf said:
I would buy a sub to CalTopo today if their public lands overlay was useful for the east coast. Is it me, or are public lands only really populated for the west coast? I see barely anything in NJ (and we have lots of public WMAs and state forests that should be shown). And there's no state lands for PA either. I have to believe I'm missing something - some setting I need to turn on?

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EAST COAST:
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You're missing something, I don't know exactly what but I use CalTopo for public lands in PA, WV, and MD for sure. I'll check later

Caltopo and OnX are both daily drivers for me.
Google Earth for historicals and the best measuring tools (use those for work a ton)
I keep HuntStand still because they had the best aerials in my home area for a long time but I have it on my calendar to reassess that soon
 
elk yinzer said:
You're missing something, I don't know exactly what but I use CalTopo for public lands in PA, WV, and MD for sure. I'll check later
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Yes, please let me know. I'm hoping I'm missing something. That's really the only thing I see missing in CalTopo that would keep me from putting down $50 right now for it -- Color coded/shading for WMAs and other publicly huntable lands.

I mean, is it me or is even the shaded relief overlay in CalTopo better than the LIDAR overlay in Spartan Forge ?? And the shaded relief overlay is free in CalTopo?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
CalTopo shaded relief appears the same as SF lidar IIRC. I have not paid for SF so been a minute.
 
I really do want to like SF - it has a nice overall look and feel (it's "pretty"), I like the compass-swipe to switch map overlays, the Intel/weather forecast is nice, imagery is good, waypoint icons are numerous, descriptive, and appealing to the eye. But when you get down to some of the basic user interface functions you use all the time - some of it is awkward to use. e.g. You have to swipe up just to see the save button for waypoints ?? Things like that make for a weird user experience, sometimes it's frustrating because I feel like I have to do too much to accomplish something as simple as saving or moving a waypoint. You also can't rename tracks (you can rename everything else - but you can't rename tracks ??). There is no hierarchical folder system (other than the hardcoded object type categories). It is also missing some public lands.

I still think SF is better than HuntStand. But when I looked at CalTopo last night, all of their UI is easy and intuitive (for me at least). It isn't as "pretty" as SF, but I think it has better basic functionality (creating, editing, deleting objects is just naturally intuitive), and has some additional features that I like. I'm still amazed at the Buffer feature in CalTopo - that's been something I've wanted forever, and didn't think anyone had anything like it.. and here CalTopo has the exact thing I was looking for.

If only CalTopo had proper public lands overlay! :openmouth: I did send their support an email asking about that and why I can't see any state lands. I'll see what they say (and it's a good chance for me to see how good their customer support is ;))
 
Well, as I feared... CalTopo public lands overlay isn't really ALL public lands like you get with things like HuntStand, OnX, and Spartan Forge. I was told by CalTopo customer support: "The public lands layer comes from the BLM and there are some things missing unfortunately."

Not sure what to do. I really need that feature to see boundaries of state WMAs and state forests/parks. I can't see paying $50 and not having that. But I'll check it out anyway. I got a 2-week trial that I'll start soon, and play around.
 
Well, CalTopo falls over for me when it comes to private ownership data, too - even with the Pro paid version.

I got a 2-week trial yesterday. When I got it enabled, I immediately looked at the private land overlay. No good - at least in NJ. For NJ property, it looks like CalTopo only goes to NJ government sources. I'm guessing that only because several years ago, a state judge was targeted and her son murdered by a murderer who found the judge's address from a government website. After that, NJ scrubbed all owner names from its property databases. And sure enough, CalTopo has all blanks for ownership names in NJ properties. This isn't true for other apps (who must get their data from somewhere else). But it looks like CalTopo only gets their data from the state government so no ownership info for me. I can't even see the state itself listed as an owner for WMA properties! Even those show blank.

Add to that all the missing WMA data from the public lands overlay, and CalTopo is missing one of the few major features that I use all the time.

Oh, well. I'll leave CalTopo installed on my phone, because it does have some nice features, but it won't be my primary app. Looks like it's still gonna be SF for that.
 
I decided to get the Pro version of CalTopo. I will likely let my Spartan Forge subscription lapse.

I will create a new thread on my CalTopo thoughts, but suffice it to say, overall, CalTopo is awesome :) There are just a few things I wish it had, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.
 
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