No unnecessary downloads

Thanks to the speedmaps function, only those map sections that have not yet been viewed on your computer are downloaded. This allows you to increase the map refresh speed by up to 200% and, depending on your Internet connection, means you can significantly reduce the required download time.

All the selected map elements for the current route view that have already been loaded will be immediately retrieved by map&guide base from the "map cache" - a cache on your hard drive that is created and managed by the program.

Of course you can also manage the "map cache" yourself. For example you can specify which hard drive and which data folder should be used for the cache as well as empty the cache manually.

This makes it easier to handle large quantities of data. The complete Great Britain map, for instance, is used by many frequent drivers and has a total size of around 360 MB.

Faster than any other route planner

The speedsmaps, which save previously viewed map elements on your hard drive, are not the only factor that make map&guide base the fastest online route planner available.

Even stand-alone solutions will struggle to match the map refresh speed of map&guide base. The program keeps track of your favourite map sections and can "memorise" all regions that have been selected more than once.

If you are using a good-quality map of Great Britain, for example, even the fastest computer will need to firstly search through a good 260 MB of data. For a route to Paris or Milan this can be as much as a gigabyte. map&guide base on the other hand only downloads the map elements that are absolutely essential for the map view currently shown - and these elements are not saved on your hard disk straight away.

If even if you plan several different routes, the program gets to know the area around your home address very quickly. The maps for smaller towns and villages you have never viewed before are only downloaded if and when you really need them.

Incidentally the routing and map refresh operations are performed using the enormous handling power of our high-speed computer centre - something which a normal PC user can only dream of.

Nothing but the latest map material

Every time you use map&guide base, the program will of course check to see if there is any new material for any of the speedmaps currently loaded. If there is new material, it will simply be downloaded from the server - with no extra costs or waiting times. In fact you might not even notice it's happening!

The map material provided with a route planner on a CD-ROM is sometimes out-of-date before you have even bought it. This may be due to regions with very frequent roadworks activity, for example, or if you purchase the product just before the new version/updated version appears in the shops. However the speedmaps on your hard disk are always as up-to-date as they need to be: They are only reloaded from the server if you access a "familiar" map section again for which updated material is available.

Of course if you wish to deactivate the option that updates the speedsmaps on your hard disk, you can do this using the program settings.