Topo.com goes away, takes SuperQuads with it

Late last week I received an email from National Geographic Maps, informing me that their Topo.com website would be discontinued in 30 days, as they transtion to a new partnership with AllTrails.com. The National Geographic Topo desktop software will continue to work, although it is unclear if new updates will be forthcoming or not. This appears to primarily affect Magellan Triton users who have purchased Topo SuperQuads. If that’s you, you should read the info below and save those files to your hard drive over the next few weeks.

I took a quick look at the AllTrails.com site this morning and it’s nice enough, but I didn’t find any .gpx files to download; maybe they are there for some trails or perhaps this is a feature that will be added in the future. The only other thing I’ll note is that topo.com is an awfully good domain to give up (or simply use to redirect to another site).

Here’s the full text of the email I received:

To the TOPO! Explorer User Community:

Last week, National Geographic Maps and AllTrails announced a strategic alliance focused on building the largest and most comprehensive online destination for outdoor enthusiasts with the launch of a co-branded service available at alltrails.com. The co-branded site offers detailed information on thousands of trails with reviews, photographs, and more. Registered users also have the ability to create member profiles and trail journals, contribute content and reviews, and access social media sharing. Since its founding in 2010, AllTrails has built the fastest growing community of outdoor enthusiasts, with more than 200,000 members who access the service through the Web or on their mobile devices.

In the coming months, alltrails.com will offer an expanded, premium subscription service that will provide exclusive online and mobile access to National Geographic’s extensive topographic map assets, including TOPO! and Trails Illustrated maps. In subsequent email communications, special discounted offers for the premium subscription service will be extended to the TOPO! Explorer user community.

Because of the new strategic alliance with AllTrails, the current products and services offered on topo.com will be discontinued. For the next 30 days, topo.com will continue to be functional. After that time, users will be redirected to alltrails.com. During the next 30 days, topo.com members can redeem any unused map credits, provided that they have not already expired. Although the topo.com Web site will no longer exist after 30 days, the desktop application can be used without logging in to the site. Many of the most popular features of the TOPO! Explorer desktop software, such as printing customized maps, drawing routes, and creating elevation profiles, will remain functional without users having to connect to topo.com.It is important that users download all purchased SuperQuads and save the corresponding PDF files to a place on their local drives. Our Technical Support team has provided the following directions to assist you with storing and using your map content with the TOPO! Explorer desktop application:

Downloading Purchased SuperQuads

If you would like to download SuperQuads and store them within the TOPO! Explorer desktop application on your hard drive, please follow the instructions below:

1. First, launch the TOPO! Explorer desktop application and log in to topo.com.
2. Click on the My Purchases tab along the top navigation. The My Purchases page will show your entire purchase history and if you have any unused, not expired, map credits left to redeem.
3. Now, press the Download Now button in the Download SuperQuads box located on the lower right side of the page. This will start the process of downloading all of your SuperQuad map content to be stored on your hard drive, within the TOPO! Explorer desktop application.
Note: If you have already downloaded all of your SuperQuads, clicking on the Download Now button will open up the list of maps in the desktop application, showing the names of the SuperQuads already downloaded and stored within the application.
4. Once a SuperQuad appears in the list on the Maps page under the tab SuperQuads, the content is ready to be used via the desktop application. Each SuperQuad is listed by its name and is followed by the word “downloaded” when stored in the desktop application.

Downloading and Saving PDF Files

If you would like to download and save the PDF files provided for the purchased SuperQuads and store them on your hard drive, please follow the instructions below:

1. First, log in to your account on topo.com.
2. Click on the My Purchases tab along the top navigation.
3. In the center of the My Purchases page, you will see SuperQuads I Own with a corresponding list below it. On the left-hand side of the list, you will see Download PDF and icons for the PDF files for each map below.
4. Click on the PDF icon to start the download. When the download is complete, the five-page PDF file will be open on your screen. Note: Reading PDF files requires installation of Adobe® Reader freeware or Adobe Acrobat® software on your computer.
5. To save the PDF file, click on the disk icon in the upper right of the tool bar and save the file to your desired location on your hard drive.

If you have any questions, please submit them through the Ask a Question section on the technical support Web site. It can be accessed via the following URL:

support.topo.com 

Thank you for your ongoing interest in National Geographic mapping products. We hope to better serve our loyal customers with exciting new products and services offered through the AllTrails alliance.

Sincerely,
National Geographic Maps