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Using Autoroute 2003 Data in MapPoint 2002

Richard Hayes demonstrates how to incorporate the AutoRoute 2003 data into MapPoint 2002 Europe

The latest release of Microsoft AutoRoute (2003) contains a fair amount more data than the current version of Microsoft MapPoint Europe (2002). Namely it contains street data for Sweden, Portugal, Dublin, Helsinki and Oslo, which MapPoint does not.

It is possible that all this data will be included in the next release of MapPoint Europe, but no date has been set for this as yet. The functionality of AutoRoute however does not compare that of MapPoint in particular there are no external controls available so no programming is possible in AutoRoute .

It was suggested in one of the discussion on mp2kmag.com that it is possible to the AutoRoute data in MapPoint, but it was not detailed as to how to do this. I can confirm that I have successfully done this and it was done as follows:

1) Install both MapPoint Europe and Autoroute on your machine.
2) Copy the contents of c:\Program Files\Microsoft AutoRoute \data\ to c:\Program Files\Microsoft MapPoint Europe\data\ replacing all files with the same names.

Do not delete the data directory from the MapPoint directory first, as there is an additional file in there that is needed in order for MapPoint to work.

I have tested the data from an external control using Microsoft Access, and the functionality would appear the same. The only problem that I have encountered is that it doesn't allow you to search in Dublin, but then neither does the AutoRoute application, and this is just the way it is according to Microsoft!

As to whether this procedure is legal, I do not know. If you have paid for both pieces of software, I see no reason why you shouldn't use them as you please. I would not however recommend that you do this before consulting Microsoft.

	MP2Kmag Internet