XL 340TM - 3D Building View?

[mvl]

I think you've got a different expectation of what 3D building view is. Tomtom does not do a photorealistic view of a building, like Google and many in-dash GPS units.

It just shows building "footprints", which look like a 10-foot pedestal in the shape of the building's ground floor.

Also, the Usa/Canada/Mexico map has grown and barely fits on an XL340's internal memory. So Tomtom has started to remove features on the map. Perhaps the first feature removed was the 3D buildings, I don't know.

Separately, at many highway intersections, Tomtom creates an image of the intersection that includes buildings in some cities (called "reality view"). The main purpose of this reality view is to know the proper lane to be in, but there are buildings in the background. In Boston, these fixed-image buildings look nothing like the actual buildings

 

[fk91km]

I believe Garmin, Nextar, and Navigon have photorealistic 3D building view (the building view would represent the actual building size). Guess it is not with TomTom then. If so it's really not making any significant difference.

The realistic view is what makes the 3D building view meaningful. Otherwise, I'd only see a rectangular block on the street--it just won't help at all--the realistic view is what would help me spot the particular building.

Unless TomTom has a long-term solution of the current fixed-memory issue with many TomTom models, we'll continue to see features being dropped.

 

[mvl]

Unless TomTom has a long-term solution of the current fixed-memory issue with many TomTom models, we'll continue to see features being dropped.

Tomtom's solution is to include larger fixed memory in the newer models. In the entire Fall 2010 and later lineup, they now devote 4GB to the USA/Canada/Mexico models.

Teleatlas is also building a photorealistic database of buildings, but so far it hasn't made it into Tomtom PNDs.