rwsmith123
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Posts posted by rwsmith123
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i have just purchased the mapsource topo.gb v2 and i am currently trying to upload it into my etrex vista hcx. its taking hours that said i have selected the entire country (as i have a 2gig card) is this usual ? or am i doing something very wrong ?. this would not surprise me as just getting the software registered was an ordeal in its self.
thanks psalters c.f.c
If the slow part is doing the actual transfer and not building the mapset then getting a cardreader and xfering the maps to the card directly would be a lot quicker.
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Is there a preferred place to buy these from? Also, are there any signage guys out there that know what the actual material is and if can be purchased at a sign supply distributor? Thx in advance.
See http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=164162&hl=
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I'm pretty sure I've got an un-opened copy of Topo '08 lying around here somewhere. Let me look and I'll get back to you as soon as I lay my hands on it!
Were you able to find it?
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When you used to get 2 unlocks per product, then you would go with the non NT version if you had an older GPS that can't use NT maps and one that did since you could use the non NT version on both.
You can make a TYP file to customize the way a map looks on the GPS as well as in MapSource. Currently I don't believe that you can generate a TYP file that works properly with the NT version.
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Does anyone know of a way to merge the East and West data into one dataset? I live very close to the dividing line, and it's a real PITA to have to constantly switch between the two when using MapSource on my PC.
The program will put East, West, Alaska & Hawaii into on dataset so you don't have to switch. If you don't want to combine the maps into larger segments, you can just copy all the .img files from the original maps into one directory, and then just do step 3 and 4 from the instructions.
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Is the DEM data saved in a grid format, essentially one independent "layer" in the Garmin IMG file or does each zoom "layer" have it's own DEM data?
Also, where can I find good documentation on the IMG file structure? I've browsed a document on SourceForge named imgformat-1.0.pdf, but it makes no mention of DEM or elevation data & seems rather incomplete.
There is a DEM section in addition to the TRE, LBL, and RGN sections.
That's the only document that I know of. You can also download the source code for gpsmapedit to see how it parses .img files.
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I didn't say the DEM data wasn't used on the GPSr, just that the GPSr doesn't use it to shade the maps. The other use of DEM data on the GPSr is vertical profile of routes, but the DEM data takes a lot of space making the maps a lot larger so if you don't care about the few features you'll lose then you'll be able to load a lot more maps.
As for the question about cgpsmapper being optimized or not, I don't know. I am familiar with the .img format and know that it takes a lot more processing to encode the .img format than to decode it (just as it takes a lot more time to compress files into an archive than to uncompress them).
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Very cool project. The segment limitation is as silly as the 10,000 track point limitation, especially for the "x" version Garmin products.
It doesn't seem very likely that all of Topo 2008 will fit in 2GB though. How much "compression" do you see? Here are the numbers I get when selecting map segments in Topo 2008: Continental US = 3.129 GB, Alaska = 847.3 MB, Hawaii = 4.58 MB.
The DEM data (the data which is needed for map shading in MapSource) will be stripped out during the process of combining the segments. You can have both the original Topo 2008 and the new version with larger segments and no DEM data on the PC to use with MapSource. You would choose the original with the nice shading in MapSource to plan trips, etc. You would use the one with larger segments and no DEM data on the GPSr which won't show shading anyway. Without the DEM data you would be able to fit all of Topo 2008 on a 2GB card.
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So who's going try it out?
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and you're not working for garmin why?
lol nicely done.
Because I don't want to move to Kansas City.
i just find it humorous that an average joe guy can do this meanwhile their software experts cant think of stuff like this.
It's not that they can't think of it, it's a matter of having to support GPSr's with limited memory. Someone with an eTrex Legend with 8 Meg of memory doesn't want maps with large segments. One big complaint when City Navigator North America v7 came out was that the map segments were too large.
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and you're not working for garmin why?
lol nicely done.
Because I don't want to move to Kansas City.
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As most people know all Garmin GPSr units have a segment limit (ie. the number of map segments that can be loaded to the GPS). For example the 60CSx has a limit of 2025. The US Topo maps have a total of 6639 segments so all the maps can't be loaded to the GPSr even if you have enough memory to hold them all. Tools already exist that someone could use to combine map segments into larger ones to get around this limitation, however doing this manually would be extremely tedious. I've written a tool (CombineMaps) which automates the process. Using the configuration and files supplied with my tool you can combine the 6639 segments into 370 segments (each segment is approx 100 miles by 100 miles). The segments are up to 7.8 Meg in size with the median size being 3.18 Meg.
Here is a screenshot of the combined US Topo maps:
Even if you don't want to load all the US Topo maps to your GPSr, having larger segments has other advantages. It takes MapSource a lot less time to build the mapset, building the mapset for the new combined US Topo maps only took 16 minutes, doing that for all of the original maps would take many hours. The combined maps for a given area will take up less memory than with the smaller map segments since there is some overhead involved with each segment. And you can even make changes to the features in the combined maps.
You can download the instructions from here.
The program can also be used with the new US Topo 2008 maps. If someone wants to donate a legal copy of US Topo 2008, then I'll generate the files needed to use with the tool.
Rich
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The $90 flat rate is posted on thier web page for service after warrenty, that is now over by one year. I don't think they would warrent against the flying lessons by a grand daughter. I would like to know if any here had opened one up though.
Did you check the odometer or track log to see how fast she was able to throw it?
BTW, the flat rate repair fee applies no matter what condition the unit is in, so you have nothing to loose in trying to fix it yourself.
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I think if you choose "Show Basemap," that option will "Hide CN," which you don't want/
That is the way my Vista C is set up, except when I am hiking and I choose "Show Topo."
No, you can show basemap and CN, which is preferred since the basemap will show instead of CN when you zoom out, since the basemap has less detail it makes drawing the map much faster when zoomed out. With the basemap hidden it will draw much more, taking a lot more time, and making the map unreadable when zoomed out.
As for having BC and CN enabled at the same time, BC will overwrite CN. Some BC maps cover land areas near the coast and some of the larger maps go inland quite a ways (with no detail), so you most likely wouldn't want both enabled.
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I've never seen a time when they didn't come out with a full version. The update version comes out first, then the full version, then the equivalent MetroGuide version.
I have heard rumor that Garmin would not release MG 2008, due to the patch that give this autorouting.
City Navigator Europa v9 was first released on GPS september 2006.
First sight of MG v9 was just now in July 2007.
If you try to order it, you may still get v8
I bet that they do release MG NA 2008. It has been somewhat common knowledge for years that using sendmap to transfer the maps to the gps will keep routing info. However doing so won't transfer the info needed to do a "find by name" which really isn't a big deal since "find nearest" would still work fine. So someone came up with a convoluted process so that "find by name" would still work. Then someone wrote a program to automate the process, then the .tdb patch. All that so you could still do a "find by name", but people have been using sendmap to load MG maps with routing to the gps for years.
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Doubt there will be that big of a difference between CN8 & CN2008.
I updated from CS7 to CN8 last year & my area had few changes.
FWIW, v8 has 5,428,786 POI's and 2008 has 6,114,707 POI's, a 12.6% increase. v8 has 6,118,614 miles of roads and 2008 has 6,151,038 miles, a 5.3% increase.
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Not to kick a dead horse here but there has been a lot of discussion about City Navigator North America 2008. Currently CN 2008 is only available as an update to CN version 8. We keep talking about when it will be available as a stand alone DVD product to load onto our new receivers. After talking with representatives from Garmin, TigerGPS and REI, NO ONE has heard that this update will be released as a stand alone version in the foreseeable future. For those of us who have new Garmin GPSr's with no old version of CN to upgrade that puts us in a pickle. In order to get current maps that means 1. Purchace $140 CN v8 and $50+ 2008 upgrade 2. Purchace CN v8 and live with older maps or 3. Wait for who knows how long until CN 2008 is released as it's own stand alone product. I'm not sure what Garmin's marketing strategy is with this update. If I pay the $140 for the newest version of City Navigator why shouldn't I get the most updated maps?
I've never seen a time when they didn't come out with a full version. The update version comes out first, then the full version, then the equivalent MetroGuide version.
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I just found a couple good links.
Garmin's new 2008 (v9) Maps vs. v8 Maps: is it worth upgrading?
How to Install Garmin's Map Update 2008 (Step-by-Step Instructions)
Deciding if it's worth the upgrade based on 3 random routes is pretty arbitrary.
BTW, v8 has 5,428,786 POI's and 2008 has 6,114,707 POI's, a 12.6% increase. v8 has 6,118,614 miles of roads and 2008 has 6,151,038 miles, a 5.3% increase.
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Why NT
1. They do take less space on the GPS
2. They contain more routing information that can be used by new GPS.
3. Has larger segment size. All GPS do suffer from the 2025 segment limit, so you would save segment, so you can add more Topo maps etc.
Non-NT map will work, but it's made for older unit with less memory space.
Where did you get #2 from? That's the first I've heard of that.
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You end up with a BUNCH of *.img files on your HDD after installing US2008. It'd be tedious, but if you really wanted, you can figure out which files you DO want, and delete the rest....not sure if MapSource would be happy with that if it can't find the file, but at least you'll have all that drive space available!
You can add the registry entry "PartialInstall=1" for the map product to make MapSource happy if you delete any .img files.
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I am not a computer kind of guy, I have WEBTV, not even a computer. I do have a Sony PSP which I can get on the internet via WiFI. I would like to save the cache pages to look at while caching but, some how I have to have the cache page an image that the cursor recognizes so I can save image. Does someone know how I can make the page (preferable the printer friendly page) an image? I dont know if I could send it to a computer and have it sent back to me in some format. I hope this makes sence to someone.
Check to see if your local library has computers you can use. If so, use them to print out the cache info.
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Just as you could modify the registry to have the old US Topo run from the HD, you could modify the registry to have Topo 2008 run from the DVD. Depending on how the files are stored on the original DVD you may have to write a DVD with the .img files on it.
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"Installing Topo 2008 won't do anything to the old Topo installation, you will be able to use both."
Any reason I'd want to keep the old installation?
Only if you want to compare them.
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Thanks for the info. I did not see the Topo program listed in Add/Remove. I also had copied the Topo West map sets to my hard drive to eliminate the need to insert a CD each time. I changed the registry to point to this location. I assume that when I install Topo 2008 it will reset the registry settings. I should be able to delete the old topo files, install T2008, copy certain T2008 map sets to my hard drive, and change the registry back to point to my C drive. Let's hope.
Installing Topo 2008 won't do anything to the old Topo installation, you will be able to use both. To delete the old version, edit the registry to remove the entries for the old Topo, then delete the files from the HD.
No good trail maps for Garmin?
in GPS technology and devices
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That's the reason that comprehensive maps don't exist. If you have the data globalmapper can probably read the format the data is in, then you use cgpsmapper to generate the map. Getting the data is the hard part.