Biaspoint

I guess I jumped on the bandwagon too late for MAC (I read the current version does not contain access to all the maps?) However, I was able to kind of sort of figure out a way to use Okmap (BTW, after playing with it, it IS a very powerful program, but the programmer is way to smart for the common man... however I won't complain about free and powerful). Here is what I did, I still have some tweaking as I can't seem to get the KMZ file I create to be drawn first, it draws on top of the other maps and covers them up. And also, I need to be able to create different zoom levels (since I create just 1 raster image, or one zoom level, it looks silly on the garmin at other zoom setting) Hopefully these are easy fixes. Step 1: Obviously download and install OkMaps, it did pause for awhile for me as well, just have some patience (but it should not be more than a few minutes) and then run the program. Step 2: Utilities -> Google Map Server This interface is not very intuitive, until you use it. I clicked on "Sel coordinates" and you get a pop up with what appears to be the same information that you seen on the original screen, but for some reason it works this way (use the tabs to go to DMM or DMS for easier input)... enter a center coord and "Accept". The "Sel location" takes you to a geocoding pop up where you should be able to enter a town or maybe an address instead. It then converts the coords for you. Step 3: You can now "Get image" but, I think this is a little confusing. Set your zoom level (I used 16), your source of map (Satellite for me), and the resolution is not really resolution it is more like map size. So if you only want a small area around your center coord as an image, choose 1024x1024 (I chose 4096x4096). You should now be able to click "Get Image". I am not really sure how the zoom and pan affect things after you "Get Image", but I just hit "Save map" and you save it as an .okm file or a native okmap's map. Step 4: Create the KMZ Utilities -> Map tiling, it will tell you to "Load a map", so do it by navgating to the .okm map you just created (should be an icon in the top left). It automatically broke the image/map down into 16 chunks (1024x1024 each), but I think you can hit the magic wand icon to do it for you if it did not. I used the defaults for KMZ, Jpg, and 75 quality... and then click on the triangle at top (real intuitive, right?) to save it as an KMZ. I then copied the KMZ to my custom map folder on my garmin and it showed right up (with the problems I mentioned). YMMV I did get some black lines across my images at one time, but I did the process again and the lines went away (might have to close and open, but still FREE and worth it!!)... I don't usually use freeware, but this one has some really great potential if folks could start using it, maybe give the guy some feedback (and money if you are so inclined).