Bus36

The only really I really have found was the trails on NG Topo mapexchange site. I used Gpsbabel to convert these for my custom maps. Hopefully others have ideas. I would also like data like this for my maps.

As long as you use mapsource or sendmap to load the custom topos then your gpsmap76 will work. As far as I know any unit that you can load maps onto these custom topos will work for it. Let us know how it turns out.

As for the Mac I am not sure. As for the Magellan I believe there is some stuff out there. I remember seeing it somewhere but can't remember where nor do I know how to approach it. Sorry but search around a little and I think you will find something. Good luck.

I think it's great that you have experience with the eX500 and 60Cx, as those are two of more popular model lines among the forum users. I'm more willing to trust your opinion since you have used both brands. My question is, how does the autorouting compare between the DeLorme, Magellan, and Garmin? I know the Garmin beats the Magellan, but why is that the 60Cx is your choice for in the car? Can we get some screen shots here? Maybe a topo screen shot, satallite screen shot etc. Also have you heard how much the additional satallite images are going to be? Just wandering.

Glad to hear that it was a simple fix. Maybe someone can go through this thread and edit the original directions to make it more clear for others correcting and changing things so it is easier. Also adding the alternate way of putting the maps into mapsource using the mapsettoolkit from cypherman I think would be a big help and make it way easier. Thanks again to cypherman for the hard work. I am a little swamped right now with a new house and a baby due within two weeks but hopefully someone can put this together. I would be glad to take a look at it. If not I will try to put something together within a month or so. Any questions keep asking them and I will try to help. Also I want to encourage to share your maps at http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/ just in case we travel and need a map on the fly.

Bus, thank you for replying. Yours and cyphermans guru greatness helps us all as our "map making lives" hang in the balance! The above is where I had originally posted the link. Also, is this where I'd go for my water? And which type of map, specifically (link, please) would I need? Would the Geobase.ca be an appropriate place for roads? NP. I looked at your maps and I think they look great. As for the few contours in the waterways I wouldn't worry about them. As for waterways for Canada I haven't found anything yet. I will try and look into it and see if I can find something for you. The mapcenter website is down right now so I can't see if others have found a place for the waterways. As for the roads I would try the Geobase.ca and load them onto your maps and then go for a drive and see if they are accurate. They will probably be fine but not sure.

Since the Custom Topo maps are transparent, you can see other maps beneath it. I've got an old copy of roads and rec, and heres a sample of what it looks like on the G76CSx. Is there a source for updated road data that could be imported? Maybe you could even import the garmin data? I have the same model as you and the topos, with hydro, look great even with the base map that came with it. I guess that when learning how to do the transparent maps I failed to notice if roads were available. I've lived here for 25 years and my friend's "streets" CD fails to show a 23 year old 4-lane highway that runs right by my house. So if I could make my own map including topo, water and roads selectivly for the areas that I want I wouldn't be held captive by outdated software. Have some friends at the Hgwy Dept that might know of a web site where data could be Dn loaded like the topo/hydro that might be added to the equasion. Wouldn't that be cool? You can add roads. The only problems are it is hard to find updated information and also it is almost impossible to make the roads routable. But you can add them to your maps just as a standard road like in Garmin topo maps. Also if your maps are transparent and you have your custom topos+roads along with lets say garmins maps it can get cluttered. You can always turn off maps though to help this out. You can add a lot of stuff to your maps. Just look around on sites and you can add trails, POI, boundries of parks, townships, etc. The sky is the limit.

Sorry it has taken me so long but have been busy. Anyways. 1. Keep it at 5 or default. Not sure what it is or does? 2. Not sure wouldn't worry about it. 3. Not sure about data for Canada. I have only made US maps as of now. You might be able to go to mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com and see Canadian maps and see if there is waterways then contact an author about where they got it. 4. Where can I download them to take a look? 5. You can play around with the levels and zoom. I made mine the way I did since I think it looks the best. The different levels and such will display the contours different on the gps that is all. It is best to just try a bunch of different settings and also change the detail setting on the gps to see what you like the best. 6. I would say not to worry about it. I will guess that your custom map is fine and I wouldn't be surprised if the basemap was off. You will be surprised when you start comparing maps between navigator, garmin topos and custom topos. I think the custom topos are better and more accurate. If there is anything else let me know. Also let me know where to find a map of yours and I will look at it.

Yep. I went the other way. Had the Garmin topos and made my custom ones. What a difference. That is why I was hoping people would be willing to upload their custom topos so others could use them and share them. They are better and a lot better for hiking and such.

Not sure what is going on. What gps unit do you have? Also have you tried to load other img files with success? Does mapsource load other garmin maps like navigator or topo with success? Maybe some of these answers will help me out. Using a GPSMAP 60 CX with a 512MB SD card. MapSource loads street maps fine. When it comes to my new topo, it crashes ... I am planning on making the topo into two smaller files to test the file size but don't know what else to try. Thanks for looking at this ... dave You could try this to see if it is the img file or mapsource that is giving you problems. 1.Generate the .img map as usual. Change the name of the .img file name to gmapsupp.img. 2.Turn on unit 3. Attach the 60Cx via the USB cable to your computer. 4. After the device has been recongnized, go to: -->Main Menu--> Interface--->USB Mass Storage 5.The system enters a USB storage mode and looks appears as a disk drive. 6.Enter the disk drive where a folder called Garmin exists. 7.Copy the gmapsupp.img file to the folder. 8. Disconnect unit. My guess is that your img file is to large for mapsource but not 100% sure. Try and load the img file onto the gps this way and see what you get. Also if you make smaller files let me know how that turns out. If that still doesn't work then let me know and we can try something else.

Not sure what is going on. What gps unit do you have? Also have you tried to load other img files with success? Does mapsource load other garmin maps like navigator or topo with success? Maybe some of these answers will help me out.

The LBLcoding=9 and Codepage=1252 declarations the author used must not be compatible with your GPSr (or mine as it displayed the same way yours did). Authors Coding I recoded the map in 7-bit ACSII American 7-bit and the full street names appear Thanks for posting the video tutorials. I have looked at many of them and even though I know the process they are helpful for newbies. Do you happen to have a website or something with all your videos on for making maps? If so can you reference it so I can direct people there if needed. Thanks for the great work.

Thanks for trying to help. I know that you do not need your gps hooked up to see the maps in mapsource. I looked at cyphermans mapsettoolkit lastnight and it looks very good and easy. If you use it then you won't have to edit the registry so I would try it first. Anyways here are the answers to your questions. 1. You will not delete your basemap. The basemap is stored on the gps while the maps on the x units are stored on the memory card. So you when you load the custom map you will keep the basemap. Now if you have navigator maps or garmin topo maps you have to load them along with the custom map. This is where if you have navigator maps on your gps then load one custom map you will erase the navigator maps. So navigator, garmin topos and custom maps are stored on the microsd card and the basemap is stored on the gps. 2. Jump in here or try to use cyphermans mapsettoolkit. It can be found here. I think it is much easier but have no step by step instructions as of yet.http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/home If not jump to here for now. Create a folder named “custom” under the Garmin folder and copy your custom map to it. (Only do this for the 1st map ONLY.) 5. Copy cGPSmapper.exe to the same folder. 6. Copy test_pv.txt (found in the Test_Map folder of cGPSmapper) to your custom folder. 7. Edit test_pv.txt (using NotePad or WordPad – works best) so it looks something like this and “File > Save”: [Map] FileName=CINtopo ‘ anything MapVersion=100 ProductCode=111 ‘ a different number for each custom map (not sure this matters) Color=32 Levels=2 Level0=20 ‘ this should be the least detailed (but not empty) layer on your map Level1=17 ‘ anything Zoom0=5 Zoom1=6 MapsourceName=CINtopo ‘ anything (this will be the name of the files and registry entry) MapSetName=CT ‘ anything CDSetName=CT ‘ anything Copy1=Garmin Copy2=Stan [End-Map] ‘ You should do this - delete the Dictionary section that shows up in your “test_pv.txt file”. [Files] img=10000123.img ‘This is your map file name. *** MUST be numbers *** ‘ YOU CAN HAVE SEVERAL OF THESE “img” LINES. They will all be compiled into a single preview map, and you can select and upload them to your GPS individually using Mapsource. [END-Files] 8. Open a “command window” (DOS prompt): Start > Run, type “cmd” and click “OK”. 9. Now type “cd c:\garmin\custom” in the command window to change the directory to the “custom” folder and click “Enter”. 10. Create the preview files: type “cgpsmapper pv test_pv.txt” and click “Enter”. This creates a small preview map file (.img), a table file (.TDB) and a registry file (.reg). You Don’t Have To Do Steps 11-13 Except For You’re 1st Custom Map ONLY 11. Edit the registry file (i.e. CINtopo.reg) that was just created in your “Custom” folder: Right click on it and select Edit. Change the folders (directories) so they point to your custom folder. Yes, you need the double back-slashes: REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Garmin\MapSource\Products\CINtopo] “LOC”=”C:\\Garmin\\custom\\” “BMAP”=”C:\\Garmin\\custom\\CINtopo.img” “TDB”=”C:\\Garmin\\custom\\CINtopo.tdb” and click File > Save. 12. Run the registry file (double click it) that you edited in your “custom” folder and select “yes” to load it into your registry. 13. Open Mapsource. If you made a registry file mistake you will get an error saying to reinstall MapSource. Don’t worry, you don’t have to reinstall. Just run “regedit” (seek help if unsure about this!) and remove the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Garmin\MapSource\Products\CINtopo” key. Repeat the above steps until you get it right. 14. You should now see your map listed in MapSource along with your other Garmin maps in the ‘Product’ list as “CINtopo”. 15. Select (click) your map and the preview map will show up in the map area of the screen. Since we did not go to any trouble to make the preview map pretty you will see an outline and not much more. You may be able to zoom in to see more detail of your custom map. 16. You should now be able to use the “Map Tool” to select your custom map for uploading and upload it with your other maps. Any other quesitons just let me know.

I know that you can't simply load the map from the gps into mapsource. I tried it but it didn't work. You have to modify the registry and such. Check out these websites for help. Also cypherman came up with this program. I think it will make things much easier. Haven't tried it myself yet but looks very good. http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/home http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm Let me know if you still need help Yes I did modify the registry. Mapsource loaded the file into itself fine. I could see the map and manipulate it. But it did not show up in the available map window. And why would mapsource not see my map once it was uploaded using SendMap ??? BTW, It downloded the routes and waypoints just fine. Thanks I will check out those links. For mapsource to see your map you have to edit the registry and such so it knows where the file is. I am no expert I just know if you use sendmap to send it to the gps and then use the gps to send it to mapsource it will not work. So when you load mapsource you can zoom into your custom map and see it? Did you select the map to be uploaded using the map tool? Just a thought. Let me know if you can't get it and I will see what I can do. I have a little more time right now and can try and help people out if needed just let me know.

Check this site out for maps of Canada. Not sure if it has your region but check it out. http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/catalogue.php?country=37

I know that you can't simply load the map from the gps into mapsource. I tried it but it didn't work. You have to modify the registry and such. Check out these websites for help. Also cypherman came up with this program. I think it will make things much easier. Haven't tried it myself yet but looks very good. http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/home http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm Let me know if you still need help

Thank you for all your help. I have managed to create the >img file. I can view the file in Mapedit, so I know it is a good map, but I can't see it in my GPS 60CSx. I am changing the file name to gmapsupp.img and copying it to the gps. I can view the file there but I don't see it on the gps screen. I have gone to the map menu but I don't see the map. I have selected show all but there is no other map then the base map. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks Flapjackson Hmmm not sure what is going on. Have you tried to zoom in? Have you tried to put it into mapsource then load it onto the gps? Here is a tool that could help you out and others. I haven't tried it myself yet since I just modify the registry myself but you might want to try it. http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/home

Have you had time to check the maps out? Just wandering. What other kind of info do you have access to?

Here is the site you can go to and see the maps I have made so far. You can download them in Garmin's .img format and they are ready to be loaded into the gps. http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/ Here is the website that I used as a protocol for making these maps. http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm This will also help you load the maps to your gps. Also there is a new program out there that should help with the process but I haven't tried it yet since I got the old way to work fine but you can give it a shot. http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/home I am in the process of a move but once I am moved in I will look into expanding my areas and incorporating anything that anyone can contribute. Hopefully mtbikernate has some ideas where to get more data for our maps. I would love to expand on them

Not sure what happened but here is my message: I have made some custom topos here in western pa. They have 20ft contours along with waterways. I just wanted to see if anyone is interested in them or interested in another area that I have not covered yet. Also I would like to add trails and such to the maps if anyone has any mapped out that would be great. Ultimately I would like a group of people here in Western Pa to work on custom topo maps along with trails and such for us all to enjoy. Here are the counties I have done so far. Allegheny Armstrong Clarion Butler Forest Indiana Venango Westmoreland I only have one trail so far and that is one called Tadler Run in Clear Creek State Park. Any thoughts, suggestions, requests, or maps of trails would be great. Just throwing this out there to see peoples thoughts.

That is great news. As for the homemade topos as you can see I am from the pittsburgh area as well and have made a bunch of topos for western pa. I can help you out with the process or direct you to the ones that I already have made.

Hmmm. Not sure how to help but maybe if you answer these questions I can help out. What area are you trying to make a topo map for? Where are you getting your data? Are you downloading it as a geotiff? When you use dem2topo soft are you coverting to a .mp file? Try to answer some of these and I will see what I can do. If not we will figure something out. Stick with it. Well worth the wait! The area that i try to make a topo map is Greece.I have the data as .dt1 (this is a dted1 file). Yes i convert to .mp file when i use dem2topo soft. I am not sure what is going on. If you want send me the .dt1 file and I will see what I can do with it. That way we can figure out if it is the file or mapedit. Or if you tell me where you downloaded the data I can just download it and try it. I will pm you my email address.

The only application that I know of that can upload TYP files is SendMap20.exe....which can also upload multiple .img files. Note: TYP and SendMap do not work with all Garmin GPSr's. Use SendMap to upload all your .img files and your TYP file and see if it works. So can you load City Navigator and such through SendMap? Does it keep autorouting? Thanks.

Hmmm. Not sure how to help but maybe if you answer these questions I can help out. What area are you trying to make a topo map for? Where are you getting your data? Are you downloading it as a geotiff? When you use dem2topo soft are you coverting to a .mp file? Try to answer some of these and I will see what I can do. If not we will figure something out. Stick with it. Well worth the wait!

Thanks for your videos. I have made custom topo maps and trail maps the question I had with the TYP's is there a way to load city navigator and keep the autorouting, my custom topo maps, custom trail maps and a map customized with the TYP. I use Mapsource now for loading of maps but see you can't use it for TYP maps.