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rws

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Posts posted by rws

  1. Custom Map Making Tutorial

    I have created a video tutorial that uses Cypherman's Mapset Toolkit and genTYP...very nice front ends for cGPSMapper...making it real easy to make and install maps with custom color trails into Mapsource. The zip file contains a video that plays in Windows Media Player showing how to make a transparent map from Garmin track files using GPSMapEdit, cGPSMapper, MapsetToolkit and genTYP. Included in the zip file is a READ_ME_FIRST.txt file that has step by step text instructions to follow along with the video.

     

    Creating Custom Garmin Maps from Google Earth Maps

    Here's a video tutorial that plays in Windows Media player to get you started making basic maps by tracing map features in Google Earth and then making and installing the map into your Garmin GPS. Uses the same software as in the Map Making Tutorial above.

     

    Creating Custom Garmin Maps from Google Earth Maps II

    Tutorial 2....adding more detail to the previous Tutorial map....roads, airstrip, resort and parking lots. Once you learn the basics you can add all the detail you want to your maps. Uses the same software as in the Map Making Tutorial above.

  2.  

    Ok. I tried the edit of the DBF file and that seems to work pretty slick. I have not tried the other suggestion but can always if the DBF does not pan out.

     

    Where can I find and explanation for the DBF file schema ? Only the Fullname makes sense to me the other columns I do not understand what they are or their purpose.

     

    So at Mapcenter I can upload something and the output would be a map that the Garmin will recognize and also be routeable ?

     

    Lastly, if I ever get to the point of having the map I desire.... can it co-exist with the Garmin Lower 48 States map that is already pre-loaded ? I can see that on the Tiger files for Rock County some of the new roads are not there but on the Garmin (Navteq) map they are. Just wondering if both maps would feed off of each other or is it only one map at a time.

     

    RWS, as always... thanks for your help and understanding.

     

    Google .dbf you should be able to find plenty of info.

     

    I have not used MapCenter to create any of my maps, but from what I undertand you can get routable maps compiled there. I think the best would to make a non-transparent background map from the Tiger data and add any "new" roads from other sources.

  3. RWS thanks again for the reply. much apprecaited.

     

    Since I'm new to gps and this idea of creating a custom map.... I am wondering what software I'd need to use to modify the shapefile for Rock County and once modified how would it load on the the Garmin unit?

     

    Additionally, once loaded would the new map be "routeable", meaning if I had an address on one of the new roads, e.g. 1579 61st Street the garmin with the new map would route the correct path, etc?

     

    I like the garmin unit and I know someday the map will update but proabably not for quite sometime so I'm wondering if the TomTom with it's MapShare technology would be useful versus the Garmin??

     

     

    Prolly the easiest would be to edit the .dbf file in Excel...using search and replace for the road names...replacing the names with the names from your 911 map. Alternately you could do the same by opening your .mp file created by GPSMapEdit in Notepad doing a search and replace of road names.

     

    Unless you have the expensive routing version of cCPSMapper you'll have to compile the map at MapCenter

     

    There are several tutorials on the net for making custom maps...Google custom Garmin maps.

     

    I don't have any experience with TomTom.

  4. You could use the Tiger shapefile for Rock County and modify the road labels using your 911 road names. Rock County is not that large and wouldn't take too long to do the editing.

     

    I do have access to the E911 map which is provided by the land management office. Would this be sufficent for creating the map or do I have to wait until this Tiger database is updated?

     

    I believe our county has been E911 for two + years and when I search surronding counties (Pipestone and Nobles) they show on the Garmin as already being mapped. How long does it normally take for Garmin to get these updates? Is there a process flow that propagates until it makes it into the Garmin maps?

     

     

    It would be the All lines.

     

    I took a look at Rock County and the roads are not 911 labeled so this is of no use for your project...they evidently haven't gotton to Rock County to do an update.

     

     

    I am new to this so I am not sure what I am exactly looking for in the link you posted or what program i need to convert it into something I can work with.

     

    Below is the list of items that come up when I pick my county for Minnesota, county of Rock.

     

    Files for: Rock

    All Lines

    Area Hydrography

    Area Landmark

    Point Landmark

    Current Block

    Census 2000 Block

    Census 2000 Block Group

    Census 2000 Census Tract

    Current County Subdivision

    Census 2000 County Subdivision

    Census 2000 Voting District

    Address Range-Feature Name Relationship File

    Address Ranges Relationship File

    Feature Names Relationship File

    Topological Faces (2-Cells With All Geocodes) Relationship File

    Topological Faces-Area Hydrography Relationship File

    Topological Faces-Area Landmark Relationship File

     

    Also, I went out today on a few roads that I put a custom map on but the gps unit just showed the CR road names vs. what I had mapped in.

     

    Any guidance would be greatly.... apprecaited.

     

    -Kris

  5. It would be the All lines.

     

    I took a look at Rock County and the roads are not 911 labeled so this is of no use for your project...they evidently haven't gotton to Rock County to do an update.

     

     

    I am new to this so I am not sure what I am exactly looking for in the link you posted or what program i need to convert it into something I can work with.

     

    Below is the list of items that come up when I pick my county for Minnesota, county of Rock.

     

    Files for: Rock

    All Lines

    Area Hydrography

    Area Landmark

    Point Landmark

    Current Block

    Census 2000 Block

    Census 2000 Block Group

    Census 2000 Census Tract

    Current County Subdivision

    Census 2000 County Subdivision

    Census 2000 Voting District

    Address Range-Feature Name Relationship File

    Address Ranges Relationship File

    Feature Names Relationship File

    Topological Faces (2-Cells With All Geocodes) Relationship File

    Topological Faces-Area Hydrography Relationship File

    Topological Faces-Area Landmark Relationship File

     

    Also, I went out today on a few roads that I put a custom map on but the gps unit just showed the CR road names vs. what I had mapped in.

     

    Any guidance would be greatly.... apprecaited.

     

    -Kris

  6. Hi.

     

    I am looking for expert help with an attempt to map E911 Streets/Avenues for the county in which I live.

     

    So far the Garmin maps do not have our E911 Street/Avenue name yet so they show up like CR-15 but really should be 61st, etc.

     

    Can anyone tell me if there is a way to somehow map the E911 street names in to the NUVI model so that the Garmin picks up the new E911 street names??

     

    I watched the two videos on this thread and exchanged a few emails with RWS which were helpful but I cannot seem to get the GPS to recognize the fact I put in a E911 street name.

     

    I can see it on the map but if I drive on that road or try to do a lookup I still see the county road name as CR-15 vs 61st, etc.

     

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

     

    -Kris

     

    Make a custom map using US Census Bureau Tiger/Line Shapefiles for the county you live.

  7. I have a eTrex Vista HCx and a microSD card. I am trying to load both Canada Topographic maps and BlueChart maps for my area. I can do each separately but when I try to put them all together I only see the BlueChart maps.

     

    So far my only option seems to go to the menu and select/unselect all 180 Topo maps or all 165 BlueChart maps.

     

    Is there an either way to switch back and forth on the same card such as a single menu function?

     

    Thanks

     

    see Map Setup Information Page in your users manual...page 41

    essentially press the Menu button again on the Information menu for turning whole mapsets on or off

  8. rws: These would be great maps for geology. Would Cross Sections be doable ?

     

    not a cross section....but you could layer polygons to give a somewhat representation of one

     

    example of 3 layered solid polygons...

    (way out of scale for demo purposes)

     

    layer1.jpg

     

    example of 3 layered semi-transparent polygons...

    (way out of scale for demo purposes)

     

    layer3.jpg

  9. Thanks for the replies guys. rws, could you be more specific about the "custom typ"? I'm not sure I follow you.

     

    Topo does include state and national park boundaries. The polygons in this layer are a compilation of basically every piece of property that is under some sort of conservation easement in North Carolina. It is produced by the NC Natural Heritage Program. Consequently, they tend to be very nice natural areas to visit and its useful to be able to see their boundaries while in the field.

     

    See chapter 7 in the cGPSMapper manual for info on custom type files. For ease of working with typ files get a copy of GenTYP (freeware). I made the above patterns in a graphics program and imported them into GenTYP.

  10. Yeah, I thought I could just hide or show it as I needed, but I'd prefer to get it to project right.

     

    I want to be able to see the other aspects of the Garmin Topo software without my custom map obstructing it. In other words, my custom map is just a bunch of polygons (like to mark state, national park boudnaries) , and in areas where they would have roads going through them, the roads are covered by the polygons. I want the roads (from Topo) to overlay on top of the polygons. I assumed "making custom maps transparent" did that. Do I have it backwards?

     

    You need to make your polygons semi-transparent using custom typ...

     

    Here's a couple of examples of semi-transparent ploygons using a variety of patterns displayed over Topo US 2008....these are in white but can be colored any color you want.

     

    25.jpg

     

    Wave2.jpg

     

    Brick.jpg

     

    Dashed.jpg

  11. The program you want to use is called SportTracks.

     

    I tried to download this but cannot find it anywhere now. I tried a second installation and still nothing.

     

    I also tried downloading the .NET program just in case that might have been the problem. However I got a message saying that that version is incompatible with a version that is already on my computer. It then stopped that installation.

     

    Any idea where I can look for sports track? As far as I can tell it's not listed in the programs that I get to via the start menu.

     

    You'll find it under

     

    Start...All Programs...Zone Five Software...SportTrack 2.0...SportTrack

     

    You already have a more current version of .NET installed

  12. I use Paint.NET (free graphics program) to make .bmp files to be imported into GenTYP to make custom lines and polygons. Making up the desired pattern is real easy using a graphics program. In the case of the following video demo I created a 32 x 3 pixel image to design a dashed line to be imported into GenTYP.

     

    download file and play it in Windows Media Player

    Dashed Line Video Demo

  13. I have some paper maps that have a canoe route shown on them, and I’d like to be able to view these on my GPSr.

     

    Is there any way to scan these and upload them to my receiver?

     

    Also, would it be any easier if I recreated them in Adobe Illustrator first to have the vector information?

     

    What do you guys think? What would you recommend?

     

    Thanks.

     

    Quick way to get your canoe route to GPS:

    scan map to jpg

    open image as an overlay in Google Earth setting transparency to allow GE to show through

    use grab handles to position jpg properly over GE background map

    use Add Path tool to draw over canoe route

    save created path as .kml

    convert .kml to your GPS file format using GPsBabel

    upload canoe track file to your GPS (or if you have a Garmin GPS create a transparent map from the track file)

  14. Bit of a nob question but here goes. I have downloaded several of the custom map sets for Mapsource as listed here in these forums and others. And they all work great, but is there a way to open more than one at the same time. For example I have a set of topo maps loaded for Utah and a set of trail track maps as well. Is there a way to open both so that I can see were the trails are relative to info on the topos (roads, cities, ect.) Overlaid as it were. All I have as official Garmin product is the Trip and Waypoint manager but I have seen screen shots of these custom trail maps overlaid over other map-sets in Mapsource. Thanks for any help PG

     

    You can not overlay two maps in Mapsource. If your "trail track map" is not too extensive you could trace the trails with the Track Draw Tool then view the resulting track file by changing over to your Topo map.

  15. Can someone tell me the difference in hddd mm.mmm & hddd.ddddd & hddd mm'ss.s" or there abbreviations?

    It seems the trails in the Moab hand book are in hours/minutes.hundredths of minutes.

    I am in hddd mm.mmm and would like to change my Garmin 60csx to the Moab trail book settings, so I can plot in the trails.

    I know where to change the settings in my GPS I just need to know which one it is.

    Any help would be nice.

    Thanks

     

    Here are the settings in the book = n38 42.38' w109 54.71'

     

    Here's a custom map I made for the ATV trails in Utah. Installs into Mapsource where you can select the map for upload to your GPSr.

  16. Hey there,i just updated my mapsource version from 6.13.2 to 6.13.6 and was wondering do i put this into my GPSr to get that updated as well? Any help would be appreciated,Garmin is closed on weekends for any support.

    MapSource doesn't run on your GPS. It's the PC interface to manage Garmin map files.

     

    so the update version does'nt change anything on my GPSr topo maps i have loaded on the older version?

     

    Change History

     

    Changes made from version 6.13.5 to 6.13.6:

     

    Fixed error when displaying feature properties on some map products.

    Display find results from base map.

    Correct localization issues for some languages.

     

    Changes made from version 6.13.4 to 6.13.5:

     

    Fixed announcing of extra via points on some USB units

    Fixed incorrect waypoint names when exporting point to point routes

    Fixed incorrect display of Asian language labels

    Fixed incorrect import of user data in Asian languages

    Fixed recognition of SD cards initialized in a marine unit

     

    Changes made from version 6.13.2 to 6.13.4:

     

    Fixed an issue with displaying the product name of some map products.

    Fixed an issue with receiving data from removable media on Windows Vista 64-bit.

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