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Etrex Vista CX - removing map data


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I just got the topo maps for my new vista cx, easy to load, how the heck do you remove them? Can't find a thing in the manual. . .

New map data always replaces any existing map data. You can turn off the display of the maps from the map setup page.

 

So, for example say I had all of Mississippi loaded and then I loaded all of Arkansas, I'd lose the Mississippi data on the sd card?

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I just got the topo maps for my new vista cx, easy to load, how the heck do you remove them? Can't find a thing in the manual. . .

New map data always replaces any existing map data. You can turn off the display of the maps from the map setup page.

 

So, for example say I had all of Mississippi loaded and then I loaded all of Arkansas, I'd lose the Mississippi data on the sd card?

Yes.

 

If you want Mississippi and Alabama, you would need to load both at the same time.

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That is one WEIRD approach to handling it, but it is what it is. Wonder why they just didn't put in a menu to manually delete what you didn't want on there - seems easy enough.

 

Right, it is what it is. You could shorten up your next upload by doing the following: Put the unit into mass storage mode (I am assuming the Vista Cx has that capability). The unit will now show up on your computer as a removable drive. In the "Garmin" file there is a file called "gmapsupp.img". Copy that file to your hard drive. Then, the next time you want that map set, you can just put it back on you GPS without having MapSource go through tne build process.

Edited by CenTexDodger
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That is one WEIRD approach to handling it, but it is what it is. Wonder why they just didn't put in a menu to manually delete what you didn't want on there - seems easy enough.

 

Right, it is what it is. You could shorten up your next upload by doing the following: Put the unit into mass storage mode (I am assuming the Vista Cx has that capability). The unit will now show up on your computer as a removable drive. In the "Garmin" file there is a file called "gmapsupp.img". Copy that file to your hard drive. Then, the next time you want that map set, you can just put it back on you GPS without having MapSource go through tne build process.

 

How do you do this - this is what I wanted to to last night

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That is one WEIRD approach to handling it, but it is what it is. Wonder why they just didn't put in a menu to manually delete what you didn't want on there - seems easy enough.

 

Right, it is what it is. You could shorten up your next upload by doing the following: Put the unit into mass storage mode (I am assuming the Vista Cx has that capability). The unit will now show up on your computer as a removable drive. In the "Garmin" file there is a file called "gmapsupp.img". Copy that file to your hard drive. Then, the next time you want that map set, you can just put it back on you GPS without having MapSource go through tne build process.

 

How do you do this - this is what I wanted to to last night

 

Like I said, I am assuming here, because I don't have a Vista Cx, I have a 60CSx. It should be something like this: go to the Main menu-->setup-->interface--> select "USB Mass Storage" and hit enter.

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That is one WEIRD approach to handling it, but it is what it is. Wonder why they just didn't put in a menu to manually delete what you didn't want on there - seems easy enough.

 

Because the design of the whole map handling concept is based on the idea that Mapsource builds one big tree structure representing all the map segments available in the GPS, and transfers it to the GPS' memory. So when you load multiple maps, they end up as one big binary structure (one file), and deleting a part of it is somewhat like trying to stuff the toothpaste back into the tube. There also didn't use to be a file system on the storage cards, and the big-blob-file approach doesn't require one. (A file system in a simple device is a Bad Thing, because it introduces a lot of complexity such as fragmentation and possible inconsistencies/corruption.)

 

Garmin handheld GPSes have very limited computing performance, to keep them cheap and to make them run days on two AAs, so every little bit of optimization counts.

 

In addition, this overwrite-all solution can be explained to the average nontechnical user in two sentences, and doesn't require any sort of additional user interface.

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