Jump to content

New Garmin TOPO? Rumor or Fact?


Recommended Posts

Some things have floated around, in rumor form, about Garmin issuing a new TOPO this year. Maybe 1:24k for the whole USA.

 

Rumor? Fact?

 

Gosh, maybe they will increase the segment size and reduce the segment count. They sure haven't fixed this problem in their firmware, so maybe this new TOPO product is what they are working on.

 

Comments?

Link to comment

Some things have floated around, in rumor form, about Garmin issuing a new TOPO this year. Maybe 1:24k for the whole USA.

 

Rumor? Fact?

 

Gosh, maybe they will increase the segment size and reduce the segment count. They sure haven't fixed this problem in their firmware, so maybe this new TOPO product is what they are working on.

 

Comments?

 

That would be awesome!

 

So far, I have seen two mentions on here of that rumor, IIRC they were from the same user. It would be really great if we could have some elaboration.

Link to comment

Some things have floated around, in rumor form, about Garmin issuing a new TOPO this year. Maybe 1:24k for the whole USA.

 

Rumor? Fact?

 

Gosh, maybe they will increase the segment size and reduce the segment count. They sure haven't fixed this problem in their firmware, so maybe this new TOPO product is what they are working on.

 

Comments?

A recent 60csx firmware update added a feature where a route can have an elevation profile. Garmin said the feature is for when future maps contain Digital Elevation Model data. Maybe the new topo will be one of the new maps that contains DEM data.
Link to comment
1:24k with bigger map segments (so you could fit it on the disc) would be great. I just hope they don't break it up to east and west type thing.
That split is especially bad for Houstonians, since we are on the border. I am always having to grab east and west maps to load. I would hate it if they made you buy both. Now if still lived in beautiful Tucson, the land of -Oz- . . .
Link to comment

A recent 60csx firmware update added a feature where a route can have an elevation profile. Garmin said the feature is for when future maps contain Digital Elevation Model data. Maybe the new topo will be one of the new maps that contains DEM data.

 

All the 1:24K maps (National Parks) are DEM maps.

 

I bought my 60cs years ago. The manual states that a profile can be obtained of a route. Unless it's changed for the x series, you can only see the route when in the navigation mode. And the only profile you get is from point A to B and not the actual route.

 

When I pointed this out to Garmin techs, I had to walk through the steps to convince them that this was the case. May be Garmin will enhance the current DEMs so that the actual profile will be seen, or this is only a feature of the 60c(s)x. But if so, if Garmin updated the firmware, then why isn't this feature working now? Garmin should be shamed for its marketing practices. Anyway, I wouldn't expect to see any new topo mapping from Garmin for a long long time, if ever.

Link to comment
That split is especially bad for Houstonians, since we are on the border. I am always having to grab east and west maps to load. I would hate it if they made you buy both. Now if still lived in beautiful Tucson, the land of -Oz- . . .

Yes, I do normally need just the West. But in under a year I'll be moving around with the Air Force so then I'll want it all *greedy snicker*

Link to comment

The reason I think they would be making a new topo software has to do with map segments. as of right now you have a 2025 map segement limit on the 60csx, and you hit that with topo software at about 512mb card. thats not even the whole US, and you can't even put any city navigator maps on that card. If they made a topo version similar to city navigator NT you may even be able to load both topo & city navigator for the whole US on a 2gb card.

Link to comment

I wonder if they saw how much interest there was for people to make their own maps? Someone somewhere said "Hey, I think there might be a market for this!"

 

Here is an email response to my question about Topo maps. I since have purchased a PN-20 just to have topo quads.

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin.

 

 

Unfortunately, the USGS has not published the whole of the US in digital, vector 1:24K detail (the scale of the 7.5' quads so commonly used)...they have for the 100K scale, though, which is the reason MapSource US TOPO (010-10215-02) uses that detail.

 

 

This is USGS detail, but it is similar to what you would see on a 30' x 60' USGS map.

 

 

The USGS does have Digital Raster Graphics over most of the States in 24K detail, which are in big part what PC based products commercial products out there have. They are largely raster based (scanned quads). We MUST have digital, vector detail for product, though. Our market is different. And the USGS does not have that all over the US, unfortunately. That’s the crux of it.

 

 

The USGS does have some 24K digital, vector detail...but not all the US in such for that scale. We put the 24K National Parks West, 24K National Parks Central and 24K National Parks East products together using some of the digital, vector detail they had.

 

 

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topo24knp.jsp

 

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSourc...po24knpeast.jsp

 

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSourc...4knpcentral.jsp

 

 

But there are many holes in this vector detail they offer...you might have a transportation layer for a quad but not a hypsography layer, for instance, in the vector detail. We ran into this a lot just with putting the National Parks products together. To fill such holes, we put quite a few resources into it.

 

 

But these parks products just cover the specific areas noted/listed on the coverage maps with them.

 

 

If and when these are updated/republished down the way, etc. I assume new coverages will be added. But it is a pecking order on that.

 

 

Please don't take the preceding paragraph too seriously...it is personal speculation...it may pan out differently. I hope it does, really...might mean more data faster. But I expect it will be something like that at this point.

 

 

Thank you again for your interest in Garmin GPS. Have you seen our online Map Viewer? Preview the basic data in many of the MapSource products firsthand.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

From: centme37

Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 9:56 AM

To: cartography@garmin.com

Subject: Maps

 

 

I think an extremely good selling map would be 1:24000 topo (USGS Style) maps for your popular GPSr’s. I’m surprised that you haven’t produced such a product. If you aren’t interested in expending resources to develop such a product, maybe you could contract with a 3rd party. I think a mapping product such as this would sell like crazy.

 

What say you?

 

-

Link to comment

I've noticed that there are definitely quads missing 24k DRGs while trying to compile my own maps. I use all sorts of systems to get the data. The best being to use the DEM data. I would think they could do this too but maybe its not as accurate as I think.

Link to comment
A recent 60csx firmware update added a feature where a route can have an elevation profile. Garmin said the feature is for when future maps contain Digital Elevation Model data. Maybe the new topo will be one of the new maps that contains DEM data.

 

All the 1:24K maps (National Parks) are DEM maps.

 

I bought my 60cs years ago. The manual states that a profile can be obtained of a route. Unless it's changed for the x series, you can only see the route when in the navigation mode. And the only profile you get is from point A to B and not the actual route.

 

When I pointed this out to Garmin techs, I had to walk through the steps to convince them that this was the case. May be Garmin will enhance the current DEMs so that the actual profile will be seen, or this is only a feature of the 60c(s)x. But if so, if Garmin updated the firmware, then why isn't this feature working now? Garmin should be shamed for its marketing practices. Anyway, I wouldn't expect to see any new topo mapping from Garmin for a long long time, if ever.

Changes made from version 3.10 to 3.20:

* Add capability to see vertical profile of an autoroute using DEM topo data.

Interesting. I re-read the notes and they say autoroute. Good for road bicyclers. When someone asked Garmin about the feature they said it was for future maps. The DEM data will be added to the autorouting maps then, since you say topo already has it. So nevermind about the DEM in topo comment.

 

Edit: Another curious thought is maybe they are adding autorouting to the Topo maps instead of topo data to autoroute maps

Edited by John E Cache
Link to comment
The reason I think they would be making a new topo software has to do with map segments. as of right now you have a 2025 map segement limit on the 60csx, and you hit that with topo software at about 512mb card. thats not even the whole US, and you can't even put any city navigator maps on that card. If they made a topo version similar to city navigator NT you may even be able to load both topo & city navigator for the whole US on a 2gb card.

Call me a sketpic, but I think that you are dead on. I look for Garmin's "new" topo maps, if the offer them, to be plain jain 1:100K topos, re-tiled and offered in 'NT' ("New Technology") format to increase their compression. I will allow the entire US City Nav and Topo on a 2GB card. I'm not holding my breath for 1:24K maps.
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...