Jump to content

Free Topo Maps for Garmin GPS


ibycus

Recommended Posts

Is there a way to have the offroad trails appear darker (presently light grey) or have them a different color because they are really hard to distinguish?

Does the data in Alberta look like what you want it to look like? (Alberta has tiles most up to date with my latest processing methods...NB is *slightly* out of data as far as my methods go)

I assume you are talking about on your GPS. What GPS do you use? Some have different ways of rendering than others.

 

I haven't received my nuvi660 yet. I should get it Monday or Tuesday, and have strictly been commenting on how it looks in mapsource. The solid line in the map is a dirt road but the dotted lines are also roads but you can hardly see them. Maybe in the the GPS it will show better but in mapsource they are really hard to see. Also is it possible to lower the intensity of the thick brown contour lines? I really think the topo lines are too pronounced as compared to the roads and rivers. Again I am basing my comments from the way they look in mapsource.

 

map1.JPG

Edited by D0T-C0M
Link to comment

Hmmmm. not sure what I can do there. So are those like 4WD roads? It looks like they are listed as "Trails" rather than roads. In general, the 'trail' designation makes sense for this feature, and I'm not sure if I've got the granularlity in my dataset to tell the difference between this type of road, and a trail.

Link to comment

well I guess technically the dotted lines are single lane roads/trails. The solid lines are 2 lane dirt roads. Everything is correct as far as the designation its just is there no way to increase the intensity of the dotted lines and lower the intensity of the thick brown topo lines?

Edited by D0T-C0M
Link to comment

well I guess technically the dotted lines are single lane roads/trails. The solid lines are 2 lane dirt roads. Everything is correct as far as the designation its just is there no way to increase the intensity of the dotted lines and lower the intensity of the brown topo lines?

 

It is (theoretically) possible using TYP files. I haven't played around with them much though (mostly because my GPS doesn't support them, so I have no way of testing anything). The rendering of them on the GPS will be somewhat different in any event.

Edited by ibycus
Link to comment

It is (theoretically) possible using TYP files. I haven't played around with them much though (mostly because my GPS doesn't support them, so I have no way of testing anything). The rendering of them on the GPS will be somewhat different in any event.

 

Good enough I will wait to comment further until I receive my new nuvi660. Thanks for the support. I appreciate your efforts in getting these topo maps compiled for NB.

 

ch33rs

DC

Link to comment

Oh just wanted to know where can I get info to compile my own maps?

 

Depends on how much in to the nitty gritty you want to get.

 

There is a yahoo group with some good folks on it, and some good resources.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/map_authors

 

Here's a howto

http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm#1

 

Two major programs are pretty much prereqs:

cgpsmapper - http://www.cgpsmapper.com (this is the compiler)

GPSMapEdit - http://www.geopainting.com - This is a 'front end' to cgpsmpaper. There are a couple out there, but this one seems to suite my purposes fairly well.

 

My own method isn't really suitable for 'public consumption' (involves several different programs that I wrote).

 

Dale

Link to comment

Oh just wanted to know where can I get info to compile my own maps?

 

Depends on how much in to the nitty gritty you want to get.

 

There is a yahoo group with some good folks on it, and some good resources.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/map_authors

 

Here's a howto

http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm#1

 

Two major programs are pretty much prereqs:

cgpsmapper - http://www.cgpsmapper.com (this is the compiler)

GPSMapEdit - http://www.geopainting.com - This is a 'front end' to cgpsmpaper. There are a couple out there, but this one seems to suite my purposes fairly well.

 

My own method isn't really suitable for 'public consumption' (involves several different programs that I wrote).

 

Dale

 

Thanks so much. I'm good to read for awhile with those links. All I want is to learn how to customize the northern half of NewBrunswick which is where I do all my hunting. I don't need the topo info and just want the rivers, trails, dirt roads, and all streets and highways. I might not succeed but I am willing to try to learn.

 

Again thanks Bud

Link to comment

In that case, the process is:

 

1. Determine the map tile you need to edit (named based on NTS number 082O01 is 10821501.img (The '1' is to pad to 8 characters, O is the 15th letter of the alphabet)

2. Open in GPSMapEdit

3. Make the changes you want

4. Recompile with cgpsmapper (cgpsmapper ac filename.mp)

5. Create the PV file (required if you want to view in Mapsource... see test_pv.txt that comes with cgpsmapper)

6. Recompile with cgpsmapper pv test_pv.txt (pvx if using my mapset)

7. Put the files in the right places.

 

HTH.

 

Dale

Link to comment

thanks alot. What version of GPSMapEdit and cgpsmapper are you using?

 

GPSMapEdit 1.0.40.4 - Shareware Version

I only really use this peripherally. Mostly I've replaced the functionality of this with my own programs. Do still use for viewing files though.

 

cgpsmapper 0095 March 4th - Routable Version (The author gave me a good deal because I'm not selling the maps), you should be able to use the shareware version. If you re-upload my maps to mapcenter, I ask only that you keep the text of your map description similar to the text description of mine, and put similar use restrictions on it (non-commercial, private use only)

Edited by ibycus
Link to comment

thanks alot. What version of GPSMapEdit and cgpsmapper are you using?

 

GPSMapEdit 1.0.40.4 - Shareware Version

I only really use this peripherally. Mostly I've replaced the functionality of this with my own programs. Do still use for viewing files though.

 

cgpsmapper 0095 March 4th - Routable Version (The author gave me a good deal because I'm not selling the maps), you should be able to use the shareware version. If you re-upload my maps to mapcenter, I ask only that you keep the text of your map description similar to the text description of mine, and put similar use restrictions on it (non-commercial, private use only)

hummm I think the free version will do what I want I think if not I'll use the online compiler and not change your map description will remain intact. Thanks for the permission to re-post your maps if I need to use the online compiler :laughing:

Edited by D0T-C0M
Link to comment

You just need to make up a TYP file. There is no need or reason to modify the map files. With a TYP file, you can make the lines appear any way that you want.

 

What is shown in Ibycus' maps are the default Garmin views... Complain to Garmin. They will look different in a Nuvi as that line shows things quite differently.

Link to comment

@Ibycus I see that in cgpsmapper all I have to do is select by type and delete of the topo contour lines very fast but when I deleted the object types pertaining to the elevation contour lines(brown dash and solid brown lines) and saved the file *.mp

 

When I run the command "cgpsmapper ac filename.mp" I get the following error "E038: Type of element cannot be 0" , Any idea why?

 

After I get rid of this error, can you email your test_pv.txt file so that when I compile my map, it will be the same as all your maps.

Edited by D0T-C0M
Link to comment

You just need to make up a TYP file. There is no need or reason to modify the map files. With a TYP file, you can make the lines appear any way that you want.

 

What is shown in Ibycus' maps are the default Garmin views... Complain to Garmin. They will look different in a Nuvi as that line shows things quite differently.

 

PLease explain a little, what is a TYP file and how is this going to help me hide the topo contours?

Link to comment

@Ibycus I see that in cgpsmapper all I have to do is select by type and delete of the topo contour lines very fast but when I deleted the object types pertaining to the elevation contour lines(brown dash and solid brown lines) and saved the file *.mp

 

When I run the command "cgpsmapper ac filename.mp" I get the following error "E038: Type of element cannot be 0" , Any idea why?

 

After I get rid of this error, can you email your test_pv.txt file so that when I compile my map, it will be the same as all your maps.

 

Easiest way to solve this, is to select all elements with Type 0x0 GPSMapEdit, and change them to Type 0x6.

 

Type 0 used to be an allowed datatype. Its not any more due to it looking really crummy on certain units.

 

Dale

Link to comment

You just need to make up a TYP file. There is no need or reason to modify the map files. With a TYP file, you can make the lines appear any way that you want.

 

What is shown in Ibycus' maps are the default Garmin views... Complain to Garmin. They will look different in a Nuvi as that line shows things quite differently.

 

PLease explain a little, what is a TYP file and how is this going to help me hide the topo contours?

 

TYP files will give you full control over how items are displayed. You can change all kinds of things with a custom TYP file (draw order, colour weight, etc). You can compile a TYP file with cgpsmapper.

Link to comment

@Ibycus I see that in cgpsmapper all I have to do is select by type and delete of the topo contour lines very fast but when I deleted the object types pertaining to the elevation contour lines(brown dash and solid brown lines) and saved the file *.mp

 

When I run the command "cgpsmapper ac filename.mp" I get the following error "E038: Type of element cannot be 0" , Any idea why?

 

After I get rid of this error, can you email your test_pv.txt file so that when I compile my map, it will be the same as all your maps.

 

Easiest way to solve this, is to select all elements with Type 0x0 GPSMapEdit, and change them to Type 0x6.

 

Type 0 used to be an allowed datatype. Its not any more due to it looking really crummy on certain units.

 

Dale

 

Well that is really going to be alot of work. Its easy to delete both types of elevation contours but there's hundreds of these type=0x0 in the .mp file

 

Is there an easier way just to hide the contour polygons? Maybe creating zoom level that is so far away. I'll have to check this TVP file to see if it is going to save me some work. Maybe Ibycus if you have a private method of doing this that would be fairly easy I would donate something for your troubles.

Link to comment

Shouldn't be too hard. There is a select by type option in GPSMapEdit.

 

Edit --> Select --> By Type...

 

Check off the type to select (0x000)

Right click on one of the selected roads

Modify --> Type

Select 0x0006

 

If you have trouble, one possible workaround is to compile with the -e option, but this isn't really ideal

 

cgpsmapper ac -e filename.mp

 

another option is to open up the .mp file in something like wordpad, and do a find and replace all 0x0 for 0x6.

 

Oh, forgot to mention, I'd send you my _pv file, but it wouldn't do you much good as it isn't currently in sync with the version of the maps you've got, so it would give you errors trying to compile.

 

To generate the list of img files:

1. Start -> Run -> cmd

2. cd directory where your img files are

3. dir /s *.img > filelist.txt

4. Open filelist.txt in word or so similar

5. Find and replace .img (paragraph mark) for .img (paragraph mark) img=

6. Tidy up the first and last line of the file.

7. Stuff those lines in to the sample PV file that comes with cgpsmapper.

8. Flavour PV file to taste.

 

I should also mention, you might want to keep your custom maps in a seperate directory from my mapset, otherwise running map update will blow away any changes that you've made.

 

We're getting a little off topic here, so I suggest we take this conversation to private e-mails if you'd like to go any further (or the yahoo group I mentioned earlier).

 

Dale Atkin

d a t k i n a t i b y c u s d o t c o m

Link to comment

If all that you want to do is not see contour lines, I'm pretty sure you can tuen them off in the GPS settings.

 

Really? I'll have to look for that setting as I've never noticed it.

 

I had a friend come over with his nuvi 250 (my nuvi660 comes in on monday) and I couldn't find where to turn off topo contours like red90 suggested but that being said the contours were much less noticeable in the GPS mainly because in mapsource you can see much more of the map so it looks way cluttered but in the GPS you only see a small portion of the map so its not as bad. I will try frig with this some more to see if I can't remove them from the map.

 

Ibycus by using the free compiler what would be the difference between my freshly compiled maps and your maps compiled with your unlocked compiler? I know the free version doesn't do POIs searching and routing but I believe your topo don't have that yet for my area. I'm pertty sure those are things I wouldn't use anyways while using topo maps. Thanks for all the tips.

 

I wouldn't mind doing the maps of my local golf course hehehe.

Edited by D0T-C0M
Link to comment

ibycus, I have a bunch of .img maps but I don't think I can load them using Mapsource. Is there a trick to this that you could tell me about?

 

I take it this isn't my mapset, but another one you're playing with (if mine, it should install itself in to mapsource, and you can select it from the drop down list in the top left hand corner).

 

The key is you need to have a TDB and IMG pair of files, and they need to be properly set up in the registry. You can create these using cgpsmapper. Apparently MapSetToolkit works pretty good for streamlining the process (http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/), haven't used it much myself though.

E-mail me privately if you need any more help.

 

Dale

Link to comment

ibycus, I have a bunch of .img maps but I don't think I can load them using Mapsource. Is there a trick to this that you could tell me about?

 

Are you using his maps?? If so, you should have downloaded an EXE file. Run that and it will install the maps in Mapsource (on a PC).

 

If you mean "other" maps, then let us know and we can help further.

Link to comment

ibycus and red90: I am referring to "other" maps. I appreciate any help you can provide. I currently have been using MapSend but had problems using such with the Colorado and noticed how easily ibycus Topo was sent (and very nice maps, BTW!) in Mapsource and would like to do the same with the maps that I have. Thanks!

Link to comment

With all the talk about turning on and off contour lines, I have downloaded ibycus' US topo. It shows no contour lines. Is this just a setting somewhere?

 

BTW, thanks, ibycus. We are planning a geocaching trip to Alabama from Ontario in June, and what you have already compiled will be a great help. :)

Link to comment

With all the talk about turning on and off contour lines, I have downloaded ibycus' US topo. It shows no contour lines. Is this just a setting somewhere?

 

BTW, thanks, ibycus. We are planning a geocaching trip to Alabama from Ontario in June, and what you have already compiled will be a great help. :)

 

Actually I don't have any topo in the US yet. They are just street maps. Eventually I'd like to have the possibility of contours, but I've got to find the right dataset to work from (in particular it needs to be set up in such a way as to allow bulk downloads)

Link to comment

With all the talk about turning on and off contour lines, I have downloaded ibycus' US topo. It shows no contour lines. Is this just a setting somewhere?

 

BTW, thanks, ibycus. We are planning a geocaching trip to Alabama from Ontario in June, and what you have already compiled will be a great help. :D

 

Actually I don't have any topo in the US yet. They are just street maps. Eventually I'd like to have the possibility of contours, but I've got to find the right dataset to work from (in particular it needs to be set up in such a way as to allow bulk downloads)

 

I can't get the exe to run on my computer with Vista, works great on xp, has anyone been able to get it to work on Vista (might be one of the many settings I have wrong).

Link to comment

I am also running Vista. I was able to install the maps and they do show up in MapSource. Everything seems to work on that end.

 

However, I cannot get the update to work. I have downloaded the file. when I run the file and click on "check for updates" I get the following pop up: "Unable to get update listing...Site may be down".

 

Am I doing something wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Link to comment

I am also running Vista. I was able to install the maps and they do show up in MapSource. Everything seems to work on that end.

 

However, I cannot get the update to work. I have downloaded the file. when I run the file and click on "check for updates" I get the following pop up: "Unable to get update listing...Site may be down".

 

Am I doing something wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

Firewall?

Link to comment

I am also running Vista. I was able to install the maps and they do show up in MapSource. Everything seems to work on that end.

 

However, I cannot get the update to work. I have downloaded the file. when I run the file and click on "check for updates" I get the following pop up: "Unable to get update listing...Site may be down".

 

Am I doing something wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

I'm with Red90 on this one. I'm guessing its a firewall problem. This is the error you get if it is unable to download the update file listing. My guess is you've got a program in there that restricts which programs get to access the internet and you haven't allowed MapUpdate.exe access.

 

Dale

Link to comment

Just running the update executable now for the first time on Vista and it seems to be working. It shows it has downloaded 21 of 2232 files so far. I didn't get any prompt about needing to allow it access through the firewall.

 

I know it works with the Windows firewall, but some are much more...restrictive than the Windows one.

 

Dale

Link to comment

I'm from Calgary............maps are great. Just curious why the city and town roads (calgary for eg. ) on the colorado aren't showing up. My theory is there the same colour as the background.

 

You need to update to the latest 1.31 version and they should show. The Colorado shows type 0 roads as white, so Ibycus changed them to type 6 in version 1.31

 

1. Download and run http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/download/MapUpdate.exe

2. Click "Check for updates"

Link to comment

I'm from Calgary............maps are great. Just curious why the city and town roads (calgary for eg. ) on the colorado aren't showing up. My theory is there the same colour as the background.

 

You need to update to the latest 1.31 version and they should show. The Colorado shows type 0 roads as white, so Ibycus changed them to type 6 in version 1.31

 

1. Download and run http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/download/MapUpdate.exe

2. Click "Check for updates"

 

When I ran the update exe I got the error message, "Component 'MSCOMCTL.LOX' or one of it's dependencies not correctly registered: a file missing or invalid" I'm running it on the xp computer I loaded the maps on (successfully)

Link to comment

It means that you need that file, which is normally a normal Windows file.

 

You can download it here. Throw it in your c:\windows\system32\ directory (after unzipping).

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/mscomctl.zip

 

I really need to rewrite MapUpdate so that it doesn't use that file. Download this zip, and stick it in your windows\system32 directory (or just the same directory as the EXE file).

 

Dale

Link to comment

Downloaded the update/updater. Everything seemed to be fine but if I zoom out, to say 200kms it crashes MapSource.

Did I do something wrong?

BTW, fantastic maps!

 

Sounds like you maybe don't have all the files downloaded, and then when you zoom out its trying to access them. What happens if you run the updater again? Oh, and what version does it say in the drop down list (should be 1.33).

Edited by ibycus
Link to comment

Downloaded the update/updater. Everything seemed to be fine but if I zoom out, to say 200kms it crashes MapSource.

Did I do something wrong?

BTW, fantastic maps!

 

Sounds like you maybe don't have all the files downloaded, and then when you zoom out its trying to access them. What happens if you run the updater again? Oh, and what version does it say in the drop down list (should be 1.33).

 

The same thing happens with me. The updater says complete. Drop down says 1.33

Link to comment

Error log file.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>

<ErrorReport xmlns="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/ApplicationErrors/v1">

 

<Error>

<Exception>

<SourceCodeLocation>

<SourceFileName>TDB_REGIONDIR.CPP</SourceFileName>

<SourceFileLine>164</SourceFileLine>

</SourceCodeLocation>

<Extra>

Product ID: 127

Region ID: 10820315</Extra>

</Exception>

<Application>

<Name>MapSource</Name>

<Build>

<Version>

<VersionMajor>6</VersionMajor>

<VersionMinor>13</VersionMinor>

<BuildMajor>7</BuildMajor>

<BuildMinor>0</BuildMinor>

</Version>

<Type>Release</Type>

<Time>Jan 21 2008, 14:11:50</Time>

<Builder>SQA</Builder>

</Build>

<LanguageID>1033</LanguageID>

<PartNumber>006-A0041-00</PartNumber>

</Application>

<Computer>

<OperatingSystem>Windows XP Service Pack 2</OperatingSystem>

<Processor>x86, Processor Level: 15, Processors:1, Model: 0 Stepping: 7</Processor>

<RamSize>1047628</RamSize>

</Computer>

<Time>2008-04-18T00:31:26Z</Time>

</Error>

 

</ErrorReport>

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...