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Free Topo Maps for Garmin GPS


ibycus

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Think I figured out where that data is missing... are there any other areas with things other than forest roads missing?

Some trails, some POIs.

 

With 3.1 the Skyline Trail near Jasper stops at approximately N52 45.000 W117 46.893, whereas 2.1 shows it completely.

 

Both mapsets show the trails around Lake O'Hara, but 2.1 has more POIs, eg "Cabin" (a favorite of mine) at N51 21.304 W116 20.608, and assorted lake names in the area.

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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Think I figured out where that data is missing... are there any other areas with things other than forest roads missing?

Some trails, some POIs.

 

With 3.1 the Skyline Trail near Jasper stops at approximately N52 45.000 W117 46.893, whereas 2.1 shows it completely.

 

Both mapsets show the trails around Lake O'Hara, but 2.1 has more POIs, eg "Cabin" (a favorite of mine) at N51 21.304 W116 20.608, and assorted lake names in the area.

 

Hmmmm...POIs might be difficult (I'll have a look though). The problem is avoiding duplication.

 

I'll check out that trail.

 

Dale

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I to am noticing a lot of the woods roads that were on version 2.1 and not present on the version 3.2 maps.

 

The two screen shots are from the west coast of Newfoundland but I have also checked central Newfoundland and the east coast and have noted the same issues.

 

N49 14.921 W57 38.725

 

Version 3.2

 

ibycus32.jpg

 

Version 2.1

 

ibycus21.jpg

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Hello!

 

I'm a real SuperNewBe to the GPS world beyond that from Germany :(

 

Anyhow is there a free topo map of entire Nova Scotia that I can download and easily install?

 

I do have a Mac (sorry no Windows) and an Oregon 450t (European Version). I just read a few sites from the beginning and didn't make it through the whole thread so please forgive me if the information was already given on one of the previous pages...

 

(To be honest I'm waiting for delivery of the GPS right now!)

 

So please let me know if there is an easy to install source map...

 

Many thanks in advance and have a great day!

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Hello!

 

I'm a real SuperNewBe to the GPS world beyond that from Germany :(

 

Anyhow is there a free topo map of entire Nova Scotia that I can download and easily install?

 

I do have a Mac (sorry no Windows) and an Oregon 450t (European Version). I just read a few sites from the beginning and didn't make it through the whole thread so please forgive me if the information was already given on one of the previous pages...

 

(To be honest I'm waiting for delivery of the GPS right now!)

 

So please let me know if there is an easy to install source map...

 

Many thanks in advance and have a great day!

the ibycus maps are all of canada, and you need to run them through some application (mapsource) to create a usable map image file out of a certain part of the map. so, you'd need to download the full 4 GB package and then create the maps you want out of that.

 

if that's too much hassle, and if the area you're interested in is not too big, i can create a map image file for your 450, if you want.

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Hello!

 

I'm a real SuperNewBe to the GPS world beyond that from Germany :)

 

Anyhow is there a free topo map of entire Nova Scotia that I can download and easily install?

 

I do have a Mac (sorry no Windows) and an Oregon 450t (European Version). I just read a few sites from the beginning and didn't make it through the whole thread so please forgive me if the information was already given on one of the previous pages...

 

(To be honest I'm waiting for delivery of the GPS right now!)

 

So please let me know if there is an easy to install source map...

 

Many thanks in advance and have a great day!

the ibycus maps are all of canada, and you need to run them through some application (mapsource) to create a usable map image file out of a certain part of the map. so, you'd need to download the full 4 GB package and then create the maps you want out of that.

 

if that's too much hassle, and if the area you're interested in is not too big, i can create a map image file for your 450, if you want.

 

Have you figured things out yet? If not, let me know and I'll upload the IbycusTopo 3.2.gmap file (the Mac version of these maps that you can use in BaseCamp and lad on your GPS) to my MobileMe account then send you a link where you can download it.

 

Cheers!

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Hello!

 

I'm a real SuperNewBe to the GPS world beyond that from Germany :)

 

Anyhow is there a free topo map of entire Nova Scotia that I can download and easily install?

 

I do have a Mac (sorry no Windows) and an Oregon 450t (European Version). I just read a few sites from the beginning and didn't make it through the whole thread so please forgive me if the information was already given on one of the previous pages...

 

(To be honest I'm waiting for delivery of the GPS right now!)

 

So please let me know if there is an easy to install source map...

 

Many thanks in advance and have a great day!

the ibycus maps are all of canada, and you need to run them through some application (mapsource) to create a usable map image file out of a certain part of the map. so, you'd need to download the full 4 GB package and then create the maps you want out of that.

 

if that's too much hassle, and if the area you're interested in is not too big, i can create a map image file for your 450, if you want.

 

Have you figured things out yet? If not, let me know and I'll upload the IbycusTopo 3.2.gmap file (the Mac version of these maps that you can use in BaseCamp and lad on your GPS) to my MobileMe account then send you a link where you can download it.

 

Cheers!

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Hello!

 

I'm a real SuperNewBe to the GPS world beyond that from Germany :D

 

Anyhow is there a free topo map of entire Nova Scotia that I can download and easily install?

 

I do have a Mac (sorry no Windows) and an Oregon 450t (European Version). I just read a few sites from the beginning and didn't make it through the whole thread so please forgive me if the information was already given on one of the previous pages...

 

(To be honest I'm waiting for delivery of the GPS right now!)

 

So please let me know if there is an easy to install source map...

 

Many thanks in advance and have a great day!

the ibycus maps are all of canada, and you need to run them through some application (mapsource) to create a usable map image file out of a certain part of the map. so, you'd need to download the full 4 GB package and then create the maps you want out of that.

 

if that's too much hassle, and if the area you're interested in is not too big, i can create a map image file for your 450, if you want.

 

Have you figured things out yet? If not, let me know and I'll upload the IbycusTopo 3.2.gmap file (the Mac version of these maps that you can use in BaseCamp and lad on your GPS) to my MobileMe account then send you a link where you can download it.

 

Cheers!

 

Hi,

 

well I have figured out at least how a torrent download works and it took me quite a bit :ph34r:

Now I do have whole Canada on my iMac :D ... but unfortunately I need a tool to convert the Map for the Mac usage - I only found a tool that is called gmapibuilder but the tool seems not to work under Snow Leopard. Are there other tools that can handle this without any M$Win installation?

 

I would only need complete Nova Scotia and the part of New Brunswick that contains the Confideration Bridge.

 

How do you build the map for the Mac? What kind of tools do you use?

 

It would be great to get the compiled map, but also I would like to know how it works :D

 

Many thanks in advance and have a great day!

 

Cheers

Edited by YogieAnamCara
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Houston I have a little problem. :laughing:

 

I downloaded and installed the ibycus 3.2. (dl over torrentlink from this forum)

 

If I load the maps (for example victoria island) to my garmin, i get an error message:

"File not found looking for image 30920020. "

In my imgs-Folder is no image with this number.

Miss the download some image-files?

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Houston I have a little problem. :laughing:

 

I downloaded and installed the ibycus 3.2. (dl over torrentlink from this forum)

 

If I load the maps (for example victoria island) to my garmin, i get an error message:

"File not found looking for image 30920020. "

In my imgs-Folder is no image with this number.

Miss the download some image-files?

 

Hmmm... This concerns me a little. I've had a number of people comment to me recently that there are some files missing or inaccessible from the ISO download, but I really don't know how this could happen.

 

(perhaps someone here more familiar with BitTorrent could enlighten me)

 

I assume the download finished without any errors? What client are you using to download? What are you using to extract/burn the file?

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Dale, we've discovered another small problem with 3.2. When trying to extract the files with 7-zip it says it can't open the file as an archive. Any thoughts?

so don't extract it with 7zip? it's not a 7zip archive, it's an ISO image.

 

Can anyone tell me if there is a 3.2 Ibycus Topo available for Mac OS X? I tried to search for torrents but didn't come up with anything. If you know a link and could post it that would be helpful. Thanks!

the maps themselves are platform independent, just the installer isn't. technically you don't need the installer to use the maps - i don't know how you would do it on macos, but on linux i used qlandkarte.

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Dale, we've discovered another small problem with 3.2. When trying to extract the files with 7-zip it says it can't open the file as an archive. Any thoughts?

so don't extract it with 7zip? it's not a 7zip archive, it's an ISO image.

7-Zip handles ISO images. Just not this particular one. After doing some more testing and poking around on the internet since entering that message, it appears that there are some specific types of ISO image that make 7-Zip gag. The Ibycus 3.2 file is one of them. It handles others fine.

 

...ken...

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Dale, we've discovered another small problem with 3.2. When trying to extract the files with 7-zip it says it can't open the file as an archive. Any thoughts?

so don't extract it with 7zip? it's not a 7zip archive, it's an ISO image.

7-Zip handles ISO images. Just not this particular one. After doing some more testing and poking around on the internet since entering that message, it appears that there are some specific types of ISO image that make 7-Zip gag. The Ibycus 3.2 file is one of them. It handles others fine.

 

...ken...

 

Interesting --- I'll have to play around with how I make my ISO (this one was made with Cyberlink "Power2Go"...I think)

 

Do you have any specific information on which 'kinds' of ISOs make 7-zip choke?

 

As a 'workaround' you can always mount it with Daemon Tools.

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That is not true. The need to be converted (on a PC) into the MAC format using Garmin's Mapsconverter program.

 

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3897

maybe that's how garmin is doing it, but the maps are still just data files, and those can (theoretically anyway) be handled on any platform. the installer is the only part that's really platform dependent.

 

as i wrote above, i'm using the maps on linux just fine, never needed to convert anything and never ran the installer (which wouldn't even work on linux). it's gonna be the same on mac. whether there's actually software to do the job on a mac is another story.

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That is not true. The need to be converted (on a PC) into the MAC format using Garmin's Mapsconverter program.

 

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3897

maybe that's how garmin is doing it, but the maps are still just data files, and those can (theoretically anyway) be handled on any platform. the installer is the only part that's really platform dependent.

 

as i wrote above, i'm using the maps on linux just fine, never needed to convert anything and never ran the installer (which wouldn't even work on linux). it's gonna be the same on mac. whether there's actually software to do the job on a mac is another story.

 

Ok, I'll add a bit - you must convert it if you want to use the maps with MapSource on a Mac. If you have no problems sending the actual tiles to your GPS directly, you can prolly skip the conversion.

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as i wrote above, i'm using the maps on linux just fine, never needed to convert anything and never ran the installer (which wouldn't even work on linux). it's gonna be the same on mac. whether there's actually software to do the job on a mac is another story.

 

The Linux utilities read the maps in the PC format (IMG). MACs cannot read IMG files. They need to be converted into a different format before they can be used.

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The 2.1 version I downloaded originally was Mac compatible (ie: it worked natively with OS X Garmin Mapinstall). Is there a Mac compatible version of 3.1/3.2? Or are people just converting the PC version?

 

There were both versions of 2.1 around. Nobody has put together and torrented a MAC version.

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The Linux utilities read the maps in the PC format (IMG). MACs cannot read IMG files. They need to be converted into a different format before they can be used.

there's nothing "PC specific" about IMG files. port qlandkarte (the linux tool) to mac and it will read IMG files just fine. port it to a playstation and you'd be able to read IMG files there as well. oh, and then you could add some more code to qlandkarte so that it could read the "mac format" of the maps too, and on all platforms. etc. it's just garmin that's being stubborn and insists on different formats for their tools on different platforms without any real technical reason. they could just as well change their software so it reads the same format on both platforms. it's just data files, like MP3, JPG, etc.

 

anyway, i'd do the conversion myself, but i don't wanna run a VM with windoze on my server just for that. if anyone is willing to do the conversion and upload the whole bunch to me, then i can host the torrent file and the seed.

Edited by dfx
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On the flip side:

 

The .GMAP format that Garmin's Mac apps require is actually the *only* format in which Garmin has been shipping its DVD-based maps for the past couple years. There's nothing Mac-specific about it; all of Garmin's Windows tools handle this format without problem. Probably safe to guess its the *preferred* format and the reason Garmin hasn't bothered supporting the older IMG tile format on the Mac is that they're trying to migrate away from it in their desktop software. (Hardware units, of course, still depend on having the data packed together in monolithic IMG files.)

 

... But the new .GMAP format is not actually that different. Garmin's IMG is a structure for packing multiple subfiles together, where the different types of subfiles describe different aspects of the map data. The .gmap format uses these exact same subfiles, it just packages them differently.

 

Specifically: A .gmap map is a folder that contains the same old TDB, TYP, etc files for the mapset, along with an Info.xml file describing the contents, and in place of hundreds of IMG files, you have hundreds of directories that each contain the different subfiles that were formerly within that IMG file. All the conversion process really does is alter some header data and split these subfiles apart.

 

The OpenStreetMap folks have made their own python tool for doing the conversion, but it's buggy and dependent on the structure of the IMG set that their other tools output -- I tried it with Ibycus Topo just now and it choked.

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it's just garmin that's being stubborn and insists on different formats for their tools on different platforms without any real technical reason. they could just as well change their software so it reads the same format on both platforms. it's just data files, like MP3, JPG, etc.

 

As explained above...

 

MACs use the new format that was in existence when they developed the MAC programs. They decided not to program in for the old style (IMG) maps into these new programs.

 

Talking about programs that are not currently ported to a MAC is a silly discussion. Talking about the existing, and free Garmin map programs is what makes sense and does not confuse the average person that comes through these forums.

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Actually... QLandkarte is multiplatform and its developers actively maintain versions on Windows and OS X. I haven't played with it on a Mac, and it's almost certainly not suitable for the less technically inclined, but it is another option.

i found it rather easy to use really. load up the maps, select the tiles you want and export to .img format. couldn't be any more easier.

 

BTW, i still got that FTF prize for you around :D

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I just converted the 3.2 Ibycus map from Windoze into Mac format. If anyone is interested in it, PM me and I will send you a link. I am currently going to try and upload it to my mobile me account and see if I can actually host it for download without having to go the torrent route.

 

EDIT: Bummer, max file size is 1GB. :blink: Torrents it is!

 

PS: I just tested it on my GPSMAP 60Cx and it works fine.

Edited by geojibby
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many thanks to geojibby for uploading the whole pack to me! the seed is now online. i decided not to trust the open BT trackers and started up my own. the usual suspects of trackers are still given in the announce list though.

 

so this is the "mac format" of the maps:

http://dfx.at/gc/Ibycus%20Topo%203.2.gmapi.torrent

 

the original ISO as provided by ibycus is still available here:

http://dfx.at/gc/IbycusTopo32.iso.torrent

Edited by dfx
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many thanks to geojibby for uploading the whole pack to me! the seed is now online. i decided not to trust the open BT trackers and started up my own. the usual suspects of trackers are still given in the announce list though.

 

so this is the "mac format" of the maps:

http://dfx.at/gc/Ibycus%20Topo%203.2.gmapi.torrent

 

the original ISO as provided by ibycus is still available here:

http://dfx.at/gc/IbycusTopo32.iso.torrent

 

Hi folks. I've got the ISO torrent running but no one is seeding... anybody? Pretty please?

 

and, by the way THANX Dale for all your hard work in making these maps!

 

EDIT - NVM, enabled DHT and found some seeders

Edited by dex138
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hm, my end should be seeding all the time... gonna restart the client.

 

You tracker site shows "connection closed by peer".

 

I'm showing 21 seeders, most off of openbittorrent

 

Slightly off topic - I see by your sig that you use a Colorado 300. Like it? Do you ever get the problem with locking/freezing up? Where you have to remove to batteries to reset it?

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Slightly off topic - I see by your sig that you use a Colorado 300. Like it? Do you ever get the problem with locking/freezing up? Where you have to remove to batteries to reset it?

 

Yes, I love it. I prefer the interface over the touch screen units. Once you understand all of the available RnR shortcuts, it is really quick and easy to use compared to the other "new" units. I'm one of the people that was not very happy that they did the 62 series. I would have much preferred an updated Colorado. The 62 was a step backwards.

 

I would say very rarely they lock. All of the newer units, Oregons, 62, 78 do the same thing.... Normally it seems to related to a bad GPX file or an incomplete load. I cannot recall a lock that has happened that required battery removal is a very long time not related to a bad GPX load.

 

When you load a large GPX file, they all tend to take a while and stay stuck on the boot screen. If you interrupt the load, it messes the GPS up requiring a reset to clear out the garbage. When you get to this point, unit lockups do occur. Because of this problem, it is best to keep the GPX files on the SD card. This allows the card to be pulled if you want to clear things up. Now, when it hangs on the boot screen, you do not need to remove the battery. Just power the unit off and on. The units are not actually hung. They are running properly, just stuck on the wrong screen.

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Yes, I love it. I prefer the interface over the touch screen units. Once you understand all of the available RnR shortcuts, it is really quick and easy to use compared to the other "new" units. I'm one of the people that was not very happy that they did the 62 series. I would have much preferred an updated Colorado. The 62 was a step backwards.

I have a Colorado 400t and the RnR is one of the things that is driving me crazy. Entering text and coordinates is painful. I wish they had an option to switch text/number entry to a grid display and selected by the up, down, left, right buttons.

 

I'm also annoyed that they decided to abandon the product. That's a kick in the pants to all the early adopters who had to put up with all the bugs of a fresh product line. I know that not all new software features can be back ported due to hardware limitations but that's no excuse to completely dropping support for it.

 

My next GPS will probably be a 62.

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