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Gps Topo Maps


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I am in need of a topo map for my county including the gravel roads, state highways and rivers and creeks. I have followed the methods describing going to the usgs website and selecting a portion of the national map. This however, did not allow for me to obtain my entire county. Is there an easier way to get this info and convert it to a format my gps can use? Is there a way to take topo data from topo software such as national geographic topo cds and convert it to be able to be used on my gps? Hopefully, there is a way to go about getting my entire counties info without having to do it in sections (this would be hard to know where one section left off and where to begin another for seamless mapping).

 

Kyle

Edited by Kyle_freemason
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Hi Ryley,

 

I am not sure if the IBYCUS maps carry the detail I am looking for. I was after mainly the gravel roads in my county and the rivers and creeks. I am still waiting on my sd card to arrive, once it comes tomorrow I will look at the ibycus maps and see how it works, if it does not have what I am looking for, I will continue on with creating my own maps.

 

Kyle

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I have a question: my map from the usgs came in 4 downloads. Each download I converted the tiff to .mp. The hydrological data for the rivers and lakes I want came in 5 downloads. My question is, do I need to import the shape file for the rivers and lakes to each of the .mp files or just to one?

Edited by Kyle_freemason
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I have a question: my map from the usgs came in 4 downloads. Each download I converted the tiff to .mp. The hydrological data for the rivers and lakes I want came in 5 downloads. My question is, do I need to import the shape file for the rivers and lakes to each of the .mp files or just to one?

You will need to import them into each .mp file that covers the area with the shapefile. Since you don't know which water files cover which DEM areas I would open the dem, then add all the water data, then trim it to the dem area and then save it as a .mp file. If you have a registered version of gpsmapedit or global mapper you can load all the data at once and then have it output it to different files (you can tell it to split the data in 1'x1' blocks or whatever).

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I would like to make a map for my garmin that is only tracks, either from my GPS or tracks I created in Google Earth. I can get the .gpx from the kml, not a problem. I was trying what was documented in GPSSledmaps.com but my problem is the empty map for GPSMapEdit does not have the right bounds in for my area. So my question is how do I set the map bounds in GPSMapEdit, or is there another procedure for creating a track only map floating around somewhere?

 

TIA,

Jim

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or is there another procedure for creating a track only map floating around somewhere?

Hi Jim,

 

the easiest way:

http://antyong.com/?page_id=13

 

Regards - Anton

 

Sounds good, but when I try it I get Error:E032 Level 0 can not be empty, or something like that. There is no manual, so I have no clue. I was using a track I made in Google Earth and converted the resulting .kml to .gpx. Is there anywhere I can get some user info? Is there any way of bringing in multiple tracks?

 

Jim

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or is there another procedure for creating a track only map floating around somewhere?

Hi Jim,

 

the easiest way:

http://antyong.com/?page_id=13

 

Regards - Anton

 

Sounds good, but when I try it I get Error:E032 Level 0 can not be empty, or something like that. There is no manual, so I have no clue. I was using a track I made in Google Earth and converted the resulting .kml to .gpx. Is there anywhere I can get some user info? Is there any way of bringing in multiple tracks?

 

Jim

 

Well I did get it to run to completion. Don't know what to do with what it generated, mapsource won't read it. So with a complete lack of documentation this doen't seem like a very easy way.

 

Jim

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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.

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Thank you rws! You Custom Map Making Tutorial looks like exactly what I was looking for. One question, I assume in my map making the .gdb I start with is the one I would save from mapsource after importing the tracks from the GPS?

 

TIA,

Jim

 

I got my first map created! It is a bit rough around the edges, but over all the process went quite smoothly. Exactly what I wanted. It looks like a little experience in following the procedure and noting where I need to change will make it just peachy. Thanks again for your post and concise answers.

 

Edit: Is there any way of removing the copyright statement? It clutters up things.

 

Jim

Edited by jholly
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