Transparent/overlay topo contours

[snowfleurys]

My first effort to put a detailed set of maps for Garmin GPSr's on a website was a disaster.

I have scaled back the size to transparent/overlay topo contours for those wishing to enhance City Navigator or the Ibycus maps. An initial cut of the contours has been made, but a few oddities have been observed when conbining them with a test set of 'base' data. Could you help with the following:

 

1. Do the bit_levels used for a transparent/overlay map need to correspond to those used on the 'main' map.

 

2. What bit_levels are used in City Navigator and in the Ibycus maps?

 

3. I have two test areas on xyzggmaps.omgfreehost.com

I could add a few more for anyone wanting to test in their local area.

 

Thanks

[+Red90]

1. No the bit levels do not need to match

 

2. Ibycus topo is 23, 21, 19, 18. This is typical for Garmin branded maps.

 

I looked at one map, which seems fine. What strange things is it doing? How are you putting them on the GPS?

[Baumer]

In a related item, how do I "enable transparent maps" as described in the FAQ

 

M9.) How do custom transparent maps look on top of Topo 2008?

 

Like other maps you can see the DEM relief shading. However, since the maps are transparent you can also see the vector data (roads, contour lines, etc) from Topo 2008 as well. This causes certain maps, particularly custom transparent topographic maps, to look very "busy" because you can see contour lines from both maps.

 

If you have City Navigator, one nice trick is to enable both Topo 2008 and City Navigator. If you enable transparent maps in this situation you can see the relief shading but since City Navigator is not transparent and is layered over Topo 2008 the vector data from the Topo 2008 maps is hidden. As a result you get a very clean view of the transparent maps over City Navigator with DEM shading provided by Topo2008.

 

I do a lot of driving in the "backcountry" of Indiana, and would like to take advantage of autorouting, while seeing shading, or preferably the contour lines themselves

[snowfleurys]

1. No the bit levels do not need to match

 

2. Ibycus topo is 23, 21, 19, 18. This is typical for Garmin branded maps.

 

I looked at one map, which seems fine. What strange things is it doing? How are you putting them on the GPS?

 

Thanks for the info Red90. The full set of contours starting at level 23 looked the best (and corresponds to about 1:24k - the scale of the source data).

 

On the base/topo files I made earlier, I used levels 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, & 15. Arterial roads, 0x04, were set to come on at 18 (5 miles) and were an orange line. With a base file and a contour file for an area, they still come on at 5 miles, but as a thin grey line; then turn to a brown line at level 22 (0.3miles). Some testing over the weekend has this happening with just the base layer by itself. The combined data was done earlier this year by using SendMap to create an .img file which was they transfered to the memory card. This weekend, I use both SendMap and MapSource to create and transfer a small test file directily to the 76csx.

 

The other two issues would also not seem to effect transparent/overlay contours on the GPSr. I am currently recontouring some areas at a smaller (more detailes) contour interval. Hope to get the data on the website soon.