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Park Boundaries on 60CSX


knowschad

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I am trying to figure out some way of indication the boundaries of a very irregularly shaped park on my Garmin 60CSx. I have created a .kmz file of the boundaries, and loaded that into Basecamp. From there, I can trace the outline to create a track, and from that track, I can create a route. Any of those, or even just the waypoints that mark the corners would work for me. While it would be nice to have the visual indication on my GPS map that a track would give me, anything that would let me know when I am nearing the boundaries would be helpful. I'm kind of at a dead-end, so any ideas will be appreciated.

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Probably the easiest thing to do would be to create a track and convert it to an IMG file using gpx2img, although I haven't used it. Slightly more complicated would be to import the track into GPSmapedit, convert it to a transparent polygon, and compile it as an IMG with cgpsmapper. You could add colors by creating a TYP file or selecting a polygon type that had a suitable color.

Edited by seldom_sn
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It would seem the the cgpsmapper route would work well. With it you could have either a transparent polygon of the entire park or a border line or both that would overlay any map on your 60CSx. That same map would display by itself in Basecamp, not as an overlay.

 

You would need to download at least two free pieces of software, import your data, export to an .mp text file, compile to a Garmin .img file and load that along with any other map(s) to your 60CSx as a gmapsupp.img file.

 

Forum member Myotis is the expert on all this, hopefully he'll post more info.

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A simple solution is to convert your .kmz file to a track .gpx file. Load it into your 60CSx where it is handled as a "Saved Track". This track .gpx file can have a max of 500 vertices. In track setup you can select a color, have it show or not show on map, or rename it. GPSBabel or GPS Utility are free to convert between file types. I'm sure there are others.

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Eastern Land Ownership is a transparnet overlay that shows boundaries on top of other maps (Actually it shades in the ownership so you can see boundaires and who who owns the land). It covers MN very well. Your state has very good GIS data on all public and semipublic landownership so it should have the boundaries you are looking for. You can download it at: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/180 The current installer has some POI maps in it by mistake. Tonight I plan to upload a new installer so I would wait until the map page indicate the installer has been updated. My Trails also has extensive coverage of MN and there will also be a new version tonight.

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Thanks for all the suggestions so far, everybody!

 

A simple solution is to convert your .kmz file to a track .gpx file. Load it into your 60CSx where it is handled as a "Saved Track". This track .gpx file can have a max of 500 vertices. In track setup you can select a color, have it show or not show on map, or rename it. GPSBabel or GPS Utility are free to convert between file types. I'm sure there are others.

 

 

That is the sort of solution that I'm looking for. Simple and short-term. A map overlay would be sweet, but probably overkill for my purposes.

 

But I'm not able to create a track .gpx so far. I converted the .kml to .gpx via http://www.poieditor.com/poi_convert/kml-to-gpx/ but both OpenGPS and GSAK say that it (the GPX) has no waypoints. Basecamp simply reports "Unknown error".

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But I'm not able to create a track .gpx so far. I converted the .kml to .gpx via http://www.poieditor.com/poi_convert/kml-to-gpx/ but both OpenGPS and GSAK say that it (the GPX) has no waypoints. Basecamp simply reports "Unknown error".

 

By the look of your site name it converts POI to gpx (points, not tracks). See what happens if you use GPSBabel.

 

I drew a way in Google Earth. Saved it as KMZ. Found out that GPSBabel doesn't list KMZ as an option so I unzipped it to a KML (Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language). Used GPSBabel to convert the KML to GPX-XML. Changed the extension of the output file from XML to GPX. Opened it in MapSource as a track.

Edited by seldom_sn
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But I'm not able to create a track .gpx so far. I converted the .kml to .gpx via http://www.poieditor...ert/kml-to-gpx/ but both OpenGPS and GSAK say that it (the GPX) has no waypoints. Basecamp simply reports "Unknown error".

 

By the look of your site name it converts POI to gpx (points, not tracks). See what happens if you use GPSBabel.

 

I drew a way in Google Earth. Saved it as KMZ. Found out that GPSBabel doesn't list KMZ as an option so I unzipped it to a KML (Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language). Used GPSBabel to convert the KML to GPX-XML. Changed the extension of the output file from XML to GPX. Opened it in MapSource as a track.

 

Actually, while the site is called poieditor.com, the function I was using was their kml-to-gpx utility.

 

Anyway... you gave me the nudge that I needed when you said that you drew it in Google Earth. I have a .kml in Google Earth, but that did not work. But on your tip, I used Google Earth to draw a path around it. I then saved that as a .kmz. Next, I opened that file in a program called Trackmacker (http://www.gpstm.com) in which I edited the track to fix up some errors I had made in the original track drawing. Saved that track as a .gpx and loaded it into Basecamp, where it correctly sent it to my 60CSx. Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm documenting the hell out of this in case I ever need to do it again!

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I just updated Eastern Land Ownership. Here is a screen shot of how it works as an overlay (Besides showing the boundaries, if you click on the map, it will identify who owns the track):

 

1284998794.jpg

 

Its got all the public and semipublic land in MN. So all you would need to do is download it, run the installer, and send it to your GPS (since you have a 60CSX, you have to combine all your maps together and send them to the GPS.

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I just updated Eastern Land Ownership. Here is a screen shot of how it works as an overlay (Besides showing the boundaries, if you click on the map, it will identify who owns the track):

 

1284998794.jpg

 

Its got all the public and semipublic land in MN. So all you would need to do is download it, run the installer, and send it to your GPS (since you have a 60CSX, you have to combine all your maps together and send them to the GPS.

 

I will take a look. I take it you are the author that put all of that together?

 

I finally figured out only last night, after six years, how to load multiple maps. The GPS manufacturers (eg: Garmin, mostly) could sure stand to make this stuff a little more intuitive, couldn't they?

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I just updated Eastern Land Ownership. Here is a screen shot of how it works as an overlay (Besides showing the boundaries, if you click on the map, it will identify who owns the track):

 

1284998794.jpg

 

Its got all the public and semipublic land in MN. So all you would need to do is download it, run the installer, and send it to your GPS (since you have a 60CSX, you have to combine all your maps together and send them to the GPS.

 

Wow, Jim... those are AWESOME!!! Thank you!

 

If I ever record any tracks that are good, clean, on the trail tracks, I will send them to you. Unfortunately, that's pretty rare. If I'm not going off trail for a cache, I'm going off trail to see what's there.

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