Garmin 60c, Mapsource City Select, Topo Questions

[+lakedawgs]

HI,

Is there a quick way to switch between City Select and TOPO mapping in the 60C? I am currently going into Setup and Maps to make the switch, seems like there would be a faster way.

Also, it seems like, when I am on TOPO only in the GPSr, I see detail that does not show up when I select, Show All Maps. I am mainly talking about points of interest.

Am I missing something? I just want to be able to see all POI when I am driving.

Thanks,

Lakedawgs

[Neo_Geo]

Nope - you gotta push a few buttons to switch maps - that's life. Be thankful you can load more than one type of map and switch between them.

 

When you have more than one kind of map uploaded, and you have "Show All Maps" selected, you will still actually see only one map displayed. There is a hierarchy of which maps will be displayed first on top and last on the bottom.

 

Some maps vary with the degree of accuracy of the positions of the roads and what not. If you could literally view all maps, you'd see three or four parallel lines representing one road. And if they're divided highways, then there'd be six or eight lines and you'd probably just see like one big thick huge line. Not really a smart way to do things...

 

Certain maps have certain types of POIs. Others have other types. City select has POIs relating to travel like restaurants, hotels and gas stations. That's great if you're out on the road and all, but would you need those POIs if you were hiking along some trails in the wilderness? No, you'd be more interested in campgrounds, trail heads and cemetaries. That's why topo has those.

 

They actually give you quite a bit of control as to how to select the maps. You can start with no maps ("Hide All") and start adding maps to be shown, or you can select "Show All", and start peeling away the maps.

 

Sorry if it's not the answer you're looking for, but I hope it gives you a better understanding of how these things work.

[+lakedawgs]

Thanks for the reply,

A shortcut for the map switching would be nice, but no big deal.

I agree all maps can not be layered at the same time, it would be chaos. I was just hoping there was a way to view all POIs while driving. Cemetaries are a good example because we are in to geneology.

Still no big deal, when I map out a route for a trip I can waypoint POIs we might want to see that would not show up on the City Select side.

Thanks,

Lakedawgs

[Neo_Geo]

Cemetaries are a good example because we are in to geneology.

Still no big deal, when I map out a route for a trip I can waypoint POIs we might want to see that would not show up on the City Select side.

I just took a trip to West Virginia to visit my grand parents' graves. It's been over 10 years since I was last there. I remembered the general location of the cemetaries, but I couldn't remember exactly how to get to them or their names. Topo was invaluable in this respect. I created waypoints the cemetaries before the trip.

[+JDan150]

On my 60cs on the map page press menu once then go to the setup map press entr, go to the setup map information tab, once there pressing menu will bring up a nice menu for the maps.

It is a little quicker then going all the way into the main menu.

[+tneigel]

This was good info as I have to buy my first garmin map cd. I am leaning towards the topo version. I hope that does have all regular street roads along with topo info, and not strictly a backwoods map.

 

So good to know about switching and storing diff maps. Thanks so much!

 

tom

[Neo_Geo]

Topo does show roads on it, but it is not searchable - you cannot push the find button and have it search for "Main Street" or whatever. As a matter of fact, only the major roads are labeled, and they're only labeled with their route numbers. Residential streets are not labeled - they just appear as black lines.

 

Go to GARMIN'S TOPO WEB PAGE, and click on the appropriate link under "MapSource Map Viewer". You can then zoom in on the viewer to see how much detail shows up.

 

Also, I'm not sure what version of Topo they're selling now. Even if it's a newer version than they were selling a couple of years ago, I don't know if the map data would be any newer than older versions. Topo maps for GPSrs are based on old USGS topo maps, and those are very slow in getting updated...

 

If you're hoping that the new housing developments that have been built in the last few years will appear on the maps, I think you'd be VERY disappointed!

 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS RECENT TOPO THREAD!

Edited October 18, 2004 by Neo_Geo