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Garmin Mapsource 6.5 Beta Version


Alphawolf

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Nothing but praise so far! I've only had one problem with it, and since nobody else seems to be having it and it involves something unsupported (To be exact, I have all my maps copied to the HD and one certain area at one certain zoom level seems to cause the program to crap. It's most likely a corrupt map image on my HD), I don't consider it an issue.

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Well personally, I haven't had any problems with it. It's got some really great features in it. One powerful feature is the "Select maps around a route". Mapsource looks at your route and automatically selects all of the maps required by the route. It also includes support for numerous file formats (.mps, .gdb, .gpx, .grm and more).

 

Now, I remember a while back when I had an iQue 3600 and I upgraded my MapSource to an earlier beta version - I had some pretty severe compatability problems requiring me to uninstall and re-install all of my MapSource products! If I still had my iQue, I would have waited for the next release. All I have now is my 60C and an eMap, so I didn't think there'd be much risk this time.

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The first thing I tried failed to work. I submitted a bug report to Garmin and the tech support droid utterly failed to grasp what I was talking about. He entered a full two paragraphs of garbage about how Garmin is a world leader in GPS technology and their software works with all the standards and if something is wrong it must be someone else's fault.

 

The bug: the new Mapsource has GPX import support. I fed it a GPX file from GSAK and MapSource failed to open it. Then, I fed it a GPX file from Groundspeak and it worked. I replied to the support droid that their software was at fault and I suggest that he submit a bug report to the engineers. The last thing we need is busted support for GPX--that's worse than no support.

 

Normally, I'm a total homer for Garmin, but apparently the stupidity of tech support people is universal.

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I don't think there software is broken. The files from GSAK are changed and don't meet the standard for GPX file. I have been able to get a GSAK file to open as long as I don't change some of the parameters. I don't remember what I changed that "broke" it though. I do know that sometimes when I filter a GSAK or GPXSpinner file it won't open in other apps. I think it has to do with the header.

 

Anyway my point is, at what point should Garmin support non standard file types and where should they stop?

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I don't think there software is broken. The files from GSAK are changed and don't meet the standard for GPX file.

Not true. The files in question have been validated with the xerces validator using SAX2Count. This is a universal acid test to determine if a GPX file is valid or not.

 

So either this test is not working or Gamin has problems.

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The file that I got from GSAK 5.0.2 (build 20) does not have the GSAK data fields in a namespace. If that is the problem with Mapsource, they need to learn to ignore XML elements that they don't recognize.

However, the file in question (the one you sent me and sent to Garmin) does not have any GSAK specific extensions anyway, so I am very much at a loss to understand why Garmin thinks it is invalid.

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I don't have an issue exporting a GPX from GSAK and importing into MapSource. Of course I'm not sure why you want to do that anyway vs export to MapSource directly out of GSAK.

 

Maybe there's something specific in your GPX that MapSource is choking on. Can you export just 1 cache? Maybe there's something in the batch of caches being exported that is causing the issue.

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I don't have an issue exporting a GPX from GSAK and importing into MapSource. Of course I'm not sure why you want to do that anyway vs export to MapSource directly out of GSAK.

 

Maybe there's something specific in your GPX that MapSource is choking on. Can you export just 1 cache? Maybe there's something in the batch of caches being exported that is causing the issue.

Team DEMP does raise an interesting question.

 

Sorry, I know it is off topic but I really would like to know.

 

GSAK already exports to MapSource directly, so why would you want to go the GSAK=>GPX=>MapSource route anyway?

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I don't have an issue exporting a GPX from GSAK and importing into MapSource. Of course I'm not sure why you want to do that anyway vs export to MapSource directly out of GSAK.

 

Maybe there's something specific in your GPX that MapSource is choking on. Can you export just 1 cache? Maybe there's something in the batch of caches being exported that is causing the issue.

Team DEMP does raise an interesting question.

 

Sorry, I know it is off topic but I really would like to know.

 

GSAK already exports to MapSource directly, so why would you want to go the GSAK=>GPX=>MapSource route anyway?

I like keeping my results around in GPX format. Now that Garmin can read GPX, it seems like they are trying to play nice with us. If we've agreed on GPX as a standard and Garmin is trying to support GPX, we should help them work with it correctly. Shouldn't we? Especially since the MPS format that GSAK supports is

  1. Binary
  2. Deprecated
  3. Not able to carry the types of data that GPX can

The GSAK->MPS->MapSource path is not using current technology, even if it is a means to an end. At some point, that path will no longer be there.

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My guess, as mentioned above, is that there's likely one or a couple records that are causing the issue, either not generated properly by GSAK or not interpreted properly by MapSource. The only way to solve it is identify the records and then the specific elements in those records.

 

Either the original poster or someone else having the issue needs to do some debugging or provide the GPX that was generated here. We should then be able to load it into a new GSAK database, generate our own GPX and reproduce the issue (as well as by just loading the originally generated GPX). Then it should be possibly to narrow down the filter to get to which one(s) is the issue.

 

If you want, email me a GPX that fails at david@levinecentral.com and I'll try to figure out what the problem is.

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Nothing but praise so far! I've only had one problem with it, and since nobody else seems to be having it and it involves something unsupported (To be exact, I have all my maps copied to the HD and one certain area at one certain zoom level seems to cause the program to crap. It's most likely a corrupt map image on my HD), I don't consider it an issue.

I have had that exact same problem Mopar. I was selecting US Topo maps from all over the state of California, then bam. A window popped up allowing me to copy the information and submit it to the beta@garmin address. 100% of the US Topo maps are on my HD.

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