Published at February 13, 2008
in GPS and Garmin.
As a supplement to my recent posts on creating custom waypoint icons for Garmin GPS units (1, 2, 3), I’ve put together a list of Garmin units that I believe, based on first-hand reports, and my interpretation of their manuals, support custom waypoint icons. It’s hard to say for sure, since Garmin doesn’t specifically mention custom waypoints in any any of their manuals; in fact, they seem to want to make it as difficult as possible to find out how to use this capability. So I can’t assure you with 100% certainty custom waypoint icon support for any models other than the GPSmap, Rino, and Astro models.
Currently-available models
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| GPSmap 60Cx |
GPSmap 60CSx |
GPSmap 76Cx |
GPSmap 76CSx |
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| eTrex Venture Cx |
eTrex Vista Cx |
eTrex Legend Cx |
eTrex Vista HCx |
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| eTrex Legend HCx |
Astro GPS |
Rino 520 HCx |
Rino 530HCx |
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| eTrex Summit HC |
eTrex Venture HC |
Quest |
Quest II |
Note: The new Garmin Colorado series (300, 400t, 400c, 400i) does *not* currently support custom waypoints; I know some people have flagged this to Garmin as an issue, and perhaps they’ll add it in future firmware updates. Given their lackadaisical support for this function, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Older models (no longer sold)
GPSmap 60C
GPSmap 60CS
GPSmap 76C
GPSmap 76CS
eTrex Legend C
eTrex Vista C
Rino 520/530
Just announced: a new version of Google’s online Spreadsheet Mapper tool (version 1.0 posted about here). Enter data in a Google Docs spreadsheet using the provided sample template, and create a network link to display the data in Google Earth. New features include more pre-made balloon designs, an HTML templating system for designing your own balloons, and it now works with both Google Earth and Google Maps. Visit the announcement page for more info, instructions on use, and a video demonstration.
Published at February 12, 2008
in GPS and Garmin.
The two previous posts in this series dealt with creating and uploading custom waypoint icons to supported Garmin GPS units. But while third-party software for handling GPX data (both upload and download) will download the waypoints, most (if not all) don’t support display of these custom waypoint icons. For that, you’ll have to use Garmin’s MapSource program (aka Trip and Waypoint Manager), and set up custom waypoint icon graphics so that MapSource can import and use them.
Continue reading ‘Creating Custom Waypoint Icons For Garmin GPS Units III - Custom Waypoint Icons In MapSource’
Published at February 11, 2008
in GPS and Garmin.
In the first post of this series, I started describing the process of creating and uploading a custom waypoint icon to a Garmin mapping GPS unit; little of what follows will make sense unless you read that first. Today, the thrilling semi-conclusion!
Continue reading ‘Creating Custom Waypoint Icons For Garmin GPS Units II’
Published at February 7, 2008
in GPS and Garmin.
Modern handheld Garmin GPS units with map displays come with an absurd number of icon choices to use when designating and displaying a waypoint. My Garmin 60Cx comes with:
- 18 Transportation
- 12 Markers
- 18 Civil
- 24 Outdoors
- 24 Marine
- 18 Navaids
- 24 Signs
- 24 Points of Interest
But if those aren’t enough for you, or a specific icon graphic you’d like to see isn’t included, it’s possible with many Garmin units (like my Garmin 60Cx) to create your own waypoint icons and upload them to your GPS unit. To find out if your unit supports Custom waypoint icons, create a waypoint, select the icon image, and see if “Custom” as a subcategory of waypoint icons, along with the others listed above:
Continue reading ‘Creating Custom Waypoint Icons For Garmin GPS Units I’
Yesterday, I posted about a NOAA site where you can download Raster Navigation Charts (RNC), maps of coastal and inland waterways. The charts are currently only available in BSB format, which many GIS programs can’t handle; I linked to a few free viewers that will let you view the maps, but not export them. They’re also only available in the Mercator NAD83 projection/datum. Peter Guth (the author of the terrain analysis GIS MicroDEM) let me know about a free utility available from NOAA called the Digital NOAA Nautical Chart Reprojector. It lets you re-project the BSB maps into one of 32 projections (e.g. geographic or UTM) and over 100 datums, then exports the chart in BSB, RAW or TIFF format with a world file; the latter virtually every GIS program and graphics editor can open. It looks like it was originally a command-line utility, since a DOS box pops up when you run the program, but it now comes with a GUI:
The Input File and Output File dialog windows are a bit clumsy to use until you figure them out, but for the input file, you’re looking for the .kap file that came with the zip file you downloaded from the NOAA mapsite. Choose the desired output parameters at right, including choice of output file format (TIFF here), projection (UTM) and datum (WGS_84). The GUI doesn’t set the UTM zone automatically, but you’ll see the West and East Bounds for the map in the Input Info window at left, and can use those as a guide for setting the correct UTM zone with the Projection Parameters dropdown at right. In this case, clicking “Run” will create the TIF file specified as the output file, along with its worldfile. The file extension for that worldfile will be .tifw; if your GIS program doesn’t accept that, try changing it to the more-commonly seen .tfw extension.
NOAA also has a free extension called Chart Viewer that lets you open BSB charts natively in ESRI’s ArcView and ArcGIS, and Leica Geosystems’ Imagine.
NOAA’s Office Of Coast Survey has downloadable copies of regularly-updated RNCs (Raster Navigation Charts). The updated charts are in BSB format, not supported by many GIS and graphic software programs, but there’s a list of links to free and demo software packages capable of displaying BSB files in georeferenced format (like Caris EasyView and GPSNavX). The site indicates that NOAA will issue GeoTiff versions of these charts at some unspecified point in the future, but those charts will not be as regularly updated as the BSB charts will. Selection is either by chart number or a graphical viewer (requires Java):
To choose a chart for downloading in the graphical viewer, click the “Selection Mode” button at the top, then click on the rectangle defining the chart area (clicking inside the rectangle does nothing). Click “Add To Cart” at left, which adds it to a list of charts to be downloaded. When you’re done selecting charts, click on “Place Order”, and follow the directions to get a zipped copy of the BSB chart (response time to the button-pushing may be slow):
Native map projection for the georeferencing is Mercator NAD83, in meters.
GeoConverter: GeoConverter is an online front-end for ogr2ogr which lets you convert a limited number of vector file formats to each other. Free registration is required; while the registration page is currently in German the registration page is now available in English. Formats supported are:
- Comma Separated Value (.csv/(.csvt))
- GPX (.gpx)
- Geographic Markup Language (.gml)
- INTERLIS 1-Transfer Format (.itf/.ili)
- INTERLIS 2-XML Transfer Format (.xml/.ili)
- Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) (write-only)
- MapInfo File (.mif/.mid)
- Shapefile (.shp/.dbf/.shx)
You can convert to/from any of these formats except for KML, which is write-only currently. Formats with multiple files (e.g. shapefiles with .shp, .shx and .dbf files) require that all files to be upload are zipped up into a single file (100 MB max). I suspect the conversion system is Unix-based, which is usually happier with files that have no spaces in their filenames. Also worth remembering that certain formats like GPX and KML require the coordinates to be lat/long WGS84, so you’ll have to make sure your source data is in that coordinate system. I converted a fairly complex polygon shapefile into a KML file successfully, with the attributes written into the KML polygon properties, but there’s no ability to modify display based on attribute properties, as with shp2kml or Shape2Earth.
Thanks to Professor Stefan Keller, one of the creators of this utility, for the tip.
D2M Converter: A new online utility from Data2Map, currently in beta; free registration required. Converts from any of these formats:
- Access
- Excel
- MS SQL
- ASCII
- MapInfo (.mif)
- ESRI shapefile (.shp)
to either Microsoft MapPoint (.ptm) or Google Earth (KML).
A few notes:
- You have to create a “Conversion Definition” label, or bring up an saved one, for every conversion
- For data formats like shapefile or MapInfo with multiple files, you have to upload every datafile (e.g. shp, shx, dbf for shapefiles).
- 10 MB / 10,000 record limit.
- You need to select one of the attributes with a unique value for each record as the “ID”.
- You can clip out data by geographical bounds, and also to a limited degree by attribute values.
- There are limited abilities to use filters assign colors/pushpin images based on point attributes, and they’re working to add more capabilities. But for now, line/polygon KML files have one color for all shapes.
The service is still in beta, so it may have some quirks, but Data2Map has been very responsive to any issues I’ve encountered.
