Comments on: Creating Custom Waypoint Icons For Garmin GPS Units III – Custom Waypoint Icons In MapSource

By: StephaneD

StephaneD — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:27:18 +0000

Thanks William, this info on resolving the non transparency was very useful.

/Steph

By: William

William — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:01:36 +0000

The non-transparency issue has a work around for MapSource 6.15.4. You need a tool that can convert your xxx.bmp to xxx.gif. As long as xxx.bmp does not co-exist with xxx.gif, MapSource will use the gif. You can have some of each type in the same folder. For instance, 000.gif and 001.bmp work fine as long as 000.bmp does not also exist in the same folder.

I used Corel Photo-paint to do the conversion, I’m sure there are other tools that can do this as well but there are two parameter you must adhere to:
1) Make sure that when you save it that that your are using interlaced mode (for Corel Photo-paint this is a box you must check)
2) Make sure you specify transparency mode. With this you need to select the color (by palette index) that will be transparent. That is, you need to know the position in the palette of the color you desire to be transparent.

I was able to convert all the bmps into gifs; they look great. Also, since MapSource uses 24×24 pixel icons in the default set, the custom 16×16 icons look a little small. I was able to successfully re-size a couple of these but it does take a bit of clean up (pixel editing). So if you can live with the smaller icons, you are good to go.

By: Leszek Pawlowicz

Leszek Pawlowicz — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:47:35 +0000

The problem with non-transparency is clearly a bug in MapSource, and there’s no way to get around it; we’ll have to wait for Garmin to fix the problem.

By: Troy

Troy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:50:48 +0000

I previously used mapsource 6.13.70 and had no problems with my custom waypoints. I know have 6.15.40 and everything works fine except that with this version the purple color is visible on my computer screen when viewing my custom waypoints in 6.15.40 I double checked and the color is still 255-0-255 and the size is 16 bit. Everything is still ok in 6.13.70 Has anyone else expereinced this and is there a away to fix it?

By: Leszek Pawlowicz

Leszek Pawlowicz — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:38:43 +0000

I’ve got a post somewhere here on my blog about HoverSnap; it’s a nice freeware screen capture program, small and unobtrusive.

Where is the problem occurring? If it’s when you try to upload, it could be because the icon isn’t in the exact, precise format required (i.e. 96 dpi, 8-bit color bmp, 16 x 16 pixels). I ran into enough of those to frustrate me for a while.

By: IconMan

IconMan — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:30:00 +0000

As I stated before, I tried what you had said in your post, not with HoverSnap, but just using Ctrl-Alt-PrintScreen and than tried to edit in MS Paint. I will try again with the icon you sent. Thanks for trying to help!

By: Leszek Pawlowicz

Leszek Pawlowicz — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:13:27 +0000

There is no icon folder, but I was able to capture an icon image using the screen capture program HoverSnap. In MapSource, click on the dropdown to select the icon, then invoke HoverSnap’s function to capture part of the screen (Ctrl-PrintScreen). Select the area that includes the icon or icons you want, and then edit the captured image to fit to the icon requirements I talk about in my post. You can also create a waypoint in MapSource with the icon of your choice, then capture the icon image on the map. I’ve emailed you an example, capturing the Multi-Cache icon.

By: IconMan

IconMan — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:03:20 +0000

I Tried that, but failed :-( I was hoping there was a icon data folder in MapSource that I could just copy the icon from. I take it that isn’t the case?

By: Leszek Pawlowicz

Leszek Pawlowicz — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:59:56 +0000

If you use a screen capture to grab an icon image in MapSource, like the ones you want, you could convert that to a custom icon.

By: IconMan

IconMan — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:12:34 +0000

Thanks for the 3 articles on Custom Waypoint Icons. I was wondering if there is an easy way to get icons out of MapSource and into the GPS. MapSource has a few icons like the GeoCaching Puzzle Icon and the Multi Stage Cache Icon that I would like to get into my GPS. I don’t understand why they would have those in MapSource, but not put them in the Garmin GPS.

Thanks