Free Geography Tools

A while back, I posted on GeoFabrik’s repository of Open Street Map (OSM) data in shapefile format, covering mainly Europe and parts of Asia. CloudMade now has this data freely available for download as well, but not just in shapefile format, and not just Europe, but every continent (including Antarctica). Broken down by country/state, you can download:

• OSM XML extracts
• Garmin Map Files (OSM.err edition)
• Osmosis country bounding polygon
• Shapefile extracts
• Navit maps
• GPX POI
• TomTom POI

The latter two are a bit lacking in data now, to put it mildly, but presumably will grow in size with time. CloudMade is developing APIs to deliver the OSM map data in web and mobile format, but these are currently in alpha and limited to developers.

The Garmin data comes as a gmapsupp.img file, which you can copy directly to the SD/microSD card of a compatible Garmin unit; see this post for more info. The problem with Garmin map data in this format is that you are limited to having only the data embedded within that single file loaded into your GPS; you can’t combine it directly with other Garmin mapsets. And because the gmapsupp.img file can contain multiple sub-tiles, you can’t add it to the MapSource program using MapSet Toolkit; trying to do so will only make a single sub-tile visible. But there’s a way to split that gmapsupp.img file into its constituent sub-tiles, making it installable into MapSource, and I’ll cover that in tomorrow’s post.

USGS Topo Maps, Aerial Imagery, And Scanned Maps On Your Garmin GPS!

Choose The Right Option For Your Garmin Handheld Model

Actual screenshots from a Garmin Oregon!

G-Raster For The Garmin Colorado/Oregon/Dakota Series “… great (tool) for creating custom maps ...” GPS Tracklog Blog “… easy as 1, 2, 3.” gpsinformation.net “Works great!” GPSFix "Holy crap; this looks amazing.” GPSFileDepot Click here for more info on G-Raster

Actual screenshots from a Garmin 60Cx!

Moagu For The 60C(S)x, 76C(S)x, And Some eTrex Models "... Moagu rocks! This really is revolutionary!" GPS Tracklog Blog Click here for more info on Moagu

Related posts:

1. More Garmin Maps From Open Street Map Data
2. Breaking Up A Garmin gmapsupp.img Map File Into Separate Map Tiles
3. Uploading .img Map Files to A Garmin GPS Unit With IMG2GPS
4. Put USGS Topographic Maps, Aerial Imagery, And Other Raster Imagery On Your Garmin Handheld GPS
5. Garmin Topo Maps For Montana And California
6. A Look At OpenStreetMap's TIGER Data Exported To A Garmin GPS
7. High-Res Garmin Topo Maps For CO, WY, and UT (also Argentina, Uruguay and Chile)
8. Exporting KML Data From Google Maps MyMaps To A GPS
9. Exporting GPS Data To GIS I – Garmin GPS Units
10. Recap Of Exporting/Importing GIS Data To/From A GPS Unit Series
11. Entering Multiple Datasets For A Single Set Of Garmin Custom POIs
12. Converting OpenStreetMap Data Into GPX Or Garmin .img Format
13. Exporting Data From Garmin's MapSource Program To Google Earth
14. Updates For Two Garmin-Related Programs
15. A KML To CSV (And CSV To KML) Converter For Spreadsheets And Garmin POI Files