Free Geography Tools

As mentioned in the previous post, you can use MapSet Toolkit to add any .img Garmin map file to MapSource. If you want to try out the process on some free .img files, here are some sources for .img files, as well as some data in executable files that install it automatically in MapSource without the need for MapSet Toolkit:

• Mkgmap wiki: .img files for the UK, South Africa, and Africa
• OpenStreetMap wiki: Files for Germany/Netherlands and the entire world (read the caution for the latter, though; it might crash MapSource if you install it there)
• GPS Vector Map Morocco has Garmin maps for Morocco and Western Sahara.
• Yunnan Explorer has some topographic maps for areas of Yunnan Province in China.
• cgpsMapper MapCenter (and MapCenter2): Maps from around the world, browsable by country and type. Coverage is hit-and-miss, but for some countries it’s very good. For example, the New Zealand Open GPS Project is creating road maps for the entire country as a complete set with an installer that puts them automatically into MapSource.
• Tracks4Australia has installable map tiles for all of Australia.
• The GPS Maps site has downloadable maps for Garmin mapping GPS units. Levels of detail included are mixed, but the maps can include topographic contours, land details, and road maps in various levels of detail (either VMAP0 or VMAP1). Areas covered:
  • The Caribbean (including Cuba and parts of South Florida, Central and South America)
  • Bermuda
  • Japan
  • Antarctica
• Greece GPS Maps has … maps of Greece.
• And one of these days, I’ll get around to posting on some of the free options for creating your own .img files …