Free Geography Tools

I’ve posted previously about Moagu, my utility that converts raster map imagery into raster-format maps for some Garmin GPS units. Moagu creates a true bitmap image for Garmin units, with advantages (accurate map and photo reproduction) and disadvantages (slow display times). An alternative approach is to convert a raster image into many small vector polygons, then code those vector polygons as a Garmin-format map. While this approach can speed up display time dramatically, it can also be harder to get good results. There’s a commercial software package called Mapwel that can do this, but I’ve recently been made aware of a freeware program called BMap2MP that also converts raster images into vector polygons, and creates map code for those polygons in the .mp Polish map format. This code can then be compiled into Garmin .img map files using the free or paid versions of cgpsmapper. I’ve spend some time playing with this program, and comparing its results with comparable maps from Moagu.

BMap2MP comes compressed in .rar format; if your compression program can’t handle that format, try 7-Zip. BMap2MP is a command-line program, with program parameters set in an associated configuration text file. There’s a long list of adjustable parameters, most of which are described in an accompanying read-me file, to varying degrees of detail. But you should probably be at least somewhat familiar with some of the terms and processes involved in creating custom Garmin map files before tackling the read-me, since it assumes at least a basic knowledge of creating maps with custom TYP files. You’ll also need to know how to use cgpsmapper, which is also a command-line program.

Raster imagery needs to be in BMP format, and have a accompanying .map geocalibration file created by the GPS utility program OziExplorer ($95). The maximum size of the image that you can process depends on the amount of detail in the image. For the USGS topo map for my area, which contains a fair amount of topographic relief but minimal road/house detail, the largest image I could process at the native map resolution (2.4 meters/pixel) was about 2000 x 2000 pixels, or roughly 1/4 of the entire topo quad. For maps with less detail, you could probably use larger images; for maps with lots of small details, or aerial photos, the maximum size is likely to be smaller. Moagu automatically tiles large maps into smaller submaps to get around this issue.

Initial results with BMap2MP’s default configuration settings weren’t promising – much of the map detail is lost, contour lines are irregular and broken, and feature colors change depending on whether they’re on the green or white background. (Figure 1, a screenshot from a Garmin 60Cx GPSr). Modifying the parameters a bit (Figure 2), more detail is visible for some features, but other features disappear completely, and color changes are still an issue. Pre-processing the map colors before running the map through BMap2MP (Figure 3) brings back some detail, but with detail and color shifts still an issue. Removing the green color and modifying the map colors from their original settings gives better results for contour lines (Figure 4), but the purple road visible in Figure 3 has almost completely disappeared. Experimenting with the color parameters in the configuration file, I was unable to bring back the missing road without degrading the rest of the map.

Figure 1: BMap2MP, default settings	Figure 2: BMap2MP, modified parameters	Figure 3: BMap2MP, map colors modified before processing	Figure 4: BMap2MP, green color removed and map colors modified before processing

Compare the best BMap2MP topo map with one created by Moagu:

BMap2MP topo map	Moagu topo map

Viewing both mapsets at a lower zoom level (0.2-mile):

BMap2MP	Moagu

So why use BMap2MP instead of Moagu for a topo map? Because topo maps converted by BMap2MP have some significant performance advantages over Moagu maps:

• Map compilation time is much faster with BMap2MP, as much as 5-10 times in some cases
• BMap2MP file sizes are about a fifth the size of Moagu map files
• Display speed is approximately 3 times faster for detailed maps like topo maps; for maps with less fine detail, e.g. maps with large areas of uniform color, the display speed differential can be even higher.
• As you zoom in closer than the 300/500 ft. zoom levels in a Moagu map, it breaks up; that doesn’t happen with  BMap2MP maps
• BMap2MP maps should display on most Garmin models; Moagu maps are limited to recent models in the eTrex Legend and Vista lines, Rino and Garmin 60CSx/76CSx model lines

So if you can live with less detail and poorer contrast, BMap2MP can be a good choice for many maps, especially those that don’t have a lot of small details like lines and points.

For aerial photos and satellite imagery, Moagu is usually going to create better Garmin map imagery. BMap2MP maps are limited to a maximum of 62 colors, vs. 254 for Moagu maps. In addition, BMap2MP’s vectorization process can remove substantial detail from the aerial photo, while Moagu is more faithful to the original. Here’s a comparison of a color aerial imagery of San Francisco’s Wharf district, processed with BMap2MP (61 colors) and Moagu (254 colors):

BMap2MP	Original imagery, rescaled to same resolution as GPS	Moagu

The limited color range of BMap2MP maps, and the degradation due to the vectorization process, results in substantial loss of detail. You can see that even more clearly if you blow up the maps by 3x:

BMap2MP	Original imagery, rescaled to same resolution as GPS	Moagu

If you want to experiment with creating Garmin maps with BMap2MP, but don’t want to hassle with the command-line or text configuration file, and/or don’t have OziExplorer for calibrating the map imagery, I’ve added a GUI front-end utility to Moagu that makes BMap2MP easier to use. This utility will:

• Automatically create a BMap2MP-compatible calibration file from a standard GeoTiff (e.g. a topo map downloaded from the USGS Seamless Server), or any image with a worldfile in latitude/longitude/WGS 84
• Remove the green color from topo maps if desired, and set the topo color scheme for best results
• Sets parameters automatically for image type (topo or general), but also lets you modify the parameters in a GUI, and writes the configuration file automatically
• Sends the map code to cgpsmapper to be compiled automatically, with the option to send it to your GPS

The demo version of Moagu limits you to converting a 500 x 500 pixel image using BMap2MP, while the full registered version lifts this size restriction; download a copy here. Read the help file for more info, but even with the simplified interface, it may take you some time to get results you’re happy with. There’s also a sample set of maps of the Moscow area created using BMap2MP; page is in Russian, but click on the first link to download the full set of map files installable in MapSource, and click on the second list to get a single sample map.

BTW, if you’ve tried Moagu before, the latest version is a lot easier to use than the earlier releases, and most of the bugs have been fixed.