Apropos of the previous post on Garmin maps from Open Street Map (OSM) data, there’s a listing of Garmin mapsets for a limited number of countries at the OSM wiki site. Some come with installers, others are .img files that you will need to install into MapSource using MapSet Toolkit. Included are a set of Garmin map tiles for the entire world from computer:teddy, which you could use to create a Garmin mapset for any country. But the process is a bit time-consuming, and the instructions on the web page are in German; if you don’t read German, you may be better off with the CloudMade maps.
Archive for the 'Garmin' Category Page 8 of 13
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.
Just found out about this feature recently: if you enter a location into the search box in Google Maps, you can download the result as a waypoint directly to some GPS systems, including Garmin and TomTom. After you get a search result in Google Maps, click on the “Send” link in the upper left:
You’ll get a box that comes up with the default to email the map link, but there are additional links for Car and GPS:
Click on GPS, and choose your brand: Garmin, Pioneer or TomTom:
Click on Send, and you’ll be directed to a page that lets you download it to your GPS:
To use this feature, you’ll need to have the right software installed on your computer to use it with your GPS:
Clicking on the Car option brings up the option to send the waypoint to a BMW or Mercedes-Benz built-in GPS if you have a BMW Assist or Mercedes Tele-Aid account.
Garmin continues to slowly add more and more states to their vector-based 1:24K US topographic map coverage. The latest release covers the central mountain West, Colorado and Utah, joining sets for Washington and Oregon as well as California and Nevada . These are in addition to their previous sets for US National Parks in the East, Central and West US; their websites says that maps for the rest of the US are “Coming Soon”. These Garmin 1:24K topo mapsets have some useful features, like elevation profiles, points of interest, routing on trails and dirt roads, and overlays for USGS topo quad and Township-Range-Section information. But at $100 list price ($80 street) for each set, it’s going to get pretty expensive to own even a small number of these. And since they’re being issued on microSD cards, they can only be used on one Garmin GPS unit at a time.
Fortunately, Dan Blomberg at the GPS File Depot, the MiscJunk website, and others continue to release their own versions of 1:24K topographic maps. While they don’t have all the fancy features of the Garmin sets, they’re free, based on the same US Government data as the Garmin maps, and can be uploaded to as many Garmin units as you like. Since my last update, Dan has released new 1:24K topo mapsets for New Mexico and Hawaii, and Idaho is coming soon; there’s also a new transparent overlay for Wyoming land usage/ownership. From the forum on his website, others following the process laid out in his tutorial on making Garmin topo maps are working on similar mapsets for Washington, Missouri and Florida as well. Dan has a list of links to all currently available free 1:24K Garmin topo mapsets at this link; currently, mapset links are listed for AZ, NM, CA, UT, CO, WY, MT, HI, MA, and MS. Maine is also available, but a link to that mapset is missing for now on Dan’s list.
And if you want actual USGS topo maps on your Garmin GPS unit, as well as other raster imagery, there are options …
An earlier post covered MapUpload, a free program for uploading .img files to a Garmin GPS; another option for this operation is IMG2GPS. This is actually a limited front-end to the command-line program SendMap (included in the IMG2GPS install package), but it supports most of SendMap’s upload features you would normally use.
You don’t select .img files for loading into the selection list individually; instead, you specify a folder using the “Load Folder” button, and all .img files in that folder are automatically added to the list. Selecting another folder will add those .img files, while not erasing the ones already there. To erase all the files in the list, click the “Clear” button at the bottom; this clears all the files in the list, regardless of whether they’re selected using the check box. You can save a list of selected files with the “Save” button, and load that list with the “Load” button; it also supports the .gdb format created by MapSource. Finally, you can search through the list of files for a text string in either the filename or the map name using the “Search” function at the top.
To upload one or map files to your GPS, select them with the check box, make sure your GPS unit is turned on, and click “Upload to GPS”. In “Auto” mode, the program should automatically detect a connected GPS, running through all the options (USB and all COM ports). If the program has difficulty recognizing that you have a GPS connected, you can use the “Test Connection” function at the top to help diagnose the problem; you can also manually specify the I/O port your GPS is hooked up to. You can also set a mapset name label for all the maps being uploaded by checking the box below, and entering the desired label.
Unlike MapUpload, IMG2GPS supports uploading to a data card (like a microSD card) in a card reader, which can be faster if the card reader is USB 2.0 (most Garmin GPS units are USB 1.1). Oddly, it doesn’t seem that you can do it directly using the “Folder/Card” option for I/O Port. Instead, you have to combine all of the selected maps into a single “gmapsupp.img” file, and then upload that file to the “Garmin” folder on the data card (see this post for more info on the “gmapsupp.img” file). To do this, check the box at the bottom marked “Create File instead of Upload”; this will change the button below to “Create File”. Press the button, and then select the “Garmin” folder on the data card to save the “gmapsupp.img” file in (create the folder if it’s not already there). When you put the card back into the GPS, the “gmapsupp.img” file will be recognized and read as a map file.
There’s another front-end for Sendmap called GPS Send Map, but it’s obsolete, doesn’t appear to be in development anymore, and doesn’t have the features that IMG2GPS has.
- Topo mapsets for Maine (50-ft. contours) and Massachusetts (40-ft. contours) available here.
- GPSFileDepot now has a topo mapset for Mississippi (in addition to its topo mapset for Arizona). New Mexico is coming soon …
- Ibycus has used 2007 Census TIGER data to generate a mapset (roads and geographic features) for the entire US. They also have a 1:50K-equivalent topo mapset that covers most of Canada.
- Routable street maps generated from OSM data for most of Western and Central Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and a few other scattered areas at the Open StreetMap for Garmin site. The map on the site’s front page only shows coverage areas; to get installable mapsets, or the original map code used to generate them, go to the Download Area. There’s also an additional mapset for Baghdad available on the site, but not yet listed on the download page.
Well, the good news is that Garmin is finally starting to offer 1:24K scale US topographic maps for some of their GPS units. While they’ve had these maps for US National Parks in the East, Central and West for quite a while, they’re now issuing them for the US as a whole. These are different from the 1:100K Garmin topo maps available for a while, with the latest release coming in 2008. But there’s bad news as well:
– The datasets come on individual microSD cards, so they’re only compatible with units that support those cards
– Because they’re on microSD cards, you can’t load additional map data like CityNavigator or BlueChart data on the cards; you need to either do without or swap cards back and forth to get the dataset you want
– Cards cover various sections of the US, aren’t cheap ($100 list, typically available for about $60-70 street), and only a limited part of the US is currently covered:
(Note: Garmin also sells 1:100K topo maps on microSD cards, and you have to read the product description carefully to find that out; in any case, you’re almost always better off buying these 1:100K maps on a DVD; you can then upload selected maps to the GPS unit)
There are options that are cheaper, and cover areas not currently available from Garmin. The MiscJunk website has 1:24K topo maps for UT, MT and WY, with CA on the way, though there’s already a map file for the entire state of CA already available. Dan Blomberg’s GPSFileDepot site has 1:24K topo mapsets for Arizona and Mississippi, and he’s automated the process to a point where I suspect more state mapsets will be coming in the future.
But Dan has also put up a full tutorial section on how to create your own 1:24K topo Garmin mapsets, with full links to data and software sources. While I wouldn’t describe the process as simple and easy, it can be done by anyone with reasonable computer skills. And even if you don’t need a full topo map, similar procedures can be used to create simple Garmin point, line and area maps from GPS and GIS data that can be overlaid on top of other mapsets.
Other data resources for creating your own Garmin GPS maps:
Creating Custom Topo Maps For A Garmin GPS
Make Your Own GPS Maps From GIS Data (TravelByGPS website)
KeenPeople.Com Tutorial One, Tutorial Two
New Zealand Open GPS Project tutorial
Custom Maps For Garmin GPS Receiver Part One , Part Two
… and I hope to cover some other free options for creating Garmin GPS maps in the near future.
A while back, I posted about MapSet Toolkit, a program that adds information about Garmin-map-format .img files to MapSource, so you can upload them with that program to a compatible Garmin GPS unit. But there are several faster and more direct ways to upload a .img file to a Garmin unit which don’t require installation in MapSource; they may be more convenient for a single map file, or for evaluating a map file before installing it as a MapSource option.
The first one I’ll cover is MapUpload, from the creators of MapWel, a program for creating custom maps for Garmin GPS units. MapWel isn’t free, but MapUpload is; there’s a list of supported Garmin units on this page. Just download and run (no program installation):
If your GPS unit is turned on, it should be recognized automatically, and info displayed in the Status window. If it’s off, turn it on and select “Detect GPS” from the GPS menu. Select .img files by clicking on the list at left (or the menu Files => Add img files to the list), and using the file selection dialog; there’s room for up to 300 files on the list. Click on “Upload to GPS”, and the maps will be sent to your GPS. There’s no way to tag a set of maps with a label; on your GPS, they’ll all have the category label “Custom area created with Mapwel”, followed by the .img creation date.
The default is to delete the current mapset, but if you check the box “Add to existing maps”, the maps on the list will supposedly be added to the maps currently loaded onto the GPS. I’ve had mixed success with this option – it seems to work better with small installed mapsets than with large ones. And if you have a large set of maps on your GPS, it will take a while to merge them, since the connection is either serial (unbearably slow) or USB 1.1. (painfully slow), and MapUpload first has to download the full mapset, then merge it with the new maps, then upload it back again. It doesn’t support the faster option of uploading data onto a memory card in a higher-speed (USB 2.0) card reader. There’s also no way to save a map list, so you have to select individual map files every time you want to do an upload. On the plus side, you can create a stand-alone program that takes all the .img files, and puts them into an executable that will upload the data to any attached, compatible Garmin GPS unit.
On the plus side, MAPUpload is fast and simple. If I have one or two maps I need to upload quickly, especially if I want to merge them with the current mapset, it’s my program of choice. For larger sets of maps, you’re better off using MapSet Toolkit, or other options I’ll cover soon.