Creating Garmin GPS maps

From NzGpsWiki

Contents

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Requirements

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Data

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Software

Install all the software list below on your PC - note that Windows 98 has limitations to the number of polygons and polylines with GPSMapEdit - XP and 2000 have no problems.

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Construction Steps

For demonstration purposes we will make a street map of Auckland Central.

  1. Go to the LINZ website and locate the NZGD2000 series of online maps:
  2. http://www.nztopoonline.linz.govt.nz/website/nzgd2000topo/terms_cond.htm
  3. Set your monitor size with the onscreen prompts and enter the map
  4. Select the rough area of Auckland city on the map with the cross hairs - the map will zoom in on the location. Slow over dial-up connections.
  5. Select the Zoom to user specified scale (the magnifying glass with the S) and select 1:50,000. This is the maximum size for the data extract from the LINZ site.
  6. The map will zoom to the correct scale. You may have to scroll the map slightly to get a good coverage of central Auckland.
  7. Click on the Custom Extract icon (the disk drive with the red arrow)
  8. A new window will popup - if you are not at a scale of 1:50,000 or better the dialogue will ask you to re-size. If you are at a downloadable scale, the dialogue will ask you to choose the layers to be exported. Click on the 'Layers to be extracted' link to do this.
  9. A long list of radio buttons appear - for this map choose 'Coastline', and 'Roads'. If you are intending to build a map for tramping, get the tracks, contour lines, rivers and whatever else takes your fancy. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and click on the 'Extract' button.
  10. With a short period of time (depending on the server load and amount of data chosen for extraction) a download dialogue will appear - click on the 'Download' link to download the data to your PC. A ZIP file will be downloaded.
  11. Open the ZIP file and extract the contents to a new directory.
  12. Start GPSMapEdit
  13. Follow the menu path File | Import | ESRI Shape (*.shp)
  14. Navigate to the directory where the contents of the downloaded ZIP file were extracted to
  15. Choose Coastline.shp
  16. The first import dialogue screen will appear - choose the shoreline.
  17. The second dialogue screen will appear - in the case of a shoreline there is no names associated with the feature. Take the tick out of the tick box 'Select Field for Labels'. Click 'Next'
  18. The third dialogue allows you to select the coordinate system and Datum system for the map. Select Latitude / Longitude for the coordinate system and WGS 84 for the datum system. Click 'Next'
  19. The final dialogue asks for the layer to import to - it will be layer 0 as this is the first layer of the new map. Click 'Finish'
  20. The coastline will be imported into GPSMapEdit.
  21. Follow the menu path File | Import | ESRI Shape (*.shp)
  22. Navigate to the directory where the contents of the downloaded ZIP file were extracted to
  23. Choose Road_cl.shp
  24. The first import dialogue screen will appear - choose the Residential Street.
  25. The second dialogue screen will appear - click on the column showing the street names. Click 'Next'
  26. The third dialogue will have the values from the initial import still populated, no changes needed. Click 'Next'
  27. The final dialogue asks for the layer to import to - layer 0 will be selected. Click 'Finish'
  28. The roads are now imported into GPSMapEdit.
  29. Follow the menu path File | Map Properties
  30. In the first tab 'Header' you need to give the map a unique ID number. Garmin have different Ids for each map they produce, as well as all the third parties developing maps (which now includes you!) For the map ID code I use the first 6 digits of my telephone number in international format: 649411? I then add on another two digits for the specific map. This gives me a number range of 100 potential maps without having to dream up an ultra complex numbering scheme.
  31. Give the map a meaningful name e.g. Auckland Streets
  32. The 'Levels' tab allows you to set up levels for the map. Default for level 0 is 24 bits | 0-120m | MapSource Zoom 0. The second level is 'blank' no map data must be in there.
  33. The 'cGPSMapper' tab has some set up details for the program, which compiles the map. The only thing to select here at this stage is the 'map is transparent' option which allows the GPS to display multiple maps stacked on top of each other. If you have the world basemap, leave the transparent option off, or if you have your own coastline or a MapSource coastline, set as transparent. See notes at end.
  34. The other tabs are informational.
  35. Save the map as a Polish format (*.mp, *.txt)
  36. Follow the menu path File | Export | Garmin IMG / cGPSMapper.exe
  37. A dialogue box will popup and ask for the name to save the IMG as. Choose something like Auckland Streets
  38. The export dialogue box will appear. The path to cGPSMapper.exe must be set here as the first
  39. Click on the 'Run' button.
  40. Depending on the speed of your PC the map build should finish within 10 seconds for this example. More complex maps take much longer to generate, sometimes in excess of 30 minutes.
  41. There will be a new file called "Auckland Streets.img" saved. The file should be about 58kb in size.
  42. Exit GPSMapEdit
  43. Fire up IMG2GPS - you may have to have to have this installed in the same directory as SendMap.
  44. Click on the 'Load Folder' button and navigate to the directory where you saved the IMG file.
  45. A list of IMG files will appear. Put a tick next to Auckland Streets and then make sure your GPS is plugged in to the serial port, and turned on.
  46. Click on 'Upload to GPS' button, and the transfer will start. Note that this will overwrite any other maps that have been uploaded to the GPS.
  47. Once the upload is complete, the GPS will 'reboot' and the map should be available. If the new map does not show, check that the ID is not being used by another map you uploaded - conflicting ID's will cause no maps to display.
  48. Go back to GPSMapEdit and change the state highways to Major highways - right click them with the arrow pointer, select Modify | Type and choose Major highway. Save and re-compile.
  49. A sample file produced using the above steps can be downloaded from here.
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Notes

The free software used does not have professional features like POI indexing, or searchable street names. A Professional version of cGPSMapper is required to do this, or an alternate is to send your source file to http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/ where it will be compiled 'online' - see the site for more details.

GPSTrackmaker can be used to import tracks from your GPS and then save the tracks as OziExplorer tracks which can be imported into GPSMapEdit.

I recommend making transparent maps as they look better. However if you have a imported Garmin with the world or USA basemap, then the coastline is very ugly if you don't have your own coastline map loaded. (The coastline map should not be transparent so the ugly base won't show through). I have some coastlines ready to use available on a website http://www.powerlink.co.nz/~graeme/GPS/GPS.htm

All data used from LINZ can be used freely, but the copyright remains with the crown. The following is on their website, and should be included with any maps distributed that are generated from their data:

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Disclaimers/Copyright Notices

All topographic data featured in NZTopoOnline is subject to Crown copyright protection or is licenced to the Crown (DEM data used for hill shading is supplied under licence by GeographX Ltd). You may use, copy and distribute the information extracted from NZTopoOnline in any format or media without charge. However where the data is distributed to a third party, the source, date of extract and copyright of the Crown must be acknowledged eg (NZTopoOnline, extracted July 2002, Crown Copyright Reserved).

GPSMapEdit can open IMG files - please do not use this to open and modify professionally produced IMG maps as this is in breach of their terms of use usually.

The information presented in this 'How to' is pretty basic and can be expanded upon. Please experiment and produce your own maps. It wouldn't take very much for people in various locations to produce a 'tourist' map of their area with your own points of interest and make the maps freely available online.

Data for the sample map: NZTopoOnline, extracted September 2004, Crown Copyright Reserved

If you are looking for indexed streetmaps, indexed POI and a much more professional product - I use and recommend NZGPSMaps.com


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