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If you want to make a detailed map with roads, lakes, etc., in addition to your trails, see my other guide here. This will guide you through making a simple Garmin map from GPS tracklog files that can be transparent so it shows up over other Garmin maps. 1) Download and install this software:
2) Download this file ( zipped, unzipped ) and open it in GPSMapEdit. 3) Go to View > Levels > Level 0. A big blue square will appear. Click on it and delete it. It's just there because GPSMapEdit doesn't allow you to save a totally empty map. 4) Go to "File > Add..." and select your tracklog file. If it's in a format MapEdit can't understand, go here to convert it to .gpx. Repeat this step for all files you wish to import. 5) Zoom into the area where your tracks are drawn so you can see what you're doing. Go to "Edit > Select > All Tracks" and then right click anywhere on a track. On the popup menu, do "Convert To > Polyline". Uncheck all boxes except for "Level 0" and click OK. Now delete the tracklog by doing "Edit > Select > All Tracks" and then "Edit > Delete" so that the tracklog is gone but your polyline is still there. The next screen asks you what type of object you want it to be. I chose "Principle Highway" for my major state trails and "Other Highway Road" for my smaller local trails, but you can do whatever you want. Try one out and see if you like how it looks on your GPS. This can easily be changed later if you don't like how it shows up on your GPSr by doing "Edit > Select > By Type", choosing the type you want to change, right clicking on an element of that type, and then doing "Modify > Type". 6) Do the same process as step #4 for any imported waypoints (Edit > Select > Waypoints), except convert them to "point" instead of "polyline" and chose an appropriate type. You'll have an easier time with the next step if you stick with only a few object types. 7) You can now select every object of some type and set all their End Levels at once. Go to "Edit > Select > By Type..." and pick the type you want to select. Now right click on any one of the selected objects, and do "Modify > Extend All Elements up to Level..." and type in the number of the level where you want that type of object to appear. You'll probably want your trails to show up at all zoom levels, so set their level to 3 (the last level always has to be empty). You may want your waypoints to show up only at tighter zoom levels, so select them and set them to whatever level you want (2 is probably a good choice). 7a) If your map is transparent, extend elements you want to show up at all levels to THE THIRD HIGHEST LEVEL. Your highest level has to be empty no matter what, and your second highest level is there to work around a problem in Mapsource. In the second highest level (Level 4 in this example), you're going to put one tiny polyline, and that's it. To do this, go to View > Levels and select Level 4. Now select the "Create Object" tool (the one that looks like a mgic wand) and draw a tiny polyline - the smaller the better. Set its type to something that doesn't stand out and don't give it a label. If you don't do this step, Mapsource will display two versions of all of your trails - one detailed and one not detailed. It'll look fine on the GPS, but it's annoying in Mapsource. This little trick gets around that. 8) Do "File > Map Properties".
Set "RGN limit" to 1024. For "TRE size", a higher number (in the neighborhood of 5000) will give you a smaller file size but will make the map perform more slowly on your GPS. A lower number (500-1000) will make a bigger file but it'll be much faster on your GPS. 1000 was a good number for my map. If yours is smaller or less detailed, you can increase it. Since we're making a trails only map here with no road or water elements, you'll probably want to click the "Map is transparent" box. This will allow your trails to be drawn on top of other Garmin maps that are loaded on your GPS. For Preprocessing, "Generalization Only" is fine if you don't have routing information, and we don't. Click OK and save your map. 9) If your map is transparent, close it in MapEdit, and then open the file in Notepad. Right above where your levels are listed, add this line:
This will tell your GPS to display your map on top of the other maps you have loaded (ie Topo, City Select etc.).
Save the file and open it back up in MapEdit. 10) Do "File > Export > Garmin IMG / cGPSMapper.exe". Select where you want to save your .img, and then click on "Run". cGPSMapper will do its thing, which could take anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours depending on the speed of your computer and size and complexity of your map. 11) You now have a Garmin GPS compatible .img file! To quickly upload it to your GPS, use Mapupload.exe. Click here for instructions. You can also make a very cool automatic installer which will load your map into Mapsource. Instructions for that are here. 12) Enjoy! If you think your map will be useful for other people, please send me an e-mail and I'll make it available on this site. |
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