Total Newb here - Help with kmz to Garmin Colorado viewing

[Richstick]

Hi all - first off, thank you so much for this forum and the wealth of info contained herein!

I'm a newb to the Garmin way of doing things, and not very versed in GPS/GIS/GE language in general.  I probably know enough at this point to be dangerous   

Anyways - I have a friend who has compiled a massive amount of information on area lakes for fishing purposes.  I have .gpx files of various features on the lake bottom, boulders, logs, brushpiles, etc.  Obviously I could just view them on the GPS as individual waypoints, but I was hoping to make each 'feature' a layer (if you will) that I could turn on and off easily.  I thought the best way to do this would be to view each .gpx file in GE and save it as a KMZ/KML then put it into my Garmin\CustomMaps directory on my GPSr (Colorado 400t).  Then, if I wanted to view the boulder waypoints, I could turn on that map.  If I wanted to view the brushpiles, I could turn on that map...  I figure with my Colorado's ability to zoom to 20 feet, I don't need to actually be able to navigate to a waypoint - be able to view it on screen will be close enough.

Well - it's not working.  I did a trial with the boulder waypoints, here's what I did....

1) Opened GPX file in GE, saved a KMZ named Boulders1
2) Moved this file to Garmin\CustomMaps on my GPSr
3) Went to map page, tried to turn this map on, and it is not there - not even listed.  I do have a custom map I made from a JPEG for a totally different lake (using the simple instructions Garmin has for custom maps from a JPEG), and that works great - so I think my directory structure is correct.
4) If I fire up Basecamp, it gives me an error reading the Boulders1 file
5) I also tried it using another software - GPSVisualizer (online version), and the same result

So, can someone help me here?  Am I trying to do something that is not possible?  Is there a step or a file naming convention that I am missing?  Any suggestions?

Thank you VERY MUCH in advance!!

[Boyd]

That's all very logical, but it isn't the way custom maps (.kmz) files have been implemented by Garmin. These files can contain both vector (lines, points, polygons) and raster (images) data. Garmin only supports images in .kmz files - more specifically, .jpg images with a lot of restrictions on their size and quantity.

What you need to do is convert you .gpx data into a traditional Garmin vector-based map. This gets into mapmaking and can be very complicated (more than I can explain here). Probably the simplest program for this is http://mapwel.eu/

There is another little program that will convert .gpx files to maps, and that might also work for you but won't give you as much control over the results. See this: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1438.0.html

[Richstick]

Ok - that makes sense to me - Garmin won't take just any old KMZ file, they have restrictions on what they will allow you to view.  Thanks for the links - I will explore more and see what I can do.  I'm an engineer by trade and that part of my brain just loves to delve into this kind of stuff  

Update - I had actually tried GPX2IMG for this too, and I'm confused what to do with an img file when I make it.  Do I have to convert this to something else, or what folder on my GPSr do I have to put it into to have Garmin recognize it? 

On a related note - my buddy actually has a small business creating custom mapping for lakes.  He uses various sonar and side imaging sonar, GIS apps, etc to create them.  To date, his customer base has been Lowrance GPSr users, and their format/firmware is more conducive to him making custom maps that are viewable on a Lowrance receiver.  I bought the Colorado because the new Lowrance handhelds are, well, junk, and the older units are showing a propensity to fail now.  My hope was to be able to find a way to manipulate his data so I can view it on my Colorado.  We had thought if I could manipulate his shape files into KML, we could then make a custom map via GE/KMZ - but now it seems that is not an option.  Would anyone have any ideas for that?  Am I stuck making a jpeg of the data and using that?  I was really hoping to maintain coordinate control to ensure the lake mapping is accurate to a few feet anyways.  

thanks again!!!

[jbensman]

The custom maps are way overrated and have major limitations.  They are not going to get you what you need.  The kind of maps on this site will get you what you need.

There are tutertials on this site to show you how to do it.

To get the img file to your GPS, you use mapsettoolkit to install it into MapSource and then you use mapsource to send it to your GPS.

gpsmapedit http://www.geopainting.com/en/ will take shapefiles and create an img file (if the projection is a state plane you need to reproject it to geographic projection - there is freeware that will do this.)  A map with just POIs is much easier to do than one with roads, topo lines etc - POI display is determined by the GPS not the map so you don't need various levels for different zoom levels.  You only have to add the POIs to one layer.  If you know what you are doing, this is real simple to do.  I could make each of your maps in less than 5 minutes.  But it can take many hours to figure out how to do it and get it all set up.  If you want to go this route let me know if you need help or a template to use.

[Boyd]

Mapwel can read the shapefiles directly, then save it out as a garmin compatible map (.img file). I guess GPSMapEdit will also open shapefiles (never tried), but you then export the file to a compiler, cgpsmapper, to create the actual .img file.

Mapwel does it all with one program, but maybe not the right tool for larger projects like entire states. Its user-defined styles editor is a very nice feature for customizing the appearance of the map, and you can preview what it will look like on the gps.

On your colorado, .img files go into the \Garmin directory and .kmz files go into \Garmin\CustomMaps

[Richstick]

You guys are awesome - thank you very much for the help!    I will be digesting all of what you had to say here and seeing what I can do with it.  I guess the main thing I'm taking away from this is that the Garmin Custom Maps are much more limited than I had thought they would be.   I'll be looking into the various shape to img converters and associated stuff....

thanks a bunch!