Messages

Good idea..

Nice. Perhaps I should just forget Google Maps and just go straight from Google Earth to my Garmin.

What device do you use? I'm out in the sticks all the time, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I would trust my Garmin Fenix 5x. I've never really gambled with using it. Garmin has been f***ing with the software so much, nothing feels consistent anymore. What do you think about the wearable stuff by Garmin?

Do you use your maps on your smartphone? Using the Google Earth app? Or do you use it only on GPS device?

I'm a little bit confused about your statement that you made a .kmz and tried to load it into Google Earth.  Generally, you *make* the .kmz with google earth.  What are you creating the .kmz with?

Is tiling required in order to break the map down into the 1024x1024 resolution for Garmin devices?

Yes, the 1024x1024 tile is a Garmin "limitation".  Garmin used to have a page detailing these limitations, but for some reason I'm having trouble pulling it up at the moment.  You could google "Garmin Custom Map limitations" to read more.

The general idea is to follow these steps:
- find a map you like
- convert the map to .jpg and into the projection that GoogleEarth likes (this is where I have spent much time and effort)
- georeference the map by creating an Image Overlay in Google Earth (generally easy if your map has control points)
- export that image overlay as a .kmz
- use a "map tiler" to cut that image into a bunch of tiles that will automatically georeference each tile for you based on the larger image
- copy that "tiled" .kmz into your CustomMaps folder

I did provide you with a tiled .kmz in this thread, if you wanted to check it out.

I did find that many tilers were hosing my carefully crafted images (adding compression artifacts to the image), so be careful.

Sorry I wasn't very clear.

In Google Earth desktop, I imported the image as an overlay. Once I got it all aligned, I exported an KMZ file and then went into Google Map on Chrome, tried to create a custom map with this KMZ file, figured the overlay would appear. It doesn't. I get that error message I mentioned. I figured that I should just work between Google Earth and Google Maps. No? I haven't even begun the process of making it Garmin compatible.

Your instructions here will be helpful for sure. Just not sure why I can't load it into Google Maps, I can can view the overlay I added on my Android device.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Took me forever to finally get the damn thing aligned nicely, saved a kmz and tried to make my own map in Google Maps, but it won't load the kmz file. "1 row couldn't be shown on the map". Do I have to tile it for Google Maps as well?

Is tiling required in order to break the map down into the 1024x1024 resolution for Garmin devices? What's the purpose of tiling? Is this essentially just cropping the image into smaller puzzle like pieces? Can I do this with Photoshop?

Thanks man! Really appreciate your time! Now that it's not as intimidating, it'll just be a matter of practice. Like anything else.

Wow. One could really go insane doing this..

I'm getting real close!!

I'm using the Transform function of the overlay to stretch and getting the lines to fit. Super tricky.. or I'm not well practiced. Clearly. But it's starting to look like something!

I think I'm making some progress here...

One question though.. how exactly do you get the scale to match between my image file and Google Earth? Can I input custom scale? If that even makes sense.

For example, the PDF I printed off the site, then converted into a JPG, I cropped, is scaled at 1:25,549. How do I match that with Google Earth? Do you eye ball it?

Yes! Let's have a peek!

Do you know how to view the .kmz I provided in Google Earth?

Definitely. I have the desktop version installed. I can do that much! xD

So, do you think the provided .kmz file is "close enough" for your needs?

I have not seen a reply from you, but I pretended for a moment that you were happy with that, so I went ahead and tiled it.
I'm attaching it here, and you can put it on your garmin in the "/Garmin/CustomMaps" folder.  Then you may have to enable custom maps on the garmin.  See here for help with that:
https://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/custommaps

WHAO! That's awesome! It looks perfect!

Is there any way everything else except the yellow part can be cropped out?

I'm reading through the link you provided right now.. definitely something I can wrap my head around.

Yes! Let's have a peek!

Do you know how to view the .kmz I provided in Google Earth?

Definitely. I have the desktop version installed. I can do that much! xD

Step 3 is to consider the size of the map file and tile the map.  We want to wait to do this until you are happy with the map as it is.  So, can you take a peek in Google Earth and make sure you like it?
Once you are happy, we need to cut the big map file into little tiles that the garmin can use.  I have written a script to do this, but there are many online tools that will do it too...

Yes! Let's have a peek!

44.97393333129668, -75.84388328135792

These are coordinates to a spot I pinned while there. Does that work?

Turning PDFs to kmz for my garmin is something I do on a very regular basis.  For some reason I'm insane enough to enjoy it.
If you have a PDF that you would like in your garmin as a custom map, I would be happy to try to convert it for you, or even talk you through the process I use if you would like to learn.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff! And everyone who took the time to reply.

I'm going to slowly learn the process of doing this, but I would greatly appreciate your offer to help me make a map. As of right now, there is only a relatively small piece of Crown Land that I would like mapped for my Garmin. I'll attached it right now as a PDF.

The two plots that are yellow are said Crown Land. It's important that I never cross the lines into private property. Having the Crown lines overlay Google Maps, or OSM map for Garmin, would be gold to me.

Again, thank you!

If only the PDFs were GeoReferenced, then it would be easy.

The workflow would be:

1. Download a PDF
2. Identify coordinate points for georeferencing (see below)
3. Georeference the PDF by matching points to coordinates
4. Crop the collar to just leave the map detail
5. Cut the map into 1Mpixel pieces to make a KMZ for Google Earth and/or a Garmin Custom Map.

If you can match enough highway bends/junctions, lakes or other landmarks then this technique with MAPC2MAPC may work :


MAPC2MAPC (with GDAL) will do the rest.

But I declare an interest as the author of MAPC2MAPC!

Whao.. none of that sounded like English to me. xD xD

Yes, the PDF it exports is pretty difficult to use. I was hoping there would be a third party tool to export a certain layer I can then use as an overlay somewhere else.

Clearly a little over my head. Can you refer me to a tutorial, or something that might help me understand the words that you just said?

Thanks!