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Amazing.  I was having the exact same problem today, trying to load a map that I had made along with the Garmin Topo and both maps were put together in a single file so that you couldn't deselect them (which I _can_ do on my Legend).

But Indrid Cold and Seldom had it exactly right: download one map, change the file name, and download the next.  You'll be able to select/deselect.  Works on my Astro 320 just fine.

Thanks!

Newwood

I think I have to zoom in a lot closer than that to get a good image, but that probably relates to size of the area you're trying cover and how big a print your going to make.  Takes a few trials to get it right.

Thanks for the line width typ file.  I saw your thread on that and was going to give it a try.  I did try using the web site Boyd mentioned typedecomp website for editing custom types: http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp, to modify some existing typ files but oddly it didn't seem to save the modifications to the files.  I must have been missing something.  Nonetheless, I think I need your typ file prototype in any case because it sounds like gpsmapedit wouldn't have recognized the compiled version anyway and needs the txt file loaded?

Newwood

Hi newwood
I was wondering if you ever got your printing issues in gpsmapedit worked out? If you did I was wondering how. I am getting ready to try to find a way to print  some huge maps I created in mapedit. So far my solution is to export a oziexplorer bitmap and print it or convert it to .pdf.

Also I know how to set up gpsmapedit to make the custom lines you need ( from your printing post ) if you still need help with that let me know.
Thanks
Freecat

Hi Freecat
Yes, at least a workable solution (although custom lines would help so I'll be interested in that).  The zoom level that you are at within mapedit at the time you export to oxiexplorer (which generates a bitmap image and is the only way of getting an image out) sets the resolution.  So you have to zoom quite far in before exporting (I'll have to check my notes at home tonight to see what I usually do).  During the export dialog you have the option to export the whole map or a portion of the map (either the visible portion or by setting coordinates) so you can get more than what you are looking at on screen.  These can result in huge bitmap files that are unreadable by most programs (although Adobe Presentations has worked for me for most) and also makes lines very thin and any symbols are shrunk to tiny sizes.  So there is a tradeoff between resolution (bad resolution shows up as jagged lines) vs thin lines and tiny symbols.  You can compensate a bit by using thick lines, but the available selection of lines do not have sufficient width in terms of pixels to fully compensate to my liking (so I'll be interested whether you've found a way to change pixel width of lines). 

I've had good success with then saving the bitmap image as a pdf (depending on the software you use to do this conversion you may face some additional choices that affect image quality--I get some odd smudging if I don't use high enough resolution in the conversion/save option within Adobe presentation, but nothing too objectionable).  The pdf files are then quite transportable.

I don't know how to correct the shrinkage of symbols--these apparently are bitmapped and as pixel size shrinks they get smaller.

Newwood

Yup, there were a bunch of Data=1 in the MP file.  I changed all those to Data=0 and I'm back in business.  Thanks!

Newwood

I tried the reset all trails to 0 and then back to 3 which didn't change things (some you could still see at 0 and not at 1 and some had the reverse).  But I'll try the first suggestion and report back.

Thanks
newwood

So I have a set of trail maps and added some new trails.  But the new trails only show up at level 1 and higher and don't show up at 0.  All trails are the same type (major highway) and selecting all and changing the level to something else (0 or 1 or 3) doesn't solve the problem. 

I should add that this is all happening within GPSMapEdit software (i.e. I'm not talking about exporting to a device).

So I'm used to things disappearing as you move to a _higher_ level but not when you go to a lower level.  Help!

Newwood

Capture screen wouldn't work for an image of this detail.  
the printer is an HP Designjet 250 (A to D size) which can print up to Arch D size (24x36).

But even within global mapper it appears that an image that you see at relatively low resolution (e.g. fitting the entire map on a computer screen as suggested) will look very bad when magnified up to how it would look when printed in large format (i.e. lots of thick jagged lines).  If you set the resolution to something that gives acceptable resolution (e.g. 1:3000) then the lines become very thin (and of course file size is huge).  It seems like these images are always defined by pixels rather than by drawing elements (vectors) and so there is this tradeoff that needs to be worked out for any large format print?

I solved the projection issue: needed to be in mercator. 

Yes, I can go into global mapper and change the line thickness, but printing to file still produces these awful primitive lines such that any diagonal is a jagged series of horizontal and vertical lines (and global mapper seems even worse at creating that sort of output when in a bmp file)

Oh one last bit: so is there any way to define a thicker line in GPSmapedit (I've checked all the existing lines and am using the thickest available so the default options don't supply a solution).
newwood

OK, I'll investigate the printer type and report back.  Any hints on why, when I bring the MP file into Global Mapper I get a distorted projection?  I have no problem converting the MP and bringing it into mapsource with the correct projection.

Actually I had tried bringing it into global mapper, but for some reason it oddly distorts the image of the map compressing it from top to bottom to make it into a square.  It also really messes with the various polygon fills and colors so pretty much makes a hash of the whole map.  Not a great result for me (but thanks for trying).

newwood

The printer I can't answer--I've been shipping them off to a friend to print--an architect with a large format injet printer.

re other software: yes, although none of them seem to solve this problem either because the shareware version won't import the files correctly or because they don't have any (much less better) printer support.

The major problem seems to be the width definition of any line is only one or two pixels, so at high resolution these are very thin. Yes, photoshop elements and other things--what specifically are you looking for?

I've run into this frustrating problem with the *.mp maps that I've made and then want to print in large format (2' X 3' and larger).  I can do this in an awkward way from GPSmapedit by exporting them as bmp files but there's a nasty trade off between fine resolution (so that diagonal lines don't look jagged) and line width (at acceptable resolution, roads and rivers become such thin lines they are hard to see).  GPSmapedit doesn't allow much flexibility here--essentially the resolution and pixel size for the bmp files are controlled by the zoom level and you have to take what you get.

It's not such a problem when you're just printing on standard paper--but when you go large format you don't get an acceptable result.  Anyone have an alternative program for printing or some other work around?

Newwood

Yes, I thought it might come down to the experimental approach--I was just hoping someone had recreated the wheel before me.  I had done that with polygon fills some time ago and found a very limited set of different color/patterns that actually showed up (although again I can't help but wonder if a TYP file might not allow greater choices).  I haven't done lines yet (I got lucky on a few) but that clearly is going to need to be part of the experiment--although here the TYP file clearly is known to provide solutions: both NW Trails and Montana Trails have trails showing up as nice red dashed lines (and NW Trails has recently enhanced this so it shows up all the way to level 3 which is great if you're interested in trails).

Interestingly, although NW Trails is based on track logs, Montana Trails added to that set from some other source to come up with additional (unvalidated) trails.  But I don't know where he pulled those from or whether they are available for other states.

Newwood

Are there a set of point symbol types that are known to work?  (by the way maps4gps: I love the wisco topos you did--nice job!  Now if there were only trails too)