Hello all.
Total newb to making maps and GPS in general. I just bought a Montana 600- I know, probably not the best "starter" unit but I'm usually pretty good figuring stuff out.
Anyway, I'll be using this for hunting/hiking primarily along with the automotive features. My local DEP has area maps in pdf form. How can I download these to Basecamp? These maps have boundry/property lines which is the reason I'd like to use them. My goal is to upload these maps to my 600 and then walk the area marking trails and waypoints.
What is the best way to go about this?
Thanks!!
If they are GeoPDFs, G-raster will import them and convert them to KMZ files you can see in BaseCamp and on your Montana.
How can I tell if they are GeoPDFs?
Well they won't open unless you have installed the geoPDF plug-in in Adobe Acrobat... :)
They will open for me so I guess that's a start. I will look into G-raster.
That should work, but you will need to manually georeference them and that can be a bit of a pain.
Here are Garmin's instructions for creating a KMZ:
http://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/custommaps#fragment-2
Dave
The demo version of G-Raster will convert a small section of the GeoPDF to GeoTiff format, which can then be imported directly into G-Raster's Custom Map section; registered version ($5) is currently required for full conversion. This limitation will be removed in the next release, as the GeoPDF converter has problems with some GeoPDF files (non-standard headers), and I don't want people paying for a program that doesn't always work for every GeoPDF file. An alternative to G-Raster (and for non-geo PDF files) is to convert them to image format with the free program GeoPDF creator, use Google Earth to calibrate the image and save it as a KMZ file, then "tile" it with a program like G-Raster, mapc2mapc or Global Mapper.