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General Category => Using The Maps/Garmin Software => Topic started by: Jimbob on April 03, 2010, 07:49:54 AM

Title: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Jimbob on April 03, 2010, 07:49:54 AM
Wow-weird
Yesterday I downloaded Basecamp version 3.0.1, seems neat fine detail, but after the download I was looking at NM topo in Basecamp and noticed the highways were represented by two lines  not on the same track. I went back to Mapsource and brought up NM Topo and it shows no detail  and no contour lines. Did Mapsource get crippled with the new download of Basecamp?
Strange-weird-anybody else notice something like this.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 03, 2010, 08:18:49 AM
Looks fine on my system (Vista 64). I looked at several of my own topo's, City Navigator and US Topo 2008. Jimbob, haven't you been posting a bunch of odd problems with installers, mapset toolkit, etc (or was that someone else)? If so, then it sounds like something could be messed up on your system.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Jimbob on April 03, 2010, 09:47:03 AM
I did have a registry problem a while back, but got that fixed as soon as I realized what it was. Since this happened just as I downloaded the new basecamp I associated the problem with that. I'll have to look onto things further.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Seldom on April 03, 2010, 10:29:59 AM
I don't know if this is what Jimbob's referring to, but since Mapsource 6.14.xx rendering's been funky on my topos.  When I zoom in it looks like the old bitmap stays on but gets enlarged and blurry.  This resolves with a change in detail level. 

Also, if I rebuild a map with the same FID and name, and open it in MapSource the image of the old map will show up on the screen for a couple of zooms.  I've seen similar behavior in BaseCamp, and assume it has something to do with calls to some Windows graphics routines that Garmin started using in MapSource 6.14.

One thing I've noticed is the blurry bitmap redraw is much worse with non-transparent maps.  Transparent or semi-transparent maps behave pretty well.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 03, 2010, 11:05:45 AM
I saw the same thing happen in basecamp when accessing the City Navigator map stored on my Nuvi 1350. Changing the detail did seem to fix it.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Jimbob on April 03, 2010, 01:26:12 PM
I also run 64 bit vista. The only topo I noticed it on was NM Topo, and that is where I got the double lines in BOTH mapsource and basecamp on highways. no one mentioned that item yet. I also had the other issues mentioned. Just in case NM Topo was corrupt I'm presently downloading it again. I have also updated mapsource as I was using an older version because of the documented problem with GPX files. So I thought it might be the older mapsouce. It was not. I did get varying views when zooming in and out. Will see if the new download of NM Topo makes a difference.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Jimbob on April 03, 2010, 02:04:26 PM
New download of NM Topo
in Basecamp the duplicate lines for highways are fixed.
in mapsource still no topo contour lines, map disjointed
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Jimbob on April 03, 2010, 02:07:26 PM
mapsource same view
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 03, 2010, 02:12:02 PM
Something is wrong there.... notice how it says "overzoom" in Mapsource. That should not be happening at 1.5 mile zoom range.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Jimbob on April 03, 2010, 02:26:45 PM
Sorry for all the work folks, I just found my own DUH
In mapsource under view /show map detail/the default is hide.
Select that and it changes from hide to show.
And viola, the contour detail is there.
All is well and as I said the double lines that represented the highways are now one. All immediate problems solved
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: -Oz- on April 03, 2010, 04:38:22 PM
Glad that worked out for you
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 04, 2010, 09:41:46 AM
I have felt the same until this version... but it still needs more work. It seems to draw the map faster than Mapsource on my system. Map rendering is pretty much the same, but I saw the bug you described with City Navigator once.

One big plus is that it will let you use a pre-installed map directly on the device. So far, it appears that this must be a gmapprom.img file. But it works with City Navigator when my Nuvi is connected and with US Topo when my Oregon is connected.

This removes a complaint from buyers of the more expensive Oregon series who couldn't use their maps on their computers. It also answers a long standing complaint of Nuvi owners about not being able to access their maps on their computers. In fact, that gripe goes all the way back to the StreetPilot 2620, which was the first auto unit with a hard drive. It did not include the City Navigator disks that the cheaper 2610 had.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 05, 2010, 08:02:32 AM
QuoteAllows you to display "Garmin Custom Maps" .kmz raster files from your GPS overlaid with a vector map

Well... yes and no. It got an error message when basecamp tried to read my .kmz custom map and others have reported the same problem. One of the developers (ZHENKEL) posted the following in Garmin's BaseCamp forum

QuoteThe KMZ issues are something that we're hoping to fix in the very near future. What we've since found out is that a number of applications that generate KML/KMZ files aren't writing things according to the standard. Other apps accept these non-standard files and we're in the process of putting in workarounds so we can do the same.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 05, 2010, 11:51:22 AM
Well I made my .kmz files with GlobalMapper and they work fine on the GPS, but give an error message when BaseCamp tries to import when connecting the GPS. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the .kmz file is on the SD card and not in internal memory?
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: -Oz- on April 05, 2010, 03:26:16 PM
Oh, geotagging, now that could be cool.  I'll have to try that out and perhaps write another tutorial.  I don't think people understand the potential of geotagging.  With that and Picasa'a facial tagging/recognition I know a lot more about all my pictures.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 07, 2010, 12:33:19 PM
Thanks for looking into that. The white area is (I think) related to the 1024x1024 tile size that I'm using, and has something to do with where it falls in the source image.

But it just seems to me that if the file works fine on the GPS, then it should also work on the computer.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Jimbob on April 07, 2010, 01:42:35 PM
Hi folks, only shooting in the dark here, but could the GPSr firmware be ahead of the software updates. Lately I have been tracing almost all weird things to either me or updates.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 08, 2010, 06:11:45 AM
The firmware on the Oregon isn't "ahead" of anything. The latest official (non-beta) release has broken all my vector based maps. It has been widely reported that this version makes all the street labels disappear. Actually it's even worse than that. It makes ALL TEXT disappear - nothing has a label. And this is the only version that supports BirdsEye.

Garmin says they are working on it....
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: -Oz- on April 09, 2010, 11:47:04 PM
Yea, same issues with the Dakota...
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: astainback on April 26, 2010, 09:29:18 AM
Can you load GpsFileDepot maps onto your gpsr with basecamp?  I don't see a select map function.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: astainback on April 26, 2010, 12:18:55 PM
I hadn't plugged the GPS up to the PC, so I didn't try that already.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: alpine on April 27, 2010, 07:31:06 AM
So far the only advantage I've seen in Basecamp is that it allows you to see the maps installed on the GPSr. Since I don't (and most most likely will not ) do Birds Eye, it appears to be easier to edit tracks and make routes with MapSource.

And since TopoFusion is a lot cheaper than BirdsEye, I'll stick with MapSource.
Title: Re: Basecamp vrs. Mapsource
Post by: Boyd on April 27, 2010, 10:30:39 AM
I don't think TopoFusion is any substitute for BirdsEye, is it? I think it's just another tool for making custom maps - which are great, I have posted a number of them here myself. But custom maps are limited to 100 jpeg's at 1024x1024. So using .5 meter resolution, like BirdsEye you would be limited to coverage of an area about 5 km x 5 km. BirdsEye imagery is only limited by the amount of memory on the device or storage card.

It seems to render the images faster than custom .kmz maps and they also appear throughout the full range of zoom levels which is not the case for custom maps. The .jnx BirdsEye files would offer a lot more potential for us to make our own raster based maps.