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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: ddgrfn38 on February 18, 2009, 03:11:01 PM

Title: 3-D maps
Post by: ddgrfn38 on February 18, 2009, 03:11:01 PM
Thank you guys for all the information you have here.

I have a Colorado 400i and was wondering if with the topo maps I should be able to see the 3-D maps. I try to set them and I get a "Maps do not contain sufficient elevation information to display 3-D view" Have I done something wrong with the maps? If anybody can shed some light on the subject I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Title: Re: 3-D maps
Post by: maps4gps on February 18, 2009, 04:03:09 PM
Some of the Garmin maps have elevation data incorporated in the map files which allows 3-D maps.  Currently there is no software which is able to do this for custom-build-your-own maps.
Title: Re: 3-D maps
Post by: Boyd on February 18, 2009, 04:27:36 PM
Yeah, it really is too bad that we don't know how to roll DEM into our maps yet. However, if you have one of Garmin's topo products and you make your map cover it up, you can enable both maps and the DEM shading will be rendered on your own map.

I have only tried this in 2d mode, and it works fine for that on my Oregon 400t. Not sure if it would also work for 3d but guessing that it might. OTOH, personally I find the 3d mode on the Colorado and Oregon pretty useless.

Now we also know the the new Colorado and Oregon system software supports raster maps too, but there is no software yet which enables us to use this feature in our own maps either.
Title: Re: 3-D maps
Post by: -Oz- on February 18, 2009, 10:10:27 PM
Oh how I wish...
Title: Re: 3-D maps
Post by: rlreif on February 19, 2009, 12:05:56 PM
Quote from: Boyd on February 18, 2009, 04:27:36 PM
Yeah, it really is too bad that we don't know how to roll DEM into our maps yet. However, if you have one of Garmin's topo products and you make your map cover it up, you can enable both maps and the DEM shading will be rendered on your own map.

I have only tried this in 2d mode, and it works fine for that on my Oregon 400t. Not sure if it would also work for 3d but guessing that it might. OTOH, personally I find the 3d mode on the Colorado and Oregon pretty useless.

Now we also know the the new Colorado and Oregon system software supports raster maps too, but there is no software yet which enables us to use this feature in our own maps either.

so if i have 2 maps of the same area active, which map will show up and which wont?
I assume the more detailed one would show? that would be better, as i could load all of garmin topo usa and the states that i have more detailed maps for from this site would just cover up the lesser garmin map... is this how it works?
Title: Re: 3-D maps
Post by: Boyd on February 20, 2009, 02:47:39 PM
That is how it works on my Oregon 400t which has all of US Topo 2008 pre-loaded. But you must set the map draw priority such that your map draws on top of the US Topo. Fortunately for me, this seems to be the default with both Mapwel and cgpsmapper.

So when you're viewing the area in your map, the DEM data from US Topo will be rendered on the map. But I really wish we could control the style/color of the rendering. Depending on the elevations, it can make your map a little hard to read because it's rather dark.

BTW, this also works with City Navigator. You will get DEM shading on those maps too if you enable US Topo.
Title: 3-D maps software
Post by: smith on March 02, 2009, 07:08:01 AM
I didn't dig too much, but doesn't this software build in 3d?
http://www.oziexplorer.com/ (http://www.oziexplorer.com/)
Title: Re: 3-D maps
Post by: Boyd on March 04, 2009, 12:19:13 PM
There are a variety of software packages which can display 3d maps on your computer, but nobody has figured out how to use the 3d data in a map which works on a Garmin GPS. OziExplorer has nothing whatsoever to do with Garmin compatible maps. They have a proprietary map format which Global Mapper can't even grok.

I have the full version of OziExplorer and it's pretty cool for making your own maps from raster images, like scanned USGS maps or satellite photos. You can then use these with OziExplorer CE, which is an application running under Windows Mobile on handheld devices. A variety of GPS'es from Magellan, Mio, Navigon and HP are Windows CE based and have been hacked to work with Ozi CE - I run it on my iPAQ 310. BUT... this is in no way related to making Garmin maps. Completely different approach - Garmin maps are vector-based, Ozi is (primarily) raster-based.