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See the topic "problem with step 2 of Dan's instructions."  What program will you use to do the big editing -- like GPSMapEdit, or global mapper?

I'm using TYPViewer:
https://sites.google.com/site/sherco40/

I just downloaded that!  Too bad he translated it... I was looking for a chance to refresh my French.  It looks great for the future... for now, all my blue navaids will become green squares.

Thanks!

Later... Doh!  Just realized that is what the typ file in MapSetToolKit is all about!  Thanks for the push in the right direction!

Just to be sure -- you have the routable version of both programs, correct?  And the routable version of cGPSmapper?

As near I can tell, *.MP files are really just ascii-- you can open the smaller ones with notepad or wordpad.  There are delimiters before and after various entities in the file; some programs have different protocol for the delimiters.

Both programs?  All versions of GPSmapedit can build routing graphs.  Only Personal or higher versions of cgpsmapper will do routing.  MP files are just big text files.  Notepad++ (not Notepad) has opened the largest I've ever made.  I need Notepad++ to edit highway shields.

Since both programs rely on cGPSmapper, wouldn't you say they are non-routing if there isn't a routing version of cGPSMapper installed? Tomato, ToMAHto.

Just to be sure -- you have the routable version of both programs, correct?  And the routable version of cGPSmapper?

As near I can tell, *.MP files are really just ascii-- you can open the smaller ones with notepad or wordpad.  There are delimiters before and after various entities in the file; some programs have different protocol for the delimiters.

I've seen many older character maps posted, and those older posts showed a fairly close correspondence between the symbols as displayed in GPSMapEdit, and the way the symbols displayed on the actual GPSr.

I'm a little puzzled with the Marine Navaids, however.  I've used a basic blue navaid in many applications, and the symbols always translate to a round blue filled circle.

GPSMapEdit has at least 3 choices for "Navaid, blue" all with different hex codes, all showing on the GPSMapEdit selection menu (v 1.1.75.2) as blue filled circles surrounded by 6 rays. It seems like every one produces the same result on my 62stc -- what looks like a blue exclamation point tilted at 45 degrees (NE), with the "dot" on the waypoint location.

I wouldn't mind if the symbol showed up on the GPSr as either a simple filled blue circle, or a filled circle surrounded by rays.  Before I make a symbol map, is there some place I should look for this info?

UPDATE:  I just made an mp with a whole slew of symbols, checked it on the 62stc.  Nothing looks remotely like a navaid blue. The "navaid blue" symbols form GPSMapEdit show up on the 62stc as variations on the exclamation point theme.  The various city symbols show up as small dots varying down to very small dots.  Many symbols don't show up at all.

I'd really like files that have similar appearance of modern Garmins of varied type, so I don't want to peg appearance to another file that must be loaded on the gps... folks have a hard enough time with installing the maps!  Thanks

No, just what is given under the "source" tab when you hit alt-enter in GPSMapEdit.

Maybe you could post the entire source file (i.e. more than just the levels and zoom)?  More for my benefit, than yours!  cGPSmapper has a whole slew of delimiters, used by some calling programs, and not others.

What happens if you selectively take out an mp file and try to compile? Does one particular file break the camel's back?

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/oaconvert/nBJrZHUr0ys
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/map_authors/message/6894

error is mentioned in MANY places-- I'm sure you have checked.  What amazes me is how rarely anyone seems to know what caused the error... some just get it to go away by altering the dictionary file, etc.

Why not use MapSetToolKit to combine the separate img files into one map group? You can make the img files from separate mp files.

I'm guessing you want to eliminate the annoying overlap for states that are compiled separately to img(s).

What do you mean by specific kayak locations?  Are they in a gpx file as waypoints, or as POIs?  You can load waypoints or POIs onto the GPS, and they will show up overlain on the Florida top, and they will stay there until you decide to remove them.

After lots of neat side trips, I finally figured out the solution!

I changed the map to type 'S' for cGPSmapper (via GPSMapEdit)!  I have no idea why this issue never surfaced before in the 3 other maps I've made by the same process.  Maybe there is something odd about the Garmin world basemap in that region.

Along the way, I dusted off my C programming skills, and went through the flt file with a fine-tooth comb, and made false-color bitmaps of the area around Cerro Pinacate.  When I finally had to concede that there was really nothing wrong with the initial data, I started going over all the mysterious options in the programs that I has treated as black boxes.

My 62stc had the power button fail after 15 months of use -- purely mechanical, it just started requiring harder and harder presses to turn on the unit.  I could still communicate with the unit via the USB connection.

I've known several other people who have had the same issue with recent garmin units; this just seems to be a problem of poor manufacturing and quality control.

In any case, I sent the unit in for replacement by a refurb ($110 plus shipping).  While waiting for the new unit to come back, I talked with several people who had bad experiences with Garmin refurbs.

When I got the refurb unit and turned it on, it immediately came up with "cannot unlock maps."  I called garmin, and they said this was a common problem with stc units, they forget to unlock the 100k maps that are supposed to come with a 62stc, or just corrupt the unlock code. WTF?  Don't they do the minimal, most basic checking of the unit -- e.g. making sure it turns on without errors, before sending it out? It doesn't take a genius to know there is something wrong with a unit when it displays an error message immediately upon power-up.

I've collected perhaps 5 stories from people who had serious problems with their refurb units.  Is this a remarkable coincidence, or had Garmin added unspeakably bad QA/QC to their reputation for unspeakably bad manuals?

What kind of batteries are you using?

[THIS PROCEDURE might be written up (in a more coherent fashion!) to replace the "cheap" (DEM2TOPO) part of step #2]

THIS PROCEDURE might be written up (in a more coherent fashion!) to replace the "cheap" (DEM2TOPO) part of step #2

http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/

Then at the top of the map on the icon bar, pick the rightmost icon for "eneter coordinates by bounding box" (or whatever it's called) if you want to enter in bounding coordinates by hand, or next to rightmost if you want to use cursor to select on map

Dialog comes up with available data

Check elevation (often near bottom), next

Another box comes up with available data -- arcgrid, grdfloat (flt) or img formats (if available).

So far I've found that (as others suggested) NED actually downloads data in 1 degree by 1 degree chunks.  In US, you can get 1/3 arcsecond in many places; in Mexico, you may be limited to 1 arcsecond. For 1 degree by 1 degree, 1/3 arcsecond data typically downloads as an ~10812x10812 element matrix; with single p floating points, that 4 bytes per element.  That's how you get ~450 MB.

Scripts for converting among file types are at:
http://gisdata.usgs.gov/website/USGS_Raster_Conversion_Scripts.zip

If you look at the scripts, you'll see they just use GDAL_translate.  You can get the GDAL distribution compiled for windows, mac, linux, etc. at various places.  I just use gdal_translate (copying the command line in the script, making obvious substitutions) with
flt (GridFloat) format files.

Typically, DEM2TOPO is limited to rather small files.  I either use a batch file to run gdal_translate to split the flt or tif file into smaller tiles (which are reassembled in GPSMapEdit) or I use gdal_contour to make shp files which I can import into GPSMapEdit.  You'll use either the srcwin or projwin switches with GDAL_translate to extract a portion of the original big tif for processing by DEM2TOPO.  For example, I typically break a 10812x10812 file  into 16 2703x2703 chunks, e.g. with:

(these are the lines in an command-line bat file)
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin    0    0   2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_00.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 2703    0   2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_0a.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 5406    0   2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_0b.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 8109    0   2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_0c.tif

C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin    0  2703  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_a0.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 2703  2703  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_aa.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 5406  2703  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_ab.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 8109  2703  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_ac.tif

C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin    0  5406  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_b0.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 2703  5406  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_ba.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 5406  5406  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_bb.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 8109  5406  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_bc.tif

C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin    0  8109  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_c0.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 2703  8109  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_ca.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 5406  8109  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_cb.tif
C:\"Program Files"\GDAL\gdal_translate -srcwin 8109  8109  2703 2703 n33w116.tif n33w116_cc.tif