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OK, I have read the tutorial on creating a Mac installer and am obviously missing something!   I used Garmin's mapconverter to create a Mac version of my map, then installed on my Mac where it properly opened in RoadTrip. So far so good.

Now I have a .gmapi file, which appears to be some sort of container for a .gmap file when I view the package contents. But the Mac tutorial on the site here only references a .tgz file without explaining where that comes from. I know that's a gzip file. Am I supposed to create this from the .gmapi file? Why?

I was hoping to avoid getting fancy with an installer like the tutorial shows. But am not able to upload the .gmapi file, the uploader complains that it's a directory. I also tried to compress it to a zip file by right-clicking and using the compress option, but the uploader won't take this either.

So what is the simplest way to create a Mac version without all the bells and whistles? Why can't I just upload the .gmapi file? Wouldn't that work on any Mac?

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Looking at this some more, I'm guessing that the .tgz file is something that an old version of Mapconverter created perhaps? It seems that all I really need to do is create a .dmg file from the .gmapi file and upload. True?

GPSMapEdit  is available for free, or $65.

True that it's available for free, but you are supposed to purchase if you use it for longer than an evaluation period. From the license agreement:

1.4 Evaluation.

You are hereby granted to use this Software for evaluation purposes without charge for a evaluation period of Software. If you use this Software after the evaluation period a registration fee is required.

GlobalMapper is the tool that I use the most, hands down. It can open just about any type of file that you're likely to find on a GIS website. From my experience, it can take the place of the following (although I will bow to others who know more about some of the free tools). At any rate, I haven't used any of the following for my own mapmaking:

Dem2Topo
FWTools
PostGIS
G-Raster

GPSBabel is really a different category IMO, maybe useful for translating track/route/waypoint data from different brands of GPS. I have never felt the need for it personally.

Mapwel is nice because it's so user-friendly and visual. I have the advanced version but have not used it recently - I've gone back to cgpsmapper. But for a beginner or somebody who is less interested in the complexity of mapmaking, I think it's an excellent choice.

I have GPSMapEdit also, and like to use it to preview my .mp files after exporting them from Globalmapper. I then use it to export to cgpsmapper. But I don't usually do any editing in GPSMapEdit.

I don't think MapEdit (as linked to above) is even a mapping program, is it? Sometimes people refer to GPSMapEdit as "MapEdit" - is that what you're thinking of?

One other free tool that is definitely worthwhile is the online custom types editor at http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp/editor.cgi. This site gives you a visual editor that makes it very easy to customize your maps and does some tricks that I've never seen anywhere else.

That's very odd. I have been dragging/dropping .img files from my Windows Vista computer to both an Oregon and Nuvi 1350 with absolutely no problems. I think I've also done it with my Mac. Something must be strange in your computer settings.

I'm sure this is something you already know, but just in case, it is possible to create filenames like topo.img.img if you have one of the Windows preferences wrong for hiding file extensions.

I can tell you that all of the maps that are duplicates are in fact Transparent Maps (fwiw).

I have read that the new versions of the Oregon system software create some kind of issue with transparent maps. Have not used any on my Oregon personally, and am also several versions behind with system software.

You might try downgrading to some older system software and see if that helps. I think you will find info on how to do this at the Oregon Wiki site.

I think, multiple, renamed, gmapsupp.IMGs are only supported on the OR and CO Garmins.

That's almost right.   The Oregon, Colorado and Dakota handhelds will recognize any file in the \Garmin folder with a .img extension. The Nuvi 1200, 1300, 1400 and 1600 series will recognize any file with a .img extension also, but you need to create a new folder called \Map and place the files in there.

But, this won't work on the OP's unit...

That's pretty cool - I never even knew that GPSMapEdit could use custom types. Unfortunately it only seems to recognize the source .txt files and I have gone way beyond those in my recent work. I now use the typedecomp website for editing custom types: http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp

That is sort of a one-way street once you feed it a .txt file for a custom type. It converts it to the native, compliled format and you make your changes to that file. It has the option to decompile it into a text file again, but the author warns that it probably won't work right. I did with GPSMapEdit, and it pretty much mangled the map. Some types looked right, others were a mess.

But that website is really fantastic for creating complex types. Aside from the ease of use, it can do tricks which you just can't do with the classic text file approach using cgpsmapper. For example, you can control text size and color.

I have the shareware version of GPSMapEdit, but I don't use it for much. All the heavy lifting is done with globalmapper, and I open the MP files in GPSMapEdit just to check them, then send them off to be compliled.

I think the free version of Mapwel should let you upload a map to your GPS - it did for me before I decided to purchase. But it adds a watermark to the map and doesn't load all the map detail. However, if it doesn't even recognize your GPS, there may be an issue on your system. IIRC, part of the registration process involves reading your GPS Unit ID and locking Mapwel to it.

With the advanced version you can make maps for any GPS, or just save the files on your computer. However you still need the GPS you used to register the program. It serves like a "dongle" to authorize your copy of Mapwel.

I believe your other assumptions are correct.

Careful with the term "custom maps" these days. Garmin is not using this to describe special raster-based maps which only work on the Oregon, Colorado and Dakota! I would call what you want a "Garmin compatible map" myself.

There are a number of ways to do what you want. If you make a map with a transparent background and mess with map draw priority (which gets a little tricky), it can display on top of another map. It will certainly display on top of the 60csx basemap without problems. However, any polygons in the map will cover up objects on the map below. In garmin's format, polygons are always filled and they cannot have a border. You could convert the polygons to polylines first, if your software allows this.

I believe the DNR Garmin just makes a .gpx file from shapefiles, like a tracklog. This is not really a "map" (haven't used it myself, but that's my understanding).

The simplest program for what you want to do is Mapwel: http://mapwel.eu/. It is not free, but you can use the demo version without restriction on your computer to see if it works. It strips details out of the map for the GPS however unless you purchase a license key. The basic version will only upload maps directly to the GPS which you register it to, but the advanced version will upload maps to any GPS as well as save them on your computer.

But this program is much more user-friendly than any of the other methods, and it does everything in one package. Other solutions would involve using two or more programs to create the sourcefile and then compile the map in Garmin format.

Is this what you have? https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=6426

If so, it depends on how much internal memory the unit has and whether there is any free space remaining. Connect your unit to your computer in USB disk mode (assuming that it supports this) and check. You might want to do a full backup of everything in internal memory before attempting to add any maps, just to play it safe. This might require several GB of disk space and take awhile.

Otherwise, you would need to add one of Garmin's proprietary data cards, which are ridiculously expensive. We just discussed this in another thread. Unfortunately, considering the cost, it would probably be cheaper for you to buy another GPS for topo maps than to purchase a data card of any reasonable size.

Here's a link to card prices that somebody posted in that other thread: http://www.gpscentral.ca/accessories/mapsourcedatacards.htm

Yes, just go to the map setup screen and enable the mapset you want to use. You would then disable all the other maps.

Yes, on the Oregon these are called "custom maps". See Garmin's instructions here: http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/onthetrail/custommaps

It will be easier to use a program that is designed for this purpose though, such as: http://topofusion.com/garmin-custom-maps.php or http://moagu.com/?page_id=155

That is very odd. Are you using Mapsource to send these files? There shouldn't be files with those names on your GPS unless you copied the wrong things there or changed the names. When you use Mapsource, it creates a file named GMAPSUPP.IMG inside the \Garmin folder. The file can be sent to either internal memory or a micro SD card, depending on which you chose in Mapsource.

FWIW, I was just looking at my Oregon 400t and there is no basemap (no GMAPBMAP.IMG file), just the pre-loaded US Topo.

DO NOT mess with the file named GMAPPROM.IMG, that is your US Topo map!

You can mix different maps without trouble. But your unit can only handle a total of 2025 map segments (tiles). This number is a composite of all the different maps you have loaded. A map file can only be 4GB max also.

It's less likely that the 4GB limit will be a problem than the 2025 tile limit. For example, Garmin's Topo US 100k map has 6,600 segments so you could only load about 1/3 of the US at a time. The full US map is about 3GB, so in this case you would reach the segment limit with a file that is only 1GB.

There is no standard size for map segments, it's up to the mapmaker. For example, Garmin has created a version of US Topo to pre-load on the Oregon GPS. The map itself is identical to the 6,600 segment DVD version, but this version only has about 430 segments.

Just to fully answer your question.... yes, mapsource is designed to erase the existing map(s) in the gps when you send a new one. It will always name the map file gmapsupp.img, and older GPS'es would only recognize a map file of that name.

But the Oregon and other new models don't have that restriction. So use Seldom's trick of changing the map file name after you upload and you can install multiple maps.