Messages

The mapset I am currently uploading was 'optimized' for the 76, etc.  In the future I will be 'optimizing' for the CO/OR/DK series.

Aside from tweaking items on the map, IMO one huge improvement would be giving it a white background instead of the tan which the Oregon defaults to. More contrast = better readability in bright conditions. For that matter, I think this looks better on the 60csx as well. I never really understood that whole "Garmin Yellow" thing. 

I have an Oregon 400t and a 60csx. The Oregon display should be better, but it is still quite usable. Firmware can't fix the problems, it has to do with the extra layers of touch sensitive material on the screen. The newest model (550) has a different surface (which is evidently reflective instead of matte) and is said to be slightly better. Same for the new Dakota series.

But personally I have never found it unreadable. The biggest problem is bright diffused light. In direct sun, you just need to tip the unit to properly reflect the sun and it's very readable. Also, probably the biggest thing you can do to help is to turn of shaded relief (DEM shading) which kills the contrast between map features and the background. You can also turn of landcover shading, which may help (but you will lose things like state parks which may be shaded green).

I like the Oregon much more than the 60csx, but I am not obsessed with accuracy and don't do geocaching. If I did, I might very well find that the paperless features of the Oregon outweighed any problems - which is what many people say over at Groundspeak.

But the high resolution screen on the Oregon makes it far more attractive to me. We are talking about a BIG difference here-  about 38,000 pixels on the vista or 60csx vs 96,000 on the Oregon. And add to that the ability of the Oregon to use the new "custom maps" format... to me it's a no-brainer (see some custom map examples here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/byuser/282/). But we all have different needs and priorities.

Also, FWIW, I don't think the 300 has "potential to be more powerful" than the 400t. It's just a question of whether you want pre-loaded 100k topos for the whole US. The only hardware difference is 4GB internal memory on the 400t and 1GB on the 300. Because of the way that Garmin has structured the DVD version of US Topo 100k, you cannot load the entire US into your GPS at the same time. The pre-loaded version on the 400t has been tweaked to allow that.

However, the black friday sale on the 300 at REI is tough to beat (although it is evidently on 3 week backorder).

Here's a "gotcha" that you may not have considered. Do NOT use anything but letters and numbers in your filenames! I just spent the better part of an evening going nuts, re-doing a map over and over but had no luck getting it recognized by my Oregon. Then I saw a thread over on the Garmin support forum about this.

My file was named plains-2007.kmz and it is not recognized. I re-did the map with the exact same data and called it plains2007.kmz and it works! Now I know better than to call it something like plains&2007, but geez... you can't even use a minus sign? Also - it isn't just the name of the file itself. All the jpeg images inside your .kmz must also respect this convention.

But here's the strange thing... when I use globalmapper to make .kmz files, it inserts an underscore character into the name (such as plains2007_kmzA3.jpg). That doesn't seem to be a problem. Bug, or feature?  

Here area bunch that I've created. I used Globalmapper to make these however. Most of them push the limits of Garmin's maximum file size and coverage area: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/byuser/282/

The polygon will be transparent in single gmapsupp.img made of multiple maps.

Aha, that's interesting, hadn't thought of that distinction. But if you want to use your map with City Navigator, doesn't that mean you would need City Navigator on DVD, and you would have to create a mapset using parts of it as well as your map, then send to the GPS? That wouldn't be a solution for the Nuvi then.

Yes, there's a separate settings menu for marine which has those same options, plus a few others it appears. Have never tried it on a regular map myself.

Haha, I like your "swiss cheese" analogy. But to be a little more specific... lines are always drawn on top of polygons with custom types. And the "swiss cheese" polygons will allow a certain degree of visibility for other polygons which are beneath them.

But I think this only works within one map. If you enable a second mapset on the GPS which is "under" the one with the "swiss cheese", I don't think you can see through the holes in the cheese to the map below. So it will appear as if the swiss cheese has plugged-up holes and the polygon will hide everything on the map below.

Yes, if you want maps to use in Mapsource then you need to install them. See, the method of obtaining mapsource which is described here is a bit of a "hack". There's nothing wrong with it, but Garmin makes the mapsource software specifically to work with their own maps, and it is included if you buy their maps on DVD. By installing Training Center first on your computer, you're (more or less) "tricking" Mapsource into believing you have a Garmin map.

Go to the homepage here and see if you can find any maps of your area. If so, follow the download instructions. Most of them include a installer program which is very user-friendly: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

First, there are clearly some bugs in cgpsmapper and more likely than not, you have found one. 

Second, the Oregon doesn't have a night mode, so that might very well be an issue. If you don't like the tan background on the Oregon, you can set a different background color with cgpsmapper and that might help.

It's been awhile since I've done this, but I think the only way I was able to do that and get the results I wanted was to create a big rectangle the size of the whole map.

Are you using maps from this site? If so, most of them include an installer which will load them into Mapsource. Fter installing, in Mapsource go to View > Switch to Product and you will be able to choose either No Map or any of the maps which you have installed.

If the only option in that menu is No Map, then you have not properly installed the topo's. If you can choose a map in that menu but it still doesn't show on your screen, then it probably doesn't cover the area you want or else you have zoomed in so far that no map details are available.

Color set to 006666.

I think that's the devil's color. 

Since the 60csx only has 8 bit color, some of the palette doesn't render the way it should. You can get much more subtle map shading on the Oregon. I don't know if this has something to do with what you are seeing or not.

One thing which confused me on the Oregon when I upgraded to the new software was that all my unused maps started showing up. Like you, I would name files things like oldgmapsupp.img and keep them on the SD card when not using them. All of a sudden all of these files became visible in the Map Info menu after the firmware upgrade.

Have you tried turning off shaded relief (DEM shading)? Since I have the Oregon 400t, the DEM shading exists in the pre-loaded topo maps. I think the Oregon 300 is different, and it probably has a world basemap that contains DEM shading. Can you turn the basemap off in the Map Info? That might make a difference too.

Also, try a screenshot from both the 60csx and Oregon. The actual colors in the image (as seen on your computer) are quite different from what you see on the GPS screen with both of these units.

I made extensive use of custom types in one of my maps, and it was indeed tedious with cgpsmapper. Aside from the "ASCII art", the whole cycle is really time consuming: code it, compile, copy to the gps, look at it on the screen, repeat. The WYSIWYG display mode in Mapwel is great for this. The custom types look pretty much like what you see on the GPS. Some things are a bit different, like the way text is displayed, but the polygon fills, lines and points are pretty faithful.

See this old thread: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,152.0.html

Evidently the files don't work properly in Mapsource though. I don't use mapsource myself for very much, so I don't really care, but it's a big issue for others.

I have never seen my Oregon "cache" anything. Do you have a memory card in the unit? Are you getting confused between a file on the card and one in internal memory perhaps? Not sure what might be happening, but the new firmware could have some oddities I suppose.

Also, on the Oregon you can name your files anything you like as long as they have a .img extension. Will make it easier for you to manage maps this way. That's another possibility... do you still have the old file on the card with a different name? The file name will not be displayed in the map info, only the name of the mapset contained in the file.

What did you try to send? How large was the map (number of segments). If it was more than 2025 segments, that may be your problem. That is the maximum which most Garmin units will allow.

I believe the user defined style editor is fully functional in the demo version of Mapwel and will let you export a text file to be used in cgpsmapper. You will probably need to tweak it with a text editor though. Mapwel gives you over 70 user defined styles (ie: custom types) to work with but does not allow you to redefine the standard types. See: http://mapwel.eu/userstyles/userstyles.html

I used custom types in cgpsmapper for awhile but switched to Mapwel because it is SO much easier and ASCII art is just a little too retro for my tastes.  

But here's a transparent polygon from one of my old files which seemed to work fine on the Nuvi, 60csx and Oregon. Just offhand, I don't see the difference, other than perhaps your lack of night colors?

What happens if you replace my color with yours in this example?

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[_polygon]
Type=0x14
String2=0x04,National Park
XPM="32 32 4 1"
". c #00ff1d"
"X c none"
"3 c #398943"
"4 c none"
".X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X"
"X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X."
".X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X"
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