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The basic version of Mapwel sends the file directly to your GPS, and can only be used with that specific GPS. The advanced version (which I have) can do this too, but will also save the .img files to your computer and they may be used on any GPS. The company also has a free utility for sending files to the GPS.

I know there are lots of Mapsource fans around here, but I'm not really one myself. My work with Garmin maps has involved heavy customization with my data types. Mapsource won't display these properly, although they look very nice on the GPS itself. Mapwel also shows them correctly on my computer.

You need to jump through a bunch of hoops to install maps into Mapsource. I would probably be more inclined to use it if you could just open any desired map file like you can in any other modern piece of software. Instead, you need to go through a whole process to install maps. And I also don't understand why Mapsource cannot display a map such that it looks just like the same map on your GPS.

Garmin is an enigma, as always... 

I think others will point you to some tutorials.... can't put my finger on them at the moment. But I suspect the easiest way will be to use Mapwel. It is the most user-friendly Garmin mapping application and it can do everything. Import your .gpx file, tweak the appearance, and then compile it as a map and send to the GPS.

Most people on this site use a combination of multiple programs for this sort of thing, creating an intermediate file type (.mp) which is sent to cgpsmapper to compile. This works very well also, but is more complicated. I like Mapwel a lot because it does everything in one program. Downside is that you must purchase in order to upload the completed map (price is reasonable IMO), and it is not compatible with Mapsource. Check it out though. The free download has full features on your computer but strips out some details when you upload the map to the GPS. http://mapwel.eu/

A big plus for Mapwel is the WYSIWYG display of the map on your computer - no other software can do this. It also allows you to customize the appearance of the map with a powerful editor for custom line/point/shape types. You can create transparent maps by simply choosing that option in the program.

Current.gpx will contain all your tracks, any favorites (aka waypoints) which you have saved, and any routes which you have created. Open it in Mapsource and each of these items will be listed under the tabs in the lefthand pane.

The Nuvi doesn't have any track management features. It is always recording track and cannot be disabled. All you can do is clear the log and choose whether or not to show it on the screen. Furthermore, it's a one-way feature. You can send tracks from the GPS to your computer, but not the other way around. You cannot send a tracklog to the Nuvi and have it displayed on the screen.

I was just playing around with an old copy of Current.gpx I have on my computer and there are indeed multiple dated logs in there. This is what I see in the left-hand pane in Mapsource:

Code Select Expand

ACTIVE LOG: 17 DEC 2008 08:01 1352 12/17/2008 9:01:12 AM 9:22:04 153 mi 94.2 sq mi 16 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 18 DEC 2008 05:25 526 12/18/2008 6:25:40 AM 1:52:39 60.7 mi 106 sq mi 32 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 18 DEC 2008 14:50 392 12/18/2008 3:50:37 PM 1:18:32 50.1 mi 4.2 sq mi 38 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 19 DEC 2008 06:04 374 12/19/2008 7:04:05 AM 1:15:02 48.0 mi 26.6 sq mi 38 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 19 DEC 2008 11:23 472 12/19/2008 12:23:07 PM 2:13:59 45.8 mi 86.0 sq mi 20 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 20 DEC 2008 10:14 607 12/20/2008 11:14:54 AM 9:14:03 52.9 mi 4.6 sq mi 6 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 21 DEC 2008 09:30 398 12/21/2008 10:30:06 AM 2:46:30 30.9 mi 12.9 sq mi 11 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 23 DEC 2008 05:36 500 12/23/2008 6:36:24 AM 1:52:38 68.2 mi 335 sq mi 36 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 23 DEC 2008 15:40 462 12/23/2008 4:40:29 PM 1:36:48 50.7 mi 7.7 sq mi 31 mph
ACTIVE LOG: 24 DEC 2008 10:36 430 12/24/2008 11:36:39 AM 2:47:57 46.5 mi 45.1 sq mi 17 mph

Are you not also seeing this? There is no user control as to when to start or stop the tracklog. I assume it starts a new log everytime you turn the unit on and off, so I guess that would be one way to influence the recording. I have a Nuvi 5000 which is a similar vintage to the 750 so I would expect this to be the same. The Nuvi 5000 doesn't have a battery, so it shuts down everytime I turn off the car.

Routes are completely unrelated to tracks. Tracks also have nothing to do with the map itself - they are completely separate entities which can be displayed on any map (or no map at all). However,  if you are hoping to save tracks of your trails and then display them on the Nuvi, that is not so easy. As mentioned above, you cannot load a saved track on the nuvi. You would have to actually make a transparent map and convert the tracks to "roads" if you want to display them on the map.

Sorry for not following through. All my uploads have gone without issue. It's been about a week since the last one.

Actually the .kmz file *is* the custom map, that's the beauty of it. It just needs to meet Garmin's guidelines in terms of the number of tiles and pixels.

You can get serial to USB adaptors. I used one years ago and had some issues as I recall.

I had an eTrex Legend C when they first came out. It was a good unit for its day, but I don't think it meets current expectations. The older chips are much slower to acquire a signal and lose satellite lock very easily. Mine used to drop out constantly under tree cover in the summer.

Personally I would avoid these older models. I strongly suggest that you get a model with a memory card slot so you have enough room to store some maps. 24MB is really not much memory by today's standards, it will only be enough to load a few counties' worth of maps. 8MB of memory, frankly, is a joke. That will only be enough for a very small area.

If you get one of these, I think you will soon wish you had spent a few dollars more. The lowest model I would consider in Garmin's lineup is the Legend HCx: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=8701

Yep, on the PC right-click on your kmz file and choose Send To > Compressed (zipped) Folder. You will then be able to upload. Glad to see somebody else has custom maps to contribute, I have a bunch here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/byuser/282/

What kind of GPS do you have? If it's and Oregon, Colorado or Dakota then this is especially easy. See this thread: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,589.0.html

Othewise, have a look at Mapwel: http://mapwel.eu/

It can convert raster images (your scanned maps) to a format that Garmin units can display, but that is really just a hack with a lot of limitations. But you can also load your scanned image, calibrate it as a map, then trace the trails and other features you want on a separate layer which can be exported as a standard Garmin map: http://mapwel.eu/calib/hw_geo.html

Download the trial version and see what you think. It will have full features on your PC but will only upload a partial map to the GPS until you purchase.

Have a look at Mapwel: http://www.mapwel.eu/. It should be able to open the .gpx files and turn them into a garmin map with a transparent background. Unlike other programs, it's an all in one solution - editor and compiler in the same program. The free trial should have all features available on your PC, but will only upload partial maps to the GPS until you register it.

As far as editing the .gpx files, that's not something I do very often so no suggestions there. But Mapwel should turn them into Garmin maps which you can enable along with any other Topo's that you're using.

Maybe this will help (especially the last post): http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=12443

Have set up the gps to load tracks onto sd card, and the file (gpx shows up there) but all tracks are not present.

First, realize that maps and tracks are completely different entities which exist separately from each other. Changing maps will not affect your tracks - they can be displayed on any map, or even without a map.

I hardly ever use my 60csx at all these days, so maybe they have changed the software? But AFAIK, you cannot "load tracks onto the sd card". There is an option to log your track to the SD card, but that file cannot be viewed on the GPS itself, it's only available for use after copying it to your computer.

With the 60csx, you must use Mapsource to send the tracks to the GPS itself. There is probably a limit to the number which can be shown at the same time. IIRC, you are only allowed a maximum of 10,000 track points.

Sorry, it's not gonna happen. The 265wt does not support routes unfortunately (none of the Nuvi 2x0 or 2x5 series can use routes).

To see which Nuvi's support routes, use the comparison feature at garmin.com and look at the item "routes". In this example you can see that the 265wt and 1260t don't support it (0 routes) while the 765t and 1450t do (10 routes).

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do?cID=134&compareProduct=30964&compareProduct=63932&compareProduct=13430&compareProduct=14926

I have a 400t and really like it. You don't really need to do anything to get going, it's very user friendly. But I guess my question for you would be, why did you buy the 400t if your main use is on a boat? The 400t has US topo installed. Seems like a better choice would have been the 400c or 400i which contain maps for boating:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=14905
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=14906

Of course you can add marine maps later: http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/cache/offonce/us/maps/onthewatermaps. But if you don't need the US topo maps, the 400t wasn't the best choice (unless you got a great deal somewhere).

The Oregon 200 is probably the best bang for the buck; it was going for $230 when I checked at Amazon a couple days ago. It doesn't have any internal memory but that's not really a problem since you can add a large storage card. Also missing the compass and altimeter, but personally I don't find those terribly useful anyway.

Regardless, the Oregon is a great GPS and I'm sure you will enjoy it. If you're on a boat and you have 12v power, get a power adaptor for the Oregon. It will save you batteries, and the screen will also go much brighter when connected to external power.

But I would like to address #1 from a little different angle. I don't think your expectations are reasonable when it comes to getting advice on this topic here at GPSFileDepot. I love this site myself and spend a lot of time here. But it's just the wrong place to ask a question like yours.

The site is primarily dedicated to topo maps which don't usually even support routing, but show the maximum amount of detail about your surroundings. It is also 99% Garmin-specific. There is some discussion of GPS units, but usually only in terms of how they may be used with the maps here.

To get a more complete answer I would suggest visiting a couple sites which cover more of the entire GPS spectrum and have a lot of users with experience using different models. IMO, the two best places for that would be http://forums.gpsreview.net and http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen. Since I am a moderator at gpsreview, you can imagine what my bias is.  

Regardless, here are a few quick observations. Most of Garmin's current Nuvi line supports mult-stop routing with the exception of the 2x5, 12x0 and 13x0 series. Some of the older models do not. They don't publish a spec for the number of stops in a route, and there has been some confilicting info about this. But I believe it's definitely more thant 10. I have seen both 50 and 100 stops mentioned. It definitely isn't unlimited though, and I doubt that it's as high as 500. I think a route with 500 stops would be really unmanageable anyway.

You may be getting confused with the number of ROUTES which can be loaded on the gps at one time, and that is 10. You can actually have more than 10 routes stored on the unit, but you need to "import" them to use, and that maxes out at 10.

Users have discovered that some of the Nuvi series contain a "hidden track log" which provides much more information than the simplistic feature in the menus. Go to the Nuvi forum at GpsPasSion and do a search for this to learn more. Otherwise, all of the current Nuvi models record track and you cannot even turn this off. The only control over the tracklog is showing/hiding it on the screen and clearing it out. What can be done with the data is generally dependent on the software you use, and there are many, many programs for that. It is stored in a .gpx file which can be copied to your computer.

Good luck with your quest!

It's very simple: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-install-mapsource-if-it-didnt-come-with-your-gps/