GPSFileDepot.com
 

Screen Shots ADDED!!! SDak land use map (like the WY map)

Started by smith, January 02, 2009, 09:30:28 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

smith

Just found your site this last week.  Great stuff here!  I thought the work done on the WY land use map was excellent. 
I live in SDak and I'm curious if it would be possible to create a transparent land use map that could be used over a topo or streets map.  Something that would look like this on the GPS.
http://www.sdgfp.info/Publications/Atlas/Index.htm Click on a # to see a zoom pdf
The data used to create this map is here I think.
http://arcgis.sd.gov/Website/sdGIS/Data.aspx
I tried to download some data but couldn't make heads or tails of it.  I'd sure like to know how to generate these my self as the state land use maps are constantly changing and I hate to bother someone to update something I could learn to do my self.  The tutorials on this site are very good but I'm sure they take much more time than just building a map.  I'd guess it would be similar to me teaching someone how to draw in CAD and program my CNC to machine a part.  Seems so simple to me.  Too bad I can't just download my CNC experience into someone else's head. ;D
Thanks for this great site/forum.
James

smith

I finally got a map to work fairly well on my Nuvi while driving around.  I had to make the map Transparent=S to see the roads around the polygons I added.  Is there a way to make the polygons transparent so the roads show through?  What will they look like after this conversion?










The light blue trail is the tracks that show on top of the transparent map I made.  Can't figure out why the roads don't show through.  The big gray polygon that says Newell lake has a blue lake under it but it doesn't show on the GPSr screen.  It does show up in GPSMapEdit.

One frustrating part about this project is the maps look NOTHING like what you work with on the GPSMapEdit screen.  Many of the land types didn't show up at all on the GPSr and the number crunching sessions continued. 

Again.  Thanks to all who pointed me in the right direction.
James




smith

What about changing the drawpriority?  It's set to 31 in the dictionary I got through here. Any thoughts? 

smith

Here's the info from CGPSuser manual.  It just confuses me.
DrawPriority=
# Value between 0 and 31 indicating the priority used by the
GPS to draw the map. The highest value – the highest
priority is set.
Priority for the transparent maps is calculated by adding
always 32 to the set priority by DrawPriority value.  Default = 25.

Does this mean that a transparent map will always have a higher draw priority?

-Oz-

a transparent map should be higher.

The way to do it is draw green/pink in your example alternating so its semi-transparent once the pink goes away.

And I don't think gpsmapedit actually loads the custom typ files.
Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!

Boyd

Very nice. I'm glad to see others are looking for ways to include land use in their maps. I'm working on a very detailed map of southern New Jersey (the "pine barrens") and have recently found some very cool land use/land cover (LULC) data available from the NJGS. I'm working out a system to put this into a format which won't become too cluttered, but the end result is going to be very pictorial, probably utilizing over 40 custom polygon types. Here are a couple screenshots of an early version; the next version will go much further in this direction.








The first two screenshots are cropped from the center of the 800x400 screen on my Nuvi 5000. FWIW, this seems to be the ultimate Garmin unit for working on homebrew maps. The crude level of detail in Garmin's own maps don't do justice to what this model is capable - all the lines just look fatter on the 5" screen. But when you create your own line and polygon types, you can work at the pixel level and it looks really nice. The bottom screenshot is from the Oregon.

Yes, it is a real frustration to have to load the maps into the GPS to see what you've got. My sourcefile is a GlobalMapper project and I like working in that environment, but it doesn't look anything like the GPS display.

I was hopeful that Garmin's Mobile PC might be a platform where we could test maps right on our computer. It works and is very easy to drop your maps into on the fly, but it doesn't properly support .typ files so it's pretty useless for what I'm doing.

But maybe it would work better for you? You can download a fully functional free trial and see for yourself. Download the update here: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloadsUpdates.jsp?product=010-00685-00&cID=139&pID=13484

After downloading, DO NOT double click to install. Instead, you need to open the archive. I used WinRAR but evidently you could also use WinZip. After doing this, run the Main.MSI file and the program will install. The first time you run it will ask to enter your serial number or if you want the free trial period. If you select the free trial, it logs into Garmin's servers and registers the program, then tells you when it will expire. If nothing else, it's funny to see a Nuvi-style map on a 24" monitor  ;)

smith

Great looking maps Boyd.  The only thing that threw me off was the elevations look like they're missing a few zeros. ???  Just kidding.   ;D

I tried the MapWel for creating custom typ colors and here's what I came up with.  It shows the roads through the "clear" section of the colors and kind of matches color & design of what you see on the walk-in atlas you get at the gas station.  I'm pretty happy with the map as shown on my nuvi205W.

My Rino530, however doesn't look like it supports the custom type files.  It did however display a similar looking map to the 3 pics I posted above. Here's a pic of the same location of the Nuvi in this post.


smith

It's the older one without the card slot.  Bought it a little over a year ago.  Updated the software recently.

-Oz-

I would email Garmin and see if its true it doesn't support custom types.

If that is the case that may change a lot of the stuff that people are doing because that means a lot of the other older GPS units won't be able to support it.
Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!

smith

Well,
I sent Garmin the type question.

Another interesting point, If I turn the marine colors on in the map setup page, the custom types that display as blue but shouldn't and lakes & rivers turn white.  Does this make sense?  I lost my Marine point map when downloading my first map, so the lakes and most of the roads that show up on my 530 are from the Ibycus map.  I wonder If the water colors in Ibycus map are custom types?  The city parks here show up green using the Ibycus map.
James

-Oz-

Ibycus maps have no custom types.  It should use standard colors.
Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!

-Oz-

Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!

smith

Here's the reply from the mother ship.

I'm sorry, but our units will only support Garmin Mapsource maps.  If
these are Garmin maps, please let me know the name of the mapping
product.


Not a very truthful statement.  :-\

-Oz-

Yea, that is a very lame response.  Maybe Garmin is losing their touch.
Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!

smith

I was thinking about creating one of those blue error message boxes that show up in WinXP and tell them this was the message I got when I tried to use the Garmin software.

I'm sorry, but your computer will only support Microsoft software.  If this is not Microsoft software, please eject the CD and purchase a Microsoft product. :-[