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Missouri Topo street names

Started by dstonner, June 24, 2010, 11:04:54 AM

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dstonner

Hi all,

New here and new to GPS in general.  I've had an Etrex Venture for about 5 years but never messed with the additional maps for it (only 8mb memory and no card slot).  I recently bought a 60CSx (what an upgrade!) and I just downloaded the Missouri Topo from this site and loaded it on the GPS.  Looks fantastic, with a level of street detail that should definitely be part of the basemap. 

However, when I zoom in on my current location (home) all the local streets have abbreviate names: for instance "Main Street" becomes "M....t 2100-2300" and "West Boulevard" becomes "W....d 1400-1525". 

I understand that it is abbreviating the street names and giving block numbers, but is there a way to have it display the whole street name?  If I am in a different city, I won't know which street "A.....d 2900-3000" is.

I downloaded the Planimetric Central street map and it looks very similar and extremely high-quality, but without the topo lines.  When I zoom in on the plani map, street names are displayed in full. 

Basically, is there a way to get Missouri Topo to display full street names like US Planimetric maps do?  Or will I have to toggle back and forth between maps for depending on when I'm driving or when I'm in the back country?

Thanks so much for the wonderful public service this site provides!

Dave Stonner 

Boyd

Haven't used that map, but pretty sure it's the same issue I described here: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1315.0.html

Quote from: Boyd on June 19, 2010, 06:06:41 AM
This is a known issue with the cgpsmapper compiler, and there is no way to fix it unfortunately. If you use mixed case street names in your source file, the older Garmin handheld units will not display them correctly. So if the road is named "John Smith Rd", on your GPS you would see "J--- S---- R-".

Newer GPS'es, such as the Oregon, Dakota and Nuvi series, will display the street names correctly. Older models, such as the eTrex or 60csx will have the same problem you describe. The only way to fix this is for the author to recompile the map using all UPPERCASE characters in the street name.

I spent awhile on several different occasions looking for a fix for this myself and had no luck. My own map of New Jersey on this site has the same problem. I say that this is a cgpsmapper bug, and not a Garmin bug, because mixed case street names display correctly if I compile the same sourcefile with Mapwel instead of cgpsmapper. And Garmin's own maps don't have this problem either.

This is unfortunate, but as a user there isn't anything you can do.  >:(

dstonner

Boyd,

That pretty much sums it up.  I'll have to live with it until a new map is compiled. 

Thanks very much for enlightening me!

Dave

maps4gps

Boyd has described it correctly. 

My State topos were made with the names as given in the Census TIGER files which are the source for the road/street data.  They are initial cap and remaining small letters.
For the 'regional' planimetric maps; I modified the source lettering to all caps.
The numbers are the address range, as given in the Census files.
If I remember correctly, the names display 'in full' if the cursor is placed over them.  You might also try turning the names off and use the cursor to display the name.


dstonner

Thanks for the help, Maps4gps!  You have done a wonderful job putting all the great maps together.  Thank you. 

Dave

dstonner

I have another question regarding these maps.  Is there a way to get the town and city names to appear on them?  Or do I have to toggle back to the basemap to see town names? 

Thanks,

Dave

Boyd

First, it depends on what data the author has included in the map. If the names aren't there, they can't be shown.  :)

But what map settings are you using? I assume the menus are similar to the 60csx... press menu > menu > setup > map and choose the icon that looks like a flag. What is the setting for map points? This determines at which zoom levels city names and other POI's will show. It you set it for .3 miles, for example, then the names will show on the map until you zoom out farther than .3 miles.

If this is set correctly and you still don't see city names, they are probably just not part of the map data.

dstonner

#7
Thanks for the info Boyd.  I appreciate it.

Does anyone know if there is a map for the central US that has town and city names on the map?  I downloaded Missouri Topo by Maps4Gps, Central Planimetric by Maps4Gps, and Ibycus USA 2.0 and none of these maps have town/city names on the map as far as I can tell.  Any ideas?  Is there something I am doing wrong?  

Thanks so much,

Dave

PS--I have the map settings on the GPSr set to Auto.

maps4gps

I think this is another Garmin issue.  I recently noticed that my map setting\map points was also set to auto.  I think this was the way it shipped from Garmin.  Points, including city/town names, would not show until zoomed in to about 800' or more.  If points are set to display zoomed out more, they will if this setting is changed.  However, this has not been mentioned before; I was not aware of it and probably the other map authors were not either.  It will be accounted for in my next mapsets; as will be the names issue.
There are some feature types which Garmin has a built-in limit on which this will not help on. 
The internal code which allows town/city polygons to show in MapSource will not display on the GPSr.
Lots of anoying things like this that Garmin will not share with map authors creating free maps.