I mentioned my project in another thread (
http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,123.15.html) but thought it would be better to start a new one instead of hijacking it any further

To recap, I am going for a look which is more like a satellite photo although it is completely based on vector shapefiles which classify land cover/land usage. The challenge is creating custom polygon textures to accomplish this, and after struggling with "ASCII art" and a couple of icon editors, I was led to the Mapwel program (
http://www.mapwel.biz/).
I just can't say enough good things about this piece of software - have had no problems whatsoever (yet!). It has a very slick UI and it's own built in compiler (cgpsmapper not needed). I am working with a relatively small test map so far, and it takes about 5 minutes to compile with cgpsmapper. Mapwel rips through it in 10 seconds! Wow. Does anybody have some background on this software or the author? I really don't know a thing, but from the look and feel I almost get the impression that he had some inside track at Garmin... former employee maybe? Just a wild guess.
All my source files are combined in a large Global Mapper project, and I will continue using that for assembling the map and exporting into Polish .mp format, which Mapwel can read. I then create an MP_TYPE attribute for all of the polygons and lines which I want to customize on the map. The custom types editor in Mapwel is the big attraction - it works great and give you access to over 70 user defined polygons IN ADDITION TO all the standard Garmin types.
You can also display the map on your screen in Mapwel with the actual polygon fills - something which I don't think any other software can do. This saves a lot of time since you don't have to compile and export to the GPS to see what it will look like.
So that's how I'm proceeding with the project, which is a map of Southern New Jersey - the Pine Barrens. After I get this farther along I will have a toolbox which I think can be used to create similar maps of other states/regions. But for now, I'm happy to be a "piney" because that's where I live and what I love. I have a strong background in art and design as well as computers. So this is a fun project for me.
My earlier version of the map can be downloaded here, and you can use the forums to discuss if you like too:
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/showthread.php?t=5929. But my new work is departing from the style of this older map.
Here are some screenshots of my preliminary work on the new map. First, this is what it looks like in Mapwel (showing the area where I live... in the middle o' nowhere


And here's the same map as seen on an Oregon, Nuvi 205 and GPSMap 60csx:

As you can see, each unit treats things like text, contour lines and roads a little differently, but the textures are really close to what Mapwel shows in the workspace. I was also really pleasantly surprised that it works so well on the 60csx which (IMO) is starting to show its age. The colors are not quite right, but that's as good as an 8-bit screen can do. But zooming and scrolling the map are very snappy. With my older map (at the link above), I have to do a separate version for the 60csx because performance was not acceptable and the display didn't look good in 256 colors. Also, for some reason, cgpsmapper files have lowercase road names and they don't properly display on the 60csx. Mapwell produces lowercase names on the Oregon and Nuvi, but uppercase on the 60csx (with the same file), just like Garmin's own maps.
So I'm learning - to my delight - that Garmin's hardware is really capable of much more that I thought possible based on their own (IMO) ugly looking topo's. Like I said, this is just the beginning of a long project but I'm happy with the direction it's going. If you haven't tried Mapwel yourself, it's definitely worth a look. If nothing else, you can use the free demo to generate a custom type file and export it out as text to compile in cgpsmapper.