Viewing multiple maps at once

[michaelgumtow]

I am fairly new to downloading maps on my Garmin device, and I am having difficulty viewing them.  I downloaded a topo map to my sd card and it works great, but the problem I am having is with the second map I downloaded which shows public land boundries, a feature that the topo map doesn't have.  When I goto my map on the device I can only see the topo map eventhough both maps are downloaded to my sd card.  How can I get the public land boundries to show over my current topo map is my question?  Or is this not possible?

Thanks!

[jbensman]

Which maps are you refering to?

Unless the maps are transparent, they will not show on top of other maps. 

[michaelgumtow]

The topo map is called NE topo part 1 which is non-transparent and the second map is called Land Ownership which is transparent.  They are both available for download from this website.

[Indrid Cold]

You need to enable both mapsets on your Garmin device. How you would do this would depend on which Garmin device you have. You would have to enlighten us on that detail to assist you further.

[Boyd]

Also realize that maps have a stacking order that is determined by information in the map. I haven't done much with transparent maps, but if you're combining them from different authors it may be a crap-shoot as to which has higher priority. So the transparent map might be drawn first, then the opaque map might be drawn afterwards, covering it up.

[jbensman]

Landownership is my map-what state are you trying to display?  It should work on top of NE Topo.  Are you sure you are looking in a place where it have coverage?

[michaelgumtow]

All maps on my device have been enabled, and the state I'm trying to get is Wisconsin.  When I look at the map on Mapsource it does display coverage for this state.

[jbensman]

It works on my GPS with City Navigator.  It starts showing at the 8 mile zoom.  Do you have the most recent version installed?  A couple of versions ago there was an error in one of the maps that I fixed.  I do not remember which state it was but it could have been WI.  I forgot to set the transparent setting on one map.  But if you just downloaded it, you have the most recent version.

If you have the most recent version, disable everything but Eastern land Ownership on the GPS and let me know if it shows up.  Also do states besides WI (MN for example) show?

Do you have any other maps loaded on your GPS besides NE Topo and Land Ownership?

Sometimes maps conflict with each other.  If the map has the same .img file name as another map in antoher mapset, only one map set wil show.  I wish there was some site where mapmakers could register thier map numbers to avoid conflcits.  If there is a conflcit, it is not that hard for me to change the img on the map.

WI is fairly high on my todo list to add to My Traisils.  But I have been having trouble finding trail data for WI (I can get FS, NPS, USFWS with no problem, but I have not been able to find much more.  Do you know of any source of trail data for WI?

[johnsl0502]

I'm also having some trouble viewing transparent maps over other installed maps, but I'm chalking it up to being very new to this whole area. In any case, I recently downloaded teh transparent map "My Trails", but when I view it in Map Source, I see essentially no detail at all. I can't figure out how to get Map Source to 'select' more than one map in its pull down menu. I have not tried viewing My Trails on my device (Oregon 450); perhaps that's the real problem...transparent maps are only suitable for viewing on a device, and not through Map Source.
On a different note, thanks to all of you experts, this is THE site for learning some of these technologies. You are all so extremely generous with your time/replies and expertise.

[maps4gps]

MapSource will only open one mapset at a time. 
You can send more than one mapset (or parts thereof) to the GPSr by opening a mapset, selecting the quad/tiles you need, opening a second mapset, selecting quads/tiles, etc. if needed, and finally sending the data to the GPSr or sd card via card reader (much faster).

There usually is no overview map in an overlay/transparent mapset; however, by zooming-in, perhaps to the 500ft level, the actually data will be displayed. 

[jbensman]

I'm also having some trouble viewing transparent maps over other installed maps, but I'm chalking it up to being very new to this whole area. In any case, I recently downloaded teh transparent map "My Trails", but when I view it in Map Source, I see essentially no detail at all. I can't figure out how to get Map Source to 'select' more than one map in its pull down menu. I have not tried viewing My Trails on my device (Oregon 450); perhaps that's the real problem...transparent maps are only suitable for viewing on a device, and not through Map Source.
On a different note, thanks to all of you experts, this is THE site for learning some of these technologies. You are all so extremely generous with your time/replies and expertise.

In MapSource, if you selct detail to high, My trails will start showing at the 7 mile zoom.  On your GPS, the major trails will display at the 2 mile zoom.  The minor trails and some other features will show at the .2 mile zoom.  POIs are dependant on what you have your GPS set at-but they will all generally show around 500 feet to 800 feet.  My Trails (and all my maps) is just a transparnet overlay map.  It will show on top of other maps.  What state are you in?  I have been able to find differnet amounts of data for different states.  It could simply be that there is no coverage for that particular spot.  In the maps, some areas have real good coverage and others have none.  The maps are basically everything I can find for the state or someone GPSed for me.

[johnsl0502]

I'm in Delaware. But it sounds like my problem is that I thought I should be able to see the transparent map in Map Source. I'll try sending it to the gps and see how well that flies. Thanks all.

[michaelgumtow]

All maps on my device have been enabled, and the state I'm trying to get is Wisconsin.  When I look at the map on Mapsource it does display coverage for this state.

what happens when you try it with this map:
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/150/

I have tried this map already, and lacks the depth on stateland boundries that I am looking for.  I will, however, try this map with the Land Ownership map to see if it solves the problem


jbensman,
I am fairly new to mapping software, what is FS, NPS, and USFWS? And specifically what kind of data are you looking for?

[michaelgumtow]

Also jbensman,

I have the most recent version, and the NE TOPO and Land Ownership are the only maps on my SD card.  If it matters the device I'm using is a eTrex Legend HCx.

[michaelgumtow]

Ok, I have solved my problem.  When I was using MapSource to download the two maps onto my device I was selecting the NE TOPO map and then clicking "send to device."  Then I selected Land Ownership and clicked "send to device" again.  This did download both maps onto my devices micro SD card, but the Land Ownership was not showing on top of the TOPO map, but when you select the NE TOPO and Land Ownership at the same time and then click "send to device" it works perfectly as one would expect.  I guess I just made a huge rookie mistake working with the software.

Thank you everyone who tried to help me!