Ibycus maps and Macs

[csonni]

Been wanting to get the Ibycus Topo maps of Canada onto my Garmin Oregon 450.  I've tried several Torrents for the Mac version (3.2) but none of them are downloading.  I'd rather not mess with Windows.  I suppose I could download the Windows version and somehow convert it in MapSource?  What is the newest version of Ibycus Topo maps?  I see there is a 2.1 and a 3.2.

[maps4gps]

Garmin has a PC utility program for free download which will convert the PC mapset to a MAC version.  Unfortunately the mapset has to be installed on the PC; a MAC in PC emulation mode will not work.

Ibycus created a new version earlier this year.  He has made some corrections, but from the posts on forums.groundspeak.com (Canada section), it sounds like none of the torrents may have the latest.  Contact him through groundspeak or their forums as he has not been on gpsfiledepot.  He offers his Canada mapset on DVD at minimal cost.

[Boyd]

Unfortunately the mapset has to be installed on the PC; a MAC in PC emulation mode will not work.

Macs don't use "emulation mode" anymore. They have intel CPU's and can boot right into any version of Windows. Or you can run a Windows virtual machine with Parallels and other software. Again, it is "real" windows running on intel, and not emulation. Of course, you will need a copy of Windows to install on your Mac. But if you have this, you can do anything that would work on a Dell, HP or other Windows box. I have done this myself on my MacBook Pro, which has Windows XP installed and can either boot directly into it or run it as a task via Parallels.

[maps4gps]

Is a MAC running Windows able to use a Windows registry?  Previous posts seemed to indicate a PC with Windows was needed to do the conversion.  Or is it simply that most MAC users do not opt to purchase Windows?

[jbensman]

I don't like the converter.  I wish there was another choice.  If the converter had a way to uncheck all the maps you have installed instead of having to go through manually and unchecking the ones you do not want to make an installer for, it would not be such a pain to make a MAC installer.  The best thing would be some utility MAC users could use to convert the installer themselves.  But even the ability to have the script also compile a MAC installer would be nice.

[Boyd]

Is a MAC running Windows able to use a Windows registry?

When you install Windows on a Mac... it's a Windows machine. Period. The only issues might be related to hardware drivers. There are two basic approaches. MacOS lets you create a Windows disk partition and you use a control panel to select whether you want to boot into either Windows or MacOS. There's a similar Windows control panel installed that lets you boot back into MacOS. You can install any version of Windows (XP, Vista, Win7) but I have only tried XP myself.

Parallels is 3rd party software that allows you to boot into a Windows Virtual Machine running as a MacOS task. This gives you the best integration with MacOS as windows and Mac apps both coexist on the same desktop, you can copy/paste between them, etc. But it is still "real" windows and not emulation like Virtual PC that ran on the old (non Intel) Macs. You do get a bit of performance hit with Parallels, so for CPU intensive programs you may want to boot directly into Windows instead.

You need to purchase Windows and install it on your Mac, just like you would on a blank PC disk. So, yes, unless somebody has a need for Windows on their Mac, they are not likely to go to the trouble and expense.

Now there are some other approaches, I think one of them is called something like VMware, that attempt to run Windows apps on the Mac *without* actually purchasing windows. I've never used these and am not even sure how they work... I guess they translate API calls into their Mac equivalents? I gather they have limited compatibility. These would probably be considered "emulators", so maybe that's what you're thinking of?

[csonni]

I have the Ibycus Topo 3.2.gmapi coming now.  Not sure if this is the Mac version or not.  I do have a Windows PC right next to me if I need.  Does anyone know the exact way to convert the maps through MapSource so my Mac can use them?

[csonni]

I think I'll just download Garmin's Map Converter.  That should do it.

[Boyd]

That should do it, assuming that you can first install the map on the PC. See this: http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/08/chets-corner-mo.html

[csonni]

Got the entire map file.  I notice that it is a .gmapi extension unlike the already installed maps I have on my Mac with a .gmap externsion.  It's the very same icon.  How would I get either Base Camp to recognize it?  I put it in the same folder in which my other maps reside.
Update- I started up Garmin MapManager and let it do its thing.  It installed the map in the correct folder with the same .gmap extension as the others.  RoadTrip handles the Ibyscus Topo much better than Base Camp, showing much more detail.  I wonder why Base Camp doesn't handle it as well.

[csonni]

I am now using MapInstall on the Ibyscus maps but it is painfully slow zooming in to try to select what sections I want to load.  Terribly slow- almost unusable.
Things now have speeded up much more.  I'm now viewing the loaded section of Ibyscus maps on my device.  I can see already that there is more detail than my Canada Topo by Garmin.  All-in-all, that procedure was totally painless.  No need for Windows.  Install went perfect, actually.