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Vector Weight and Color Codes

Started by Hillbilly61, January 13, 2011, 05:57:44 PM

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Hillbilly61

Hi all,

I just got a little Garmin etrex Venture to replace my ancient Sporttrack Pro that finally gave up the ghost ... then I discovered this site. What a cool site!

I went through the topo map tutorial with a some differences to keep this learning exercise manageable from a processing and time spent debugging details missed when going though the steps. First, I used my own transportation layer for Knox Co, KY (more accurate than TIGER) and a custom layer that identifies where all of the known cemeteries are in the county. These started out as layers in Manifold GIS, converted to shapefiles and Garmin map codes were inserted prior to being imported into GPSMapEdit. In a nutshell, I got everything to work and these data are comfortably roosting in the etrex!

Below are some questions that maybe the gurus might know something about:

1. For the streets, I used four codes, as the underlying base map only supported that distinction level. I got these from the GPSMapEdit shape file import dialog and then inserted them into the shape file records before actually importing the shapefile. They were:

0X0001 - Major highway; heavy red line;
0X0004 - Arterial road; slightly heavy black line;
0X0003 - Other road; brown? light line;
0X0016 - Trail; light dashed line.

In GPSMapEdit it looks great. In the Garmin and MapSource the major highways show as heavy blue (should be heavy red) and the roads classed as "Other" show as heavy red (should be a light line showing black ... or brown?).

Are there differences in the feature code set between GPSMapEdit and the Garmin? I got the feature codes from GPSMapEdit. The resulting .img file was checked and it looks fine in GPSMapEdit, but shown as described above when installed within the Garmin or viewed in MapSource - which is not is not the desired look.

2. I guess as a follow up question, I am looking to load contour data in to this map and want to show major (every 100 ft), intermediate (every 20 ft) and minor (every 10 ft) contours, using the codes shown in GPSMapEdit. Will the Garmin support these as shown in GPSMapEdit?

3. Finally, are there any utilities out there that will take a Garmin map file and export it to either a .MIF or shapefile? (I can work with a lot of other GIS related file formats too).

Thanks in advance!

Boyd

I own a copy of GPSMapEdit but don't do much with it, so I really can't help much there. But you will find rendering differences of the standard types between different Garmin models. IMO, the only way to control what you see on the GPS and in Mapsource is the use of Custom Types.

If you aren't familiar with these, to grasp the concept you can read the tutorial here, starting on page 33 : http://cgpsmapper.com/download/GM8DocV2.pdf

But to make them more manageable, forget about working with text files and xpm bitmaps and just use the excellent online tool here: http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp/editor.cgi

For the maximum control, define all your lines and area features as bitmaps. This has the advantage of letting you know exactly how many pixels wide every line will be. The disadvantage is that lines will not be scaled as you zoom.

If you look at the information in the tutorial I linked to, you'll see what contour lines are available. Again, if you define these as bitmaps you can get exactly what you want, such as a 1 pixel wide minor, 2 pixel wide intermediate and 3 pixel wide major.

I don't know how well this works with GPSMapEdit. There's a "skin" feature that supposedly supports custom types, but IIRC they didn't work properly for me. If you do it right though, your map will look pretty much the same in Mapsource, Basecamp, on a handheld and even on a Nuvi. This is how I've gained a lot of control over appearance with my own projects such as these:

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/294/
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/441/

Not sure what you're trying to do with #3. I use Globalmapper and keep all my sourcefiles in their format. To make a Garmin map, I export them as .mp files and feed them to cgpsmapper. For other formats, I can export them from Globalmapper as well.

When you say you want to take a "garmin map file and export it", does that mean you are trying to take a map that somebody else made and convert it to another format? Most of us on this site would consider that a no-no...

maps4gps

I would say GPSMapEdit is using European map symbols and colors.
How features look in GlobalMapper, GPSMapEdit, MapSource and on the GPSr can be four different 'looks' - plus some features are different on my 76csx versus my OR300. 
Make a templete map using locations for how they display on your GPSr. 
As Boyd mentions; custom feature types give you the most control.

It is more a matter of GPSMapEdit supporting or not supporting the Garmin display types.

Mapsets, commercial or free, are protected by international copyright laws.  If you want to include information that is not in other mapsets, the usual practice is to put that information in an overlay/transparent mapset so your GPSr can display both at the same time.

Hillbilly61

Thanks,

I'll check out these tutorials and "play" with things in these links.

I am not interested in plagiarizing or violating copyrights within other work - no need to lecture. I work with proprietary and confidential geodata all of the time. The question about translating the Garmin format to a more standard GIS format pertains to back office GIS processing of collected data if the same custom base map is present when the data is collected and then everything retrieved for follow up work within a genuine GIS environment. Such GIS base maps are my own or others obtained via various express written agreements (NDA's, contracts, etc). These are the ones I use in my handheld and others that may be working for me.

Seldom

Quote from: Hillbilly61 on January 13, 2011, 07:14:28 PM
I am not interested in plagiarizing or violating copyrights within other work - no need to lecture. I work with proprietary and confidential geodata all of the time. The question about translating the Garmin format to a more standard GIS format pertains to back office GIS processing of collected data if the same custom base map is present when the data is collected and then everything retrieved for follow up work within a genuine GIS environment. Such GIS base maps are my own or others obtained via various express written agreements (NDA's, contracts, etc). These are the ones I use in my handheld and others that may be working for me.

Why can't archive the source data for the base maps and combine the archive with new data to generate a final?  Don't know what formats your data is in, but Global Mapper can open and export to a lot of formats.

Hillbilly61

Quote from: seldom_sn on January 14, 2011, 07:59:40 AM
Why can't archive the source data for the base maps and combine the archive with new data to generate a final?  Don't know what formats your data is in, but Global Mapper can open and export to a lot of formats.

All of my back office work involves GIS and there is a pre-existing investment of scripts and processes (some bought, others developed) that are the real secret to for obtaining a profit for services rendered - which does not involve copyright violations. I use GPSr units principally as data collectors. Plus, the end clients almost always require their deliverables to be in an established GIS file format (mostly ESRI or MapInfo derivatives).

I'll check out Global Mapper. Both professionally and personally. I do stuff on my own for the enjoyment of things, such as the referenced mapping cemetery locations in the OP for family historians. (I am one too and can relate as to the difficulty of finding cemeteries our ancestors are buried in.) !


About some other helpful responses provided thus far, an old thread on this forum was found - sorry I cannot cite it (found it a couple hours ago and immediately downloaded the reference Garmin "Map" that show codes & symbols, but had to take care of some business since then). Anyway, the codes/visuals found on this "map" represents to a tee the visualization errors observed when the import codes were used from GPSMapEdit.

I have inserted the code changes into my GIS basmap, but have not had to time to check them out via what is laid out in the topo map tutorial.

Stay tuned.....