Newbe

[billdacat]

 ;DI have been lurking around this forum and wanted to introduce myself.   My passion is taking my Jeep off road in remote and isolated places.   I typically drag along a bunch of D-size 24K top maps, compass and an old e-Trex legend.   I have recently picked up a couple of nuvi 1300's; they were on sale <$80.  This is what brought me to this site. 
I must commend Boyd for the great job on the New Jersey pine lands topo maps.   These maps look great on cheep little Nuvi.  I would not have considered the Nuvi 1300 as worthy of displaying a topo map, what a surprise.

Boyd, I am very interested in building a set of 24K topo maps for some sections of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona for the Nuvi.   I may need to pick your brain with the process.   I will follow the procedures that are laid out on this forum and hopefully will be able to share the fruits of my labor.   
 

[Boyd]

Hey Bill, glad you enjoyed the maps. I recently posted another that should work well on the 1300 series: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/441/ and I am working on a major update to my other Map of New Jersey. The Nuvi 1300/1400 series are a challenge because they display the default Garmin map types incorrectly, so I am using my own custom types specifically tweaked for these Nuvi's.

The tutorials on mapmaking here are really excellent, but it takes time to grasp it all. It's like that old cliche though: you can have it cheap, good, or easy - pick any two.    If you purchase Globalmapper, it will make your work much easier, but it isn't cheap. If you need to keep your costs down, there are free and inexpensive programs that can do most of the same things, but they can be complicated.

[Seldom]

billdacat,
While my maps are nowhere nearly as nice looking as Boyd's, you may be interested in two I've posted to this site.  Both have routable trails.  One includes Bryce, Capitol Reef and Zion.  The other includes Arches and Canyonlands.

[Boyd]

Looks aren't everything - your work is great. 

Using any topo maps on the Nuvi 1300 series really cries out for custom bitmapped types however - especially for contour lines and wetlands. Otherwise the contour lines are huge and fat, making a mess out of everything and the wetlands are rendered as lakes.

[billdacat]

Thanks all for the warm welcome.   Boyd, Globalmapper is indeed pricey, the 3D feature doesn't really interest me.   I am going to wing it from the GPSFileDepot instructions and see what happens.   

I navigate in plan mode with north at the top.  The little Nuvi 1300 engine does a good job of keeping up with detailed topo displays; realize that wheeling (jeep term) is done at very slow speeds.   

I will keep you all posted as to my progress. (or lack of sic)

Thanks. 

   

[maps4gps]

OZ has topo maps for AZ & NM.  IndyJpr has one for UT and used data from the State which is fantastic for trails in the Moab area (and probably elsewhere) compared to the data in the Census TIGER files.

[maps4gps]

,,, Globalmapper is indeed pricey ...

You may also want to consider the 'yearly' upgrade price adds about 38% of the current list price.
A bought 9 a few months before version 10 was released.  Version ten did not add anything I felt I would use so I waited until 11 was released and was told I would have to purchase it for full price as there was no upgrade from 9 to 11.  I recently see that you can upgrade from 10 or 11 to version 12 for the same upgrade price.