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Newbie help appreciated - problem loading into mapsource

Started by kzloy, July 04, 2011, 03:09:12 PM

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kzloy

Please help with (mostly) random polygon generation of topo map

First post here, been reading for a bit now.  I am new to the entire world of map making for GPSr units and have spent the last several weeks playing with all the tools out there and trying to make sense of it all, quite a bit of reading on this forum, which is great. 

I am not a programmer, but computer literate.  That said, there is a lot of info to be taken in on how to go about making a map for yourself and getting it converted to put into your GPSr.  I have gone through the tutorial here on how to do it, and most of it makes sense, or at least I can follow it, maybe not knowing what it all means.

??? What I am having issues with may be due to my lack of knowledge on all the file types and conversion processes.  I am trying a very basic topo map creation.

Using the tutorial here, I have simply created a 100k contour file, nothing else fancy.  I then exported that into polish format (extension .MP).  I viewed that in gpsmapedit and it appeared to be fine.  I then process the .MP file with gpsmapper and can once again open it with gpsmapedit and it appears fine.  When I go through the process with MapSetToolkit to load into mapsource, I end up with a map that is a lot of odd polygons in roughly the same shape as my contours, but useless.  What am I doing wrong?  I would love to get past this issue to go on to figuring out how to make actually useful maps, but don't want to put the work into it yet until I can get through the most basic of steps.

Thanks!

Seldom

Sounds like you are looking at a preview map underlying a transparent map.  If you make the map "not transparent" or "semi-transparent" the nasty polygons will be hidden. The other possibility is that you have something wrong with your levels, but try the transparency first.  You can address both of these issues in the Map Properties dialog in GPSMapedit.

kzloy

I apologize in advance for all the very basic questions.  If there is a collection of the more basic principles of map making found somewhere here (or elsewhere), please point me to them so I don't ask questions that have been answered time and time again.

Possible that it could be a transparency issue, I noticed a post you replied to a while back:

http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1105.0.html

I am unclear on what steps were taken to remedy that though.  I set my .mp file to show transparent before exporting to .img.  I looked at the map settings and while viewing it under GPSMapEdit -> File -> Map Properties -> cGpsMapper Tab, Map is trasparent = N - Not a transparent map.  Hopefully this is where I should be looking to determine if there is a transparency issue with the preview map.  Just in case, i ran the whole thing with it set to S - Transparent map with transparent background.  The issue I have with that is that the .img file that I export to has that setting reverted back to not transparent and I can't seem to figure out how to change that and save it with GPSMapEdit, it always wants to take a step backwards and go from the .mp file through an export command.

Until I can figure it out or hear back from you, I am going to proceed as though it is something to do with the levels. 

My initial Polish export .MP map has 4 levels:

Level | Bits | Lat grid | GPS zoom | MapSource zoom
Level0= | 24 | 2.4m | 120m | Zoom0=1 (1.2 - 3 km)
Level1= | 22 | 9.5m | 500m | Zoom1=2 (3 - 8km)
Level2= | 20 | 38m | 2 km | Zoom2=3 (8-12km)
Level3= | 18 | 153m | 5km-8km | Zoom3=4 (12-30km)

I ran the .MP file through the gpsmapper transcode.bat process to begin the .img process and it spits out my seemingly random numerical file.img.  When I examine that file, it appears there is the same information: not transparent and the levels match with above.  All seems to be going well.

I then ran through the MapSetToolkit portion of the tutorial and upon completion, I am left with several different file types: .img, .mp, .tdb.  The original .img was 1.755 KB, the resultant .img was only 12KB.

The levels for the toolkit processed .img file are also as shown below:

Level0= | 17 | 305m | 12km | Zoom0=5 (50-120km)
Level1= | 16 | 610m | 20km-30km | Zoom1=6 (120 - 300km)

I suppose another good thing to know is if those are the actual maps that I should be loading onto my Garmin GPSr or are those simply a preview set (as that portion of the tutorial would suggest).  I will continue to dig around the forums to try to find the solution to my problem and post it.  As always, any suggestions are appreciated.


Boyd

Here's what I don't understand... you said "I end up with a map that is a lot of odd polygons in roughly the same shape as my contours, but useless." Maybe I don't understand what you were trying to accomplish? Did you expect the map to show elevation contours? If so, those should not be polygons, they should be polylines.

What exactly did you create? For elevation contours you should have the following line objects:

0x20 - thin contour
0x21 - medium contour
0x22 - thick contour

I could never get the free software in the tutorial here to work for this, so I am using Globalmapper to create my maps. It's kind of a no-brainer to create contour lines in globalmapper once you have downloaded the DEM data. Have you seen this tutorial? http://cgpsmapper.com/download/GM8DocV2.pdf

You can download and use the free version of globalmapper for this, but unfortunately it won't let you export the results to cgpsmapper unless you purchase a license. If you contact globalmapper support however, they say they will give you a full limited-time license key to play with.

Seldom

kzloy, your problem is with MapSetToolKit.  Unfortunately, I only use MSTK to INSTALL, files I've already made with Cpreview.  To do that I start MSTK, click on the INSTALL Button on the lower left center, and browse the resulting dialog to find the basemap IMG and TDB files I've already compiled.

Here's the batch code I use to compile my TDB.
path=c:\program files\cgpsmapper;%path%
cpreview Mymap.txt
cgpsmapper Mymap.mp
pause


Mymap.MP will be generated by the Cpreview command. 

A sample of Mymap.TXT follows, but since I've cleaned it up a little you should check it against the cgpsmapper manual.

[Map]
FileName=Mymap
MapVersion=100


[_id]
ProductCode=1
FID=1234
;ID=1
[End]

Levels=2
Level0=13
Level1=12

Zoom0=6
Zoom1=7

MapsourceName=Mymap
MapSetName=Mymap
CDSetName=Mymap
Copy1=Map is not for sale
[End-Map]
;
;IMG files to be included in new map-set
;!!REMEMBER to fix the path to IMG file!!
;
[Files]
;list full path to your named 8 digit IMG files below
img=c:\\maps\\12345678.img
[END-Files]


The output Mymap.IMG and Mymap.TDB will be the preview files you select in MSTK.

kzloy

Boyd - you are right, polylines.  Upon looking back at the map, it appears they are just polylines with any smoothing removed.

Seldom_sn - Thanks, I will be working on this today to see if I can follow what you've described to hopefully get different results.  


Seldom

Don't know how you are getting it, but it looks like Bad is the preview file for Good.  Also, the 2 level set you show for the processed IMG is consistent with a preview file.

Boyd

Quote from: seldom_sn on July 05, 2011, 07:30:52 AM
kzloy, your problem is with MapSetToolKit.  Unfortunately, I only use MSTK to INSTALL, files I've already made with Cpreview.

I really need to learn more about cgpsmapper. :) However, I have never used cpreview. I use mapsettoolkit to generate all the files that Mapsource needs and it seems to work fine (in Mapsource, Basecamp and nRoute).

Seldom

No doubt, otherwise there'd be many more questions of this sort.  
Of course, you may not call Cpreview, but MSTK must be doing it.
My idea was to take MSTK as much out of the process as possible.  That may help to isolate the problem.

kzloy

I am going to try some more troubleshooting by processing and loading different components of the map to see if it is just the contours I am having issues with, or if everything gets messed up past MSTK regardless of what it is.  Very frustrating indeed.

Seldom

#10
How did you generate the Good and Bad screenshots?

Once you compile your IMG file with cgpsmapper you will be able to view the IMG in GPSMapEdit.  If it looks OK there, then the problem is occurring later in the process.

jbensman

I am pretty certian this is a problem with your zoom levels. 

In mapsource when you zoom in to 800 or so feet is it nice and smooth?

Open the file in GPSmapedit

crt 0 will show level 0
ctr 1 will show level 1

Go through all the levels and if I am correct one of the levels will look like your screen shot.

The problem is the topo generating programs create too many levels of topo lines.  If you are not careful on your zoom level settings you can get what your screen shot shows.

When I make topo maps I only have two zoom levels with topo lines.  (I delete the rest) I set it up so the topo lines no longer display above the .5 or .8 mile zoom level.  Above that level, all they do is clutter up the map.  When you are zoomed that far out on your GPS, the topo lines don't give you any useful information.

If you see the lines messed up in zoom levels, back up your file, then properties, levels, and delete the level

I like these settings for topo maps

level 0  24 bits zoom 0 detailed topo lines
level 1  22 bits zoom 1 major topo lines
level 2 17 bits zoom 2 (this is blank except a single POI to stop the map from displaying above this level)
Level 3 16 bits zoom 3

Boyd

Well, here we go again.  ;D  I never define custom zoom levels. I use globalmapper to create contour lines, then feed the .mp files to cgpsmapper. Have never seen a mess like the first screenshot above in my maps. And I use some pretty small contour intervals also, so there are LOTS of lines. They look fine in mapsource, basecamp and on the GPS.

But zoom levels is something I've been avoiding understanding for quite awhile - mainly because it "just works" with the defaults I guess. Where I'm sure it could help would be when I zoom out far - past 1.2 miles. Then things start turning into a big blob.  :D

Seldom

jbensman, kzloy reports he specifies 4 levels in his MP file but only gets 2 levels in his output file.  My compiled IMG files always show the same number of levels as my MP files, but my compiled preview files only have 2 levels.  That's why I think kzloy is looking at a preview.IMG.

kzloy, what is the map ID in your MP file?  Also, what are the names of your MP files?  The map ID should be 8 digits.  As a convenience, I use the same map ID in the IMG file name.  Your map IMG file and your preview file names should NOT be the same.

Boyd, I didn't much bother with custom zoom levels until my last map got so big that I had to add a 5th one to reduce clutter.  Too many POI.

maps4gps

MapSetTookKit does use cpreview to create the preview map .img file. 

Map authoring for GPSr use is different from making a paper map where the scale limits how much detail can be shown before it runs together.  It takes some testing to learn what and how many featues can best be shown at which zoom display (bit) levels - also what works well for one area may not do so for another. 

'custom zoom levels' ??  By Garmin 'standards', GM is 'custom'.