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How do I convert kmz to img for Etrex 10

Started by Matthew D, February 06, 2016, 12:10:06 AM

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Matthew D

Hello all I am new to custom map making and I could use a little help.

I purchased my first GPS on a shoestring budget its an etrex 10. Now I only intend to use this unit at a few places and I have seen youtube videos where you can upload a small img file to the unit. My plan is a to have an approx. 1.5mb map of each area I intend to visit and load it to the unit as needed.

I have free access to online topo maps for my area in tiff format. I tried doing a image overlay with google earth but it will only output to kmz format.

The trouble I am having is getting an img format image.

Does anyone know how I can do a simple file conversion to img, or is there a better way

Boyd

#1
When Garmin uses the term "custom maps", they are talking about .kmz files in a special format - see this: http://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/custommaps

The eTrex 20 and other newer Garmin handhelds can use this type of map but I don't think there is any way to do this on an eTrex 10. Now it gets very confusing because gpsfiledepot uses the term "custom maps" for user-created .img files, which are something totally different.

.img files contain vector data - lines, points and polygons. TIFF files are just pictures. There is no way to easily create an .img file from a .tif file. There is a program called MOAGU that attempts to do this conversion, but it is really sort of a "hack" and probably will not give you very good results.

http://moagu.com

You would be much better off finding .img files for your area and using a small section of them. If you can't find any here at GPSFiledepot, you could try openstreetmap

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl

But really, you are going to spend a lot of time trying to get this working on an eTrex 10. That device just wasn't intended to use maps.  I understand the "shoestring budget" thing, but you have to assign some value to your time. I think you would be much better off to return the eTrex 10 and get your money back if possible. You could then try to get a handheld that is really compatible with maps - perhaps an older model like an eTrex Legend, Vista or Hcx?

These older models are not compatible with the Garmin .kmz "custom map" format, but they can use the .img files from this site and elsewhere. An eTrex 20 would give you full "custom map" compatibility however.

Matthew D

Hey, thanks for the advice, but before I get rid of the etrex 10 I am keen to give this my best shot.

I took a look at the open map website link you provided and I managed to download a street map of my city... it works perfectly. So this is proof of concept that you can upload maps to an etrex 10 in around the 2.5mb size range.

Now rural topo maps for my area were not available on that site but I did a lot of web searching and found some .img maps that cover my area which is absolutely fantastic.

Now for what I hope will be my last beginners question -
Does anyone know of a free or cheap to buy map editing program that will allow me to open a large img map, zoom in and select a smaller part of that map and save it?

Thanks again,
Matt.