Custom Map Making for garmin Help

[wjs125]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here can help me by making a map? I need it for a college report and I have the paper map of the area. It is a ecological preserve at Rutgers University which again I have a PDF of the area with borders and trails. I just need to be able to get it onto my Garmin GPSmap. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Aodhfin]

Is the PDF GeoReferenced?
Is the PDF in color?

[Aodhfin]

You can download Google Earth and import it there, save as a KML.  If it is geo-refed perfect!  If not you can google how to geo-ref in Google Earth, it's very easy.

[Boyd]

For a simple map like that you can use Garmin's tutorial:

https://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/custommaps

You can use photoshop to convert the .pdf file to a .jpg file.

[wjs125]

Hey guys I have attached the PDF of the preserve if you can take a look. The green area is the area of the actual preserve that I am trying to get onto the garmin.


I'm going to try the methods you mentioned and hopefully that will work, unless you know of a different way to do it after you take a look. I need to be able to get the map onto mapinstall to download onto my garmin.

Thank you very much for your replies.

[Boyd]

OK, I've made it easy for you. I have converted the PDF to a .jpg file and re-sized it to 1024x1001 pixels to meet Garmin's custom map specifications.

So now all you need to do is follow Garmin's instructions at the link I posted above, it's quite straightforward. Note, however, that this kind of map does not use MapInstall or Basecamp. Just follow the instructions at the link for installing the map on your GPS.

https://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/custommaps

[Boyd]

BTW, looking at your post above, you did not specify exactly what GPS you have. There are probably about 10 different models in the "GPSMap" series. If yours is a very old device such as the GPSMap 60csx, then this kind of map is not compatible. But if it's a newer model such as a GPSMap 62, GPSMap 64, or GPSMap 66 then it will work.

Unfortunately, if you have one of these very old devices from the GPSMap 60 series, it will be much more complicated to make a map yourself.

[wjs125]

Thank you very much for your help. I'll let you know if I have success. And I have the GPSmap64 SC so hopefully it works smoothly.

[wjs125]

I am having an issue with Google Earth, it shows the download button but I click on it and nothing happens

[jolly47roger]

There is a calibrated version attached.

I changed the file name as some units can be fussy about long names and hyphens.

The coordinates printed at the side were a great help!

I used my MAPC2MAPC program to input the coordinates and output the KMZ.

This is full size and uses four 'tiles' of the hundred allowed in your unit.

[wjs125]

Thank you very much jollyroger that map works perfect on the gps I appreciate all of your help everyone

[Boyd]

There is a calibrated version attached.

Since the OP said he was doing a report for a college course, I didn't feel it would be appropriate to do all the work for him.

[wjs125]

It's ok making the map wasnt part of the report it's just helping me be able to do the report. I tried it myself once I figured out how to download Google earth but it didnt come out as good as yours jollyroger so thank you very much