Building Garmin Map Sets

Building the Garmin specific files and loading them into Garmin GPSs is the most difficult part of this whole exercise. Luckily there are a few tools available that make the process easier. Also the Airspace Converter is hardwired to produce maps with sensible default values that have been tested and proven to work.

The tools required are:

• GPSMapEdit for visualising (and editing) maps.
• cGPSMapper for building the Garmin map files.
• MapSetToolKit for installing Garmin map database files into MapSource.
• MapSource or SendMap for collecting several maps together and loading them into the GPS.

The basic process is to use the Airspace Converter to convert the airspace files you want into Polish Map (*.mp) format. Then you can usecGPSMapper to convert the mp files into Garmin database files. Then you have a choice - you can use either SendMap or MapSource to load the files into the GPS. Caution: both of these techniques will replace all the maps already loaded into the GPS. Since I already use MapSource for installing other maps, that is the technique I use. The MapSource technique is discussed below. You can find documentation on SendMap at the cGPSMapper website.

1. Checking the Conversion with GPSMapEdit

If you want to check the conversion to Polish Map format before you move on to building the Garmin files I recommend using GPSMapEdit available from http://www.geopainting.com/en/. Using GPSMapEdit you can open the *.mp files directly to view them. You can also edit them but I recommend editting the source text files and re-running the airspace converter instead, so that the conversion can be repeated later without loosing any edits made in GPSMapEdit.

2. Using cGPSMapper to create Garmin map files

The first step towards creating Garmin files is to use cGPSMapper to convert the Polish Map files into Garmin img files. To do this simply open a cmd window (On Windows click Start, Run then type cmd and click OK), and change to the directory where the *.mp files are. Then run the cGPSMapper executable and tell it the name of the file you want to convert, like this...

<path to the location of cGPSMapper>\cGPSMapper.exe ac filename.mp

Repeat this for each mp file. Each time cGPSMapper will write a new file to the current directory with an 8 digit file name and the img extension. The filename is taken from the ID field in the mp file.

3. Installing maps into Garmin MapSource

To load the maps into MapSource you first need to build a preview map and database file. You can use cGPSMapper to do that, but it is much easier to use MapSetToolkit instead.

Open MapSetToolKit and you should see a screen like this...

MapSetToolKit

1. It is best to set up a single folder to hold your img files and some other configuration files that will be created by MapSetToolKit for use by MapSource. That folder is the 'Mapset directory' (C:\GarminMaps in the example above).
2. You can send multiple map files (see the previous section for naming requirements) into one Mapset (with any name you like). Actually this corresponds with one named 'Product' rather than one named 'Map set' as these terms are used in MapSource.
3. 'Product Code' does not matter for personal use, except that it should differ from any products already installed and any products to be later installed.
4. The Families Mapset section is important if you want to use custom type files. These are used to define your own lines and polygons. Choose a faimily ID (FID) that is not already in use (look in the Mapsets Installed window). The custom type File I have used is attached below as an example.
5. Tick the 'Install in MapSource' checkbox in the Options section then click 'Start'. MapSetToolKit will then build the preview map and database file, and install it all into MapSource.
6. If you subsequently seek to add further maps to your new mapset/product using MapSetToolKit, you may get an error message requiring you to first 'uninstall' that mapset. This takes out the previous registry entry, so be careful not to uninstall the wrong mapsets! (Hopefully in later versions this 'uninstall' step will not be needed simply to add maps).

4. Building a map set and uploading

If all has gone according to plan, when you next open MapSource, it should include your new 'product' (NZAirspace in our example), with whichever maps you have included, available for display and for transfer as usual to your GPS receiver.

MapSource

Unfortunately, MapSource can not display multiple layers, so you can not see your excellent work in full glory combined with other layers over a basemap on the computer screen. For that you have to transfer your maps to your GPS.

But before you hit 'Transfer' > 'Send to device' > 'Maps':

Caution: every current method of transferring maps into Garmin GPS receivers overwrites the previously transferred maps.

Make sure that all of your maps are available in your MapSource program, and assemble those that you need into one group (this is what Garmin calls a Map set) for transfer together into the GPS. To do that you need to select the Map Tool icon on the tool bar (with a picture of a polygon) then select all the maps you want from the map display window. Hint - when they are selected they turn pink on the map display and they are listed in the maps tab on the left. Then you can upload the map set to the GPS receiver.

If you do not use MapSource, there are various free or shareware programs to assemble img files into mapsets and transfer them to your Garmin GPS unit. Examples include SendMap and GPSExplorer.