Re: MapSource Topo 2008 downloading maps question

Jack Erbes wrote:
eCS and OS/2? Almost time to move up to Windows ME, no? Just joking of course, I'm stuck at Windows 2000 Pro for now, not sure when or if I'll get much beyond that.

This machine, a ThinkPad T60, came with XP. My T23, with W2000 pro, By and large I prefer W2K over XP and fail to see any advantage to XP for my few uses of Windoze - MapSource, nRoute and Google Earth. Everything else I use runs better and faster under eCS and with no need to defrag ever.

FYI, eCS is the successor to OS/2. When IBM quit supporting OS/2, a European outfit took it over and continues development under the name eCS. I have read about people having to periodically re-install Windows. I have done only four installs of OS/2-eCS in 10 years of use. Once when I first got OS/2 Warp4 in '97, once when I got a new machine, once when I went to eCS from OS/2 and twice when I got new machines. Only once in that ten years have I crashed the system so badly (through a combination of a very bad piece of software and me doing something stupid) that it appeared a re-install would be necessary. However formatting the boot drive and unzipping my most recent backup to it had me back up in only a few minutes and with no loss of software or data.

The gmappsupp.img file is the compiled (if that is the right word for the process) supplemental map image file that is created and uploaded by MapSource as part of the process of adding supplemental maps to a Garmin. That folder and filename is the default for all Garmins and, as far as I know, it is the only location and name that the Garmin software will use.

Interesting. My previous unit was a GPS-V which had only 19MB available for maps. I moved to the 76Cx for the SIRF chip, the colour screen and the ability to use very much expanded memory.

The gmapsupp.img files can be copied off of the GPS and saved for later use. Doing that is generally faster than recreating the file again. If you want to put multiple gmapsupp.img files on a memory card you can do that by changing their names to avoid a conflict. Using another device (like a PDA) that allows naming and re-naming files will let you manage the use of multiple files. You'll be able to change one name to gmapsupp.img and that is the file you will be able to see and use.

This sounds like a good idea.

The reason someone might want to have multiple files is that the software in the GPS receivers will not recognize more than 2025 map segments (maps as selected in MapSource). That is the limiting factor on the amount of mapping that can be contained in one gmapsupp.img file.

So I learned although I couldn't find it in the manual.

U.S. Topo has 6,000-odd segments in it, that is generally the only Garmin mapping product that will cause you to run into the 2025 limit.

Topo Canada has 7,317 segments in it so we both have that problem. ;-) I also have City Select NA v.7 (which came with my GPS-V and, so far, has been adequate to my needs). Not surprisingly, I have noticed that things like Find run much faster if fewer maps are loaded. With 1GB cards slightly less than half the price of 2GB cards, it might make sense to have several each loaded with two or three smaller sets. Something to think about.

If you are trying to make gmapsupp.img files with maps from multiple products and with a large number of map segments, you are more likely to exceed the 2025 maps limit before you run out of room on a microSD card.

So I fouund.

For the handhelds, microSD cards more than 2GB in size are of limited usefulness. You can put a lot of stuff on them but the 2025 maps limit will usually rear its head before the card is near full.

The card appears to be formated FAT16 which, IIRC, is limited to 2GB. Do you know if Garmin's units will accept FAT32?

The nuvis and other models that are also mp3 file players can store large numbers of mp3 files and will make more use of cards above 2 GB in size. The more mp3 files you have on those the slower they are at startup because they have to read the card and build a catalog of the mp3 files at each startup.

Personally, I would prefer to use a laptop for multifunction and have a GPS that does a good job of GPS-ing.

Ted
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