…In that when I have it installed, I can’t lookup addresses at all–it just keeps giving me “no matches”. I can even go into Tools|Settings|Map|Info and deselect what’s called “OSM World Routable”, it still doesn’t work. I have to shut the device down, pull the microSD card and start it again. Then it works.
I’m probably going about this completely the wrong way. I go to Lambertus and then select about 4 regions in Canada. Then when I get the download I get osm_routable_gmapsupp.zip. I install that in the /garmin/ directory on the microSD. Then I’m sunk. What am I doing wrong?
I have a Garmin nuvi 1350.
Try getting a copy of BaseCamp and downloading an installable version of the map. I read here that the address indices are added by BaseCamp or MapSource.
They are also added when using a recent mkgmap version which most map creators should do by now.
Sorry to hear that you’re disappointed. I’m using a pretty recent Mkgmap, so that’s not the cause. I think the index format in the gmapsupp.img created by Mkgmap is simply not supporting all devices. You can try to install a map using Basecamp or Mapsouce because these applications create the index themselves and therefore might work better, but I can’t promise that it will work that way. I get multiple emails each week notifying me of this problem, if it’s of any consolation.
Ok, so I guess I’m using the right stuff then.
Mapsource isn’t available to new Garmin customers. I installed Basecamp but decided that it wasn’t relevant to installing open maps. I also never found any instructions on how to use it for that purpose. Did I miss something?
If you have BaseCamp installed you can download a MapSource upgrade and it will run.
So it does.
Ok, so I used Mapsource to get the file on my device and it seems that the address lookup is a bit better but it still can’t find any postal codes. It also does strange things, like when I try to lookup my home town of “Kirkland”, it wants to put it in “Kirkland, Laval”. Laval is a community way far away from Kirkland. Rigaud is even farther away, but it wants to put Rigaud in Laval, too.
How do both maps work on the same system anyway? It doesn’t seem as though they are used redundantly.
I don’t know about postal codes coverage in Canada, but these are usually very rare in OpenStreetMap, and hence in maps based upon OpenStreetMap.
Regarding the place hierarchy in Mkgmap, I agree that this is not too great but, again, this might be caused by problems (or missing data) in the OpenStreetMap mapping. It will likely improve more in time.
What about the naming absurdities? Is that something I would be able to fix?
So what algorithm should one apply in lieu of a usable hierarchy? Might it go something like:
- Disable the open map and see if the commercial one will do it
- If that fails disable the commercial map and go w/the open one
? I’m not sure how well that would work, since often one would only find that a map is out-of-date when already on the road.