Multiple Maps

I recently received a Gamin Nuvi 205 and when reading the howto on loading OSM maps for it, I noticed that they need to be named gmapsupp.img. Is it possible to have multiple supplemental maps, and if so how?

Assuming by ‘map’ you mean ‘collection of individual map tiles covering a particular area’, then it is possible using mkgmap to a) create a gmapsupp.img containing a single ‘map’ with multiple tiles and b) create a gmapsupp.img containing multiple ‘maps’ with multiple tiles.

Using mkgmap, you can create multiple tiles for the various areas you want, then combine them into a single gmapsupp.img. Each tile will be deselectable individually, which may be all you need. Alternatively, if you want to be able enable/disable entire countries/regions, you will need to create separate mapsets (with different family IDs) for each region then combine these using mkgmap into a single gmapsupp.img

I think for the Nuvi you can have one map in the internal memory (named gmapsupp.img) and another on the microSD card (also named gmapsupp.img), and it will work with both of them at once.
I think it will also use a gmapprom.img file in the internal memory (note the gmapprom.img file might be used by the included / built in maps, so you might want to take a backup of it before copying over it).

This may be obvious, but if the OP has installed the tiles in MapSource or Basecamp those programs provide a graphic way of selecting the IMG tiles and generate the gmapsupp.img from the selection.

Don’t know. I will tell you what I saw a Zumo do with my microSD card.

On it in the Garmin folder were filies like:
gmapsupp.img
gmapsupp.img.russia
gmapsupp.img.wanderlust.v1
gmapsupp.img.wanderlust.v2
gmapsupp.img.openstreetmap.ukrain

For my GPSMAP 60cx I need a computer to rename a file to gmapsup.img. But on the road I met someone with a Zumo and I advertised for the openstreetmap. We put de card in the Zumo. The Zumo read in all… well except for the openstreet ones. But after that he saw and could choose between all other maps.

You could try.

I’m not familiar with the OP’s Nuvi, but the Garmin Oregons and Colorados support multiple IMG files in a “Garmin” folder and they can be named human friendly names like Iceland.IMG. When they are connected to a PC via a USB cable they appear as two drive letters, an drive letter representing the unit’s external memory and a drive letter representing a removable chip, if present. Each drive letter can have a Garmin folder. All IMG files in either Garmin folder are recognized. The folder can be accessed by drag and drop.

Might be worth hooking your NUVI to a PC and seeing if the file structure resembles what I’ve described above.

I’ve some partial success when playing with multiple maps, but still some problems.
Here is what I’d like to obtain: a single gmapsupp.img containing

  • a standard (= downloaded from internet) routable OSM map of an entire country
  • a special tansparent map (of a region of France is sufficient for me) highlighting things such as cycleways, paths, footways excatly in the way I want
  • another special transparent map of the region showing arrows for oneways streets
  • another special transparent map displaying colour dotted lines for streets with noname

Then depending on if I’m driving a car, a bike, or simply mapping in a city, I have all I need within my Etrex Legend Hcx, and only need to make invisible those maps I don’t need at that time.

Here is what I tried to get my multiple map (if it may helps you):

  • download standard country map in tdb format and import it in into mapsource by using MapsetToolKit
  • download region OSM data
  • generated with mkgmap 3 different maps with this data and different styles (and different ID each one), import them into mapsource and defining them as transparent
  • loading my GPS with mapsource: (in fact it creates the gmapsupp.img directly into memory card)

It worked quite well when the region was only one town and its surrounding. For some maps, I had to include some POI also, and maybe (I’m not sure if it helps) some not dotted lines for some category highways (I choose to render “tracks”), as if something was blocking if one map (noname) had only color dotted lines.

After that, when trying to do the same for a whole region, for some it works, and for some other not. Either mapsettoolkit gives a message “import failed” when trying to import a map for mapsource, either the imports pretends to be sucessfull, but then mapsource refuses to start and crashes saying that there is an installation problem and that I have to reinstall it (in fact, if I uninstal the faulty map with mapsettoolkit, the other maps are fine and mapsource runs again.)

If someone has seen similar problems has has a suggestion…

Newer editions of cgpsmapper (which MapSetToolKit uses) don’t work well with mkgmap compiled maps. If you know the provenance of your IMG files, generate one TDB product with MapSetToolKit for cgpsmapper compiled files and another TDB product with mkgmap for mkgmap compiled IMGs. That will put them both into MapSource. If you don’t need MapSource, just use Sendmap 2.0 to generate a gmapsupp.img. It will generate gmapsupp.img from mkgmap imgs. Haven’t tried both cgpsmapper and mkgmap IMGs in same gmapsupp, though.

Since I don’t need mapsource, I installed sendmap20 (under wine) and tried to combine the France.img from http://mapas.alternativaslibres.es/ and the img made by myself under mkgmap, associated with a customised TYP file.
Sendmap20 generates an gmapsupp.img, but it turns out to be unsuable!.
It seems that sendmap20 does not like the france.img: if I import only this file into sendmap20, the output gmapsupp.img is then much much smaller (a few 100ko) than the original france.img (about 500 Mo). There is obviously something going wrong wrong somewhere.
Any idea?

Are you talking about file francia.gmapsupp_amp.zip? It contains gmapsupp.img 89,966 kB. Not 500.

I inspected the .img with wordpad. In it only spanish an portugese names. Not a single french one.

If you put the supplied french .img on your garmin device; is ik ok?

Have you tried it without the TYP file? Have you tried each map individually? Might help isolate where the problem is.

My debug attempt was with the unzipped gmapsupp.img contained in gmapsupp_francia.zip. In its 15 January version, it was about 315Mo, and was ok for direct use in the gps, but made sendmap20 fail.
Today, I downloaded a new gmapsupp_francia.zip (dated 19 january) , and it appears that its gmapsupp.img is only 255Mo, and seems ok with sendmap20. Strange isn’t it?
Then I succeeded to combine the gmapsupp_francia.zip with one of my custom img and typ file, and it worked.

Well, I have troubles again: when I try two combine gmapsupp_francia with two or three of my own customised map with typ style, some of my customised maps does not draw in the GPS. I know that all of them are in the file, since the map properties menu can list all of them, but all with the same name: OSM-France although I tired several mkgmap options (family-name, description, series name) to give a different name to each.
When I try gmapsupp_francia with any (but only one) of my customised map, no problem, the map draws well in the gps (but still a dummy OSM-France name like gmapsupp_francia).
May be there is a limitation in sendmap20. Does anyone knows?

The nams are there. The rest of the data might be missing…

Well yes that might be the problem. Don’t lknow.

There is certainly something that you can do to make different namesI hope.

Sorry, but I do notunderstand what you try to tell us here. Could you please refrase?

And could you tell which gps you use. They are different.

Did you try to display the result in Mapsource or a different program? Does GPSmapEdit http://www.geopainting.com/en/ display your combined map? You need a lot of memory. It failed here on the france img. Select individual maps. But it does tell also that the france img is not a map but a container of maps. I counted about 30. So sendmap20 has to build a new container containing the original 30 and the two extra from you. Does not seem a big task but maybe its easier to make containers from 32 individual tiles.

I think the name problem is what you have to resolve.

I found a solution: instead of having one TYP file per customised map, I have built one common TYP file with all the styles I need (constraint is then to use each code no more than once of course) and then by grouping the gmapsupp_francia together with 3 customised maps and one unique TYP file, the resulting img file is correctly displayed in my Etrex Vista HCX.
About the names, I found one solution also by playing on the order I use to combine the various maps.
My first attempts was in sendmap20 to add the gmapsupp_francia first, and then my own maps. The map property submenu selector of which map tiles (not sure if ‘tile’ is the right word) are displayed then starts with a big list of tiles from the whole France, and only at the very end 1 tile per customised map, quite difficult to to find in this menu. But if I do the reverse: add my own maps first, then gmapsupp_francia, the list begins with my 3 maps that I can easily find in the list of tiles (with their customised name in clear).

In other words, my multiple map works. I now can start to optimise my styles…