I use both Garmin CN Europe 2013.1 and OSM by Lambertus. To display on Win 7 PC I have Mapsource 6.13.7 and 6.16.3. It is know that Mapsource 6.16.3 tends to distort maps especially as one moves further north whereas 6.13.7 makes a good shot at a better presentation. I was somewhat surprised, therefore, to see that the Garmin map seems to have exagerated E-W whereas the OSM map has reduced E-W in 6.16.3. This distortion occurs at all magnifications/scalings. See my snapshots in link which should show what I am trying to describe. Point I am trying to make is why do the Garmin and OSM versions not show the same distortion in Mapsource 6.16.3?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40470386@N08/sets/72157632776262325/
Mapsource 6.16 compute compression factor for longitude according to medium latitude of a whole map. For small maps, like a single country, map looks much better then for CNE Europe, which include Reunion Island on Southern Hemisphere.
Just a remark on the statement that it would be useless to offer downloads bigger than what can be loaded on a gps device.
I don’t think the size of what fits on a gps should be your point of view.
Maybe some, or even a lot of people put the downloaded stuff directly on a gps.
But what makes more sense I think, is to install the downloads first in Mapsource (Basecamp).
In Mapsource you plan routes. At the gps you navigate. That’s different things.
To give a real-life example: suppose you are a dutch speedskater, ride very nice routes on a Mountainbike as well, the bike that you also take to the big skating event at the Weissensee in Austria.
For the route by car to the Weissensee you want a special one to avoid all the queues around Munich and therefore you use the GR map in Mapsource from the Netherlands, completely to the far end of Austria. To be able to make this route, this GR map must be 1 map, not split in several ones, because otherwise the routing doesn’t work and also you would miss the necessary overview.
For ATB-routes in the Netherlands, in the Sauerland and Teutoburger Wald in Germany where also is being cycled a lot, and at the Weissensee in Austra, the Open Fietsmap Light is used.
Again: in Mapsource you want 1 map, not having to have all the trouble of getting installed it several times with different names and having to switch map all the time if you are planning in another country.
With the cycling club, in summer a trip has been made to the Stelvio mountain in Italy and Alpe d’Huez in France. Not very handy to have to arrange a separate map for those purposes.
For navigating on the gps, finally, you want another style than in Mapsource, since navigating routes is a completely other thing than planning routes.
So for maps on the gps, you first change typ files, then you extract an area from the Mapsource maps and send that to the gps (maps GR and OFMLight combined since an Edge 705 can only have 1 img file GMAPSUPP).
For other purposes, another map can be sent to the gps, other area e.g.
Basis is always the 2 maps in Mapsource, the GR and the OFMLight.
Of course this is just 1 example, my point is you can’t predict the usage of the maps.
Don’t limit this on forehand because of what fits on a gps device. The useful size is completely independent from what fit’s on the gps.
Not everyone only is using these maps in the local area.
P.s.
- Of course if you need to restrict the size because otherwise things fall over, there is a good reason. Which however, has disadvantages in usage.
- In the last downloads for me, the Windows installer was missing. So to install the maps in Mapsource still, I used MapsetToolkit. This makes things less simple to use of course.
Thanks For your feedback GRi, I agree that for certain uses a large map would be preferable. I wonder, though, how many people really need such large maps.
On a technical note: the most memory is used by the gmapsupp.img step which I could bypass when the user selects more then 4Gb tiles. However, the Windows installer is also limited in size because of the NSIS installer (2Gb).
Is it an idea to let us make a choice in what we would like to get: If I get an installer I don’t need the gmapsupp.img at all.
I only dowload the installer file, leave all the rest on ther server, untouched. A bit pity you generated them.
Maybe those who order an imgsupp don’t need the installers?
Also people on Windows don’t need the other executables, exactly as Apple people won’t need a windows installer?
The nsis limit can also solved by making an installer which dont include the tiles (like an install.exe that I use for my Europe or Germany map).
Of course this will ask for the user some extra efforts to unzip things first but if you want something extra you have to work for it. This also makes it not neccesary to include an extra set with the tiles only, and maybe even a Mac/Gmap format isn’t needed anymore because with Javawa’s Mapconverter this zip file can be easily installed for the Mac or as gmap. So then we have only one gmapsupp.img set (< 4 gb) and one zip file containing the tiles with a windows installer. See for example my Germany mapset: http://www.openfietsmap.nl/downloads/germany
We could also think for asking a small donation first for very big mapsets larger then 2 Gb (5 euro minimum or so). That will exclude all people who are just downloading everything just for fun and so limit the server load.
You can use gmap format on Windows, even installation is easier, since no registry access is needed.
With Javawa’s Mapconverter installing is indeed a piece of cake, manually you have to know where those files are stored.
But what about Linux users? They still need the osm_generic_tiles.zip. You only need to add a windows installer to this file then this file is for all platforms usable (Mac / gmap users need Javawa Mapconverter though).
I believe more for Linux users than for Mac users 
Yeah the Mac users wont be happy if they are offered a zip file which they only can install with Javawa’s Mapconverter 
Changed the scripts on the custom map server to use more disks for map storage using a simple trick to spread the load.
For those interested:
$map_disks = array("/maps/0/garmin", "/maps/1/garmin", "/maps/2/garmin");
$msdIndex = hexdec(substr($md5sum, 0, 1)) % count($map_disks);
$map_storage_disk = $map_disks[$msdIndex];
Where /maps/0/, /maps/1/ and /maps/2/ are mount points for different harddisks. Using the modulo function (%) on the first character of the md5sum determines which disk to choose from the array. Alternatively I could have created a single RAID partition using the three disks but this was more fun and, importantly, less prone to me breaking the server 
Take for example as first character from an md5sum (each character in an md5sum is a hexadecimal number ranging 0 to f):
0 % 3 = 0
1 % 3 = 1
2 % 3 = 2
3 % 3 = 0
4 % 3 = 1
[…]
e % 3 = 2
f % 3 = 0
Next is a custom NSIS installer for handling maps larger than 2 GB.
You should have about 20% more files on drive 0 than on 1 or 2. Do I estimate correctly?
Looks more like ~7% up to now, but I know what you mean. 
Hi,
I am going to ask a “newbie” questions…
Last weeks, I have made changes on OSM maps. These changes are now available on https://www.openstreetmap.org
I have seen, in the download section (http://planet.openstreetmap.org/), that a new “OSM database bundle” is generated every two weeks (the last one was generated on 18/02/2013).
My questions:
- what is the “refresh cycle” of your OSM database ?
- Do you use the new bundles ASAP when they are available ?
- Is-there a way to know the “refresh date” of your OSM database ?
Thanks for your help
Patrick
- About once a week (depending on how many changes are made to the toolchain)
- Nope, only when a new update is started then the local planet copy is updated
- The date on which the update is started is listed below the map on the website, e.g.
Hi,
Thanks for your previous reply !
Another question: do you use a specific mkgmap “CUSTOM STYLE” to generate your “Generic Routable” maps ?
If the answer is YES, is-it possible to get it ?
Regards
Patrick
The Generic Routable style is a default mkgmap style which can be found here
Generic Routable (testing new style) and Routable Bicycle (Openfietsmap Lite) you can find here
I’m thrilled to announce that users of the new generic map (testing) should be able to search and use housenumbers with map version 11-03-2013 and later. This also applies to the Openfietsmap Lite version.
As a bonus I merged the BAG data in my local copy of the OSM planet file. The BAG contains all housenumbers for the Netherlands and is made available as a separate download by OSM user Gertjan Idema and with a bit of help from OSM user ligfietser.
Outside the Netherlands, searching housenumbers only works when available in the OSM data, so if housenumbers in your area aren’t mapped in OSM yet then quickly go outside and map them so everyone can enjoy house to house routing in the Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap
Hi,
First thanks for the maps. They really make mapping my surroundings real fun and actually usefull.
However I noticed this weekend on a trip to Utrecht that a piece of the A2 is missing east of Vught. This was with the maps from 24-2. Today I downloaded the 11-3 map for the Netherlands, but it seems to have the same problem. Is this a known problem?
Jeroen,
They are probably busy with that road? I see it is rendered as a road under construction (new generic style).
On osm: construction = minor, highway = motorway.
If those constructions are finished, construction tags should be removed from OSM.
And I’ll have a look at the style files not to render those minor constructions.