Map Segments and file size limitations

There still is a limit, but read up at the following page: http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=170615

That should give you instructions on how to combine the individual map segments so that you're under the map segment limit.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/29047

I've been eyeballing the gpsfile depot maps. One nice thing is that we can now have access to different mapsets on one data card. I guess it is conceivable for me to download all the different gpsdepot states and simply scroll through my garmin and chose a state as I travel. The downside is I could be scrolling through 50 different mapsets until I get to Wyoming. I haven't played around with loading different mapsets, but are they alphabatized on the Garmin? Is there a limit to how many different mapset files we can have access to? Maybe the best thing is to split up the US into three different mapsets and limit my mapsets to just a few instead of 50.
Off topic, but is there a way to get email alerts when people post to my topics?

Many thanks,
Louie

I ran into that 2025 limit a while ago, don't know if it has been upped. Not sure about a size (gb) limit.

I recently reloaded my microSD card for a GPSMAP60CSx, and in doing some testing, I found that it was the TOPO 2008 content that took the most time. CN and National Parks East Topo took just minutes to complete, but once I added TOPO 2008 content, the time to process, prepare, build, yadayadayada, just took forever. As in many, many hours, as in ran overnight.

I know I am going to be a little more careful about what TOPO 2008 content I choose to load to my microSD cards for now on.

Would it be an option for you to have a card, or cards, dedicated to only TOPO 2008, and all of TOPO 2008? Or you might want to, or have to, partition TOPO 2008 onto two or three cards to get around the 2025 limit. Then have just CN and/or whatever else on another card or in the nuvi built-in memory.

According to the thread I linked to, cutting down the number of map segments to roughly 400 resulted in a map that took 16 minutes to transfer to a GPSr. The apparent reason for the large number of segments in Topo 2008 is that owners of the handheld GPS receivers back in 2008 were complaining about the large map tiles not fitting on their units. Garmin gave them what they wanted.

One side effect of combining map segments is that you lose DEM data embedded in the map. Since this process is designed for automotive GPS receivers, which for the most part don't bother with DEM data, using the larger map segments on a handheld GPS is going to handicap its usability. So, if you're thinking of combining map segments using this process and putting them on a handheld GPS, don't.

Keep in mind everyone that Topo 2008, while it can be used on a car GPS, isn't intended for a car GPS. Thus you have to reduce the number of map segments in order to fit the whole of the United States onto a car GPS.

Thank you for the link to the larger mapset info. I guess I'm kind of hung up on losing the DEM data as I like to see the elevation data as I'm tooling down the highway. I know topo 2008 isn't made for routing, but when I'm wandering through the mountains and know where I'm going I like seeing all the topo data. I guess I'll experiment with the larger mapsets and see what I think. Many thanks.

Get a large enough SD card and you could put all of Topo 2008 on it. Just be prepared to leave your computer on overnight to do the transfer.

I was able to transfer all of 2008 as one mapset, but not all of the segments are viewable and my nuvi1450 keeps crashing. I am now experimenting to see if you can access different mapset files from the same SD card by simply renaming the gmapsupp.img files as they are loaded. Here is a link that says you should be able to do this then from the garmin you can chose which mapset you wish to view. http://gpstracklog.com/2011/05/loading-multiple-maps-to-garm...
I seem to remember being able to do this with my nuvi500, although I didn't even need to rename the mapsets. It seemed as I loaded new mapsets they simply added the filenames to my list of available choices from the map info tab on my nuvi.

Why not just split the maps up and load one set to the device memory and the other to the SD card?

He could do that, but the map segment limitation is based on the total number of map segments of all maps located in internal and external memory. In other words, even if he split Topo 2008 into four .img files, he'd still have the 6,000+ segments that make up Topo 2008 plus the number of segments that make up City Navigator North America. Since the nüvi supports far fewer segments than that, the nüvi will crash trying to load the map.

That's why someone came up with the software to merge map segments.

Not sure how this works, but I transferred two different mapsets to my Nuvi and they both show up on the info tab under maps. All I have to do is check which box I want to view and that's the data I see on the nuvi. This is soooooo much better than carrying around a bunch of different SD cards.

However, from what Strephon is saying I am still limited by the total number of mapsegments split between my different mapset files. I am confused by this for as long as my mapsets are 2025 or smaller than what would be the issue? I am only checking the box for one mapset thus only making one mapset active on the garmin.

I guess at some point I'll need to check out the map merging software.

Off topic, but anyway to set up our accounts to subscribe to certain threads to get email alerts when someone posts new comments?

Thanks again,Louie

Louie, I could be confused on this one, because I haven't tried it myself. It could very easily be that the total number of map segments in an .img can't be more than 2025.

My plan is to add more mapsets to my garmin, each containing close to the 2025 mapsegment limit. I'll post back and let folks know what issues arise.
Louie