BMP Icon Difficulties

 

Since the topic BMP Icon Discussions was meant to address the BMP Icon Library and adding or changing its content, I thought I'd create a new topic for people having difficulties with the use of icons.

Having trouble adding icons to a Nuvi 3590

I've read the tutorials and have successfully added POIs to my GPSr. I tried to add a BMP but nothing shows up in the display no matter how close I zoom in. It was a BMP file that I downloaded here and is 22x22 so the size should be ok. Both the BMP and the CSV files have exactly the same name and are in the same folder. It seems as if there might be some option on the GPSr that I need to select (or unselect) but I can't find it. Any ideas?

You may

You may need to do some playing around with the color depth of the icons. Some of the newer Nuvi models need an icon to be saved in 256 Color Bitmap and others in 24 Bit Color Bitmap. I think my 3790 requires 256 while my 3597 needs 24 Bit.

I'm not sure about what your 3590 requires but I'd suggest you load an icon bitmap file up in Windows Paint, save it as one of the 2 options and see if it's then visible on your GPS. If it isn't, try the other color depth. One of them should allow you to see the icon on the map screen, provided all the other rules were followed.

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Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

35xx

All of the 35xx series should require the same Bitmap sizes. Also, if you are on Windows, go to your Folder Options and make sure Show File extensions is selected. You may have an extra .bmp on the file. i.e icon.bmp.bmp.

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

Maybe I'm not close enough

Thanks for the quick response. I will look at altering the color depth if my next experiment fails. After reading some posts it sounds like the Custom POI icons might not show up until you are closer to them. If this is true, then I'll just have to wait until I get close to one of them to see if they pop up.

I do have the extensions turned on under Windows, but that was a good suggestion, that could easily cause problems if someone thought the file was Icons.bmp but it was actually Icons.bmp.bmp

I did figure out one other problem which I'll share in case someone else has a similar question. When I uploaded the Custom POIs, there should have been 91 of them, but when I checked the GPSr, only 50 were listed. I've figured out that only the 50 closest ones will be listed. Makes sense, especially if you had a huge list, it just caught me off guard.

3590 POI's

I have a 3590 and have had trouble displaying custom POI's from day one. I have tried varying the size of the POI's and have tried both of the recommended color densities. In virtually every configuration, the custom POI's randomly show up in different levels of transparency. Some of these are so transparent, you can hardly see them on the screen. From an earlier thread on this topic, this is supposedly a problem known to Garmin and so far they have been either unable or unwilling to develop a fix. Maddening.

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The Ogre

My previous post

Strike the word "virtually" as the transparency issue is present in every combination of pixel sizes and color depths. Sorry.

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The Ogre

Phantom icons

Thanks for the comments. I found out today that it has nothing to do with proximity and from what you've found, I guess I won't waste my time trying different color densities. I guess I should be glad that I got the POIs to load although my real interest was being able to display them on the map.

Zumo and color depth

I found a few Icons that I changed the color depth to 256 when using a Zumo (660) and zoom level to around the 200 ft mark...

Used the program PAINT to save the icon with 256 color....then it worked just fine.

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DGN MTF, IBA, MOA, BMW 1200GSA My picture...I was doing a charity ride in Georgia, got my picture with my bike and mural required...then a nice lady ask if she could take my picture...I agreed...when I downloaded this is what I got... just call me M