OSM Map On Garmin
From OpenStreetMap
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English • Deutsch • | |
| Sub pages |
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| Map File Format |
| Map Download |
| POI Files |
| Mass Storage Mode |
| cGPSmapper |
| QLandkarte |
| Cycle map |
Many Garmin GPS devices can show maps on their display. This overview page explains how you can get OSM maps on your Garmin device.
Contents |
Pre-Made Maps
Some people have done the work of creating Garmin maps for parts of the globe, see Download for more information.
Steps for Creating Your Own Maps
If you've never dealt with cartographic data before, this might be slightly harder than you expect. If you have dealt with cartographic data, you'll probably find this shockingly easy, fast, and reliable.
These are generally the steps involved (also see the Software section below):
- You need a .osm file; you'll need to select your location, ask the server to generate data, and download the data. There are several options:
- The easiest way of all is to use the Export tab on the site.
- If you want an entire country or maybe even the whole world, use the planet dump or one of the many excerpts available.
- You can use JOSM to select and download the data, then choose Save As. (But note that this is inefficient for large data sets, as JOSM will attempt to draw the data, which can take many minutes, and which you don't need to do if you're only trying to use the data on a GPS unit.)
- For a command-line download, see Getting Data.
- If you are writing software, download through the API.
- You need to convert the .osm file to a Garmin map image file (.img). You should probably use Mkgmap for this.
- You might then have to convert one or more of those map image files into an aggregate image file called GMAPSUPP.IMG. Mkgmap and sendmap can perform this conversion.
- And lastly you'll have to upload the image file to the Garmin device. With the latest Garmins you can just copy it in USB mass storage mode (remember to create a subfolder "Garmin" first to store your .img file); otherwise, sendmap is the easiest way.
Create data for Mapsource / Bobcat
The following steps create a gmapi file that can be added to Mapsource / Bobcat and Garmin Training Centre using (for a Mac) MapManager.
Software
Here are some programs involved in the process. You'll need some of these programs depending on what exactly you want to do.
- Mkgmap is an Open Source Java program developed specifically for converting OSM data into Garmin map image files. You should probably look at this first.
- QLandkarte is an Open Source program to display and work with Garmin maps.
- cGPSmapper is a programs to convert a textual presentation of a Garmin map into binary map files. cGPSmapper can not read OSM files directly.
- sendmap is a companion program to cGPSmapper for aggregating and uploading map images files.
- OSMGarminMap is an older XSLT style sheet to convert OSM data into files which can then be read and converted by cGPSmapper. It is probably not useful to you unless you want to hack around.
- Cycle map explains how to create a custom "rendering" of OSM data using Mkgmap.
- osm2mp can create routable garmin maps, see this forum thread for details and download.
Overview of steps and software
| Program | License | .osm to .mp | .mp to .img | .osm to .img | IMG aggregation | Upload | Developed for OSM? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mkgmap | GPL | no | yes | yes | yes | no | yes |
| QLandkarte | GPL | no | no | no | yes | yes | no |
| cGPSmapper | proprietary | no | yes | no | no | no | no |
| sendmap | proprietary | no | no | no | yes | yes | no |
| OSMGarminMap | proprietary | yes | no | no | no | no | yes |
| MapCenter | GPL | no | yes | no | no | no | no |
Other Stuff
- GPS Maps From OSM Data describes a web-based interface to generating GPS maps from OSM data.
- See OSM Map On Garmin/Format for more information about these Garmin map image files.
- See OSM_Map_On_Garmin/WINE_MapSource how to use the original MapSource in wine to transfer maps (if neither sendmap nor qlandkarte work for you).
Devices / Success Stories
Collection of devices where successful garmin-uploads have been reported:
External links
- MapCenter has loads of Garmin maps to download including the data in source format. There are many detailed maps, some at city street level. The licensing status of each map is up to each author -- it is always free to use and modify for personal use only, but often the authors are less strict -- so there's the possibility of importing some of these maps into OSM.
- topomaps.dyndns.org Ready-to-use maps based on OSM data with topo lines from NASA data
- GpsMapEdit can be used to view and convert the garmin format (.img) back to polish format (.mp). The polish format is input for the MapCenter database.
- PocketMV is an shareware ($20) program for an Windows PDA that can display the garmin IMG file.
- www.digitalmobilemap.com is a J2ME program that can display garmin IMG map on any mobile phone. The application supports routeable maps and uses A* algorithm for AutoRouting
- emexes.powweb.com/osm/ Routing capable maps of europe for Garmin devices.
