topo maps

[Anonymous]

How much space is required to download topo maps to Garmin Legend gps. Will 8mb handle six or so maps or do I need the 24mb option? Also while using mapsource topo from Garmin can I upload and save waypoints and tracks to the cd to retrieve later? Also does mapsource allow me to insert waypoints and tracks to download?

Thanks in advance for any information.

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

I don't know about MapSource Topo USA but for MapSoure Topo Canada sizes vary from 0.1 MB to just over 1MB per map (excluding auto-routing data) - these maps are based on 1:50.000 federal topos. I suspect that the USA topos from Garmin are more detailed so they could be larger.

On my website, you can find detailed Garmin compatible Canadian, Quebec topo maps. They are based on 1:100K and 1:20K provincial maps and have more data layers than MapSource Top Canada does so, even that each map covers a smaller area, some maps are closer to 2MB.

For Ontario detailed topo maps (coming out very soon) we also plan to keep sizes of individual maps to below 2MB so the owners of 8MB receivers could load at least 4 chunks.

I suspect (but don't know for sure) that Garmin also tries to keep individual sections small enough for owners of older receivers to be able to use them.

 

[Anonymous]

I have had as much as 55 maps on my Garmin GPS map 76 which has 8mb of memory. These maps are based on 1:50,000 federal series Canadian topo maps.
Rick

 

[Anonymous]

Once you install mapsource you will be able to download tracks and waypoints and save them as files to your harddrive which you can reinstall anytime later.

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

Yup, if the area shown happens to be mostly flat, few if any rivers, no roads and / or mostly covered by large body of water... there is very little in the MapSource map. After all, it does not even show vegetation areas or swamps so the maps take little memory. 022H09 is only 8KB
OTOH, if the area has lots of roads, rivers, small bodies of water even the few data layers that MapSource Topo Canada does include can take fair bit of mmemory. 030M12 is 1.27MB

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

And you can create (in MapSource) new waypoints and routes for upload to the receiver.