Another interesting alternative to Garmin maps

[Boyd]

http://www.mapwel.biz/index.htm

See especially this section: http://www.mapwel.biz/autovector/hw_autovector.html

User manual is here: http://www.mapwel.biz/download/mpwhelp_eng.pdf

Looks like a clever hack for using images of maps, and possibly similar to what the MOAGU program does? But this looks like a little more user-friendly software to me. And it has a nice feature set for creating your own vector based maps also.

Since it will import OziExplorer files, and I have most of the pines in that format, I'll probably give this one a shot and see how it works...

 

[Boyd]

Well I downloaded the demo version and have spent awhile playing around. Took me awhile to figure out exactly how to convert a file and upload it to my 60csx, but finally had success with a very small area around my home.

It works, but not sure how useful this will be. It is REALLY slow to render the map on the screen, and the vectorization of the USGS Topo creates a lot of artifacts, so the appearance is very coarse. I suspect that a google image may look better than a topo. Will try that later.

The program would probably be great if you want to make your own vector maps by tracing over an image, because it would then be more like a "real" Garmin map. But I suspect the bottom line is that this technique of displaying raster images on Garmin GPS'es is more of a novelty than a useful tool.