jfink
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Not everything in the world has to be done with Garmin and Garmin Maps. Many of us use some form of Garmin GPS for navigating and use the Garmin supplied maps in either Basecamp or Mapsource, Garmin's mapping programs.
In a post I made for my trip to Europe I explained how I am using OpenStreetMap for Garmin as my source for maps on my trip. Scott suggested that I start another thread, dedicated to the process of using OSM in Basecamp or Mapsource.
Why would you use OSM instead of Garmin maps? If you have Lifetime Maps ("LM" on GPS purchases) and only need North America (not including Mexico), they you probably wouldn't. Garmin is pretty good at information in the US and Canada. But, if you didn't have Lifetime Maps or wanted something besides the US or Canada, you might want to consider OSM.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't for the faint of heart. It will take a little trial and error and an ability to work through a little frustration. I can almost guarantee something will go wrong before you get a workable solution. So, if you are interested, let's get started with what I have already posted.
In a post I made for my trip to Europe I explained how I am using OpenStreetMap for Garmin as my source for maps on my trip. Scott suggested that I start another thread, dedicated to the process of using OSM in Basecamp or Mapsource.
Why would you use OSM instead of Garmin maps? If you have Lifetime Maps ("LM" on GPS purchases) and only need North America (not including Mexico), they you probably wouldn't. Garmin is pretty good at information in the US and Canada. But, if you didn't have Lifetime Maps or wanted something besides the US or Canada, you might want to consider OSM.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't for the faint of heart. It will take a little trial and error and an ability to work through a little frustration. I can almost guarantee something will go wrong before you get a workable solution. So, if you are interested, let's get started with what I have already posted.
I have spent quite a bit of time figuring how to get a complete map of Europe for our Garmin GPS's from OpenStreetMap ("OSM"). You may ask, why not buy Garmin's map of Europe. I don't know, perhaps it was the experience in South America? The Garmin maps samples we tried to use, were woefully inadequate, missing information and misrepresenting others. Google was almost as bad, and sent us on numerous boondoggles to find hotels, border crossings, restaurants, etc. only to find them missing or miles away.
I like OSM! It's somewhat interactive, in that if you find something inaccurate, it can be submitted and they will actually do something about it. People know this and will actually correct mistakes or missing information. With Garmin and Google, you might as well talk into your hat. Things just seemed to work best with OSM, and ... it's free!
When I discovered that OSM required every country in Europe had to be downloaded separately, I was a little dismayed. I began downloading some 30 odd countries individually and found it was difficult to develop a complete route, one country at a time. So, I began looking for a program to tie together each country into a single map of Europe. I tried probably four programs that I couldn't get to work, most of them CMD prompt driven. Found a program called OSM Combiner, that was programed in Java. I had to download the Java Runtime (64 bit) and found that the format I downloaded from OSM wasn't correct, so had to go back and re-download every country in the right format. Eventually, after long suffering, I was able to make a map of Europe that works! Sweet!
It's like a lot of things though, once having gone through all of this, it is fairly simple now to get what I need. I would use OSM before any Garmin map except for North America, not including Mexico. How can you trust a mapping program called North America that doesn't include Mexico???. If anyone wants a short tutorial on loading OSM instead of the Garmin maps, drop me a line.
It works exactly as the maps you get from Garmin. It loads into Basecamp or Mapsource. You view the maps and build the routes with Basecamp, just like you would with Garmin's maps. The map is selected from the drop down for the Maps. The picture below is a screen capture of Basecamp, with the Map menu dropped down. You can see that I have selected "Europe OSM" (which I the one I made) instead of the Garmin "City Navigator North America NT 2019.1". Easy, once you get there.
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