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EXAMPLES TOC

1. HOW TO GET STARTED, THE VERY FIRST TRY

2 . IMPORT MAPSEND ROUTES AND TRAILS

3. IMPORT ESRI SHAPE FILES (APPALACHIAN TRAIL)

4. IMPORT OZI EXPLORER ROUTES (CREATE OBJECTS FROM PHOTO IMAGE)

5. IMPORT GARMIN MAPS (MEXICO CITY MAP, SIMPLE EXAMPLE)

6. IMPORT GARMIN MAPS (SAINT_PETERSBURG MAP, MORE COMPLEX EXAMPLE)

1. Import Garmin maps (Mexico city map, simple example)

At http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/ there is a repository of hundreds of free custom Garmin maps. In the repository there are maps of two types: a) Garmin *.img maps and b) maps in Polish Map Format ((PMF) source of custom Garmin maps). AddMagMap uses PMF to build maps. If map is in *.img format it can be converted to PMF with GPSMapper program (in GPSMapper open the *.img and Save As “polish text”).

In this example map of Mexico (Mexico DF - Citymap by Pablo Reyna) will be imported to MapSend US Topo 3d. Map contains over 50000 Mexico streets and is very detailed; I called this example simple because there is only one origin level for all objects (please see Garmin format description in the manual). Run AddMagMap program, select the MapSend where to import the map (in this example Topo 3d US). From the Tools menu click “Garmin source (polish text) converter”. Browse to the “detaildf.mp” file, check “=” checkbox to convert to the file with the same prefix. Check “Line” and “Area”, Topo3d has no point levels, so we don’t need them. Click “First capital” to make labels in lower case with the first character in capital. Click convert. Conversion takes 15-20 sec. As a result we have 2 sets of (*.shp, *.shx, *.dbf) files (“detaildf_L.*” and “detaildf_A.*”) as required by shape file format. Close the converter.

1. Import “detaildf_L.shp” file (File-Import Files-Line (ESRI shape files)). Double click to the cell in the 3 rd column (“Object properties”). The SHP filter dialog appears. All shape files created with ptxt2shp converter (Tools menu) have 3 fields: LABEL (for object labels), TYPE (for Garmin types of drawing (some hex values)) and LEVEL (indicates the level of origin, 0 is the most detailed). Please see manual for more detail description of the Garmin format. In this example LEVEL=0 for all objects, so we can set (Filter 2=”Nothing selected” or Filter 2 =LEVEL=0), the meaning is the same: objects will be imported independent on Level (they are all =0).
   
   In the Filter 1 select TYPE and click “Garmin Types” checkbox, hex values of Garmin types will be replaced in this dialog with explicit description. This map of Mexico has the following 5 types of lines: “Principal highways”, “Major highway”, ”Arterial road, thin”,”Arterial road, medium”,”Residential street”.

Let us select “Major highway” and “Principal highway”. Click OK.

Now we see in the first row in 3rd column of the AddMagMap grid:NAME=LABEL (F1=TYPE:0x1,0x2) AND F2=LEVEL:0). This is settings we selected in the dialog.

2. Import another instance of the detaildf_L.shp (Import File-Line menu), double click to the 3rd column (the same way we did at the first step). The same dialog appears, select the same fields for the LABEL and FILTER 1. Values taken at the first step are shown in red. Let us select “Arterial road, medium” and “Arterial road, thin”. Filter 2 is “Nothing selected”, as it was discussed for this map this is equal to Filter 2=LEVEL=0.

Click OK.

3. Import the third instance of the detaildf_l.shp. Similar to steps 1) and 2) select “Residential street” and “Nothing selected”. Click OK.

4. Double click to any cell with the data in the 1st column to check the bounding box. We see that the data are in a X:-99.35 - -98.95 and Y: 19.58 – 19.13 degree range. As it was discussed in the manual some MapSends are sensitive to the density of objects; so let us create the map with the rectangle close to this area. Click and enter -102, -96, 18, 22 coordinates for rectangle corners as shown in the following figure, Click OK in the map dialog, close SHP bounding box dialog.

Similar to other examples assign “Highway”, “line type 24”; “Major Roads”, “line type 29”; “Streets”, “line type 28” for the first second and third rows, correspondingly. Figure shows the dialog setting for the second raw as an example:

At this step you may want to save the job (File, Save job) menu. All settings you do at the previous steps will be saved.

5. Click “Create Map” button. In 20-40 sec map will be ready (50000 objects!). Map is done (you can check that area shape file detaildf_A contain no objects, this map has only streets). Run MapSend with .

 

We see Mexico map in the list of maps with full search support for every object (“Roads” group).