FAQ

I want to participate in Openstreetmap, and especially tag ways suitable for Mountainbiking

See http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/participate/

 

How can I add my data / my streets / my tracks to the openmtbmap?

See http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/participate/

 

When will (my) edits show up in the openmtbmap?

I render the maps about once weekly (usually starting on Thursday evening). The data I use is usually about 24 hours old. So usually latest  8-9 days after objects have been added to openstreetmap they will show up on the maps.

 

Can you offer combined maps, e.g. Italy/Switzerland/Austria/Germany ?

No. there would be no advantage. So offering combined maps would have no advantage, as autorouting over country borders.

Also there is currently no way of knowing how a split with the mkgmap splitter will number the resulting tiles, nor their location without further analyzing it. The alternative to use a predefined list for the splitter is also no real option, because this would need to be adjusted too often.

 

How should I update my Maps?

The most secure way is to first click on uninstall.bat, then delete all files from the folder, then put in the new files, and then reinstall.

The usual way is to delete all files that are in the folder, and then copy in the new maps.

The quick way is to simply overwrite all files, and then look if there are any files that were not overwritten and delete them.

 

 

In Mapsource everything is fine, on my GPS I miss: Streets and other info Include Routing is grayed out, or other …

Please Read http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/send-maps-to-your-gps/mapsource/

Comments about this will be deleted from now on whithout mercy, WTF - do you think I write the tutorials so you come ask questions before reading the solutions?

 

 

Include Routing is grayed out in Mapsource – Sending maps to the GPS does not work.

Please Read http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/send-maps-to-your-gps/mapsource/

Comments about this will be deleted from now on whithout mercy, WTF - do you think I write the tutorials so you come ask questions before reading the solutions?

 

 

Mapsource doesn't start and complains that no maps are installed.

RTFM http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/install-mapsource/

and http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/install/ .

 

 

Mapsource doesn't start and complains it has to be reinstalled.

Read through here if you have done everything correctly:

http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/install-mapsource/

http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/install/installation-with-mapsettoolkit/

http://openmtbmap.org/tutorials/install/

Usually this should not happen. There are several ways to solve this.

1. click on uninstall.bat ("run as administrator" or it won't work). If it has been the map you just installed and it still not works then another map is responsible but not one you downloaded from openmtbmap.org. To solve it see 2.

2. Install Mapsettoolkit cypherman1.googlepages.com/home and delete any map you suspect maybe breaking Mapsource. To help you finding maps installed incorrectly click on "Check Registry". You can use mapsettolkit to reintall any map that didn't break Mapsource via the "Install" button to the right of "Check Registry".

To install a map that did break Mapsource read on here: http://openmtbmap.org/about/install/installation-with-mapsettoolkit/

ONLY CONTACT ME PERSONALLY BY EMAIL IF: you have checked and found out that it was one of my maps breaking Mapsource. In that case I will need your OS, Mapsource Version, and which map it has been including the date of download. If you didn't read through here and tried mapsettoolkit I will not respond to your mail. .

 

 

Is there a possibility to send maps faster than with Mapsource?

Well did you read through the tutorial? You can send maps directly to an external card reader, then it will be much faster than to your GPS connected via USB. Once exportet as gmapsupp.img, you can combine several gmapsupp.img with gmaptool. Read gmaptool documentation on how to do that. It's not trivial for beginners….

 

 

Autorouting does not work well on my GPS / Different to Mapsource

Have you read through About–> Autorouting? Try setting the same settings (start with Car/Motorcycle and enable/disable "avoid toll roads", and use "faster route"). The main difference is that Mapsource can calculate longer routes without inbetween points and calculates faster. The only unit currently having more or less it's own mind is the Garmin Edge series, which also has no "avoid toll roads" option to set to deactivate routing over non "trekking bike suitable" ways.

 

 

Mapsource or my GPS (PNA) crashes on calculating a route, or does not react anymore

Autorouting is very complex. This is a well known problem for which there is no solution (yet). Both Mapsource and the GPS units are quite limited in calculation power. 

Try to route over shorter distances. The better the OSM Coverage is in your area, the more likely a long route will be calculated. The bicycle mode further makes route calculation over longer distances even worse as it excludes many roads from routing.

Commercial Maps like City Navigator or OSM maps made for caruse work better because they use highway=motorway and highway=trunk for long distances and thereby reduce the number of times you have to turn. There is a maximum limit of 100 turns to reach your destination without putting inbetween nodes – but likely with openmtbmap the limit is more 10-40 turns depending on how well the area is mapped.

Note that the GPS may well need 1-2 minutes for longer calculations (and don't trust the progress bar, it's broken on many units, so just because it arrived on the end does not mean that the route cannot be calculated). The openmtbmap is not intended to autoroute you from city to city but autoroute you over nice trails on rather short distances. My goal is that routing works in well mapped areas on air distance of around 40-50km without breaking down.

I will try to further optimize to reach this. Currently if an area is well mapped it is rather 10-30km.

Also note the biggest problem we face. Many roads are not connected in OSM

If a road is not connected the GPS will not route you along. Please correct any unconnected streets you notice. (also connect gondolas or cablecars to streets so they can be used too for routing). .

 

 

Mapsource complains it can't open the openmtbmaps, unknown file ….

DAMN YOU - READ THE FUC.ING. TUTORIALS OFFERED HERE TWICE . Did you notice there is also a "Help" Button in Mapsource that actually works. There are daily more than 300-400 people downloading the maps, and 99% understand how to use it, or at least read through the Tutorials. Especially don't bug me via e-mail.

 

 

Can you help me with Mapsource, mkgmap, ….

Please have a look into GPS relevant forums. Good forums in english language can be found on www.groundspeak.com or www.gpspassion.com – in German language www.naviboard.de or www.naviuser.at. Also read through wiki.openstreetmap.org/ and the Openstreetmap forum (has Garmin section): forum.openstreetmap.org/index.php

I'm really getting tired of reading through comments that are answered already in 90% of all cases in the tutorials and/or are explained in the help file of Garmin Mapsource. Mapsource is relatively easy to use, but you will need at least several hours or even days to find out the full potential. Use Qlandkarte GT if your a beginner, it's easier. There are also great Tutorials in German offered here: http://www.silvia-kurt.de/index_gpsinformation.htm

 

 

I would like to have a look into the style-file for mkgmap – or suggest changes to the openmtbmap

You can access the style-file here via Web: http://openmtbmap.origo.ethz.ch/origo_home or via SVN: https://svn.origo.ethz.ch/openmtbmap/

If you find bugs that you want to have fixed, or new objects related to mtbiking, hiking or cycling in OSM data structure, then please send me SVN patchfiles.

 

   

 

Some areas/polygons are not rendered

Well this is a problem of Multipolygons. there are several related but different problems (mkgmap the renderer will be overhauled in this regard soon to solve this)

a) Sea is not rendered – this is currently very difficult to achieve with mkgmap. I am sure this will change sometimes

b) Instead of an area there is another area rendered. Please use Multipolygons to solve this. There is no way mkgmap can know what is above or below.

c) Some area (mostly water of forest) is not rendered at all in some places. Is the area a Multipolygon Relation? Sorry currently not supported by mkgmap. This case is very rare (one expample is the Wienerwald missing).

Mapnik and Osmarender have better implementation of Multipolygons and also support unofficial tags like layer=value. There is however no possibility to implement something like layer for Garmin maps. If several Polygons overlap, the definitions in the .TYP-file determine which is shown on top of each other. This has to be done for the whole map. I.e. it is hit and miss whether to show water over forest, or forest over water. So depending on the TYP-File some maps for Garmin will show areas in some places and drop others, and the other way around. BTW also maps sold by Garmin heavily (even much worse) suffer from this problem.

 

 

I don't like the colors, design, streets are too fat, not well visible on my GPS, etc….

You can change your Typfile using maptk or the online typfile editor. I will write a tutorial on this in future. You can make maps transparent google for transparent + Garmin + gmaptool to find out more. You can't delete area (most will show up anyway) polygons but you can set all but 1 of the 32×32 point bitmaps used for displaying transparent. Then you can make the map transparent and view on top of other maps. This is rather advanced, note that I will not help you on that, but the GPS Forums are full of advice on this.

 

Zip-Archive is broken

Please unpack with 7-zip (www.7-zip.org) or winrar. Maps are packed with LZMA compression, so windows unzipper can't unpack them. Linux users schoud have no problems at all.

 

My comment got deleted

O.k. let's get this straight. If you can see your comment after posting and it gets deleted without reason later on, consider that you asked a question that is both answered here in the FAQ, and in the Tutorials. I have had enough of some questions because people will not read tutorials and start asking questions without reading!!!! – I will also delete comments that are explained in the readmes accompanying the downloads! If you're comment does not appear at all, it is probabely considered spam. Remove links and maybe write more text or do other things to differentiate your comment from the loads of spammers trying to post comments.

 

Make maps compatible with Basecamp:

Mac OSx users – You have to do this before converting the maps – Windows/Linux users you simply do it and replace original *.img. Load all maps (all *.img – name consisting of an 8 digit number) that you want to be able to view in Basecamp into gmaptool, then go to the tab "Split" and tick "add empty DEM". Choose a new output folder (Directory) because the maps have to be rewritten by gmaptool. Then convert the newly written .img instead of the original *.img. Note however that it might be possible that Mapsource/Roadtrip/Basecamp or GPS might crash when you want to display an altitude profile – because the altitude data that is expected is of course missing. It is currently only possible to create a DEM by illegally using a non licenced copy of Garmin MPC – I will defnitely not do this.

 

I have some more questions about the openmtbmap.org not answered on the page or I could not find out googling

Put a comment below. If I feel it's important I will write a new topic or add it to the FAQ.

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