(English) Open MTB Map Updates 13.5.2011 — changes for streetnames and Nüvi

Okay, just in a short notice. The main changes for this update are again a rework of the streetnames (there were still some bugs on edge 800 last update) - plus a big rework with switching many types so that hopefully all roads are now shown on newer generation (4digit) Nüvi devices (yes I know this is a small minority, and I really shouldn't have spent many hours on it, but the danger is that firmware changes from Nüvi trickle down - so if all lines are shown on Nüvi devices, they should be shown on all other recent devices too).
 

Openmtbmap.org now also in Spanish

Also thanks to José López (User dardhal on Spanish MTB forums), openmtbmap.org is now fully translated to Spanish - our combined hope for implmenting Spanish language is to give a push to Mtbikers in Spain and South/Latin America to participate in OSM. Big thanks to José cause that was really a lot of content to translate and many hours of work.

 

Streetnames on edge 800 / Oregon/Dakota/Colorado non beta firmware / GPS Maps 62

Well I had announced on last update, that streetnames were now shown, and that was not really true, due to errors in testing. Now streetnames do appear on all Garmin GPS units (except for Mapsource layout). However in order to have the streetnames shown, some precautions/works has to be carried out. First you have to do a hard reset of your GPS (note save any data before you do that - cause your GPS needs to be fully reset and all saved data on the GPS will be lost). Then stay clear of any maps that hides streetnames for types 0x00 to 0x0c. Now I'm sorry I cannot tell you which maps  are affected by this. From Garmins part it is i.e. the SD card version of the Topo Deutschland 2010 (most other maps I have seen are fine). From 3rd party vendors or other OSM maps, many do hide names for theese types, so they could again cause streetnames to be lost. Contact the map builder from whom you got the map if in doubt (don't contact me on this matter....) - oh and do not use openmtbmaps or velomaps older than 12.5.2011.

Also note, if you use the Mapsource layout on your GPS, then streetnames completly disappear. If you want that, then do it. But remember you need a hard reset so streetnames are shown again. (that is of course only vaild till Garmin fixes the streetname bug, but currently they don't seem to be interested, as the Topo Deutschland 2010 is so badly programmed, that if they closed this bug, many people would scream at Garmin for bad map performance -- so effectively this is a nice example of complete stupidity and inability to solve problems at the right end).

 

Label / Name rework

As I spent a lot of time working out how labels are shown on edge 800, I at the same time put effort in removing any names that are not really needed for cycling/mtbiking to be shown. Previously sometimes random POI/Polygons would be rendered with big names cluttering the display (even though that was less than for any other map I have seen so far - most just too cluttered with names - which is not nice for vector maps), that's solved now. Of course if you click or hoover over any object, the names are shown. They are just not "printed" onto the map. I also changed contourlines (if integrated with the maps) to only show labels on 100m steps (so 20m lines have no label printed). This is nicer in mountaineous regions. I might change this sometime for the separate contourline downloads too.

I will still remove labels from Gondolas/Chairlifts in future.

On top I worked a bit on contrast with the Mapsource layout for residential areas.

 

Nuvi 4 digit GPS like 2??? and 3??? series:

I hope that with this update, all streets/lines are shown just like in Mapsource. I spend really a lot of time analyzing screenshots to find out the patters which lines the Nüvi does not show (which are more than 50% of the lines that Mapsource shows). This is now yet put forward to the Velomap (but will be for next update). Could well be that Garmin Mobile XT now shows all lines too (but I don't really know, Mobile XT seems to be a completly stranded development branch at Garmin - that has not much in common with any GPS unit).

As I tried to push through this change before the updates, I made a few little errors, so the oneway arrows that do not apply to cylists (or differently said, the arrows that indicate you are allowed to ride your bicycle against the oneway flow of traffic) are missing for all GPS/Mapsource in this update, I corrected it already, and it will be correct on next map update again.

 

New OSM tags:

water=* is now considered, for better separation between big lakes and small ponds (on zooming).

 

Basecamp 3.2.0.1 beta

there is a new Basecamp beta available at Garmin, that in principle is really a successor to Mapsource. There is not much you can do with Mapsource, which you couldn't with Basecamp. So it is a big step forward, but then there is one big problem. Autorouting seems to have really degraded (not only with my maps). I think that they aim to have autorouting work just like on Oregon/Nüvi - so that of course results in a big quality drop in the routing.... Go here to get it

Europe Open MTB Map

I have not yet found time to build it (as I will not update it often, I want it to include correct boundaries for searching for streets, therefore I did not yet do it). I will do this for next map update. Thanks again to everyone who donated to the Openmtbmap. I'll try to get this map ready ASAP.

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