Garmin Mapsource .IMG files usage

Hannah'sDad · May 20, 2014, 05:34:48 AM

I have several unlocked City Navigator (US) maps (2009, 2010 and 2012) that I have tried to use with OruxMaps. I have even tried a very old version of Mapsource 6.13.7.

My question is, will OruxMaps accept and use .IMG files created with Mapsource? If so, which version? I tried to create a very small sample to use of just the state of Texas and OruxMaps display nothing but a white box. What do I need to do to use .IMG files created with Mapsource of the US?

I did have some success loading the individual .IMG files from one of the maps above (all unlocked). It was roughly a couple of GB to copy over. Orux showed SOME of the maps, but when I zoomed in, all detail was lost and the screen went white.

What EXACTLY do I need to do to make use of the several unlocked maps that I have, including all of the US National Park Topology maps, which was the primary reason for trying this software out.

I look forward to anyone's reply that can help me make use of the full range of maps I have available.

Thanks in advance,

Scott

orux · May 20, 2014, 05:24:16 PM

~~Quote from: "Hannah'sDad"~~I have several unlocked City Navigator (US) maps (2009, 2010 and 2012) that I have tried to use with OruxMaps. I have even tried a very old version of Mapsource 6.13.7.

My question is, will OruxMaps accept and use .IMG files created with Mapsource? If so, which version? I tried to create a very small sample to use of just the state of Texas and OruxMaps display nothing but a white box. What do I need to do to use .IMG files created with Mapsource of the US?

I did have some success loading the individual .IMG files from one of the maps above (all unlocked). It was roughly a couple of GB to copy over. Orux showed SOME of the maps, but when I zoomed in, all detail was lost and the screen went white.

What EXACTLY do I need to do to make use of the several unlocked maps that I have, including all of the US National Park Topology maps, which was the primary reason for trying this software out.

I look forward to anyone's reply that can help me make use of the full range of maps I have available.

Thanks in advance,

Scott

The garmin maps use a format that is not known 100%. OruxMaps provides support to maps created by open tools, but the support to original maps may not be complete.

Unlocked does not mean decrypted.

Sorry, but the creators of these maps do not provide information about how they are encoded. If you want a perfect support, you must use garmin tools.

orux

Hannah'sDad · May 20, 2014, 10:19:35 PM

OK, thank you for your prompt reply. Clearly I have misunderstood the support for Garmin maps by OruxMaps. If Garmin .IMG files are not natively supported, can you please help me understand why it appears to be supported in your setting menu? Certainly NOT trying to be critical of your application, but simply attempting to understand what is and is not supported. I had very much hoped that I would be able to use my Galaxy tablet while backpacking using your application and my unlocked maps, especially my Garmin topo maps.

I have thoroughly read through your user manual and documentation, but am still vague on what type of Garmin files are supported? If MapSource .IMG files are not, are the base .IMG files from the City Navigator supported? These are the files that MapSource utilizes to display maps and create a single .IMG that can be loaded on a Garmin device. Is there a way to convert these .IMG files, whether they are native format or created by MapSource, so a format that can be read by OruxMaps?

I appologize for all of these questions and hope that you can help me accomplish what I am trying to do, primarily display my offline Garmin maps on my Samsung tablet using your application.

I look forward to any help you can provide.

Regards,

Scott Wilkes

Allen, TX

Hannah'sDad · June 05, 2014, 01:18:12 PM

Ok, so I have tried a multitude of different options in getting Garmin .img maps to work with Orux. Here is what I have:

1) City Navigator 2012 (legally purchased and unlocked)

2) US Topo maps - not sure of age, but purchased maybe back in 2008? They were never locked.

3) I also have several "older" US City Navigator mapsets, including 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. These were all legally upgraded and then unlocked.

I have used each of these as they were current in my two Garmin nav systems, including my Kenwood in-dash navigation system in my truck. I use Mapsource 6.15.5 to create the .img of the entire US and then load that on an SD card for uploading to the Garmin device. All works well like that.

However, when I try to use the same .img file create by MapSource, Orux seems to not like to load that. I have used a "reverse converter" to get the 2012 maps back to the older version from 2009, but that still seems to not work. When I create a very small .img of a region of a topo map (as in where we are going in Wyoming), it seems to work. If I try to create a .img using MapSource 6.13.7 of the entire "West" version of the US topo maps, it fails to load on the Orux. Is this a memory issue, a Mapsource issue or a user error (me) issue? I would love to be able to use my phone or tablet as an alternate to a handheld Garmin unit, but so far minimal luck.

I am open to any and all suggestions to make this work, including if I need to run my .img files through a third party converter.

For what it is worth, I have reviewed the Orux documentation and am NOT able to locate help that would solve my issues. But I have a hard time believing that I am the only one trying to do this. I am even willing to use an older version of US City Nav (it's close enough) if that version of Garmin is more compatible with Orux.

I am an engineer, so not clueless, but I design radar systems, not map software. Loading Garmin maps into Orux is more of a "blackbox" effort, where I am not clear of the requirements. Am looking for the community for help.

Regards,

Scott

Hannah'sDad · June 08, 2014, 06:47:17 PM

So, it appears that one of several things may be going on here:

1) I am asking the question in the wrong way

2) I am attempting to use this application in a manner for which it was never intended

3) There is no support for maps larger that a certain size

4) Newer maps above a certain year are not supported

5) Maps (.img files) created with MapSource are not supported

or

6) Maps (.img files) created with SOME versions of MapSource are not supported

Regardless of the answer, it would be nice if someone, who has direct experience loading Garmin .img files, whether they be the raw .img files from the source map directories OR an .IMG file created with MapSource. I have spend an enormous amount of time attempting to make this work. If all of my effort is in vain, I would very much appreciate someone tell me. I am very experienced using MapSource (many versions) and creating / unlocking maps. Mostly, I am interested in loading my unlocked (as provided by Garmin) US Topo maps that I purchased several years ago, as an entire set. Right now, I can only load one or two national parks at a time.

I am using this on a Samsung Tablet 3 7" by the way, with a 64GB micro-SDHC. It should have all the horsepower it needs for this app.

I could really use some constructive feedback on what I am doing wrong or if what I want to do simply is not possible.

Thanks again for any help that anyone might be able to provide.

Scott

orux · June 09, 2014, 07:43:32 PM

~~Quote from: "Hannah'sDad"~~So, it appears that one of several things may be going on here:

1) I am asking the question in the wrong way

2) I am attempting to use this application in a manner for which it was never intended

3) There is no support for maps larger that a certain size

4) Newer maps above a certain year are not supported

5) Maps (.img files) created with MapSource are not supported

or

6) Maps (.img files) created with SOME versions of MapSource are not supported

Regardless of the answer, it would be nice if someone, who has direct experience loading Garmin .img files, whether they be the raw .img files from the source map directories OR an .IMG file created with MapSource. I have spend an enormous amount of time attempting to make this work. If all of my effort is in vain, I would very much appreciate someone tell me. I am very experienced using MapSource (many versions) and creating / unlocking maps. Mostly, I am interested in loading my unlocked (as provided by Garmin) US Topo maps that I purchased several years ago, as an entire set. Right now, I can only load one or two national parks at a time.

I am using this on a Samsung Tablet 3 7" by the way, with a 64GB micro-SDHC. It should have all the horsepower it needs for this app.

I could really use some constructive feedback on what I am doing wrong or if what I want to do simply is not possible.

Thanks again for any help that anyone might be able to provide.

Scott

Sorry, Scott;

I'm sorry; I have not much experience with maps created with that tool; I usually receive maps created with free tools, like cGPSmapper.

What is the size of the US National Park maps?

Have you tried to create smaller maps?

Perhaps there are others who can help you.

orux

Hannah'sDad · June 11, 2014, 12:49:28 PM

I appreciate your reply, especially since you probably did not design your application to do what I am trying to do. To answer your question, however, a .IMG file that does work is about 27MB. One that does not seem to work is 194MB. Now, it could be that your application is just taking a while to load a map of that size, but I have given it hours and it still does not show map detail. It appears to load, but no detail. Perhaps this is something you might be able to take a look at in the future. For now, I will use smaller maps.

It's a great application. It just may not be the replacement for Garmin that I was hoping for. Several years ago, Garmin made a Windows Mobile app that would allow you to load the maps you own onto your Windows Mobile-based cell phone. The do not make such an app for Android. I was hoping that your application would make that possible.

Again, thanks for your help. It's a great app and I'll keep watching to see if you get a chance to update to handle larger Garmin made maps.

Scott