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shonkymaps online

Posted: 11 May 07 7:39 pm
by shonkylogic
<big>The infamous shonkymaps are online at last...<br><br>

I originally constucted these Garmin topo maps as a hobby project, and found them quite useful for geocaching. A few other SA cachers have also found them useful and word slowly spread beyond SA, up to the point where lately I have been sending out a couple of CDs per week to interested users interstate. And there are a lot of people owing me beer :wink:<br><br>

Apart from buying me a drink at the next event, they're free to use, although the map data copyright is owned and licensed by the federal government (Geoscience Australia). <br><br>

I don't really have time to offer support, and you download and use the data entirely at your own risk! If it works and the maps are useful then that's good. If it breaks your PC or GPS then I'm sorry, but you've been warned.<br>At a minimum you'll require a Garmin mapping GPS, a Windows PC with about 400mb free space on your C: drive, and a licensed copy of Garmin Trip&Waypoint Manager (which should have come bundled with your GPS). <small>Oh, and don't forget you'll need the cables to connect the GPS to the PC <small> (not mentioning any names :roll:)</small></small> <br><br>

Download V3.51 from here<br><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/" ... /a><br><br>
<br>
<br><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.gpsaustralia.net/forums/show ... 2525">This Topic</a> at GPS Australia contains the shonkymaps readme file with some further information about the maps themselves..., however you'll need an account at gpsaustralia to access the pages</big>

Posted: 11 May 07 7:59 pm
by aloysius
thanks shonk! grabbing them now. Are they routable? If not is there any plans to make them so?

Cheers!

Posted: 11 May 07 8:13 pm
by shonkylogic
No, and no... sorry! <br> If you need routeable maps you'll need to buy a commercial product such as CityNavigator. See Alex at Cartographics, he should be able to help.<br><br>
You'll find the shonkymaps don't have a lot of detail in the build up areas - they're much more useful out bush.

Posted: 11 May 07 8:18 pm
by aloysius
Yeah Im pretty aware of what is available as far as routables. I was just spoiled earlier this year with the fully routable free maps of New Zealand. They are made by a single guy and cover street level for every road on both islands. Spectacular maps...better than those garmin offer. just pipe-dreaming that something like that will pop up for australia.

Posted: 11 May 07 8:52 pm
by Dooghan
aloysius wrote:thanks shonk! grabbing them now. Are they routable? If not is there any plans to make them so?

Cheers!
No real need to auto-route on some outback dirt road. They are better to use with CN or Metro. If one product does not have the road you want, then the other normally does.

Dooghan

Posted: 11 May 07 11:04 pm
by The Spindoctors
Are they solely based on the GA data? Or do they have more data added to them (a la Tracks4Australia)?

Posted: 11 May 07 11:27 pm
by shonkylogic
The roads are based purely on GA data. So when they run next to a railway line you'll find they've been offset. This is done intentionally by GA so that the printed maps come out with the shapes on the correct side of each other.

There is a tiny amount of additional (non GA) data included with the maps, but not roads. Only waterbodies and the Spirit of Tasmania ferry.

Have a look at the other site mentioned in the top post for the full list of topographic features in the maps.

Posted: 11 May 07 11:34 pm
by The Spindoctors
Do you have plans to continue with development. Reason I ask is that the T4A is very slow and at times unresponsive with acknowledging submissions. I have a year's worth of tracks I'm sitting on at the moment.

Posted: 12 May 07 5:01 am
by shonkylogic
No sorry, not at this stage.

We have a 9 month old baby who soaks up most of my spare time. ... Hence I am sometimes up at 3am posting messages... :roll:

(I don't even get much time to geocache these days!) :cry:

Posted: 12 May 07 11:42 pm
by Geof
Looks like the server is swamped :shock: . Blowed if I can get a download started :wink: .

Posted: 13 May 07 12:20 am
by Gunn Parker
HI
Are they suitable for WA?
thanks
Andrew

Posted: 13 May 07 12:23 am
by Dooghan
Gunn Parker wrote:HI
Are they suitable for WA?
thanks
Andrew
Yes. They cover all of Australia.

Dooghan

Posted: 13 May 07 12:36 am
by Gunn Parker
Thanks, I'll try and get a copy :)

Posted: 13 May 07 12:38 am
by Skippy&lambchops
Thanks, I'll try and get a copy
I gave Everlasting a copy.

Posted: 13 May 07 12:42 am
by Gunn Parker
I tried to download it.
no good though :(