Any free city street-level maps available for OZ yet?

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radionut50
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Any free city street-level maps available for OZ yet?

Post by radionut50 » 12 July 08 6:43 pm

Early last year I was looking for free-ware street-level maps for Garmin GPS, covering Australian cities, and failed. I eventually purchases Garmin's City Navigator.

I used this set successfully for caching in Adelaide, Alice Springs Darwin and Cairns in November. The purchase price included the ability to "unlock" the maps for two GPS, so they went into my Nuvi and C60CSx.

I am poised to travel to Perth, and.. durn.. just remembered that my maps are unlocked for my Nuvi and C60CSx, but not for my new Colorado. I have searched the Garmin site and some forums, and confirmed there is no way to transfer my paid-up license from the C60CSx to the Colorado they sold me. Oh well, I am therefore back on the search for some free-ware maps for OZ, similar to the very popular open source map set that has been available for NZ for years.

I have loaded Shonky Maps, and Tracks for Australia, and although these are very useful, they don't attempt to provide street-level detail in urban areas.

Any suggestions please?

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mtrax
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Post by mtrax » 12 July 08 7:37 pm

Openstreetmaps.. you can download the Garmin IMG files from this link
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/stevez/OSM/

Routable versions are coming soon.. perhaps in a few weeks

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radionut50
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Post by radionut50 » 12 July 08 8:30 pm

Many thanks - I will have a look through there.
Cheers

Dooghan
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Post by Dooghan » 12 July 08 9:59 pm

Here's another source of the OSM maps for the Garmin. These are nightly builds, where Stevez are weekly. Take your pick as both are good sources of the maps.

http://www.osmaustralia.org/garmin2kzoom.php

BaldEd
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Post by BaldEd » 15 July 08 3:18 pm

Can you preview the OpenStreetMaps on the computer before using SendMap to send them to the gps? How? What programs are needed?

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mtrax
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Post by mtrax » 15 July 08 3:55 pm

while I believe some people have had some luck with this using a program called "M3", I have never got the IMG files viewable in Mapsource.
therefor you basically just have to view them within your GPS, or use the website to view current maps
ie http://www.openstreetmap.org/

But... with luck a routable version is on its way that can be installed into Mapsource.. check back in a month or two...

BaldEd
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Post by BaldEd » 15 July 08 4:09 pm

mtrax wrote:... with luck a routable version is on its way that can be installed into Mapsource.. check back in a month or two...
I look forward to that day. :)

mavrick_19
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Post by mavrick_19 » 10 August 08 2:10 pm

well do you know any free maps for n958gb

Damo.
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Post by Damo. » 10 August 08 2:31 pm

The mobile version of Google Maps is "free". Just costs you the price of the data downloads as you use it. It will show your location with the internal GPS as well.

mavrick_19
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Post by mavrick_19 » 10 August 08 2:52 pm

damo any idear how much good earth maps are space wise?

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totalube
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Post by totalube » 10 August 08 5:46 pm

I used the routable openstreetmaps today and found them OK. I was using them with some local knowledge so it wasn't the best test.

As a map it is ok, many streets are there. As a routable map, it got me from Toombul to Golden Circle just fine and from Virginia to a cache in Sandgate.

Some of the street names are not present, so you are told to turn into a residential street.

For a free product it is pretty good if you have some local knowledge and works well as a non routable map if you are looking for street access to caches.

The maps are available here
http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/download.html

Damo.
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Post by Damo. » 10 August 08 6:04 pm

mavrick_19 wrote:damo any idear how much good earth maps are space wise?
No idea sorry. Would totally depend on resolution, file compression, area coverage..... etc.

What are you actually after?

The Nokia navigator software that came with my phone (Route 66) covers the whole of Australia with street level mapping and turn by turn voice nav. Size wise, it came pre installed on the phone and didn't seem to take up much room.

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mtrax
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Post by mtrax » 10 August 08 7:34 pm

totalube wrote:I used the routable openstreetmaps today and found them OK. I was using them with some local knowledge so it wasn't the best test.

As a map it is ok, many streets are there. As a routable map, it got me from Toombul to Golden Circle just fine and from Virginia to a cache in Sandgate.

Some of the street names are not present, so you are told to turn into a residential street.
http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/download.html
The good thing is if you see a street name missing there is an online editor to allow you easily select street ("way") and name it..

BTW if you do some OSM mapping you can log a find on my GCA cache which is here (ga0896)

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mtrax
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Post by mtrax » 10 August 08 7:36 pm

apparently there is Java OSM mapping program for Mobile which is looking for beta testers..
link here ==> http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=1105

TeamGeoPlesk
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Post by TeamGeoPlesk » 15 August 08 9:51 am

BaldEd wrote:Can you preview the OpenStreetMaps on the computer before using SendMap to send them to the gps? How? What programs are needed?
I have always used a program called mapedit for previewing the garmin .img files and have never had a problem. Its available via the following link:

www.geopainting.com

TGP
Paul

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