New to the forum. Tried searching for my answer but couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so now I’m asking.

I have a Garmin Vista HCx That I use primarily for exploration off roading in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I use Garmin U.S. Topo 2008 as my mapping software; updated most recently with the Garmin April 20, 2009 download.

I recently acquired a power inverter from a friend and thought I would be neat to use my laptop in conjunction with my GPS in my wheelin rig. Mainly for the larger screen on the laptop and ease of scrolling the map on the laptop as aposed to on the GPS unit. I downloaded Garmin Nroute and it seems to have the features I would like to use, mainly a larger moving map but I am having a few problems.

First, I cant transfer my previously saved routes from Mapsourse on my laptop into Nroute as my Mapsoures software is a newer version then Nroute. Is there any way to transfer routes between the two?

Second, The map detail in Nroute does not show the updates to the Mapsourse software installed on my laptop. I will include a few screen shots to better describe what I mean.

Updated Mapsourse U.S. Topo 2008



Nroute of same area.



I would really like to be able to view the updated Topo maps in Nroute as you can see marked trails and roads kind of get lost in topographical marking lines.

I have looking a little into Garmin Mobile PC and really don’t want to spend anymore money on my GPS setup without knowing it was compatible with what I currently have. As to ask, will Mobile PC Work with my handheld GPS unit? Can I use my updated Topo maps with it? And will Mobile PC work as well as Nroute for none guided off road travel?

Also, I know my way around computers, but am in no way good at it. So if you could keep it simpe I would be greatful.

Garmin has changed the format of their latest map offerings and they no longer work with nRoute. There is a program on the net somewhere that can convert the new format into one which will work with MapSource 6.13.7. If you find that, you can use the converted data with nRoute.

Garmin Mobile PC can do off route stuff but its features are probably wasted for that. It does not properly show the DEM data in the latest Topo offerings either. It will read the new map formats though if you use the latest version of MapSource (6.15.6?) to send them.

Terry

I had a similar problem importing waypoints form Mapsourse into nRoute, as nRoute didn't support the newer Mapsource file format. I solved the problem by saving the waypoints file as a "Garmin GPS Database Version 2" in the "Save as type" dropdown menu in the Mapsourse "Save as" dialog box. Then importing to nRoute. Routes may be the same? HTH

Yes, anything you want to transfer from Mapsource to nRoute is done by saving the file in .GDB version 2 format in the "Save As" menu in Mapsource. This includes routes, tracks and waypoints.

As Terry mentioned, the newer maps are installed in a format that nRoute and older versions of Mapsource cannot handle. If you look for the latest version of GMapTool, the zip file contains a sample batch file for converting the new format to the older format. The sample batch file is for converting the City Navigator Europe 2009 maps but if you are reasonably technical it's not rocket science to edit the batch file to convert any maps in the new format to the old format for use with nRoute.

For the record, the conversion does nothing illegal because locked maps still need to be unlocked as usual.

...ken...

Thanks for the help, now able to open my files in nRoute after saving them as V2.

Hi all,
I'm newbie and i need your help. (Sorry for my poor english, i'm french !!!!)

I have a problem with Garmin topo France V2 and i can't convert the map in old mapsource format file.I would like to use those maps with Nroute. I have trying the gmap tool but i have not the knowledge for modifying the batch file. Is somebody can help me for the conversion ? Thanks in advance

Bill