Garmin Metroguide Canada v5 Maps

Hi Dale,

Yep, still not locked. I bought them to use with my iQue 3600 -- still my primary navigation device and all-round do-everything companion. But for evaluation purposes in this thread, I've tried it on Mobile PC (Acer laptop/Vista), Mobile XT (Palm T|X), iQue 3600A and eTrex Legend HCx and it works on all of them.

Yes, the comment was related to the older version of your Canadian topos as well as a couple of American ones (Arizona and Portland, OR, IIRC). I have 2.1 of your Canadian topos installed and Mapsource 6.14.1 was happy with them (it's gone again .. I cannot stand how slow it renders and I can't transfer to/from Mobile PC with it).

I keep meaning to put your maps (I have downloaded both the ISO and the ZIP) online on my second computer as a torrent download to help with the load but it wasn't immediately obvious how to do it in BitTorrent. So it's on the todo list somewhere to figure that out. Gotta find some more of those handy-dandy RoundToIts. I'm running a bit low...


I confess that I've never looked inside one of Garmin's .img files so I wouldn't know what to look for. I'll take a peek but I don't promise anything.

...ken...

I don't know if I've mentioned it anywhere where you look, but I've got a torrent of 2.1 going, I just haven't gotten around to updating the website (if you google ibycus torrent, you should get the URL)

Dale

Yes, I know about the torrent for 2.1. That's (partly) how I got the 2.1 ISO and ZIP files. Most of it came from the server seed but some came from a couple of other systems. That's the first time I've ever used BitTorrent. It was dead simple to do the download but it's not so simple to figure out how to set up those two files to share back out to help with the sharing of them.

I've used other filesharing clients in the past, like Bearshare and similar programs, and it was really simple to set up the sharing, but it's not as obvious on the BitTorrent client. I'll get around to looking at it again sometime.

If you're interested, I've attached a couple of images from Mapsource 6.13.7 of the location around those coordinates you posted. As you can see, the building footprints are similar but different. The outline of the mall is different in MGCv5 than in the 2.1 topo, for instance. And there are more buildings showing in MGCv5. Sorry about how little contrast there is in the Topo shot. There doesn't seem to be any way to control the colour selections in Mapsource.

I should mention that the POI icons shown in the Metroguide Canada v5 shot are completely controlled by Mapsource. When you use the maps in other devices and programs, the icons available in those programs will be used. My samples in a previous message, above, from Mapsource 6.14.1 are closer to what I seen in Mobile PC and Mobile XT .. much more visible and interesting. So, whatever icons a person is used to seeing in, say, their Nuvi or Mobile PC are the icons they will see with Metroguide Canada v5.

...ken...

Attached Thumbnails

   

Looks like it must be limited to specific Garmin devices. Probably mostly new models of Nuvi. I checked it on Mobile PC and Mobile XT and I see nothing in 3D mode. I drove through a couple of areas where there are lots of these building outlines in the map data and they simply don't display in either of the Mobile products. Nothing in 3D mode and nothing in 2D mode.

At least I see the building outlines in Mapsource and on my two non-3D nav devices (eTrex and iQue), but nothing at all in any mode on the Mobile software.

As Terry mentioned, nothing on his Nuvi 200 either.

Terry, were the footprints displayed in 2D mode, like in Mapsource? Or is there nothing at all, just like the Mobile software?

...ken...

Yes, that's the nice thing about the way Garmin has created the ability to combine different maps into a single compiled map for the various devices. Enabling and disabling the different products affects what gets displayed on the screen, but the search software still finds everything in the combined database. That goes for addresses, cities, intersections as well as POIs.

Since I got my iQue 3600 in 2003, I've almost always loaded a combination of Metroguide Canada and City Navigator. That gives me the combined POIs from both products and the ability to display the street data from whichever is the most accurate, at the time, in the location I'm at.

I've found the same thing with topos on my eTrex. I load a combination of Topo Canada and the Ibycus topos. Topo Canada gives me street and road names and a surprising amount of auto routing and Ibycus gives me more complete topo data.

...ken...

With most torrent clients I've used, you just keep it open, and the file in place once your done to continue seeding. The only problem you could potentially have is with firewall settings.

The difference is probably an 'age of data' thing. I'm guessing my building outlines are the same age as the road data that comes with the BNDT dataset, which I'm guessing is about mid 1980s in most places. Good to see though that the data is at least rendered the same (the buildings that is). Means I picked the right entity type to use for the maps.

Dale

Different problem ... I downloaded it on my main PC which I have no interest in having connected to the torrent. So I installed the client on my other PC and I can't figure out how to point it at the files I want to share.

I'm glad you got the right entity type. Your topos should be a blast to look at on a Nuvi 7xx.

...ken...

Ahhh I see. Can you start it downloading on the other PC, close the torrent client and then replace the partially downloaded file with the complete one, and reopen the client?

Dale

P.S. Bandwidth isn't really an issue for me, other than for speeding up the downloads. My contract with hostmonster gives me unlimited downloads and unlimited space. The biggest reason for the torrent is download reliability.

There has been rumour (on the GC forum) that these are not auto-routable. Can you confirm they still auto-route?

Hi Red90,

By "these" I assume you mean Dale's Ibycus v2.1 Canadian topos. I can't get them to auto-route.

Specifically, in Mapsource if I select the Route tool from the toolbar and click on any two waypoints, I always get a route that is a straight line between the two.

Here's a test I just did ..

- In Metroguide Canada v5 I clicked a couple of waypoints in Regina and got a route that follows the streets and includes a couple of turns.

- I switched to the Ibycus topos, selected the new route on the Routes tab, right-clicked it and selected "Recalculate route". Straight line.

- Switched to Topo Canada v2, selected "Recalculate route". Back to the same streets and two turns as in MGC v5.

Next I did the same three steps to get a route between my place in Regina to Mountain Equipment Coop in Calgary. Same results. Ibycus doesn't have routing data to support either of those test routes. Interestingly, Topo Canada v2 does.

...ken...

-

Oops, I just noticed the title of the thread. Were you perhaps wondering if MGC v5 is not autoroutable? So far I have had no difficulties with autorouting in it. As you can see from the testing in the previous message, it was MGC v5 that I used to get the initial route.

If it's MGC v5 that's the concern, is there anyplace you would like me to test?

...ken...

No, that is fine. Someone was posting on the Geocaching forums that it (MG CAN v5) did not autoroute and I wanted to check. Thanks.

When I went to purchased my copy I was told that it didn't autoroute. But they were mistaken, I loaded a small test map onto my 60cx and it had no problems creating a drivable route.
Not really sure what to think of v5. Some places are still as poor as v4, some a little better than City Navigator 2009 and some I'm beginning to wonder if they decided to just make up roads.
I wonder where the road data comes from, in the Brampton area they have the 410 extension up to Mayfield Rd which opened late last year. But they are missing the Orangeville Hwy 9 town by-pass which opened almost 3 years ago.

I think the autoroute issue developed in v4. Most of the advertising I saw at the time was it could autoroute but was not optimized for it (probably to sell more CS6). I used it a lot on a Street Pilot III and for the most part, routing was excellent. I expect the same from v5.

I see some errors and missing roads in my area that are in CNNA NT 2009 and vice versa. I tried some simple routes on both systems today (v5 on a PDA running XT and 2009 on a Nuvi) and both did a competent job. I love the fact that I can now find things using POIs. As Ken says, not all are in the correct location; but at least they exist and a lot are correct.

Terry

As I mentioned earlier in my assessment in this thread, I decided to keep Metroguide Canada v5. But I'm still really ambivalent about it. Yesterday I was totally pissed at it because I needed to get to a place that I have set as a waypoint in a bedroom community east of town. MGC v5 didn't improve in that area at all from v4, and it was way behind at that time. I had to stop and switch maps to City Navigator, which has had a much more complete street grid for at least the last four versions.

The very first thing I check to assess accuracy is an interchange a couple miles north of me. MGC v5 still has a road branching from it wrong. What's more annoying in v5 is that they've added a completely fictional service road parallel to the highway that has never existed ... just seem to have invented it out of nowhere.

But in other areas there are huge improvements. And the number of POIs puts even City Navigator to shame. There are huge numbers more.

What annoys me is that for navigation I just can't trust it by itself. It really bothers me that I still have to have City Navigator loaded to cover areas where it shouldn't be necessary at all any more.

...ken...