Garmins New Feature

[MN Mike]

I was doing a little surfing this weekend and run across an article where Garmin had introduced a neat new piece of software late last week called Custom Maps for those of you that own or looking at a Colorado, Dakota or Oregon handheld.

If you have ever had that paper map in your hands, topo, trail, lake, hiking, biking, off road or snowmobile map and wished you had it on your GPS? Now you can with this new feature, you can scan it, put it in your computer, convert it with Google Earth and transfer it to the GPS unit. It also works if you have captured a image off of the interent too.

Looks like another great feature from Garmin!

Mike

[croixflats]

Awsome feature! This really opens up google earth. I imagine one could create your own map on google earth and put it on the gps unit.

Thanks for pointing this out. Now I'm going to have to upgrade soon.

[delcecchi]

How is this different than Fugawi or the free Fugawi google earth plug in?

[MN Mike]

Honestly, I couldn't tell you, I've never messed with Fugawi.

Mike

[croixflats]

I dont know to much about Fugawi either but the Garmin software is free you dont have to buy maps or be a subscriber to get a free plug in like do with Fugawi. It is a bennefit Garmin is now offering for some of the handheld units that other manufacturers arnt. I would not be surprised more units from Garmin can access this software. I know my GPS/map76 does things that it does not list.

[delcecchi]

My point was that the capabilities are available for all sorts of GPS units, not just the garmin dakota, colorado, oregon like the original poster implied.

[MN Mike]

Yep, looks like Fugawi does it for a price but I think it's a feather in the cap to Garmin that it has that capability and it's free, which is what I meant in my original post, just didn't mention the word free...... sorry!

Mike

[delcecchi]

Which models of Garmin does it work on?

[SimilarIsland]

The sight says Dakota, Oregon, Colorado.

Wish it worked on my old 60c!

[Ed Carlson]

Garmin has been working with Google Earth and an internal group of software developers to make some new tools that will really blow you away. The new "Custom Maps" utility is just the tip of the iceberg.

Google Earth Pro Edition has some capabilities that will fill in the finer details to the end users needs in whatever categories you wish to build from. Huge amount of potential mapping in this format, almost endless.

With the wireless integration to Garmin marine you can add all the depths automatically, or in the handheld mode manually or wirelessly. With the current wireless update feature on the Oregon series this way point management capability is now available with Garmin marine units in the 5X series and above. Mapping, routing, and trail management will soon be seamless "beam and build"...right in the field.

We will see much more of this wireless way point and route management integration in days ahead, very exciting stuff!

[Kirsch]

This feature is nice if you want to highlight an area such as a very small section of land where you will be hunting. It is not designed for a large area as the map sizes would eat up a 1-16GB memory card very quickly. Also, this isn't in vector format, so the image will get messy as you scale up and down with the zoom feature. If the image is designed for a tight zoom, it will be a huge file for a small area and if designed for a further zoom, will be very blurry at any tight zooms. Don't get me wrong as it is a very nice feature for very small areas but not for a county, region, state, or country scenario.

[Ed Carlson]

Great info on it's capabilitys Kirsch...thanks.

[MN Mike]

I'd have to agree as well, I don't think this feature is meant to be used on a big scale at all, just those little ' one off ' areas.

Mike