How to create map images for Garmin from Open Street Map

Go to Open Street Map

www.openstreetmap.org

Login

Click Export Tab

Click Geofabrik Downloads http://download.geofabrik.de/

Select required continent

Select required country

Click link to countryname-latest.osm.pbf

File will download

Go back to openstreetmap.org and click Help then select wiki.openstreetmap.org

In search bar type “Create maps for Garmin”

Click on link to Mkmap http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mkgmap

Download Mkmap http://www.mkgmap.org.uk/download/mkgmap.html

Read then download Splitter http://www.mkgmap.org.uk/doc/splitter.html

Download Splitter http://www.mkgmap.org.uk/download/splitter.html

Extract Mkmap from zip file (right click and select extract)

Extract Splitter from zip file

Go to https://www.java.com/en/download/

Download and install. Be careful to unselect the Yahoo search bar option on the second window.

Suggest you create a sub directory called Mkgmaps and put all these files in it.

This is for Windows 7, 8 or 10

Go to windows start icon (bottom left) and type Run. Select Run App

Type cmd <return>

C:windows\system\cmd.exe window should appear

If you type help <CR> you get a list of all available commands.

CHDIR c:\mkgmap

You have to move mkgmap.jar and splitter.jar and the lib subdirectory from the splitter progamme and the file you want to convert into the same directory. You also need to create a subdirectory called bounds

now go to http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mkgmap/help/How_to_create_a_map

for the tutorial on what to do next. Note these processes take time even on a fast computer do not touch your keyboard or mouse until the command line prompt goes back to the directory e.g. c:\mkgmap>

Example command line.

java -Xmx1000M -jar splitter.jar colombia-latest.osm.pbf

The example on the tutorial uses Xmx2000M but my computer still gave out of memory errors so I reduced it to Xmx1000M and it all worked fine.

Note the file colombia-latest.osm.pbf will be changed by the splitter programme and will be different to the original that was downloaded so don’t copy it back to your country directory only all the other generated files.

After doing the split then you can make the map image using mkgmap

java -Xmx1000M -jar mkgmap.jar –route –add-pois-to-areas –bounds=bounds –index –gmapsupp 6324*.osm.pbf

Because splitter has created non-overlapping tiles there are no bounds so do not worry about the error messages to do with bounds.

Note if you are doing more than one country you will need to copy the created files out of the working directory somewhere safe. I would recommend you rename the files with the country name replacing the numbers 6324 in the filename.

As I wanted to create a seamless map for all the countries we hope to visit. First I created the maps for the individual countries and tested them on my Garmin then I took each of the split files and made them a number sequence starting with the default 62340001. For the countries we are visiting

Colombia – 7

Ecuador – 5

Peru – 6

Bolivia – 6

Chile – 8

Argentina – 9

that gives a total of 41 files.

Transfer to Garmin

Get an empty micro SD card 32 GB and 64 GB cards work in both our Oregon 400 and Oregon 600 Garmins. I put mine in a USB adaptor and plug it into my computer. First right click on the drive letter for the micro SD card / USB drive, select format, ensure FAT32 is selected in the top dialogue box that comes up. Select quick format. When it has finished go to the drive and create a folder called Garmin.

Of the files created you need to copy all of the *.img file plus osmmap.tdb from your computer to the micro SD card Garmin folder. Remember to click on the USB symbol at bottom right of the task bar and safely dismount the USB drive.

Open the back of your Garmin, remove the batteries and insert the micro SD card in the holder.

Power up the Garmin and check it is working. Select Map then keep pressing the minus symbol until it reaches minimum scale drag the map to the country of your new map and press plus symbol until you see some detail. Best to select a city where there is a lot of detail to make sure you are not seeing the Garmin base map.