MapInstall finally fixed by Garmin – Download lists reworked – Gmapsupp.img downloads now showing in Basecamp by default

Updates for November 2019

Since 30. October there is finally a new version of Basecamp 4.7.1 available - which includes an updated MapInstall 4.2.1 for Windows - which fixes sending .img format maps to devices.

For MacOSx the newest MapInstall version - 4.3.2 was fixed already much longer ago - though if you don't need to update to Basecamp 4.8.x on Mac OSx due to 32 bit support dropped in macOS Catalina - there is no reason to upgrade either. Basecamp 4.8.4 still runs unstable if you don't use English as language (you can set the language in Basecamp preferences). I don't know yet if the newest 4.8.6 runs stable in all languages. MapInstall 4.3.2 seems pretty stable - but very occasionally  errors have been reported. In my opinion don't let Garmin Basecamp 4.6.2 missing Catalina support stop you from upgrading to Catalina. Basecamp 4.8.6 should be good enough.

For both Basecamp 4.7.1 (Windows) and Basecamp 4.8.6 (macOS) the lost functions like google earth integration are not back. I guess most people will not notice the missing functions however.

 

I have often heard complaints of people that gmapsupp.img maps do not show in Basecamp. I still think usually this makes no sense - but with MapInstall fixed now - I changed the gmapsupp.img downloads to show by default in Basecamp if device connected. Maps sent via MapInstall/Mapsource by default are not loaded into Basecamp.

You can still change that of course by running the .bat scripts included in the gmapsupp.img downloads.

 

Also often people were confused that in the map download lists - the non unicode section only included those countries - which by default are unicode. I've now changed this that countries like Germany show everywhere in the local language downloads - even though of course the map download is always latin1 - so non Unicode. At the same time I've noticed that sometimes I forgot to add countries to download lists (especially on VeloMap). E.g. Armenia, Laos, Liberia were missing from some lists.

 

Lastly - the windows installer for Germany finally broke the 2GB limit. The installers for France, Africa continent and Russia were also close to breaking the 2GB limit. I don't want to offer these countries as 2 downloads - so I've updated the installer to accept sizes over 2GB. However this causes the installer not to be extractable anymore with 7zip. Therefore I am now creating a new zipped version of those countries for Linux users. Also of course some bugs in the map creation got fixed.

This winter I will include nordic skiing trails into the hiking layout of the maps. The other layouts will not show nordic skiing trails (the thing is that nordic skiing trails usually but not always use normal trails/tracks - so they can be confusing if you are not on nordic skis).

 

Higher Contrast for difficult hiking trails (T4-T6)

First of all - the new map compilation server runs stable and is well secured - so I don't fear that there could be any intruders again. I've been hiking and trailrunning with my maps lately quite a lot - and noticed that it was sometimes difficult to see difficult hiking trails on the OpenMTBMap, T4 to T6 on the maps. So all maps updated since 20.08 or later now have a higher contrast layout for those hiking trails. 

Also on the desktop (trad.typ) layout of the OpenMTBMap - I've changed how the contourlines are displayed a little bit. The standard layout without definitions by Garmin is very nice - but the labels for the altitude are too large and prominent. So I went back to custom layout for 50m and 100/200/300/.... meter lines - as the labelling cannot be changed alone. I'm not sure if I will change the VeloMap too to the same layout. So far no change here for the VeloMaps.

Lastly there was a bug in the OpenMTBmaps, that the combination of: incline=up or incline=>0 (not incline=down), mtb:scale=1 and mtb:scale:uphill=1 - gave wrong arrow direction (all other combinations of these keys/tags were fine - this was a rare case so went unnoticed for several years). This is fixed now too.