FAQ

 

I want to participate in Openstreetmap, and especially tag ways suitable for Cycling

See https://www.velomap.org/tutorials/participate/

 

How can I add my data / my streets / my tracks to the VeloMap?

See https://www.velomap.org/tutorials/participate/

 

I have a Velomap Premium Membership - can I also download OpenMTBMap Premium Maps?

Yes of course. But though I run both websites - they have a different database. So please download all Premium Openmtbmaps from here (as your login will not work on openmtbmap.org):

Windows/Linux : https://www.velomap.org/download/openmtbmap/

Mac OSx - just scroll down on the Mac OSx download page.

 

When will (my) edits show up in the VeloMap?

Usually at the latest 8 days after you commit them. VeloMaps get updated once weekly.

 

Can you offer combined maps, e.g. Italy/Switzerland/Austria/Germany ?

Yes if you donate there is a full map of Europe for download.

You could also download the Alps map.

 

Country / Area X is not yet offered.

By now I have worldwide maps. Some maps are for people who donate only (North America & full map of Europe).

In Principal - if it is offered by geofabrik ( http://download.geofabrik.de/ ) as extract, I will have a map for it. If not yet - please drop me a comment.

 

There is a virus in the download X (usually Norton (Symantec) Antivirus):

If Norton Antivirus is installed on your computer, you may get a warning that the "WS.Reputation.1" threat is found after downloading most maps.

Unfortunately, the unsuspecting user has been put on the wrong track: WS.Reputation.1 isn't a virus at all! Symantec (the creator of Norton) uses the following rule: popular programs that are downloaded often are probably safe. Programs where this doesn't apply (and that Symantec doesn't know of) are labeled unsafe automatically; even when it isn't harmful at all.

Please use another virusscanner; there are plenty with a better reputation...

 

Avast Antivirus and others sometimes complain about gmt.exe - gmt.exe or gmaptool is needed in order to have the create* .bat files to run. You could also get if from here: http://gmaptool.eu/en/content/gmaptool

As ist performs many lowlevel operations on the .img mapfiles, many antivirus will consider it a thread.

 

If you are still unsure, please simply unpack any .exe you downloaded from here. All windows installers are nothing more than archived map files, plus the installer which adds some entries to the registry so that Garmin programs find the maps.

 

How should I update my Maps?

a) Just run a new installer ..... or ....

b) first click on uninstall.bat or uninstall.exe, then delete all files from the folder, then put in the new files, and then reinstall.

 

 

In Mapsource everything is fine, on my GPS I miss: Streets and other info Include Routing is grayed out, or other ...

Please Read https://www.velomap.org/tutorials/send-maps-to-your-gps/mapsource/

Comments about this will be deleted from now on whithout mercy, WTF - do you think I write the tutorials so you come ask questions before reading the solutions?

 

 

Mapsource doesn't start and complains that no maps are installed.

RTFM https://www.velomap.org/tutorials/install-mapsource/

and https://www.velomap.org/tutorials/install/ .

 

 

Mapsource doesn't start and complains it has to be reinstalled.

Read through here if you have done everything correctly:

https://www.velomap.org/tutorials/install/

Usually this should not happen. There are several ways to solve this.

1. click on uninstall.exe or uninstall*.bat ("run as administrator" or it won't work). If it has been the map you just installed and it still not works then another map is responsible but not one you downloaded from velomap.org. To solve it see 2.

2. Install Mapsettoolkit cypherman1.googlepages.com/home and delete any map you suspect maybe breaking Mapsource. To help you finding maps installed incorrectly click on "Check Registry". You can use mapsettolkit to reintall any map that didn't break Mapsource via the "Install" button to the right of "Check Registry".

To install a map that did break Mapsource read on here: installation-with-mapsettoolkit/

ONLY CONTACT ME PERSONALLY BY EMAIL IF: you have checked and found out that it was one of my maps breaking Mapsource. In that case I will need your OS, Mapsource Version, and which map it has been including the date of download. If you didn't read through here and tried mapsettoolkit I will not respond to your mail. .

3. Install Mapsource 6.16.3 - it does not crash as easily as old version and is much more tolerant for faulty maps.

 

You can also check with this tool: http://www.javawa.nl/gmtk_en.html

it is more complex than Mapset Toolkit though - but also more modern and actually finds more errors without showing unimportant ones.

 

Is there a possibility to send maps faster than with Mapsource?

Well did you read through the tutorial? You can send maps directly to an external card reader, then it will be much faster than to your GPS connected via USB. Once exportet as gmapsupp.img, you can combine several gmapsupp.img with gmaptool. Read gmaptool documentation on how to do that. It's not trivial for beginners....

 

 

Autorouting does not work well on my GPS / Different to Mapsource

Have you read through About--> Autorouting? Try setting the same settings (start with Car/Motorcycle and enable/disable "avoid toll roads", and use "faster route"). The main difference is that Mapsource can calculate longer routes without inbetween points and calculates faster. The only unit currently having more or less it's own mind is the Garmin Edge series, which also has no "avoid toll roads" option to set to deactivate routing over non "trekking bike suitable" ways.

 

 

Mapsource or my GPS (PNA) crashes on calculating a route, or does not react anymore

Autorouting is very complex. This is a well known problem for which there is no solution (yet). Both Mapsource and the GPS units are quite limited in calculation power. 

Try to route over shorter distances. The better the OSM Coverage is in your area, the more likely a long route will be calculated. The bicycle mode further makes route calculation over longer distances even worse as it excludes many roads from routing.

Commercial Maps like City Navigator or OSM maps made for caruse work better because they use highway=motorway and highway=trunk for long distances and thereby reduce the number of times you have to turn. There is a maximum limit of 100 turns to reach your destination without putting inbetween nodes - but likely with velomap the limit is more 10-40 turns depending on how well the area is mapped.

Note that the GPS may well need 1-2 minutes for longer calculations (and don't trust the progress bar, it's broken on many units, so just because it arrived on the end does not mean that the route cannot be calculated). The velomap is not intended to autoroute you from city to city but autoroute you over nice trails on rather short distances. My goal is that routing works in well mapped areas on air distance of around 40-50km without breaking down.

I will try to further optimize to reach this. Currently if an area is well mapped it is rather 10-30km.

Also note the biggest problem we face. Many roads are not connected in OSM

If a road is not connected the GPS will not route you along. Please correct any unconnected streets you notice. (also connect gondolas or cablecars to streets so they can be used too for routing). .

 

 

Can you help me with Mapsource, mkgmap, ....

Please have a look into GPS relevant forums. Good forums in english language can be found on www.groundspeak.com or www.gpspassion.com - in German language www.naviboard.de or www.naviuser.at. Also read through wiki.openstreetmap.org/ and the Openstreetmap forum (has Garmin section): forum.openstreetmap.org/index.php

I'm really getting tired of reading through comments that are answered already in 90% of all cases in the tutorials and/or are explained in the help file of Garmin Mapsource. Mapsource is relatively easy to use, but you will need at least several hours or even days to find out the full potential. Use Qlandkarte GT if your a beginner, it's easier. There are also great Tutorials in German offered here: https://www.silvia-kurt.de/index_gpsinformation.htm

 

 

I would like to have a look into the style-file for mkgmap - or suggest changes to the velomap

Sorry, that's private now. I had too much bad experience, and few actual use and improvements.

 

 

 

 

Some areas/polygons are not rendered

Well this is a problem of Multipolygons. there are several related but different problems (mkgmap the renderer will be overhauled in this regard soon to solve this)

a) Sea is rendered incorrectly - this is currently very difficult to achieve with mkgmap. I am sure this will change sometimes. Also very often people crash the coastline in OSM data, or the extract by geofabrik crashes the coastline.

b) Instead of an area there is another area rendered. Please use Multipolygons to solve this. There is no way mkgmap can know what is above or below.

c) Some area (mostly water of forest) is not rendered at all in some places. Is the area a Multipolygon Relation? Sorry currently not supported by mkgmap. This case is very rare (one expample is the Wienerwald missing).

Mapnik and Osmarender have better implementation of Multipolygons and also support unofficial tags like layer=value. There is however no possibility to implement something like layer for Garmin maps. If several Polygons overlap, the definitions in the .TYP-file determine which is shown on top of each other. This has to be done for the whole map. I.e. it is hit and miss whether to show water over forest, or forest over water. So depending on the TYP-File some maps for Garmin will show areas in some places and drop others, and the other way around. BTW also maps sold by Garmin heavily (even much worse) suffer from this problem.

 

 

I don't like the colors, design, streets are too fat, not well visible on my GPS, etc....

You can change your Typfile using maptk . You can basically change the layout as you like, or also make certain roads/objects invisible. This is rather advanced, note that I will not help you on that, but the GPS Forums are full of advice on this.

 

Zip-Archive is broken

Please unpack with 7-zip (www.7-zip.org) or winrar. Maps are packed with LZMA2 compression, so windows unzipper can't unpack them. Linux users schoud have no problems at all if they install p7zip (sudo apt-get install p7zip)

 

I have some more questions about the velomap.org not answered on the page or I could not find out googling

Put a comment below. If I feel it's important I will write a new topic or add it to the FAQ.