Contour lines on a Garmin Extrex Legend.

[Tail End Charlie]

So how do I put them on ? I have got the CD for Europe from Garmin. All the talk I have seen about OpenStreetMap is beyond me so I went with the Garmin stuff. Please make it simple if there is a way.

[Martin]

don't you need Garmin Topo maps? the City Navigator are just the roads

[Jord]

Google SMC contour maps and you'll find them. They are transparent and will show over navigator. If you PM me and I'll email over my copy.

[Tail End Charlie]

Wow, fantastic speed of reply at this time of day. Thanks Jord I'll pm you.

[Jord]

I've emailed them.

[Hot Flatus]

I think I once had them on a gps then quickly removed them as they were not useful and cluttered the screen

[Jord]

Peter the email is too big - you can download a version which needs no technical input from http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm

Scroll down and look for - Full UK Contour Only and you just download one file. I have an Oregon and just drag and drop them on but i think with the Etrex you may have to use mapsource - full instructions are on the page.

[frankly frankie]

Those look like combined mapsets without a contours-only option?

I'd recommend going via this page which is an introduction to the installation of the SMC contour set into Mapsource.  This is the SMC contours page.

You need to go the Mapsource route to get them onto a Legend.  The installation is not trivial however - it requires a Win registry patch (which SMC supply as an executable file).
I don't agree with Flatus - I think they improve the map greatly.  You can always switch them off within the GPS.

[Hot Flatus]

Disagree with me? How very dare you!

[frankly frankie]

Moi?  I wouldn't dream of disagreeing - I just ... didn't agree.   

Certainly there are a few places where the contours can add clutter - mill towns in valley bottoms -

but on the whole I think the pluses outweigh the minuses, especially in open country where there's not a lot else going on.

[Hot Flatus]

 

I tend to have the map set to 300 or 500m so it is pretty irrelevant to me I guess, plus I only tend to use the thing on audaxes where I have no choice about where I'm going. I suppose if you are out on a ride with no fixed route it could help if you want to avoid or find steepies

[Auntie Helen]

Flatus, what does your sig say? I can only read pointed Hebrew, and not that well anyway, but I'm surprised to see the letter bet on its own. Is it a random transliteration of summat?

(sorry for the OT)

And back on topic. I downloaded TalkyToaster's map with contours (I've been using his map without which works well on the Oregon) but the wretched thing won't unzip - it crashes my mac. So I shall continue to be contour-free.

[Tail End Charlie]

Thanks to all your replies, now to get down to it ..... I'll let you know how I get on, as I am hopeless at this type of thing. For instance it took me ages to be able to post photos.

[plum]

They're great for rides in unfamiliar hilly territory, so that you can see when the end of the hill you are currently slogging up will come. Can get quite annoying otherwise, I turn them off for almost all of my usage.

[Jord]

Scroll down and there is a contour only option.

[andygates]

Contours are part of the OSM munkymap - I add the SMC ones in during the build.  Wikmap dark side is calling.

[Chris S]

Contours are great for those lung swallowing moments:

[Tail End Charlie]

After much frustration, I have managed to get to a stage where on the Extrex I have the contours or the Mapsource maps, but not both together.

[frankly frankie]

Are you loading them via Mapsource?

In Mapsource, do you have a normal (City, or whatever) mapset, and then (via the dropdown) a contours-only mapset?

Good.

Load both together simply by selecting the City tiles you want, then switching to the contours-only map and selecting the contours tiles you want**
A combined mapset will be loaded to the Etrex.  In the Etrex, you can then switch the contours off and on, if you want, via the map setup menus.

** this is not as easy as it sounds.  If the whole OSM tileset is installed, this includes several UK-wide 'overall' tiles which make selecting the smaller regional tiles difficult.  The 'overall' tiles contain things like trig points, summit names.  Easiest to just select all, and then in the mapset list on the left, identify the ones you don't need and delete them.

[piedwagtail91]

i put together a combined mapset of uk and contours in mapsource then sent it as one to the etrex.

[Tail End Charlie]

That was going to be my second question. I think I have done everything to put the contours onto Mapsource but cannot get them on.

To put the contour lines onto the Extrex I put them on directly.

[frankly frankie]

That was going to be my second question. I think I have done everything to put the contours onto Mapsource but cannot get them on.

Cannot get them on to Mapsource?
ISTR there was a mistake in their instructions, whereby the directory name to put the files was wrong.
My SMC files are in
C:\Program Files\Garmin\contours V2
(note uppercase V) and not
C:\Program Files\Garmin\contours v2
as their instructions suggest.  It seems to make a difference, try renaming that directory.  If you've done the rest of the install you shouldn't need to redo it.  The contours should then appear as 'Contours V2' in the drop-down box near the top left.
(The registry hack should have placed an entry in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Garmin/Mapsource/Products/132/
but hopefully you wouldn't need to go there! )

Hard going isn't it?

To put the contour lines onto the Extrex I put them on directly.

Well the Etrex can only ever access one mapset, so that is the problem there. 
What Mapsource should be able to do for you is construct a combined mapset, using the elements of both maps (and/or any others you have loaded - Topo, Worldmap, OSM) that you select in the usual way.  The SMC Mapsource install also makes the contours into a transparent overlay, which is necessary.  Although it is a combined mapset, the Etrex can still distinguish each element and display it or not.

The combined OSM/contours mapset that some have mentioned is different again, because with this I don't think you can turn the contours off in the GPS (I may be wrong, never used it).  It is an easy way to get contours on though, if the road coverage is good enough in your area.

[Tail End Charlie]

Frankly frankie, thankyou for your help here, but I still don't get a contours option in the drop down box. I think I'll try again from scratch and see if that makes a difference (I changed the v to a V but no joy). I'll have to build myself up for that though, although I do feel I'm nearly there.

[frankly frankie]

There is another (and IMO better) way altogether, which is to use SMC's files with MapSetToolKit - but your original post said 'keep it simple' so I didn't mention this - because SMCs own installer is definitely the simpler procedure.

The MapSetToolKit method has the advantage that it is extensible to non-UK contour files - eg the Alps etc.  Read about it here

[Wothill]

Well the Etrex can only ever access one mapset, so that is the problem there. 
What Mapsource should be able to do for you is construct a combined mapset, using the elements of both maps (and/or any others you have loaded - Topo, Worldmap, OSM) that you select in the usual way.  The SMC Mapsource install also makes the contours into a transparent overlay, which is necessary.  Although it is a combined mapset, the Etrex can still distinguish each element and display it or not.

I have been reading this thread with a view to using the SMC contours on my Etrex. But, I have Garmin City (UK) on a SD card, which as I understand it, can't be used on a computer - only the Etrex. Does this mean I can't use Mapsource to make a single map to download to the Etrex?

I didn't realise this limitation of the SD card maps when I bought it. It certainly makes Mapsource on the computer more or less useless for making routes. When I eventually get the Europe City map, is there a better version to get?