MTBMaps Garmin

A project to assist with autogeneration of vectorized MTB map overlays, from the latest OpenStreetMap data, for Garmin devices and allows for maximum map tuning. Note that this is an overlay and you still need a base map to use it. See the How to use section below for more information.

The generated map overlay is inspired by mtbmap.no, but comes with a few differences that make the map much easier to read on a Garmin Edge 1050, which is the only device I've used to try the map so far.

The key differences versus the mtbmap.no Garmin version are:

• The trails appear on the GPS device as much thicker lines, and are easier to see even on max zoom levels.
• The following colours are used for drawing the trails:
  • Easy trails: Green
  • Intermediate trails: Blue
  • Advanced trails: Red
  • Expert trails: Black
  • Extreme trails I and II: Dark pale yellow surrounded by black
  • Impossible trails: Dark pale red surrounded by black
  • All of the trail categories, with the exception of extreme and impossible trails, are highlighted with yellow if they are "recommended" trails (class:bicycle:mtb OSM tag values of 1 and 2)
  • All of the trail categories, with the exception of extreme and impossible trails, are highlighted with an orange/pink color if they are "highly recommended" trails (class:bicycle:mtb OSM tag values of 3)
  • All of the trail categories, with the exception of extreme and impossible trails, that are always dark pale coloured, get a pale colour (lighter green, lighter blue, light pink, and light shade of gray) when they are not recommended (class:bicycle:mtb OSM tag values < 0)
• Some extra features that I do not commit to them, but were nice to see while building this map:
  • The size of the entire Norway is 5.6MBs vs ca 18MB for the same Garmin map that is provided by mtbmap.no
  • For some reason (I can only speculate why), the loading and rendering of the overlay map built by this script is much faster than the one provided by mtbmap.no

Sample screenshots

How to use

1. (optional step if you don't have a base map) Go to http://frikart.no/garmin/velgkart.html and download Topo Summer II and install it on your device (read the installation manual at frikart.no)
2. Generate the MTB map overlay by running the make <country> command after you clone this repository. If everything works, you should find a gmapsupp file named YYYY-MM-DD-mtbmap-<country>.img in the out directory. All you need to do is to copy this file in the Garmin directory of your device.
3. Start your device, go to: Menu → Settings → Activity Profiles → select profile → Navigation → Configure Maps
4. For simplicity, disable all maps
5. Enable only the OSM Topo Summer II (or the base map of you choice) and the MTB Map Country maps

Useful map development resources:

• QMapShack to visualize the maps during the map development process: https://github.com/Maproom/qmapshack/releases
  • Note that the rendering on the device is surprisingly different when compared to the QMapShack rendering, so always load the map on the device to ensure it looks as it is intended to look before you "ship it"
  • When testing changes in the map style, compile with make qmapshack to get a result that resembles closer what you will see on the device
• mkgmap docs:
  • https://www.mkgmap.org.uk/doc/index.html
  • https://www.mkgmap.org.uk/doc/pdf/style-manual.pdf
  • https://www.mkgmap.org.uk/doc/typ-compiler
• Geofabrik website that contains OSM data per-country for download: https://download.geofabrik.de/europe.html
• OpenStreetMap wiki with information about different tags that are required to build the map:
  • https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/No:Mountain_biking#Mest_brukte_tagger_for_terrengsykling
  • https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/No:Mountain_biking#Utfyllende_beskrivelse_av_vanskelighetsgrad_/_mtb:scale
  • https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/No:Mountain_biking#Karteksempler
  • https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway#Highway
• mtbmap.no - the map style that inspired this project