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Mapwel FAQ

How to use Mapwel with Garmin Mobile XT?

• Connect your phone to computer with USB cable. Select 'mass storage' mode. After a few seconds Mapwel should be able to work with the phone like with any other GPS. Try to read GPS ID with use of Mapwel main menu>GPS>Display GPS ID

Map created with Mapwel is not visible on the GPS screen.

• Most GPS (including Garmin Mobile XT) must be restarted after the map upload. Otherwise, map may be not visible.

• If you have problem with map visibility on GPSmap276C, please click here.

• Some GPS models (like Garmin Mobile XT) require to turn on 'Outline Detailed Map' option in Tools/Settings/Map. Otherwise, border of custom map is not visible and this could make the searching for a custom map more difficult.

• Another possible cause of this problem is wrong use of the 'Background Area' polygons. These objects are intended to define irregular shape of the map. GPS displays only objects that are inside of the Background Area (if it is present in the map). Other objects are ignored. If Background Area polygon is wrongly used as a fill of some map object, the whole map is invisible.

• If you custom Mapwel maps are located on the same place as other detailed maps in GPS and they are supposed to be displayed one on top of another, the possible cause of map invisibility can be "Draw Map Priority" parameter. Try to increase "Draw Map Priority" of your Mapwel maps in Mapwel main menu > File > Properties.

• GPS does not display maps with identical ID. If you use your own numbering of maps (Mapwel > File > Properties > ID), each must have a unique internal ID number. Unless you select 'User Defined' option, Mapwel assigns unique ID number to each map automatically. 

• If you use user defined polygons or polylines, map may be not visible on GPS if it does not support user defined styles. In such case objects in you map are displayed in blue, yellow or other colors which are not visible on the map background. In some cases this problem can be solved by upgrading the GPS firmware. Please visit Garmin web site to find instructions on how to upgrade firmware.

• Invisibility of map can be caused by wrong map coordinates. If south-north or west-east map scope is too small, map can be invisible. Please make sure that your map is has least 0.001 degree in both directions.

I use custom colors, symbols and fill patterns in my maps and some of them are displayed in weird colors in the GPS

• Assign different Map Set Data (main menu > File > Properties > ID tab) to all your maps if they contain user defined styles. This ensures displaying of map with correct colors in the GPS. GPS uses the same color palette for all maps in a map set. Therefore, maps with different palettes are not displayed correctly if they have the same Map Set Data.

My custom map completely covers the underlaying maps. Is it possible to make them show through my map?

• Yes, it is possible. Use Mapwel main menu > Edit > Preferences to turn on the 'Transparent map' option. Then load the map into the GPS.

Map in GPS is displayed in other colors than those that are visible in Mapwel

• Map in GPS native format can contain two types of objects: 1. basic, 2. user defined. Objects of basic type have no color information stored with them. GPS displays them in its own pre-defined colors. User defined objects have their own color and style assigned by user (Mapwel main menu > Objects > User Defined Styles). Therefore, you have to use objects from the second category if you want GPS to display them in your own colors. Moreover, Mapwel allows to draw map objects in the work area in any color to make creation of map easier. These 'work' colors, however, are not transfered to GPS.  To see how the map will look like in the GPS, please use 'Color' tab at bottom part of the main Mapwel screen.

My auto-vectorized map is displayed as a large colored squares and details appear only when I zoom in to 120 m

• The most deatailed layer of auto-vectorized maps is supposed to appear at higher zoom levels as well. Check 'Map Detail' setting in your GPS. It should be set to 'Most'.

Map looks good in Mapwel, but after loading to GPS the polylines and/or polygons become distorted and look like zig-zag line

• The finest coordinate grid used in native map format has approximately 2.5 m spacing. If polylines and polygons in your map contain large number of very small elements, their coordinates are rounded (some up and some down) when exported to GPS map format, creating a zig-zag effect. The work around is to make elements of polylines and polygons longer.

I try to load map from Mapwel to GPS, but following error message appears: Windows - No Disk Exception Processing Message c0000013 Parameters 75b6bf7c 4 75b6bf7c 75b6bf7c

• This error message is supposed to pop-up when there is USB device (GPS, printer, etc.) with a card slot connected to the computer and there is a false plastic card inserted instead of normal memory card. Try to disconnect such devices.

Auto-vectorized raster map is displayed in GPS as a large blue square and there are no details visible

• The GPS is probably of old type and its firmware does not support user colors, which are neccessary to display auto-vectorized maps. In most cases upgrade of the unit firmware solves the problem. Please visit Garmin web site to find instructions on how to upgrade firmware.

When I import tracks from GPS to Mapwel the long tracks seem to be truncated

• Some GPS units handle tracks in a two different way:
  1. ACTIVE LOG tracks are exported in full detail.
  2. Saved tracks are limited to 500 points each. 
  Mapwel does not affect the number of points in the imported track, the truncation is done by GPS when exporting 'saved' track.

Conversion of existing Mapwel map into routable map

1. When map is loaded into the work area of Mapwel, you have to select all polylines which are supposed to be roads (main menu > Select > Lines > Roads) and use main menu > Convert > Convert Line to Routable Road function. 

2. Then use main menu > Routing > Detect Intersections function to mark nodes where roads connect one to another. Now you have map that can be compiled as routable map.

3. The next steps you need to do is to mark border nodes, assign Oneway attribute to respective roads, define road class, max. speed and turn restrictions in nodes. Even if you do not define these parameters, the map can be compiled and will act as routable map in GPS, but navigation will be not 100% accurate because of the missing information. For example, it will lead you to oneway streets from opposite direction or select lower quality roads. We do strongly recommend to set at least Oneway attribute and Road Class parameter. You can set Road Class according to object type. For example, use main menu > Select > Routable Roads > Type... to select all objects of 'Unpaved road' type, open Properties window and set their Road Class parameter to Unclassified.

How to use IMG file from Mapwel with Mapset Toolkit?

• To make map in IMG format exported from Mapwel compatible with Mapset Toolkit, you have to do the following:

1. Use main menu >File >Properties > Map ID tab to set user defined ID to map. Check 'User Defined' option and insert some 8 digits map ID number. This number must be unique among all maps in GPS. Check the 'Use as a file name' option.

2. On the same tab check the 'User Defined' map set data option. Select some Map Family ID and Product ID.

3. Uncheck 'User Defined Styles' in the map parameters tab in the same window to avoid merging of user styles file to the main map file. If you want to use user defined styles with your map, export styles into TYP.txt file with use of main menu > Objects > User Defined Styles > File.

4. Make sure that map has 'Background Area' object which defines the shape of the map. If there is no such object, draw it manually. It can have irregular shape or it can be just rectangle.

5. Export map into IMG file format.

6. Load IMG file to Mapset Toolkit. Load TYP.txt file into respective box. Previous steps were made to ensure compatibility with Mapset Toolkit, which should be achieved at this point.

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