[OSM-dev] [OSM-talk] Garmin maps was: Re: Baghdad maps

[Robert Hart]

> There seem to be at least two efforts underway on this. There is a
Java
> application (mkgmap) which will convert .osm to img. Also, Robert Hart
has
> started "libimg" (in SVN) which is in C++; it looks like it aims to be
a
> library for converting OSM to IMG. The latter is particularly
interesting
> as - being C++ - once it's done it will be easy to develop a web
service
> to automatically download an IMG (no need for Tomcat, JSP etc)
> 
> Another opportunity raised by libimg is the possibility of a
standalone
> GUI app to create IMG files, which could use OSM and other data.
> 
> (Rob - incidentally how far have you got with libimg? )

Yes, I only discovered the mkgmap project on Monday night myself, which
was a bit of a surprise as I've been keeping an eye on the mailing list
for anything Garmin map related for quite some time. Initially I was
quite demoralised, but having taken a day or two off to absorb it, I
think it's good to have several people working on this. 

My progress so far has been relatively slow, but I'm pretty confident
given what I've done so far, (and given that I can now just peek at
mkgmap) it'll be basically functional before too long. That said, spare
time is limited, so it could be a while.

I think the key to making successful Garmin maps, will be sorting the
infrastructure need to produce greatly simplified overview maps. I'm
vaguely aware of a few attempts in this area but not really up to speed
- perhaps you have a better idea?

What I envisage is something perhaps similar to osmarender, but instead
of OSM->SVG just does OSM->Simplified OSM. Style sheets could be used to
define and customise what gets outputted. A separate stage may be need
to simplify the number of segments in large ways, etc.

The img generator would then just take an OSM file for each level of
zoom and combine them into a single Garmin map.

The alternative is to do it inside the img generator, but that would
seem to require reinventing the wheel.


Rob

p.s. I don't think it would be too difficult to get mkgmap going on a
web-server - you could just call it from a plain perl/python CGI....

p.p.s. you never know, maybe the cGPSmapper guy will realise his
restrictive license is going to lead to his obsolescence, and do a SUN?


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