NAME
mkgmap - Generate Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap data
SYNOPSIS
mkgmap [options] files.osm ...
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the mkgmap command.
mkgmap is a program that converts OpenStreetMap (OSM) data into a map
that can be loaded onto a Garmin GPS device.
The mapping between OSM features and the features in the map can be
customized with a file.
OPTIONS
-c <filename>
The given file is opened and each line is an option setting of
the form option=value, just like on the command line except that
there is no leading ’--’.
-n, --mapname=name
Change the name of the map. Garmin maps are named by 8 digit
numbers. The default is 63240001. It is best to change the name
if you are going to be making a map for others to use so that it
is unique and does not clash with others.
--description=text
Sets the descriptive text for the map. This may be displayed in
QLandkarte, MapSource or on a GPS etc.
--style-file=file
Use your own map features file. You can totally change which
features are shown and at what levels. See CUSTOMISING THE MAP
below.
--levels=levels code
Change the way that the levels on the map correspond to the zoom
levels in the device. See CUSTOMISING THE MAP below. The default
is the equivalent of: "0=24, 1=22, 2=21, 3=19, 4=18, 5=16"
although this may change.
--latin1
This option allows the use of non-ascii characters in street
names. It is hardware dependant what is actually supported on a
particular device. Some devices can only do ascii characters for
example.
Mkgmap goes to some length to convert un-displayable characters
however. It will convert accented characters that cannot be
displayed in the chosen character set into unaccented
characters.
CUSTOMISING THE MAP
You can completely change which features are displayed and at what zoom
levels.
There are two concepts ’resolution’ and ’level’.
Resolution
is a number between 1 and 24 with 24 being the most detailed resolution
and each number less is half as detailed.
So for example if a road was 12 units long at resolution 24 it would be
only 6 at resolution 23 and just 3 at resolution 22.
On a Garmin Legend Cx the resolution corresponds to these scales on the
device:
16 30km-12km
18 8km-3km
20 2km-800m
22 500m-200m
23 300m-80m
24 120m-50m
It may be slightly different on different devices.
Level
is a number between 0 and 16 (although perhaps numbers above 10 are not
usable), with 0 corresponding to the most detailed view. The map
consists of a number of levels starting (usually) with 0. For example
0, 1, 2, 3 and a different amount of detail is added at each level.
The map also contains a table to link the level to the resolution. So
you can say that level 0 corresponds to resolution 24.
You can specify this mapping on the command line, for example:
--levels=0:24,1:22,2:20
This means that the map will have three levels. Level 0 in the map will
correspond to resolution 24 (the most detailed), level 1 will show at
resolution 22 (between scales of 500m and 200m) and so on.
Map features
Custom map features can be applied using a delimited file among with
the --style-file command line option.
A typical line may look like this:
point|amenity|grave_yard|0x64|0x03|23
Column 1 is point, polyline or polygon, depending on whether the
feature is a point of interest, a line feature such as a road or an
area such as a park.
Column 2 and 3 are taken exactly from the key and value columns from
the OSM map features.
Column 4 is the garmin code that you want to use.
Column 5 only applies to points and also determines the type of the
object.
Column 6 is the minimum resolution at which this feature will appear.
The file /usr/share/doc/mkgmap/garmin_features_list.csv has a list of
known type values used by Garmin.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is almost entirely based on the file format specification
document written by John Mechalas at the SourceForge project at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/garmin-img.
SEE ALSO
josm(1), qlandkarte(1).
AUTHOR
mkgmap was written by Steve Ratcliffe <sr@parabola.me.uk>.
This manual page was written by Andreas Putzo <andreas@putzo.net>, for
the Debian project (but may be used by others).
April 13, 2008