numaps - won't all fit on GPS

[Berin]

As has been discussed, the current European mapping won't all fit on my BMW Nav III - in fact, not even all of Western Europe will fit. In the Numaps download process you are given the option to download the regions onto the GPS, the computer or the GPS and the computer. But, you can't select multiple regions, only a single region from the drop down (ie crtl click doesn't select multiple regions. Given that I can't fit it all on, I want the maps for a trip I'm taking in April, so I need UK, France, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany. I also want some other mapping specifically covering the Balkans which I've obtained elsewhere. I can easily transfer the Balkans mapping via mapsource, but I want to send the Numaps updates to the partitioned memory on the device reserved for garmin maps.

If I download all of the Numaps Europe onto my PC, can I use Mapinstall to select the countries I want to the Garmin reserved area and leave the additional memory free for my Balkans maps?

 

[Bumpkin]

If you can see the internal file system of your GPS, I believe the BMW Nav III is an SP2820 in a posh frock, then you can replace the primary mapping file (gmapprom.img) with one created using Mapsource.

Basically select the mapping tiles you need and send these to an SD or CF card in a reader or a USB memory stick. This will create a supplementary mapping file (gmapsupp.img). Rename this to gmapprom.img and overwrite the one on your GPS. Make sure to back-up the original to your PC first though, just in case.

It takes a few hours for Mapsource to compile the map-set if you're selecting a large chunk of Europe and quite some time for it to transfer to the GPS. Most of this can be done unattended. When selecting the map tiles you require ensure that you leave enough space for you other mapping, you can see the total file size at the bottom of the left panel with the maps tab selected. I'm not sure how much space the Nav III has but I guess that it's only 2GB if City Nav no longer fits on. Allow 200MB for Garmin's firmware, voices etc. and then leave enough over for your other mapping.

Make sure that the mapping on your PC is fully unlocked to your specific GPS otherwise the transferred mapping will not work and the hours of map-set creation and transfer time will be wasted and you'll need to start again. You will need to unlock the mapping with GPS plugged into the PC via USB to validate the unlock.

If you can't see the internal file structure then you'll have to go down the command line route, see here for details. Not for the faint hearted...