Maps for Garmin based on OpenStreetMap
Known issues
Garmin maps format is not public, so map generation process (done with mkgmap) is based in reverse engineering. As format has not been completely deciphered yet, there's still a number of problems affecting the maps. They have the advantage that data on them are most probably more up to date than commercial ones, although in some areas coverage is lower. Another great advantage is that anyone can complete or correct missing or wrong data. Below there is a list of known issues regarding the use of the maps.
- Address search: in order to find a given street using 'Search by address' option of the GPS it is necessary to type the name of the street exactly as it is on the map, e.g. 'Calle de los Derechos Humanos' (Human Rights Street). It may be a problem for languages like Spanish or French, in which the name of the way is preceded by the type of way: Avenida de América, Paseo de la Castellana, etc. as it will be difficult to know how the name of a street is in the map: it may be Calle Derechos Humanos, C/ de los Derechos Humanos, Avenida América, etc.
To avoid this, some changes are introduced that let you omit the type of way and also particles before the main part of the name. For the examples above, typing “Derechos Humanos”, “América” or “Castellana” will be enough. Some irrelevant words common at the end of street names, like Avenue, Street, Road (English), Strasse, Weg (German), kalea, bidea (Basque), etc. are also removed. - Roundabouts exit number: if a way entering a roundabout shares a node with an exiting way, that exit is not taken into account for the 'Take exit # to the right' instruction, although on screen it is correctly displayed. In fact, it is caused by errors in the data used to generate the map, and must be fixed on OpenStreetMap data.
- Advanced functions: some advanced functions, such as lane indication, on screen speed limit display, crossing search, etc. don't work.
- Topographic maps on MapSource: contour lines behavior in MapSource is quite variable, some times they are displayed and some times they are not, without a known motive, just showing the number that indicates the height but not the line. However, although they are not seen, they are there and can be used, for example, to calculate a route profile (Edit menu->Route Properties->Show Profile...). On BaseCamp and QLandkarte GT this problem doesn't occur.
If you detect any other problem in the maps, other than those due to errors or lacks in OpenStreetMap data, please use the comments at the en of this page to report it.
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Comments (68)
Ik ben geregistreerd en ik heb verschillende kaarten gedownload, maar ik kan ze niet installeren, eerst wordt de installatie geblokkeerd door Windows, wanneer ik de *.exe file deblokkeer in eigenschappen, wordt de installatie opgestart maar dan resoluut gestopt door Norton die ze dan na 60 sec in isolatie zet. en je kan niets meer.
De kaartbestanden bevatten geen virussen. Schakel uw antivirusprogramma tijdelijk uit om de installatie uit te voeren.
Major Coastline display issues in the USA or North America Base/ Topo / DEM versions
All do not show the ocean-land boundaries correctly in much of the Maine coastline up the Canadian border (shows as all white)
Thanks for the warning. I don't see major issues it that area, but I have enlarged some of the tiles to reduce the white areas. Please wait for the next update of both maps.
Hello I love your work, thank for the reply and trying, Perhaps i am still too early ?
I just tried the January 11 2026 Files for North America Topo and USA DEM and they still show the same issues in base camp at all zoom and detail levels for me
I also removed and reinstalled Basecmp 4.7.5 it didn't help.
I have other OSM for the same region that are ok.
You are right. It seems to be caused by some wrong tagging in OSM data. I have to investigate a bit further. I'll keep you informed.
Update: I have removed all (hopefully) wrong tags. Next update should be correct now.
I am trying to install basecamp maps using the wizard, but after installation there is only the uninstaller exe in the destination folder. any tips?
thanks!
Although I can see everyone on the internet says Garmin GPS device only accept SDHC 32GB storage card, among my test, SDXC 512GB card works fine on my GPSMAP76. The only thing you need to do is using a 3rd party software to format card into FAT32 (windows can't do this with large capacity cards). With this been said, plus these cards are very cheap now, do you think we can maybe change the way to devide maps? For example, Eastern Europe DEM map was too big to be used as a whole, why not just devide it into "Eastern Europe 1" and "Eastern Europe 2" which will make your website even better? I've seen you do this with Africa north and south. This is very helpful for map collectors like me. It's been a very useful website and appreciate all your work. cheers