View Map In Basecamp Without GPS Attached?

I’ve got a hiking trip planned for the Italian Alps (Dolomites) in the near future. I'm going to purchase the Transalpine+ Pro map chip to use in my GPSMAP 64s for that hike. However, I’d like to make sure that the map is always available when I look at my routes in Basecamp.

I have another map chip for the NW USA which works wonderfully but to view it I have to have my GPS plugged in to my laptop so the chip is available to Basecamp. I don’t want to have to remove the NW USA chip and replace it with the Dolomites chip every time I want to look at the Dolomites map in Basecamp. How do I do that? How can I view the Dolomites map whenever I open Basecamp without having to have the GPS connected with the Dolomites map in the GPS?

0 SUSSAMB over 7 years ago

If you copy the files to a usb stick or another SD card BaseCamp should read the files from that.

0 Richard_S. over 7 years ago

Just to make sure I understand, you're saying that I should make a clone of the original chip. Whenever I want to see the Dolomites map I would plug in the clone and Basecamp would read it and display it. Is that correct?

To carry that a bit further, could I copy the clone to my laptop's internal drive and then have Basecamp read the map from there? That would save me making a USB drive and having to plug it in any time I wanted to view the Dolomites map. Do you think that would work?

0 SUSSAMB over 7 years ago

Yes and no. Yes, to copying to a memory stick or card, no to copying to your internal drive. BaseCamp won't read maps off an internal drive copied in that way. It will work though if you create a virtual drive http://www.javawa.nl/virtualdevice.html

Note though that as you're on a mac the issues with later mac os versions.

0 Richard_S. over 7 years ago

Got it! And thanks for your help.

0 Richard_S. over 7 years ago

Livesay

Actually, I have one more thought which I suppose I can test when the map chip arrives. Instead of making a clone of the original chip couldn't I just put the microSD map chip in an SD adapter and slide it into the laptop's SD slot? It would be read as an external drive just like a USB thumb drive. I'm going to store the map chip in an adapter anyway since those little micro chips are way too easy to lose.

0 SUSSAMB over 7 years ago

Yes of course you could, if you're happy to do that. Depends whether it's installed in your device or not. Personally I'd copy both map sets so that you can view either map without plugging in your device.

0 Richard_S. over 7 years ago

Yes of course you could, if you're happy to do that. Depends whether it's installed in your device or not. Personally I'd copy both map sets so that you can view either map without plugging in your device.

I think you're right. Your idea is a better and more convenient way to do it.

0 Tireman9 over 7 years ago

I have installed City Navigator NA 49 state map to my laptop. I installed the large file to an SD card in my expansion slot. How do I get Basecamp to "see" the map? Basecamp works fine when I plug in my nuvi that has City Navigator map on it. FYI laptop has small SSD HD so there just isn't space on the internal HD. Garmin Express lets me specify the location for the City Navigator map but I can't see where I can direct Basecamp to "look" for the map. Do I need to edit Registry? I am comfortable with doing that but there are many dozen entries for Basecamp and am not sure which is the key that would point to the map.

0 SUSSAMB over 7 years ago

If you've put the map on a card it will need to be in the correct folder for BaseCamp to see it. Create a folder named Garmin and put the map there.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I suggest you make a disk image of your "Garmin" drive (or SD card in case your map is on the SC Card) using the Mac OS Disk Utility.

Then all you have to do is mount that image before launching Basecamp any time you want the map to display in Basecamp...

It's stupid that Garmin doesn't make it easier to do but it seems it's a habit with Garmin...

Hope this solves your problem.