basecamp 3d view is grayed out

The Windows version of Basecamp will only allow 3d views if you have installed a Garmin map product that contains DEM (digital elevation model) data. For example, Garmin US Topo 100k or one of the US Topo 24k products. If you don't have any such maps, you can't switch to 3d view, that's just the way it works.

But if one of the developers is eavesdropping here... why is it that the Mac version of Basecamp has no such restriction? Mac Basecamp will allow 3d views of ANY map, and they look very nice. Is there some reason why this has been disabled on the Windows version? If not, can we please add this as a feature request for the future? :)

I don't believe there is any particular reason.

This will make it into the Windows version as well at some point.

Thanks! This is something I've been meaning to mention for awhile, but I figured you guys already had a long enough list. :D

-Boyd

The Windows version of Basecamp will only allow 3d views if you have installed a Garmin map product that contains DEM (digital elevation model) data. For example, Garmin US Topo 100k or one of the US Topo 24k products. If you don't have any such maps, you can't switch to 3d view, that's just the way it works.

Thanks for the reply Ostroff. I thought the map I was using (malfreemaps) contained elevation data. Is there a way for me to check whether my map has DEM? When I use MapSource, I see several maps called MFM-SRTM 10m Contours but I'm not sure whether that's DEM data. I've seen other users of these maps post BaseCamp screenshots that are in 3D.

Not familiar with those maps. The only third party maps with DEM data are those that come from Garmin's authorized partners. There are third party tools to make make maps, but none of them support DEM. Garmin has never published the spec for their map format, so all existing third party tools have been reverse-engineered. And so far, no third parties have figured out how put DEM data into the correct format for a Garmin map.

As mentioned above, the Mac version of Basecamp will display any map in 3d, so maybe that's how the screenshots you saw were created? The fact that Windows Basecamp isn't showing you a 3d view means there's no DEM in the map.

The topic of DEM in Garmin maps interests me as a mapmaker and I have developed my own system, but it only gives the visual appearance of 3d terrain and is not integrated into the file like a "real" Garmin map. Still, it looks nice in the Mac version of Basecamp. :)

-Boyd

http://gpstracklog.com/2012/02/lidar-based-maps-for-your-garmin.html

Very cool!