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Outdoor Maps+

jlg2
5 months ago

Can someone who uses Basecamp with Garmin Outdoor Maps+ on a 66i or 67i offer best-practice advice.  I'm completely comfortable with Basecamp and Garmin SD chips installed in a 67i but have not used Outdoor Maps+.  I love the weight, battery duration, durability and capabilities of the 67i but have no interest in trying to plan a trip into the backcountry on the 67i postage stamp display. Following questions are just examples of what I'd like to know.  So please add answers to the questions I didn't know to ask.

  1. Am I correct that once routable topo maps for a region are loaded onto the 67i, the maps display and work on Basecamp as if the 67i had a Garmin SD card for that region?
  2. Are the routable topo maps comparable to the 1:24000 routable topo maps Garmen sells on regional SD chips?
  3. Which other map products in the Outdoor Maps+ package are routable?
  4. If I'm sitting at a PC with Basecamp open and connected to a 67i, what is the best way to load maps from a region?
  5. Since the Outdoor Maps+ can be used in lieu of an SD map chip, can a blank chip be used to store downloaded maps?  If so, does it display on the 67i the same an SD map?
  6. I assume map products from Outdoor Maps+ cannot be stored and used in Basecamp without the licensed 67i connected, but can they be stored in Basecamp and later used on the 67i without going back to the Internet to reload them?   I ask both for time efficiency reasons when I have Internet and because I plan trips in places with no available Internet.
  7. The Garmin product page for Outdoor Maps+ says the product is constantly updated.  How true is that?  And what kind of info is being updated?  Trails?  Land management restrictions?
  8. Are Outdoor Maps+ maps are non-editable like SD regional maps?  Can overlays be added to them?
  9. Do my questions suggest unanticipated limitations?
  • +1 5 months ago

    I can answer some of your questions, note that my experiences with Outdoor Maps+ are based on the maps available for Europe. Basically OM+ just works the same as Garmin maps on an SD card, its just that the information in the map files is different and that it is more split up in different layers you can enable or disable.

    1. Basecamp will see the maps in the same way as with maps purchased from Garmin on an SD card. It works with the same limitations, mainly that transfer speed is slow so it takes a lot of time to read the map files

    2. at least for Europe the maps seem to be the same as the TOPO Pro maps, but split in a couple of layers, like buildings, high detail DEM and the TOPO map itself. For example the Italy map in OM+ is literally called "OM+ TrekMap Italia v6 PRO".

    3. well OM+ is more about layers than "map products". So for EU the TOPO Pro layer is routable, for the other layers routing isn't applicable (eg buildings layer). For North Americas I don't know.

    4. in Basecamp you can select the map you want to view from the list of maps available on the GPSMAP

    5. yes, in the Map Manager on the GPSMAP you can select the destination of the OM+ downloads, either internal memory or SD card.

    6. you need to connect the GPSMAP 67i to your computer to be able to use the OM+ map layers in Basecamp. They are not stored "in Basecamp", the files are on the GPSMAP 67 (or the SD card in the GPSMAP).

    7. looking at the data files, for Europe the TOPO Pro in OM+ maps seem to be the same as the currently available TOPO Pro maps that you can buy . These are updated every couple of years. So I wouldn't expect very frequent updates in OM+. Don't know if this applies to US maps as well.

    8. don't know for sure, but I assume the same applies as to regular TOPO Pro Garmin maps.

    9:

    I find downloading them a bit clunky since the TOPO Pro EU maps are divided in regions. So you do not really know if you need a different region for another place or that it is in a region already downloaded. It would be easier just to get a list or visual overview of the regions and then download them. You cannot individually enable or disable these regions, only at country level (for Europe).

    But the main advantage in my opinion is that you can get maps for multiple countries in a more cost efficient way than buying them individually. I usually visit a different country each year on vacation, so I would need to buy multiple TOPO Pro maps.

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to JungleJim

    Thanks, JungleJim.  I appreciate the detail.  The answer to no. 4 is not to the question I meant to ask.  Say you're sitting at a PC connected to the Internet with the GPSMAP licensed to the OM+ connected to Basecamp by USB cable, and say the region you're interested is not already loaded in the GPSMAP.  What is the best way to download the map from Garmin?

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to jlg2

    You can only download the OM+ maps from the GPSMAP itself, via the Map Manager. Afaik there's no other way.

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to JungleJim

    Thanks again, JungleJim.  That's an unfortunate limitation.  I had envisioned OM+ as a better alternative to things like Google Earth for exploring possible future adventures.  But I just watched the Garmin how-to video at https://youtu.be/O48pieQYVI0?si=nvrvo6FVjSbbqVIp. Unless there are features not shown in that video, OM+ would not be suitable for that.  It looks like the difficulty of downloading maps makes OM+ useful only after you know exactly where you're going and what you'll do there.  By the way, how do you go about choosing where you'll spend your outdoor recreation time?

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to jlg2

    I usually plan my activities beforehand using other platforms like Komoot or AllTrails, and just sync the planned routes to my GPSMAP. And I just download the needed OM+ map regions from home before going there. 

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to JungleJim

    That sounds like a good approach. I think I'll add a suggestion to the OM+ wishlist.  Given the OM+ subscription offers access to a comprehensive library of map products, a web interface that simplifies an otherwise tedious download process would be a valuable enhancement that could eliminate the need for other web map products to plan with.