The following guide has been tested and proven effective.
By popular demand (it seems), for those of you without the DVD version of City Navigator, here is a brief guide to using SD card map data on your PC.
1. Back up your SD card by copying the entire contents of the SD card to somewhere safe (you should do this anyway as if you lose the SD card, you’re stuffed).
2. Assuming you already have Mapsource installed, navigate to C:\Garmin\PCBSMP2 (you might have installed it elsewhere, but this is the default).
3. You will see a file called ‘pc_basemap2.img’ , rename it to something else (for example pc_basemap2.OLD).
4. I don’t have the SD card, but I assume there will be one big file somewhere on the card, copy it to C:\Garmin\PCBSMP2 and rename it to ‘pc_basemap2.img’ without the quotes obviously.
5. Now open Mapsource and select ‘PC Basemap’ in the dropdown near the top and you should now be able to see City Navigator.
What you’ve effectively done here is to trick Mapsource into opening City Navigator instead of the basemap that is supplied with Mapsource.
The only problem you may have is of performance, Mapsource will have to open the entire file even if you’re only viewing one part of the map, but if your PC has plenty of memory, you should get by.
[...] Update – read new information about using SD based mapping data on your PC here – http://www.velorider.co.uk/wp02/?p=68 [...]
Hi,
I’ve tried following this method to get my Garmin Europe City Navigator card onto Mapsource, but I cant get it to work. I am not very computer literate but there appear to be two files on the card and on the basemap; one presumably is the map itself and the other a small file of around 1Kb. When i copied and renamed the file across from the SD card and then opened mapsource, i got a message saying there was a problem and inviting me to cut and paste a message to Garmin, which i didn’t do.
Any thoughts or more detailed instructions of what to do when trying to get the SD map to Mapsource would be much appreciated.
Chris,
Can you tell us what the name of the files are on the SD card and what specifically the error message said?
I’ve managed to download mapsource from the Garmin website and have switched the base file as suggested. This does allow me to see the SD card map on mapsource. However, I don’t get any of the auto-routing capabilities. In the Edit>Preferences I am missing the “Routing” tab. It therefore seems to be better to buy the DVD version, which should have this already? Any ideas?
Keith, I can only assume you’re right, I have the DVD version so am unable to test. I rely on visitors to this site to confirm stuff that I can’t test. If we get a consensus then I’ll update the article.
Cheers.
Hiya
I’ve downloaded MapSource and I’ve copied, saved and renamed the basemap file from City Navigator as advised. However when I try to open MapSource I get a message: “There is a problem with the PC Basemap v2 installation. Please re-install PC Basemap v2 and start MapSource again”. I’ve tried deleting the basemap from my hard drive and then re-copying it and re-naming it but I still get the same maesage when I try to open MapSource.
Any ideas?
Hi Wombeagle,
I haven’t seen that error before, are you absolutely sure you’re renaming the file fully, including the .img extension? Make sure you able to see the extensions to filenames by configuring the options in folder options in Windows. Apart from that, I can’t help, good luck!
Hi Wombeagle,
I haven’t seen that error before, are you absolutely sure you’re renaming the file fully, including the .img extension? Make sure you are able to see the extensions to filenames by configuring the options in folder options in Windows. Apart from that, I can’t help, good luck!
Hiya
Thanks for your help – I managed to get it sorted. I made what I think was probably a schooboy error for the computer literate amongst you. MapSource resides on my C drive – I’d saved City Navigator basemap on the other hard (D) drive and where I still had plenty of room. I guess that MapSource couldn’t locate it therefore. On another issue – as well as copying City Navigator from the SD card to my PC I also made a copy onto another SD Card. My 605 doesn’t see this copied version – is the original card protected/registered to my device? Would I have to buy another copy therefore if I lost the original/it became damaged?. Could I, and would it be sensible, to copy my original City Navigator onto the 605s internal memory having backed up and deleted the map what’s already in there. Thus I could keep the purchased SD City Navigator in a safe place.
Glad you got the first issue sorted out
I always recommend buying the DVD version of the City Navigator for various reasons, Garmin have tough anti-piracy controls in place to prevent the copying of the SD card data and using it in even the same device – which doesn’t make sense to me. They recently changed the way the anti-piracy controls work and I’m not completely up on the changes. Suffice to say, the DVD version of the data remains the best way in my opinion.
Well I didn’t read this thread first so have just received my City navigator Europe on a microcard. There are no instructions just a warning have a blank data card in the ‘GARMIN GPS’ before transferring data. If not you may lose the pre-programmed data and Garmin will not replave it etc. So I have now ordered a blank microcard as suggested, but then what? How do I get the data safely onto the Edge?? None of this is remotely clear.
Martin, when you say “are no instructions just a warning have a blank data card in the ‘GARMIN GPS’ before transferring data” – what is giving you that warning?
Hi
The warning is about the only thing that comes with the SD card containing the City Navigator Europe. It suggests you shouldn’t just insert the card and go but that is I think the only way of using it.
I don’t suppose anyone has got this working with a mac?
on a mac use bootcamp, install windoze, Load into that. Providing that works as above then:
Download garmin RoadTrip for mac. Transfer Map to that.
Create routes in RoadTrip & transfer to mac
You might be able to do this on a friends pc then copy the maps to the mac
Create routes in RoadTrip & transfer to mac
edit:
should read transfer to Garmin