LEI Electronics MAPCREATE 6 User Manual download pdf (Page 7)

How MapCreate Works

You'll be making maps faster if you understand the hoops MapCreate

must jump through to cram a high detail map into your GPS unit.

First of all, those CDs you just purchased contain a whole bunch of raw

computerized cartography data. There are several hundred files of digital

mapping information containing lake shorelines, navigation aids, roads,

rivers and all the other information that goes into our high-detail maps.

It takes some fancy formatting to fit the whole world onto a couple of

compact discs. Your GPS unit can't read those raw files (called atlas

files). Even if it could, no GPS unit or MultiMedia Card (MMC) has

enough memory to hold that much information.

This is where MapCreate comes in. The program looks at all those raw

atlas files, shuffles the different types of information together, and then

places them onto your computer screen. That's what we call the Master

Map, the main window in the MapCreate interface. By changing

various options in MapCreate, you can control how much geographic

detail is displayed on-screen in the Master Map.

It's a pretty cool electronic map, but your GPS can't read it in this form,

either. This is where you come in. You move around the Master Map

and locate the area or areas you want to make a detailed map of. Then,

you grab the computer mouse and draw a map border around the

region you want. (There are two or three fun ways to do this…we'll

describe 'em in a few minutes.)

Now, this map border isn't really a map yet — it just defines or outlines

the area you want to include in the final GPS-friendly map. You can

save the boundary you have drawn as a Map Border File. MapCreate

uses the Map Border File like an electronic shopping list. The program

looks at your Map Border File, grabs the appropriate raw atlas

information, and then glues it all together as a custom map. Now you

can save this data as a Custom Map File, which you can copy onto an

MMC (or SDC) and load into your GPS unit.

GPS information — such as waypoints, routes or trails — is handled

differently. You can click the mouse to set a waypoint or plan a route,

then save that information as a GPS Data File. This file is ready to

load into your GPS unit. When your unit makes trails or waypoints in

the field, that information is also saved as a GPS Data File, which you

can then load back into your computer, open and save in MapCreate.

Remember, you must use the advanced mode of MapCreate to work

with GPS data.

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LEI Electronics MAPCREATE 6 User Manual Page 7