Question about Map Overlays

[sly999]

I'm quite pleased with the functions of TOMTOM (920), but would like to see some more "off-road" type navigation. I think that the raster or map overlays could be a good "tweak" as you could potentially add satelite images for off road areas to help with navigation. The "standard" satelite images are very small and zoomed out.

Has anyone found an easy way to get closer satelite images from google or somewhere and add them to TOMTOM? it seems like it would be very time consuming because you need the GPS coord. for the corners of the photo to tell the TOMTOM where to put the image. The good thing is that it is possible!

The TOMTOM website has very good instructions on how to create your own map overlay.

 

[Boyd]

I haven't seen any tools for automating this process. I manually created google satellite image overlays in varying resolutions for a large area near my home. True, it is time consuming. I used Google Earth and placed markers at the top left and bottom right of the image, saved them as JPG', and cropped to the markers using photoshop. I then wrote an excel spreadsheet to create the text files for each image, which I manually copied and pasted into a text editor.

It worked very well but was a big project. However, I gave up on using my TomTom for this purpose. It is a nice feature, but doesn't really do what I want. Instead, I am now using OziExplorer CE on an HP iPAQ: http://www.oziexplorer.com/

This software will run on a variety of devices, including GPS'es which are based on Windows CE (Mio, HP and others). And there are a number of tools which work very well to create really big maps in the ozi format.

 

[8alchemist8]

I've had some luck using google earth images as overlays for off-road use,hwever, the big hangup I'm having is that my Tomtom ONE v2 always insists on sticking me on any nearby roads. I noticed it does this while riding the train - always plopping me on parallel roadways. Is there some way to get Tomtom to not try to shift you over onto a street?

 

[Boyd]

Unfortunately that seems to be a problem with all the TomTom's. My 920T does the same thing. They are optimized for auto use and like to snap to roads. If you're moving slowly - like walking - you'll also see that the map pointer doesn't update very often and can place you pretty far from your actual position.

 

[1XL-on-XR650L]

Install "offroad" 3rd party software. Go to the settings and set to "un-snap". Add all the map overlays you want (the higher resolution the better), and enjoy seeing exactly where you are! It is a lot of work, but until somebody way smarter than me figures out how to automate the overlay process, is is all we have for now. God bless those 3rd party developers!

 

[8alchemist8]

Install "offroad" 3rd party software. Go to the settings and set to "un-snap". Add all the map overlays you want (the higher resolution the better), and enjoy seeing exactly where you are! It is a lot of work, but until somebody way smarter than me figures out how to automate the overlay process, is is all we have for now. God bless those 3rd party developers!

Hehe. I had been procrastinating on putting an "offroad" install on my Tomtom, but I think THAT is reason enough. I'll have to set asside a little time to get that done!!

Thanks for verifying that off-road can do this!