Best Sat Nav Map Morocco and how to download ???
 

So I have a BMW Sat Nav with Garmin . It only has European maps so I need to download the Moroccan map prior to my journey. I have looked into Olaf and Garmin and wondered which everyone thought was the best.

Also I am prehistoric in techy terms so need some advice about the downloading !!As in where do I start and what do I do !!!

HEEELLLPPPP :helpsmilie:

Have a look at the Openstreetmap, the link is below, can't say what they are like for Morocco but they were good for Thailand and Laos, worked well on my Garmin Montanna. Free to download and you can view in Basecamp to see how good you think it is. All instructions on the thread

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eet-maps-64135

Wayne

Information on maps and GPS for Morocco: Maps, guidebooks, and GPS (installing maps, waypoints/POI, and creating routes)

Thanks sorry if i have dupilcated a thread .

Still cant navigate the GPS vector map for Morocco options there ate too many options , do i use he memory card download or do i download the road only manual installations ???

Think i need a techy mate to translate

go to Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

Select generic routable new style

Pick predefined country (best because it will have a unique number) if available, or manually select tiles

Order the map by giving your email address or can sometimes download directly.

Download just the large single image file and store it on the memory card in a folder called Garmin.
Put the card in the GPS and use <manage maps> to select morocco.
Done.

(possibly)

Be aware that routing can be a bit flaky so needs checking before trusting it too much and OSM's interpretation of relative road status isn't always what you hope.

We have used OSM in S America, Europe, Turkey and Iceland and find it really good and worth every penny we paid for it.

Let's start with basics. What model Garmin GPS do you have? Do you have experience of using Garmin Mapsource?

I'll assume you have a Zumo. Firstly you install Olaf on your PC by downloading the Garmin-format self-installing executable.

Then go into Mapsource on the PC, set the selected map to be 'Marokko-Topo'. Centre the Mapsource display so you can see all of Morocco and use the Map Tool to select all the map segments. You should now have 174 map segments selected and a projected installation size of nearly 29 MB.

If you don't intend visiting all of Morocco you could reduce the size by deselecting the areas you don't plan to visit, for example knocking off Western Sahara reduces the segments to 108 and the download size to 24 MB.

Each of the small areas you select has two segments associated with it, one for street maps, the second for topo overlays containing contour lines. The topo overlays take up much more space and you don't really need these on the GPS. If you manually deselect the topo overlays you will now have just 54 segments and less than 4 MB of download space needed.

When you are happy with what you are about to download, connect the GPS and transfer it (>Transfer, >Send to device).

Colebatch gave an excellent set of instructions for downloading and installing the OSM maps:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eet-maps-64135

[OOPS, just noticed that Lonerider posted the same link]

Linky
Choose gmapsupp zip
Decompress
Copy map to a folder called Garmin in either the sat nav or memory card.
Done
Best is, alas, meaningless.

Openfiets it's a bit like topo
OSM 'routing' can produce some very interesting detours...
Olaf isn't routeable
Then you have Garmin Maroc Topo map
Reise Know-how map for Maroc is very good.

I'm just wondering how many more times we need to say the same thing ad nauseatum :frown:
Doesn't anyone search anymore?

No kidding. I spent two days earlier this week riding in Morocco with the Morocco Open Street Map loaded into my Zumo 660. The routing was VERY flaky, from the Tangier Med port out onto the highway, and then later from El Jabha on the coast up through the mountains to Chefchaouen. Most of the time, I could spot the obvious errors - such as when it asked me to ride up a set of stairs on what was obviously a pedestrian pathway - but it did trick me once, sending me up a road that progressively deteriorated until I was fording rivers on my ST 1100 (not a recommended use of this particular type of motorcycle). This happened despite me having configured my Zumo to 'avoid unpaved roads' and 'prefer highways'.

After arriving at Chefchaouen, I logged onto Garmin's website and spent the $100 to buy the Garmin mapset for Morocco.

I don't yet have sufficient experience using the Garmin maps to be able to compare them with the OSM product. I have noticed that the Garmin maps provide an indication of what the speed limit on the road is - OSM doesn't contain that particular road attribute.

Electronic cartography for GPS navigators is a bit like an iceberg - you only ever see, at most, 10% of it. The other 90% that is hidden and not visually apparent is the 'road attributes' - whether or not the road is paved, what the speed limit on the road is (this for routing purposes, not only for display), how wide the road is, whether there are turn restrictions or center barriers on the road, and so on.

I'm not trying to throw stones at OSM - I'm just reiterating Tony's comment that routing in Morocco using OSM cartography is not 100% dependable.

Give me another week or so to ride around the country, and I'll come back to this discussion and let you know whether the $100 for the Garmin Morocco mapset was a worthwhile purchase or not.

Michael

It sounds like you perhaps have downloaded Garmin's City Navigator Morocco which is a roads-only mapping.

I certainly cannot recommend Garmin's Topo Maroc v2 maps. The road numbering at zoom out scale reverts to the pre 1980 numbering system, there's often little difference shown between footpaths and pistes, placenames aren't shown at various zoom settings, and the routing is screwed by roads that aren't linked.

As a simple example of the last item the attached image shows what happens when you route Marrakech to Ouarzazate via Telouet. The Telouet road isn't linked to the N9 as it crosses the Tizi n'Tichka so it routes you the only way it knows.

The second image shows how I would set up the same route in Mapsource using Olaf. Yes it needs some extra clicks with the routing tool.

It seems to me that there is too much focus placed on 'turn-by-turn' routing.
Unless you have half decent mapping, (and most are flawed to different levels), it is a great deal more enjoyable to:
Create waypoints at strategic places,
Set your sat nav to 'direct routing'
Display the compass page set to CDI

And ensure that you have data fields showing:
'Distance to next'
'Heading'
'To course'
'Trip odometer'

This not only frees your ears from daft instructions but lets you enjoy the scenery around you and the riding which is what you went there for!
Happy trails.

I can honestly say I have only had 1 problem in 4 trips with OSM Routing when it sent us down a 1 way street in El Jadida, otherwise for turn-by-turn routing OSM has been fine in Morocco

I've also had some pretty decent turn bu turn routing on piste via OSM. However for off road routes I don't generally use the routing as I find it automatically re routes and takes me away from where I want to go (this maybe down to my ability). For off road routes I convert the route I've planned in Mapsource into a track. That way my chosen route doesnt change from my plan and no annoying directions :)

I don't remember which Garmin map I had, but whatever it was, it was completely and utterly useless once I was away from the coast. I've used Garmin and OSM maps in plenty of other places with no problem, but in Morocco I ended up just turning the GPS off altogether.

Depending on where you're going, you don't really need a GPS as long as you have a paper map, most of the roads are pretty well signed.

Works well flying an aircraft, but not so useful on the ground unless roads are straight and few in number.

Couldn't agree more. I just need to know I'm headed in roughly the right direction and more often than not I use the position of the sun as an indication.

But not in the UK—not enough sun :rain:

.

Just back from our first trip to Morocco, and took both Garmin with Olaf and OSM in my cheap tablet. Didn't use either very much when on tarmac, but of the 2 we found OSM far better for pistes and general off-road stuff. The detail was greater, most of the visible tracks (on the ground) were in the database and made detailed navigation very easy. The downside of this is that you have to be zoomed in quite a bit to get the track displayed, so it's easy to lose the "big picture" and focus too close to the vehicle. Our technique was to rely on the (old fashioned) compass and odometer for general progress and check the electronics when we reached critical points or had to divert because of washouts or other barriers. Like Tim and Bertrand above, we went for the views and the ability to go where we liked, so knowing where we were all the time wasn't a priority.

Maybe people could look in the Navigation Forum and particularly this thread

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...rsus-osm-73220

Nav and mapping has been regularly discussed as Bertrand mentions above, and the search function might help find an answer that has already been addressed or even just looking in the right section :D

Hi Tim:

You are correct, that is the map that I purchased. I used it for the first time today, for guidance on a ride from Chefchaouen to Ifrane. So far, I'm very happy with the routing performance, especially through the city of Fes. But, it's still too early to provide a carefully thought out evaluation of City Navigator Morocco.

Bertrand:

I must respectfully disagree with you. I spent 40 years working as an aircraft pilot, most recently delivering new production aircraft from the factory to all 7 continents (including Antarctica). To heck with 'waypoint' navigation, that went out of fashion in the aviation world years ago. Contemporary aircraft nav systems allow the pilot to enter the origin & destination, then select the desired airways to follow... the FMS then populates the flight plan with all the waypoints along the selected airways.

One of the most significant safety problems the aviation world faces today is fixation on navigation system displays (vs. having one's head up and looking out the window). I spent years trying to minimize this risk in aircraft, including one in which I did the design and specification of the flight compartment (photo below). The last thing I want to do is put myself at risk when riding the moto as a result of needing to spend time 'head down' monitoring a HSI-like CDI on a motorcycle (HSI = Horizontal Situation Indicator, CDI = Course Deviation Indication)

Exactly. I much prefer to keep my head UP, looking at the scenery and watching out for other traffic, than keeping my head DOWN looking at a navigation screen.

Voice navigation guidance is a significant safety benefit, because it eliminates the need to have to look down and monitor the GPS screen. When a turn or course change is needed, it is annunciated via the Bluetooth connection to the helmet speakers.

I retired to get away from this, not to spend more time looking at similar displays on a moto:

Series 400 Twin Otter Flight Compartment
http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...psojxu3bsc.jpg

Perhaps, but this discussion here is specific to navigation in Morocco (as opposed to navigation in general), and the title of the discussion you cited, which is "Olaf versus OSM" doesn't exactly lend itself to easily figuring out that that discussion addresses electronic cartography for Morocco.

Michael

In that case how about the MOROCCO forum? Not trying to be a pain but these issues are discussed regularly in both the Nav and Morocco forums.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Michael I do get voice and tones as my Monterra is wired to my helmet. I can but offer what works for me.

Waypoint nav maybe old hat, ( just like using a silva compass is considered daft by some now that we have sat navs but I still always use mine) but knowing what direction I need to go, working with a reducing odometer and cdi has always got me through bar a few human error moments resulting in a few 'temporarily uncertain of position' moments! With as good mapping as I can buy, voice turn-by-turn is indeed priceless in unknown cities and more importantly, as you say, the safest option.
I do find though that people do obsess far too much about mapping and get very upset at the slightest guided wrong turn. Total reliance on guided navigation without real understanding has been the subject of many a rant, people getting lost and....blaming their sat navs!

I also carry a lighter but I still maintain my old fashioned fire lighting skills using an Indian violin or a fire piston! As the French say ' a chacun son truc'
Oldies can be gooddies!!bier but we've slightly gone :offtopic: !

Hi Bertrand:

It might be that our needs are very different. I ride exclusively on paved roads (a necessity, given the type of motorcycle I have), and I think - after having re-read your posts carefully - that you might do some of your riding off-road.

For off-road riding, an activity for which 'routable roads' don't exist, I do appreciate that your waypoint navigation strategy would work well and would probably be the most appropriate method of navigation.

Michael

OSM can do turn by turn navigation off road and on piste!

But it gets very annoying as the pistes in most cases wont be exactly where the map shows due to the way the posistions slowly shift with time/erosion etc.

Hi Michael.
Indeed they are! and yes I do (both).
With safety in mind you are 100% correct.
It is safer to go down a wrong turn when 'the Garmin voice' tells you to do so rather than plough into an oncoming vehicle when you have your head down!!

I've learned how to 'snatch info' from devices without staring at them so it is all good for me either way, trails or tarmac :scooter:
Nice cockpit lay out btw.
HUD are bound to soon be available for moto helmets. That would be nice but...maybe too fragile. Time will tell.

Yes, I agree, it does get a bit boring having the same thing said over and over.
I guess the corollary of this is how many more times are we going to be asked why didn't you use the search function.

Several good reasons to ask the question afresh.

*Search facilities are great if you ask the right questions, but often quite useless. Too many key words and you get no results, too few and you end up with heaps of drivel.

*New question gives all the experts who have come across their expertise at great expense or hardship to get the satisfaction of passing it on to someone who appreciates it.

* there is always the possibility of learning a new twist to an old problem or a completely different solution may be proposed that takes into account new circumstances

*Questioner gets up to date information that in a "rapidly changing world" may actually be critical to his safety.

*Questioner straight away is able to start networking with the responders and that can be worth heaps down the road.

And as stated, it gives people yet another chance to complain that newbies are using the forum to interact with people instead of using the search feature.

Forget the search engines, ask away.

Yes Tony - true - but I would also add to your list:
Search and ye shall find - not just the Hubb but Google etc
.
There are few questions which have not already been asked on the web. So I'd say use the search engines and do some work!

It should be remembered that 'spoon feeding' is normally reserved for babies :Beach:
(Nothing to do with newbies or oldies!)

Hi Bertrand:

Personally, I don't think we will see a genuinely useful HUD for motorcyclists in our lifetimes, unless someone comes up with a display that can be projected onto the inside (aft) surface of a motorcycle windscreen. But, even that would not be a true HUD (with emphasis on the 'U') - more of a 'Head Halfway Up' display.

There are many, many technical obstacles to be overcome before we will see an on-helmet HUD. The biggest problem is collimation (superimposing the image onto the external view of the user). Solutions such as Google Glass and battlefield viewfinders used on infantry helmets require too much diversion of attention from the primary field of view to be safely used by the operator of fast-moving vehicles.

On a different topic - by coincidence, today I read an article in the current issue of Boeing's AERO magazine in which Boeing announced that their new aircraft will now provide voice guidance (in addition to visual guidance) when urgent manouvering is necessary. Fascinating. Let's just hope the aircraft doesn't learn the word 'recalculating'. :)

Michael

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa65vey4z.jpg

...And (sorry for the thread resurrection) Googling brought me to this one on the forum first...which seems to contain more than its fair share of (yawn) "Y u no search?!:censored:"

Asking a question on a forum is a form of searching because some people are excellent knowledge bases, even if that's just a tip for where on the forum to read.

My Google search pulls 241,000 results - does anybody seriously expect that I should read each one prior to asking a damn question on a forum I infrequently visit?

Don't worry, Betrand - I'll not be asking you for advice on what is the best sat nav for Morocco. doh

Is this a case of 'the world owes me answers'?
 

I was going to say 'Welcome to the Hubb' but I note your acerbic post and I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

I respect your point of view, Mawsley, it should be said that there is a wealth of information and 'how to' on this site. This has been provided by well meaning people who already have knowledge or pertinent information to offer to others out of the kindness of their heart.

When I and others suggest people search, it is done to avoid repetition and clutter too- not to mention your imposing on other people, often the same, to spoon feed you an answer you need- even more so when you state "prior to asking a damn question on a forum I infrequently visit?"

I've never understood why it is some individuals, without a hello or a how are you, just roll in, demand answers to a problem they have through a lack of knowledge then get the hump when it is suggested that the information is already available for anyone who simply works just a bit to search the Hubb.

And as for your last 'volley' - from your post, it is clear that you have not taken the time either to read the many informative posts on here comparing the various merits of different sat. navs as well as smart phones as possible alternatives.

The 'you catch more 'flies', Mawsley, with honey' adage still holds true.
Posts such as yours, imho and alas, are the kind which do not encourage more experienced members of Horizons to give of their time, knowledge and valuable information. - Au contraire -