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:

.