Garmin Montana Waypoint Symbols

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When waypoints are transferred from BaseCamp to my Montana 650 some waypoint symbols are different on the gps. Furthermore in. As you work your way through the GPX code below, you will notice that Garmin has used the word Note in place of Description on the Montana and several other of their GPS devices. In the GPX text format: represents a waypoint, point of interest, or named feature on a map. The following represents the GPS screenshot above.

Note: Version 6.15.3 of MapSource accidentally dropped support for custom waypoint icons; version 6.15.4 puts it back. Make sure you have the most recent version.

Modern handheld Garmin GPS units with map displays come with an absurd number of icon choices to use when designating and displaying a waypoint. My Garmin 60Cx comes with:

  • 18 Transportation
  • 12 Markers
  • 18 Civil
  • 24 Outdoors
  • 24 Marine
  • 18 Navaids
  • 24 Signs
  • 24 Points of Interest

But if those aren’t enough for you, or a specific icon graphic you’d like to see isn’t included, it’s possible with many Garmin units (like my Garmin 60Cx) to create your own waypoint icons and upload them to your GPS unit. To find out if your unit supports Custom waypoint icons, create a waypoint, select the icon image, and see if “Custom” as a subcategory of waypoint icons, along with the others listed above:

The 24 icons in the “Custom” category above are the ones that came with the unit as defaults; putting a new one is a fairly simple, albeit tedious, process. First, you need to download and install Garmin’s xImage software, so cleverly hidden on their website that even typing “xImage” into their Search box won’t find it. xImage is actually fairly handy to have even if your unit doesn’t support custom icons, since you can also use it to create screenshots like the one above. With some Garmin GPS units, you can also create and upload your own custom splash screen (not on mine, though).

After installing and running xImage, you’ll come to the screen where you choose to either get an image from the GPS (screenshot or waypoint icon graphic), or send one to it:

The screen (and help file) imply you have to first download an icon from the unit, modify the original, and only then upload it back to the unit. That’s not technically true, but for now I’ll follow their suggested process. Click on Next, and select “Waypoint Symbol” as the image type (the alternate choice is “Screen Shot”, for making a screen capture of your unit’s current display):

Here, you’ll get a list of all the custom waypoint symbol names (24 for this unit, 000 through 023), and can choose which one (or ones) to download to your computer. The colored square is not a representation of the icon, but is instead a representation of the transparent color associated with the icon. For my unit, and I suspect others, that color is purple: 255 Red, 0 Green, 255 Blue. In this case, I have selected Waypoint Symbol 000, and proceeding from here brings up a folder selection dialog i.e. where do I want to put the downloaded icon graphic. The downloaded icon graphic is saved as a file with the same name listed above, as a BMP graphic file, i.e. “Waypoint Symbol 000.bmp”. Here’s what it looks like at real pixel dimensions:

Let me blow that up a bit:

Compare that with the Custom icon images above, and you’ll see that the purple isn’t displayed on the GPS unit’s screen – since purple is the icon’s transparent color, it isn’t visible as part of the GPS icon.

Whatever editing you do to the icon, in order for it to be uploaded back to the GPS unit it has to be in the following format:

  • 16 x 16 in pixel dimensions
  • BMP file, 256-color (8-bit, not the usual 24-bit; indexed color, not grayscale)
  • 96 dpi
  • Saved under the original downloaded name (“Waypoint Symbol 000.bmp” in this case)

The first and last requirements are easy to meet, but the middle two can be trickier. Many graphic software programs don’t support saving BMP files in indexed 256-color 8-bit format, and at least one that I’ve tried has problems with it. In Part II, I’ll show what kind of problems you might encounter, talk about free software that can handle the process, and finish the process of creating a custom icon and uploading it to my Garmin GPS unit.



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Your Garmin Nuvi has the ability to mark points of interest on the map display, to make sure that landmarks or intermediate destinations aren't missed. Think of these as the GPS equivalent of a browser bookmark. The procedure for marking a waypoint with a Garmin Nuvi is fairly simple. One of the other features of the Nuvi line is the ability to make custom symbols for your waypoints as an added bit of personalization.

Creating the Custom Symbol

Step 1

Download and install Garmin's xImage software from the company website. In addition to making custom icons for your Garmin Nuvi, it also allows you to take screen captures of the Garmin's screen.

Step 2

Plug your Garmin Nuvi into your computer via the USB port.

Step 3

Launch xImage. The initial dialog box asks if you want to download an image from the GPS device or upload one to it. You will be downloading one of the existing images and modifying it into a custom waypoint symbol, then putting the modified image back on to the GPS.

Step 4

Select 'Get Images From The GPS.' Then click 'Next.' The dialog box changes.

Step 5

Select 'Waypoint Symbol' on the dropdown menu. The dialog box displays a list of all the waypoint symbols on your GPS.

Step 6

Select the waypoint symbol you want to modify. You can select multiple images by holding down the 'Shift' or 'Ctrl' key while selecting multiple file names. Click 'Next' after you've selected the image you want to modify to open a 'save file' dialog box. It's important that you do not change the file name. The file will be a 256-color indexed BMP file.

Step 7

Open the file in your image-editing program of choice. The file will be an 8-bit-per-pixel, 16-by-16-pixel bitmap.

Step 8

Alter the image as desired. Make sure that you have your program set to 'Indexed Color.' The transparent background color is purple (R 255, G 0, B 255) in indexed colors – anything that's exactly that color will not show up on the icon. This can be useful for making icons that have a cut-out effect. Map dota battle stadium don 1.8 beta.

Step 9

Save the edited icon as a BMP file. Make sure that you don't enable any RLE compression.

Step 10

Open the edited BMP file in Microsoft Paint. Verify that the image is still at 96 DPI in Paint and save it as an 8-bit color image. Do not change the name of the image. Many newer programs save only 24-bit color bitmaps, which causes xImage to refuse to upload the image to the GPS device. Microsoft Paint still saves 8-bit images.

Start xImage again or switch back to it if you haven't turned it off and select 'Send Images To GPS.' When prompted, navigate to the edited image you saved. Provided the images are identically sized and formatted, and the name matches the image you want to replace, xImage will replace that image on the GPS unit.

Using the Custom Symbol

Step 1

Turn on your Garmin Nuvi. The Graphical Map will load.

Step 2

Step 3

Click the desired location on the graphical map. Alternately, you can use the 'Find' feature, and click the 'Make Waypoint' feature in the 'Find' window. Both methods bring up the 'Waypoint Properties' dialog on your GPS unit.

Install mavis beacon teaches typing. Enter the desired waypoint properties on the selected location. One of the options will be to select an icon for this waypoint. Select the customized icon you created in the first section.

Warning

  • Some older models of Garmin Nuvi don't work with xImage; the download page for xImage is dated 2005. If your Garmin is more recent than that, it should work.

Items you will need

  • USB cable
  • Image-editing software
  • Microsoft Paint
  • Sean Gallup/Getty Images News/Getty Images

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