Tutorials & Articles
GPSFileDepot wants to help you acheive your goals. We do this by providing the best tutorials and articles related to GPS and map making we can. We've broken this area into sections to help you use maps you've downloaded from here, to help you make maps, and articles related to GPSr. If you have a tutorial or article you'd like to post or write for here just contact us.
Tutorials To Help You Use The Maps!
If you've already downloaded a map from here and want help making it work, using Garmin MapSource or Garmin BaseCamp then these are the tutorials for you.
- How To Change Which Map Is Displayed On A Garmin GPS
This tutorial will walk you through how to change which map is showing or displayed for the most popular GPS units on the market including the 60/76CSx, eTrex, the Colorado, Oregon, and Dakota, and the Nuvis. - How To Geotag Your Photos With GPicSync
A tutorial that explains how to tag your photos with GPS coordinates (geotag) using the free program GPicSync. - How To Install MapSource If It Didn't Come With Your GPS
This tutorial details how to download and install Garmin MapSource if it didn't come with your Garmin GPS unit. - How To Load .img Files Into MapSource or BaseCamp With MapSetToolkit
This tutorial will walk the user through loading stand-alone .img files into MapSource or BaseCamp so they can easily be loaded onto their GPS unit. - How To Load Maps On My Garmin GPS Unit
A tutorial detailing how to use Garmin MapSource to load maps to your map capable GPS unit such as the Gpsmap 60x(s)x, Etrex, Legend, Dakota, Oregon, Colorado, Montana, 62 series, and even the Nuvi. - How To Open Maps In Garmin BaseCamp
This tutorial instructs you how to open the maps you have downloaded or purchased in Garmin BaseCamp. - How To Open Maps In MapSource
This tutorial instructs you how to open the maps you've downloaded or purchased in Mapsource.
Tutorials To Help You Make Maps
Intersted in making maps and helping the cause? These are the advanced tutorials to help you make maps from freely available data.
- Creating Multi-Segment Raster Topo Maps with MOAGU
This tutorial will go over making multi-segment raster maps for your Garmin GPS unit with MOAGU (mother of all GPS utilities). - Creating Raster NOAA Charts For Garmin GPS Units With MOAGU
This tutorial details how to load NOAA raster images on Garmin GPS units with MOAGU. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps
The ultimate how to on creating custom Garmin topo maps. A step-by-step that details where to get data and then how to create maps. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 1 - Setup
Part 1 of my tutorial on how to create Garmin Compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to setup your computer to quickly and efficiently download and process the data. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 2 - Elevation Data
Part 2 of my tutorial on how to create Garmin Compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to download and process USGS elevation data for an entire state. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 3 - Water Data
Part 3 of my tutorial on how to create Garmin compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to download and process USGS NHD high resolution water data for an entire state. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 4 - Transportation Data
Part 4 of my tutorial on how to create Garmin compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to download and process US Census Bureau Tiger data into usable shp and mp formats. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 5 - Points of Interest
Part 5 of the tutorial on how to create Garmin compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to download and process points of interest data into usable shp and mp formats from the USGS geographic names information system. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 6 - Federal Lands
Part 6 of the tutorial on how to create Garmin compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to download and process Federal Land data such as National Parks, Native American Reservations, etc. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 7 - Borders
Part 7 of the tutorial on how to create Garmin compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to download and process state and county borders in GPSMapEdit and Global Mapper. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 8 - Combining Data
Part 8 of the tutorial on how to create Garmin compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details how to combine all the previously downloaded and processed data into a few polish format (.mp) files. - How To Create Garmin Topo Maps - Part 9 - Compiling Data
The final part, part 9 of the tutorial on how to create Garmin compatible topographic maps from available data. This part details the file conversion from .mp files to Garmin compatible .img files. It also details creating a setup file. - How To Process NHD High Resolution Water Data
A "how-to" on how to quickly process NHD waterdata for use in Global Mapper or other compilers that can recognize the MP_TYPE code. - Installing & Setting Up PostgreSQL With PostGIS
This tutorial is a guide on how to install PostgreSQL with PostGIS to allow for advanced manipulating of GIS related files. - Making a Mac Installer for Garmin Maps
A tutorial detailing how to create an installer to make installing Garmin Maps on a Macintosh computer very easy.
Articles
This sections contains articles about GPS units and map making that do not fall into the category of tutorial.
- 100k Quad Lists & DEM Links For Each State
This article is no longer useful with USGS changes but left for archival purposes. This article contains links to pre-formatted excel sheets listing each quad that is inside of a state as well as a direct link to download 1/3 arc second DEMs from the USGS. Continental United States only.