Changelog

13.10.2024: All Maps updated for download.

Mid of September 2024: I’m travelling these days, returning by mid of October. For that, 4th quarter maps will be distributed 3 weeks later.

07/2024

• Latest update of maps.

04/2024

• Latest update of maps.
• New and more accurate height model for Europe. Changing from SRTM to Lidar. Their horizontal resolution is ca. 20 x 30 m (1″), and their vertical resolution is 1 m.
  If you like to understand more, read Sonny’s website: https://sonny.4lima.de/
  There is a good comparison between SRTM and Lidar based on an example from the Etna:
  SRTM: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UaIjtYbsUdD6zoHFE-vvgNxewsYP3cZO
  Lidar: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UaIjtYbsUdD6zoHFE-vvgNxewsYP3cZO
  
  The Terrain Models is published through Sonny, licensed using the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
  Credits for all the work done compiling the terrain models go to Sonny. See https://sonny.4lima.de/

01/2024

• Latest update of maps.
• Added “Alps-West” map. Usage: Ride the Assietta or the Ligurian border ridge road.
• Latest update of Points of Interest (POI) for Garmin devices.
• Published maps for use with the Andriod App “Oruxmaps”, using a reworked style of the gravel maps. 
• Published several POIs for use with the Android maps.
• Published a manual in german language of how to use gravel maps with Oruxmaps.
• Published a program to convert tracks and waypoints planned in Garmin Basecamp to a special KML format used by Oruxmaps.
• Published a program to convert tracks and waypoints planned in Garmin Basecamp to a special KML format used by Organic Maps.
• Published a program to support in building your own POI files.
• The three programs are all published on Github.

10/2023

• Latest update of maps
• The file “central.img” became too large and could no longer be loaded onto an SD card. Therefore there are two smaller maps, central_n.img (north) and central_s (south) in the download directory. Load these onto your Garmin!
  
  The too large central.img remains in the directory, as it is used by Linux users for route planning.
  In order to be able to plan effectively and, if necessary, easily create your own map sections, the map is not split for use with Basecamp!
  
  The coverage of
  central_n.img: Belgium, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hesse, Luxembourg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Netherlands, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia.
  
  central_s.img: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Alsace-Vosges, Franche-Comté, Liechtenstein, Lorraine, Austria, Switzerland.

07/2023

• Latest update of maps
• Some one-way streets allow bicycle traffic in the reverse direction. Now, when using a bicycle routing option, allows bicycle traffic in both directions. Sometimes a valid choice for Enduristi.

11/2022

• Major rework of the Website. More details on Help & More. Improved Legend. 
  

10/2022

• Updated instruction to install Gravelmaps on your Android device (by Steve B.)
  

07/2022

• Added Algeria and Tunesia. Changed from Morocco to Maghreb.
• Needed to increase DEM Size for West. Very south of Spain was missing.
• Based on Sam Van S.’s proposal, I will add “Asia West” which includes: Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran. This links “SouthEast” with the “Stan” countries (Asia-Central).
• Some minor changes to identify tourism=caravan_site / amenity=sanitary_dump_station more acurate when they are located close together.
• Secondary Roads in Albania sometimes still are gravel roads, Will now be identified and displayed as such.
• Readability: Island in Greece, Croatia, Albania are now shown with their name.
• Improved identification of “primary” gravel roads in Balkan Countries (‘GRC|TUR|MKD|HRV|SVN|SVK|SRB|ROU|HUN|BGR|BIH|MNE|ALB|XKX’).
  Example M-14.2 in Bosnia.

04/2022

• Minor changes to DEM data.
• Increased overview – earlier visibility of cities.
• Showing strong inclines
• Showing toll booths.
• Better visibility of petrol stations. By default, Garmin disables the visibility of petrol stations when you zoom out a little. This makes it difficult to find the nearest petrol station. 
  Finding the nearest petrol station using Garmin’s “Point of Interest” option is possible, but the now selected visibility of petrol stations directly on the map overcomes Garmin’s limitation and increases visibility significantly.
• Showing house numbers. Will not be implemented as it lets files grow to big.
• Flat images no longer visible on PC. If you want, drag & drop the “map”.img on be_visible.cmd from https://gravelmaps.de/en/changing-the-maps-layout-in-your-garmin-device/
• If you are using the “ Changing the maps layout in your Garmin device” or “ Changing maps layout in Basecamp” you MUST use the new replace.zip.

01/2022 (Asia Central Update)

• A map for Asia Central has been requested by user Christian aka Hobbes: https://hobbes-on-tour.de. He sugested to make the map public. I will monitor the future acceptance by the community.
• Changed DEM logic for Asia-Central (density / Overview-Map)

01/2022

• Only minor changes to the GravelMaps
• Due to limited interest in the street maps, further development and publishing of the StreetMaps is stopped. Old versions will remain on the website for download at least until 12/2022. If you feel the need for any updates, send me an email.

10/2021

Spent some time to further improve the maps.

• Road / Gravel: Names of settlements, rivers etc. in Greece are tricky to read when transliterated by Garmin from “Greek Cyrillic” to “Western” letters. Names are now shown by their international names.
• Road / Gravel: Some Gulf overlay several islands. Fixed.
• Road: Improved visibility of touristic attractions for road maps.
• Road: Improved visibility of campgrounds and caravan sites for road maps.
• Road: Sometimes even Tertiary or Secondary roads are gravel – but can be used by cars or motorbikes. Identified them and show them as “unpaved” roads.

04/2021:

• updated OSM data
• some minor changes in documentation

01/2021:

• updated OSM data
• Added Morocco maps
• There is now an option to make the map installed on Garmin device visible / invisible in Basecamp.
• Displayed language of cities, nature parks, lakes etc has strongly improved.
• Southeast Map: Greece Alonissos Island: Sea Nature Protection area overlayed the island for too long. Similar happened to the Gulf of Corinth.
• Greece: Several villages where showing wrong names. E.g. Distomo (leading reference number before name)
• All Points Of Interest (POI) have been updated. Mountain Passes have been added.

09/2020:

• Provide “flat” maps for the Garmin as img file. These don’t include height data. For that they are much smaller and much faster in your Garmin device – where you usually don’t need the height data at all.
• updated OSM data
• Changing logic to identify Railways
• Routing will be improved
• Visibility of Nature Parks etc:
• Will be removed on Zoomlevel 24 (closest in) to generate a better contrast and visibility of roads and tracks.
• Improved logic from Zoomlevel 17 on (far out) for better recognition of large nature parcs (as e.g. Parco Nazionale D’Abruzzo in Italy)
• Some minor routing errors when following a path that leads through a tunnel
• In very rare cases military areas haven’t been identified (e.g. Hochwald in Vosges)
• Big change: Provide street maps for the same areas. Let’s see how they are accepted!

08/2020:

• Increased speed of website.

06/2020:

• Appearance of villages and cities has been reworked. In particular when trying to find a nearby little village on your Garmin GPS was sometimes very hard. This should be solved now.
• Based on a request from the TET Facebook group:
• East is now reshaped including: Czech Republik, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine.
• Nordics countries are added: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland.
• Gravelmaps cover now all TET regions except Turkey! If there is a demand for Turkey drop me a mail.

04/2020:

• Published some street maps. Maps still include gravel roads in good condition. This is absolutely necessary for Balkan countries, as many connecting roads are gravel roads. No longer included are forestry, agricultural dirt or gras roads or roads in very bad condition.
• Plan for next update: Check if roads that aren’t allowed to be accessed can be removed from the street oriented map.

03/2020:

• Logic to identify buildings improved.
• Logic to identify and show national parks improved.
• Logic to identify and show lakes improved.
• Rivers and Lakes showing their names when zooming in only (24-21)
• Ferries show names when zooming in only (24-21)
• Thanks to Jérôme:
• French language support now included.
• Formal hiking international, national and regional trails are now shown.
• To harmonize the way how hiking and biking ways are shown, all such overlays will appear on the same zoom level
• Hiking international / national: Zyan color
• Hiking regional: Yellow color
• Biking: Orange color

02/2020:

• Map:
• Made map international. Cities are shown in their native countries name. For international translation, the international name is set in (paranthesis).
  I select the international name in following sequence: English, if that is not available in German if that is not available in French.
• Nature reserve, national parks are expressed now according to https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:boundary%3Dprotected_area paragraph: Nature-protected-area.
• Solar panel power plants are now shown as sometimes gravel roads lead through them – but in fact you can’t follow them as solar power plants are fence protected.
• Map is compiled now in two variants for better visibility:

1. GMAP / EXE Installer: Lines are more narrow to have a better view on PC screens (Thin layout).
2. Garmin device image „gmapsupp.img“ : Wider lines for better readability (wide layout).

• Garmin device image „gmapsupp.img“ : Name of Mapset in Device now in line with Map Name (Central, SouthEast ….)
• TYP File:
• All Polygons, Lines, Points are English (default) or German. If for instance your device is set to Spanish, points, lines etc. should be shown either with their native expression defined in OSM or it will default to English.
• TYP file has been changed a little for gravel / dirt roads. There have been nasty flares on the Montana 680 for those type of roads. Should be fixed now. Examples see Legend & Layout.