Tutorial 05b - Create Map by GMDL

-->

Prepare Map Tiles data at Computer by GMDL

Download and install Global Map Download Tool (GMDL) at http://code.google.com/p/gmdl/ (latest version 0.5.15b) or directly download at this link http://www.in7ane.com/psp/gmdl.html. The GMDL is free Windows application. After download, unzip it then start the GMDL application by click the file “Global Map Download Tool.exe” which under directory, GMDL\bin\Debug\”. At the left panel, you can choose “Map Source” for different map. For non-language Google Map, please deselect the “en” box and change the language parameter in text box. For example for Japanese, you should change the parameter from “m@180000000&hl=en” to “m@180000000&hl=ja”

Click “Browser Alt” at main screen and press “Advanced” button for advanced option. Select different data source for the Map tiles at the left pane and use the navigation button to select the map tiles area.

To adjust the zoom level for the map by adjusted the right “Min Zoom” view or “min zoom”.  Small min zoom means more details and will cause bigger file size.

Choose output directory by press the “Set Dir” button and select your output location.

After finish the selection, press “Show Preview” button to view the map data.

Press “Pull Tiles” button for customize the map tiles data. (You may see the following warning, press “NO” to continue)

To reduce to map tiles size, we can unselect the tiles and zoom level to skip the download. After the selection finish of the map tile data, press “Uncheck any tiles which…” button to start the downloading zMap will handle the skip zoom level by use previous level images so you can deselect unnecessary zoom level tile for time and capacity saving.

You will see the progress and status of the downloading. The progress may take several hours depends on the file size of your map tiles data.

The “Finish” dialogue will pop-up when the download is completed. Press “>iPhone” button button export the file.

To export the map tiles data, select the output format (e.g. “MBTiles-1-baselayer”) then change the “Output” location then press “Process (click here and wait)” button to start to export. (Remarks: The output directory will be create by GDML, so you don’t need to create this directory in Windows File Explorer) The zMap is available for following formats: ·      fw 2.2&3 (v5 128x128) ·      MBTiles ·      Galileo ·      xGPS

After several minutes, the Finish dialogue will appear.

Two files, MapTiles.sqlitedb and com.apple.Maps.plist will be created at output directory and only MapTiles.sqlitedb will be used in zMap.