I'm at the point where I want to begin creating a user map.

I clicked a link in the ReefMaster 'Help' manual in the "Exporting a map in AT5 format for use on a Navico Device" section. The section with the link says I need the Navico Insight Map Creator. I get to the Navico site and was directed to the "Insight Planner."

I purchase it and download it and install it, and when I try to steer ReefMaster "Export a Map using a Preset Style" to the navico.exe, ReefMaster doesn't see it. That of course, means I can't continue. What did I do wrong? Download the wrong thing from Navico?

Thanks

In Reefmaster global settings you need to link it to the IMC file you downloaded and extracted

In the RM1.8 Help for configuration:

Insight Map Creator

The Insight Map Creator is a free tool from Navico that processes ESRI Shapefiles to create maps in the AT5 format, suitable for use in Lowrance and Simrad GPS units. ReefMaster is able to run the IMC automatically so that AT5 maps can be created without having to run the IMC separately. In order to do this, the location of the installed InsightMapCreator.exe must be known.

Wasn't free. Cost me $29 bucks.(Insight Planner) And I tried to link to it and RM wouldn't see it.

UPDATE

I must have downloaded the wrong program. (Insight Planner) Don't have a clue what I'll ever do with it. Guess I'll have to call it a lose and uninstall it.

Meanwhile, I finally got the Insight Map Creator, but big surprise... I isn't for Windows XP Pro. Thus, RM won't see it. Or at the least I'm having troubles still.

Another Update

Stumbling thru I somehow managed, I think, to generate a map. After spending 10 minutes searching for it, I found a folder "Shaded Relief". Inside where these files.. (mind you, this is only one map, so I'm not sure why there are multiple files) :

• _3DTexture_1.at5
• _3DTexture_2.at5
• _3DTexture_4.at5
• _3DTexture_8.at5
• _3DTexture_16.at5

Do I have a lake map and is the next step to put it in the HDS-7 and have a look??

Thanks

Yes they are the files - numbers are different zoom levels

Different zoom levels. Ok. Interesting. Something else I have to learn before I understand the inner workings of RM! Thank you.

As far as transferring these maps of mine to an SD card, I noticed that on one of my Navonic's map cards, there is a Main folder named "Navionic", and a sub folder with in called "Charts". Inside of the "Charts" folder are all the .nv2 files.

Should I set up my new SD card with the new map the same way, Main folder and sub folder, and then additional sub folders for each of the other lakes I'm working on? Or do all the lakes I make go into one sub folder?

Also, can I name those sub folders after their corresponding lakes and then rename their individual .at5 files within after the same corresponding lakes such as in -- Sub folder "Lakex1" and all the .at5 files with in named "Lakex1, lakex2, lakex3" and so on. Other wise, if all the .at5 files in all the sub folder are the same, the way they're generated in RM and then named like the files in the "Shaded Relief" folder, I might mix things up when working with other lakes. (That make sense?)

Use a new sd card and create folders for each lake and drop the files in to each lake and in theory should be able to choose which lake.

I'm having an issue at the moment with this as its not working for me from reefmaster but I can do it straight from insight Genesis. I'm not sure if I have missed something as I read here that you could.

Ok. Here's where I'm at now (HDS-7 Gen2 w/ latest updates)

Put the .at5 files on an SD card and tried viewing them on my HDS.... however, I couldn't get the map to show.

No option to select my new lake...





The lake is being shown under "File"s. You can see how I set it up in a main folder and then the files in a sub folder. Much the same as how a Navionics card is set up.

You must set to "Lowrance", "Naviconics" is not for RM Charts.

Also make sure that all of the texture files are in a folder called "ShadedRelief". This folder would have been created when exporting the map - the simplest way to ensure this is to choose your SD card as the destination for the export from RM, and all files will be put in the same place (large.at5 and at5.xml in the root, and texture files in the ShadedRelief). Things get a little more complicated for multiple maps, but it is probably a good idea to do it this way at first to check that everything is working.

checking...

It might be an idea to try a simple export format first just to get things configured. Maybe try an AT5 vector map, which will produce the files large.at5 and at5.xml (which you won't need, actually). Then make sure large.at5 is on your SD card (may as well put it in the root directory), fire up your unit and switch charts to Lowrance. You should also choose an AT5 compatible palette for your map before export, although if you don't have one selected a default (blue & white) will be selected for you.

ok. They were generated into a folder called Shaded Relief, but I changed or created a new folder (As shown above) called MYMAPS and a sub folder called Cayuta where I put the .at5 files.

I'll redo things with just the shaded relief folder name. And I will have at least 4 more lakes I'll be making maps for, so I will need to know how to set things up. I can run separate SD cards per lake, but that's a pain.

As for the palette, I have an at5 color palette chosen so it should work. Let me mess with it for a few.