GPS Vector Map Morocco

GPS vector map for Morocco
...and Western Sahara

The Map
This page is about a free vector-map of Morocco and Western Sahara for handheld GPS-recievers, e.g. the Garmin eTrex series. The map is provided as-is, no warrantys whatsoever are given. This does especially mean:

I am not liable if you break your computer trying to install the map.
I am not liable if you break your GPS-handheld trying to transfer or view the map (to my knowledge this has not ever happened so far).
I am not liable if you rely on the accuracy or correctness of the map and get lost or in serious trouble as a result (anyone using GPS to find his way should be able to do so without GPS as well).

Also note, eTrex, MapSource, and various other things mentioned on this page are registered trademarks and belong to their respective owners. Now, most importantly, here is what you are looking for:

!!! IMPORTANT !!!
Please visit the Mirror Site for faster downloads.
Thanks a lot to Dominique for setting up this service!

Garmin MapSource format

Download for Windows (Mapsource) Garmin-format, Self-installing Executable (21.DEC.2007, 25.851kB)
Download for Apple (Roadtrip) Garmin-format, Roadtrip for Apple (21.DEC.2007, 26.099kB)
Download for Memory Card (gmapsupp) Garmin-format, Memory Card (21.DEC.2007, 26.082kB)

Download for manual installation Garmin-format, Part 1 - Road Map (21.DEC.2007, 3.696kB)
Download for manual installation Garmin-format, Part 2 - Topo Overlay (21.DEC.2007, 22.503kB)

You will need Garmin MapSource to use this version. Also see the Mini-Manual on how to use custom maps with MapSource.

For easy installation of both parts of the map, try the self-installing .exe version. To update an existing installation, it is sufficient to download the "road map" or "topo overlay" parts as needed and unpack them to your installation directory, replacing the old files (saves your and my bandwidth!).

Old versions before 11.NOV.2006 should be uninstalled before updating, due to some major changes in that release. An uninstall .exe should be included in your installation path. Otherwise use regedit and remove the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Garmin\MapSource\Products\03000090.

Don't read this paragraph, unless you want to perform a complete manual installation. Extract the .zip to folder C:\myMaps\Maroc-Topo, double-click on the Maroc-Topo.reg, start MapSource and enjoy. If you want a different directory, edit the .reg file and fill in your paths accordingly. (Note that part of the manual installation process is editing the registry, which is usually said to be potentially harmful. I told you, don't read this paragraph, just take the .exe file. You have been warned! :) )

GISrussa format

Download GIS Russa-format, Part 1 - Road Map (22.JUL.2007, 7.384kB)
Download GIS Russa-format, Part 2 - Topo Overlay (22.JUL.2007, 35.527kB)

The GIS Russa version is intended for the popular PDA navigation software. Personally I have not tested the GIS Russa version, as I do not have a registered version of that program, and no PDA as well. Updated versions are available on request.

Status of the map

The map tiles now cover whole Morocco and Western Sahara from Oujida to Nouadibou and from Figuig to Essaouira
50m contour lines are included in the "topo overlay", generated from SRTM version 2 data
"Major highways" (blue in Mapsource) should be four laned roads or broader
"Other Highway roads" (red in Mapsource) should be asphalted
"Arterial roads" (thick black lines) are probably asphalted, otherwise more or less easy to travel
"Collector roads" (thin black lines) are rather difficult tracks
"Unpaved roads" (dashed lines) are off-road connectors
Most of the roads are measured with GPS accuracy. On higher zoom levels, additional uncategorized, non GPS measured roads from VMAP0 pop up.
Road numbers and names are taken from the Michelin paper map

Things left to do

There are many roads from the VMAP0 basemap, that are not correctly built in yet. They need a name, a type and a zoom-level. And they should be replaced with GPS tracklogs or other more accurate data.
DETAILS!!! Currently the map is at most suited for rough overland orientation. No detailed city maps are available, mosty villages are just points, no hotels are named and so on. This is an infinite pile of work!
The rivers are taken from (inaccurate) VMAP0 data, the contour lines are take from (highly accurate) SRTM data. They do not really match. So the rivers are flowing uphill and downhill as they want, and do not stay in their valleys. I'll try to write a tool to automatically fix this, but clicking in bends for all the thousands of rivers is not an option!
The map tiles now have ID-numbers and filenames registered in the "Unofficial Garmin Product ID" list. Maybe they collide with the Whatever-Map-CD. If you encounter any problems, feel free to contact me.
so much more to do...

And it's for free?
The map is free for personal usage. You may create as many copies as you want, send them to friends, whatever, but you are not allowed to sell the map. And any derived works underly the same restriction. Formally this is achieved using the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License. A copy of this license should be included in the download package.

But: The map needs your help! Especially I could use some more GPS-tracks and Points of Interest (villages, campsites, hotels, markets...) to improve the map tiles. So "help" does mostly mean just sending in tracklogs and waypoints. If you really wanted, you could also get the sources of one or more tiles and help clicking in the roads, roadnames and so on. Also if you scan and calibrate a good citymap, that might be helpful. If you have even the faintest interest, please contact me! Or use this mail-address (hopefully hidden from SPAM-bots)

Links to other useful maps
There are many other useful, free maps around on the internet. I name only a few, that are of interest to me or might be of interest to you, and otherwise refer to some more complete collections:

Tunisia, Oman, et al. created by Alf
Iceland and recently also Corsica at the same site
Greece and some more mediterranean islands
Mapcenter by the authors of some useful mapping software
Free-Map List on yet another GPS site

All those maps are primarily aimed towards Garmin units. Some converters exist for different map-formats however, and if you need any help converting the Maroc-Topo map, just contact me and I'll see what I can do. I do know of the following additional formats/converters:

ESRI shape files: Free converter from .mp format to .shp exists (see here)
Magellan: Converter from .shp to Magellan format seems to exist (see here)
AlanMap: Native support in the registered version of GPSMapEdit
Holux: Native support in the registered version of GPSMapEdit
Navitel Navigator: Native support in the registered version of GPSMapEdit
GISrussa: Native support in the registered version of GPSMapEdit
Tomtom: NO converter seems to exist! Sorry!
Sony (NV-U50): NO converter seems to exist! Sorry!
Route 66: NO converter seems to exist! Sorry!

Making of the Maroc-Topo maps
Planning my first trip to Morocco I was looking for a vector-map of the country, but only came across numerous GPS-waypoints and tracklogs. And after a longer search I by now know of two digital vector maps of Morocco:

A map listed at http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/catalogue.php. I even found it a few days before leaving and had it with me on the tour. It's more like a basemap and not very accurate. It is based on the Garmin World Map, which in turn is based on VMAP0, which is freely available and also used for this map. Some citymaps and more roads seem to have been added... maybe one day I'll try to merge them into my map!
Several maps from all over africa at http://www.tracks4africa.com/. This is not a free map however. In fact they seem to have a funny concept of bussiness: You send in your data, recieve a crippled and stripped down version of the updated map "to verify your submission was successfully built in" and if you want the full version, you can pay! Well, I just don't get the point, why I should submit anything at all then, but they do seem to have a huge community and lots of accurate maps. Mostly of the southern africa. I don't really know, how accurate the Morocco-map is. Due to my understanding of freedom of information, I just can not approve their concept.

That's why I started with my own map.

Editing the map
There should be a makingof.txt included in the package. This contains all the boring details of data acquisition, data conversions, vectorization, tools and free resources used. Read on there! If you want to help editing, just contact me!

Final remarks
Special thanks for the communication about mapping problems to: Alf, Peter Dekode, Tom
Special thanks for taking care of some city maps: Florian Weinfurtner
Special thanks for the (huge) collection of tracklogs and thanks to everyone contributing there go to: Pascal Poublan, Aimé Guiss, Lilian Morinon
Additional thanks for tracklogs go out to: Julius, Carlo, Nicolas Tosi, Teun Usleeber, Hans Wynendaele, Jan Cramer, Luis Almeida, Vince Cobley, Rainer Faist, Tomas, Hort Dersch, Roland Solecki, Alfonso Valenzuela, Alain Spaite, Filipe Gama, Florian Weinfurtner, Luis Cabrita, Peter Lunstroo, Walter Stolle, Stefan Meulendijks, Ahto Tanner, Barney, Beltran, Benjamin Ohloff, Till Damhofer, Tim Cullis, Ueli Leardi.
Thanks to Ralf for providing and checking the Apple version for Garmin Roadtrip
Thanks for the free mirroring service: Dominique
Thanks to the data collectors, editors and providers of the basemaps: SRTM (made available by CIAT) and VMAP0 (available from ESRI)
Thanks to the authors of all the useful programs that made this work possible: GPSMapEdit, cGPSmapper, DEM2TOPO, libgeotiff. Or, well, thanks to most of you, some programs are a bit strange and difficult to use... :)

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