using Garmin map data in OEM BMW Nav
 

Hello. I know that Garmin started (or have been) using NavTeq's (BMW OEM supplier of map data) maps for its devices.

My question is - can I take the data from the Garmin StreetPilot c310, burn it onto a CD (or DVD for MK4) and insert it (modified or unmodified) into the MK3 nav computer?

Are the Garmin and MK3/MK4 using the same protocol/standard for locating a point on map with the GPS coordinates?

Any insight into this woudl be helpful.

:)

TerminatorX5

Hi Terminator...

I have the same question, have any answers? is it possible?
regards...

no answers... it was a few years since i posted that question, i was at that time in Central America, and there was only one vendor with the specific GPS model and the maps... I got no answer, left the country, went to Russia, they had the maps for Russia, upgraded to MK4, russified the computer to recognize the cyrillic, russians kicked me out the country, when i got the car back, it was still russified (it gives directions in Russian), even though I was planning to change it over back to English...

Long story short - no, nobody replied,

...and a few Russian speaking and Ukranian speaking sites that could have shed any light into that possibility, were shut down, I suspect that they were hacking into the map databases to make them work on devices that manufacturers did not want them to be cross-compatible...

All GPS manufacturers use propreitary map formats

There is no map file standard in use anywhere

So yes, it would be possible un the following circumstances:
1. You know the BMW map file format
2. You know the Garmin map file format
3. You are sufficiently clever to write a file converter

But as the info is deeply secret and carefully guarded, you would find it near on impossible to get the file format info

and then you'd find it very dificult to write the file converter

ha ha ha, write a converter!!! it was much easier to argue with a bunch of Costa Rican cops with AK-74s who wanted to search my car after crossing border from Panama, then to write a simple code - I am not a programmer, and mere thought of it, scares me sh*tless!!!!

well, I have CIC DVD map for Argentina / Brasil and compared to DVD HIGH ROAD MAP EUROPE 2010....

nothing to do! very very different...

Both have the maps, right? Is there any way to 'transfer' the CIC maps (.ATLAS files I guess) to a DVD like HIGH ROAD MAP and use in a MK4?

I think must be easier than do it from a GARMIN file, since both are for BMW...

any idea?

regards!

check gren.ru, there might be something of interest - i haven't checked them for a while...

Here is a picture of a functional iDrive retrofit for an E53 sold by gren.ru

Actually, in 1998 NAVTEQ (then called Navtech) proposed transitioning to a vendor-independent format called SDAL. Looking at the list of "SDAL Partners", it didn't get very far, and the last "News" item is from 1999.

A quick Google search for "SDAL format spec" provides the following PDF link, bypassing the thser registration and restrictive license agreement:

SDAL Spec 1.7 PDF

Every once in a while someone posts a "how do I read a SDAL format map" question, so there must have been at least one released.