Getting your Travels Mapped Out

This is a basic guide to produce an offline GPS map for Locus Free, which you can easily find in the Android Market on your phones.
What you will need:

A) Locus Maps (and of course a smartphone that runs Locus Maps… obviously)

B) Mobile Atlas Creator (I prefer version 1.8 or older, as the newer updates have removed the option to utilise Google Maps)

C) Laptop or desktop (to run Mobile Atlas Creator)

D) an active internet connection (for Mobile Atlas Creator to download the maps)

Now in 12 simple steps:

1) Open Mobile Atlas Creator

2) Zoom the map to your choice area, and select the area you wish to produce

3) Press the “select entered coordinates” button

4) Choose your map source (in my case I prefer Google Maps, only available with version 1.8 or older)

5) Then choose your zoom levels you wish to produce. (I usually use 10, 13, 16 & 18, but you’ll have to find what works for you)

6) The higher the zoom level, the bigger the file size will be (and the longer it will take to create).

7) Under Atlas Content, press the “add selection “ button. Type in a map name (it is for your reference, so in this case I chose BKK for Bangkok)

8) Under the Atlas Settings, choose your map format. Since I’ll be using it for Locus, I’ve found that RMaps SQlite file format works and is smaller sized than most other file types.

9) Under Settings (below Create Atlas),

a) Under tile update, I have selected never, 

b) Under Map size Tab, Select 32767 as the maximum size for the map.

c) then most importantly select the Directories tab, and select where you want to store the map files. (in my case I chose under “../My Documents/travels/atlas”)

d) press ok

10) Now press the “Create Atlas” button. And wait for the process to complete. This can take from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the size of the map.

11) Once finished, connect your phone to your computer and copy the finished file (in my case would be BKK.sqlitedb) to Locus Maps, map directory.

12) Open Locus Maps.

a) under main menu, select Maps

b) under Personal tab,

i) If your file is listed, go to step iii

ii) If your file is not listed, press the + button at the bottom of the screen, and find where you saved the map in your phone.

iii)make sure the map you have transferred is selected (the box is ticked).

c) you are ready to go!