Maps

The Maps tab builds a custom Garmin map out of your own tracks, so the roads and trails you planned in INVIA are drawn on the Garmin screen while you ride. The page subtitle reads Build custom maps from GPX tracks and send to your Garmin device.

What INVIA builds is a .img file that draws on top of the Garmin's own map rather than replacing it, so your lines sit over the base map the Garmin came with. Read the four pages in this section in order, because each one goes deeper into the builder that the page before it introduced.

The Map Library#

The Maps tab opens the Map Library, where every design you have saved is one card. A design is the set of layers, tracks and options you assembled. It lives in INVIA while the map file it builds lives on the Garmin, so deleting one never touches the other.

Each card carries a thumbnail of its tracks in their own colors, the design name, the number of tracks and the date you last saved it.

The USB button is dimmed until you connect a Garmin on the Device page, because there is nowhere to send a map until then. Hovering it reads Connect Garmin on Device page first. View on Map, Edit and Delete all still work and the design stays saved, so connect the Garmin and return to the Map Library to find the button active.

Deleting asks Delete this map? and warns This can't be undone. before it takes the card off the grid. Your routes, rides and tracks stay where they are, because a design only points at them, and map files already written to the Garmin stay on the Garmin. There is no undo, so build the design again from the same tracks with + Create New Map when you want it back. To take a map file off the Garmin, delete it in the Maps panel on the Device page.

A save or a delete can fail to reach your account when the connection drops. A failed save reads Cloud save failed, check your connection and try again, and your other designs are unchanged, so check the connection and save again. A failed delete reads Failed to delete map and the card leaves the grid anyway. The design is listed again the next time the Map Library loads, so press Delete on that card again.

The search box appears once one design is saved, and it filters the cards by name. A search that matches nothing shows No maps match and Try a different search, and every saved design is still there, so clear the box to see them all. An empty library reads No maps yet and Create a custom Garmin map from your routes, with one button, + Create New Map. The Map Library.

One layer, one map file#

+ Create New Map and Edit both open the builder in place, and ← Map Library takes you back.

One layer becomes one map file on the Garmin, which is how you show and hide a whole set of tracks on the device without building anything again. The builder states this on screen: Each layer = one map file on your Garmin (show/hide it on the device). Put as many GPX tracks in a layer as you like. Where layers overlap, the higher layer draws on top. Each layer card reads N trk → 1 map, and dragging a card up or down changes which layer draws over which.

Getting tracks in#

Four controls put content into a design.

A .img file you already have is decoded back into its tracks and waypoints, which is how you edit a map you built earlier rather than starting over. Importing a route from Library brings that route's waypoints with it, and importing a collection brings every member's waypoints along with the collection's own pins.

Load in Maps on Device reads one map off the Garmin and adds its tracks and waypoints to your design. The trash icon beside it deletes that map file from the Garmin, and INVIA asks you to confirm first, so nothing is deleted until you confirm. The map leaves the Maps on Device list, while your routes, rides, waypoints and saved designs stay in INVIA and the Garmin's own base map is untouched. To put the map back, open its design in the Map Library and send it again. Layers and inputs.

Styling a layer#

Style, width and arrow direction are set on the layer, so every track in it reads the same way on the Garmin screen.

A Garmin draws seven colors natively, Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, so what you pick is what the Garmin shows. Select recolors many tracks at once, and tracks you did not select keep the color they had.

Where two tracks in a layer share the same road, Color priority, top wins overlaps decides which color keeps that stretch. The lower color is trimmed where the two share the road, and both tracks are still in the layer and both are still built. Reorder the priority list when you want the other color to win.

Two options decide how your waypoints reach the Garmin. Pins on map (.img) bakes them into the map file as pins with names. Device GPX (real symbols) writes a companion waypoints file instead, so your pins arrive as real, searchable Garmin waypoints with proper symbols. What's a Garmin map (.img)? opens a short explainer on the page. Styling and options.

Getting the map out#

Download .img saves one layer to your computer and Download N layers (.zip) saves several at once, both alongside the companion {name}_waypoints.gpx. Downloading writes nothing to the Garmin and the design stays in the builder, so you can keep a copy on the computer and still send it afterwards.

Send to Garmin writes the map straight to a connected Garmin.

1. Connect the Garmin on the Device page.
2. Open the design in the builder and press Send to Garmin.
3. Choose internal storage or the SD card in the picker.
4. Wait for the toast.

INVIA builds each layer, writes each .img to the map folder and the waypoints file to the GPX folder, then re-lists the storage to check that every file arrived. Zumo, XT and Tread models take the .img in the MAP folder, and a Garmin that connects as a drive takes it in Garmin/.

Send to Garmin writes files and deletes none, so your saved design is still in the Map Library and the maps already on the Garmin stay installed. Read the hardware checklist for your Garmin model, because it names the folder that model reads maps from, then send again and choose the other storage. You can also press Download .img and copy the file into that folder yourself.

The button reads Garmin not connected until a Garmin is connected, and nothing is sent while it does. Download .img still writes to your computer, your design stays in the builder and nothing is deleted, so connect the Garmin on the Device page and press Send to Garmin again.

Save Map keeps the layers, the tracks, the waypoints and the options in your Map Library, and it builds nothing and writes nothing to the Garmin. Sending a saved design you have not changed since its last send reuses the file already built for it, which is why that second Send to Garmin is quick. A design you have not saved yet is built again on every send, and Download .img always builds a fresh file even for a saved design. Save the design first when you want the quick resend, because the shortcut applies only to Send to Garmin on a design that is in your Map Library. Outputs and limits.

When the builder stops#

A design that breaks one of the builder's rules gets a message instead of a map. Nothing is built and nothing is sent while a message is showing, and your layers, tracks and waypoints stay in the builder, so fix what the message names and press the button again.

Building and sending run on INVIA's map service, which the page probes as it loads. When that service is unreachable, a card replaces the builder and reads:

• Map builder unavailable
• The map-building service isn't reachable right now.
• Your saved maps are safe, try again in a bit.

The saved designs in your Map Library are not affected, so press Retry on the card to probe the service again.

Free and Pro#

Browsing the Map Library is free, and so is creating, editing and saving a design, which means you can assemble a map on any account. Building the .img, downloading it and sending it to a Garmin are the Pro parts of the Maps tab. While Pro enforcement is off, any account can build, download and send, and no Pro message appears. When Pro enforcement is on and your account does not have the feature, pressing any of those three builds nothing and the message reads Offline maps are a Pro feature.

1. 1
   Map Library

   The Maps tab: your saved Garmin map designs as cards with View on Map, Edit and Delete, the empty state, cloud save, and the Create New Map button that opens the builder.

2. 2
   Builder: layers and inputs

   The Garmin map builder: one layer becomes one .img map file on the device, how tracks get in from files, the library and the device, waypoints, styling, options, outputs and the rules it enforces.

3. 3
   Builder: styling and options

   Per-layer styling in the Garmin map builder: Arrows or Solid, Width, Fwd or Rev, the seven Garmin colors, bulk recolor with Select, Color priority, and the Pins on map and Device GPX options.

4. 4
   Builder: outputs and limitsPro

   Download .img or a .zip of layers, Send to Garmin with verification, Save Map, the 30 tracks per layer limit, unnamed layers, the map service and the unavailable card, and what is Pro.