Lowrance electronic 6 - Manual (Page 13)

7
File Formats & Functions
Well, now you know what makes MapCreate tick. You may be ready to
skip forward to where we explain how our text formatting makes the
manual easy to skim. If that's the case, move on to "How to Use This
Manual: Typographical Conventions" on page 15. But, if you want to
pick up an extra tip or two, look over this segment describing the file
formats and memory cards MapCreate works with.
Map Border File
This file defines the boundary of the raw cartography data that is ex-
tracted and converted to a GPS custom map, or Map File. The border
file information is displayed on the computer's Master Map screen as
either a green rectangle (rectangle map border) or a magenta polygon
shape (corridor map border.) The file extension is *.lmp.
In MapCreate 6.3, you can draw a border, then build and save a map
without saving the border. However, some MapCreate power users still
like to save their borders as Map Border Files. That lets them make
changes to a border or even combine different borders without drawing
them from scratch each time. By default, MapCreate will first save a
Map Border File to the C:\Program Files\LEI\MapCreate\Data folder,
but if you prefer you can save it on your memory card. If you save else-
where, MapCreate remembers that location the next time you save. Ver-
sion 6.3 also stores map border information in each Map File. This lets
you generate a border simply by opening an existing Map File, includ-
ing maps built by previous versions of MapCreate 6.
A Map Border File can contain one or more different map border sets,
and these border sets don't need to be next to each other on the map.
For example, you can draw a rectangle border around one lake and
then draw a second corridor border around another lake several miles
away, and include both of those border sets into one Map Border File.
There is no limit (other than space on your hard disk, MMC or SD card)
on how many different border sets you can include in a Map Border
File. You can open and edit a Map Border File and then save the file
with the changes you made.
Custom Map File
This is the actual map format used by your GPS unit. MapCreate takes
the borders you drew (or saved as a Map Border File), extracts that
area's information from the raw atlas data, then converts it to a Cus-
tom Map File, often called a Map File for short. We call this conversion
process "creating the map." The file extension is *.lcm.
By default, MapCreate will first save a Map File direct to your MMC memory
card. If you prefer, you can save a Map File on your computer hard drive. When