Lowrance LCM

The Export Lowrance LCM (MapCreate) command allows the user to export any loaded vector data sets to a Lowrance LCM format file for use in Lowrance brand GPS devices. This allows you to create custom maps for Lowrance devices from your data. Type assignment will be done based on the built-in type assignments. In addition, the MP_TYPE attribute classification used for Polish MP exports for Garmin devices will also work for Lowrance exports, so if you provide custom classifications via the MP_TYPE attribute the type mapping should work for Lowrance exports as well.

The LCM export only has support for a limited set of types. Feature types that are not supported for LCM export will not be added to the generated LCM file, so it is important to use a built-in type (or a type with a custom MP_TYPE value that is supported) when exporting to the LCM format. The following is a basic list of the types of features that are supported:

  • Area Types
    • Lakes
    • Oceans
    • Parks
    • Swamp/Wetland
    • Urban Areas
  • Line Types
    • Political Boundaries
    • Contours
    • Railroads
    • Roads
    • Trails
    • Streams/Rivers
  • Point Types
    • Airport
    • Boat Ramp
    • Campground
    • Car Repair
    • City
    • Church
    • Department Store/Shopping
    • Gas Station/Fuel
    • Hospital
    • Navaids/Buoys
    • Pharmacy
    • Post Office
    • Restaurant
    • School
    • Water Features (Spring, Stream, Lake Name)
    • Wrecks

As the Lowrance format contains some type settings that cannot be captured with just a simple Global Mapper type selection or through the assignment of a MP_TYPE attribute, you can also use a LMC_TYPE attribute to provide a specific Lowrance type to use for some types. Here is a partial list of the supported LMC_TYPE attribute values:

  • Depth Contour Line Types

    • 0x50 - black, thickness 1
    • 0x51 - blue, thickness 1
    • 0x52 - dark aqua, thickness 1
    • 0x53 - dotted aqua, thickness 1
    • 0x54 - white, thickness 1
    • 0x55 - black, thickness 2
    • 0x56 - blue, thickness 2
    • 0x57 - dark aqua, thickness 2
    • 0x58 - dotted aqua, thickness 2
    • 0x59 - white, thickness 2
    • 0x5A - black, thickness 3
    • 0x5B - blue, thickness 3
    • 0x5C - dark aqua, thickness 3
    • 0x5D - dotted aqua, thickness 3
    • 0x5E - white, thickness 3

When selected, the command displays the Lowrance LCM Export Options dialog which allows the user to set up the export. The dialog consists of a Gridding panel and an Export Bounds panel which allows the user to set up the portion of the loaded vector data they wish to export.