I have recently moved to a farm with a one acre pond and thought it would be helpful in managing it if I knew the depth layout. I took my ice fishing setup,attached a down scanning transducer and mapped the lake. As expected, the projected depths exceeded the actual perimeter, showing depth around 5feet further up the bank than it actually is. Seeing how it was recording,I ran close enough to the bank so that I can tell the layout by the trails. 
  Here is what I can not figure out. I am wanting to make a paper copy of the map with the trails on so that I have the outline of the pond but I have been unable to open the sd card in my Mac to do so. 
  Is there a tutorial out there or does anyone know how I can make a paper copy of what I have on the card. Or for that matter, get the computer to recognize the card so that I can open it. 
 

thanks

I've never had an issue reading an SD card with my Mac.   There's not much to it.  Insert the card and it shows up on the desktop.

 

Are you getting an error when you insert the card or is nothing happening?

Exactly, I have never had an issue transferring or opening an so card until now! If I remember right there was a message about not being able to read the card. It showed up like any other card I have used in the past however when I double clicked on Garmin, it gave me more boxes or files to open that were empty. I am away from my computer now but when I can, will let you know exactly what it said, if there is anything on it. I had to force eject the card for yet again, some odd reason. 

What software are you using to look at the files? 

I am not sure. Like TN boy said I just plug it in the slot and normally it just comes up. In the top right corner there will be an sd card usually titled unknown. I click on it and whatever is on the card opens the contents. Sometimes I have to click on a file but when I do on this card, I don’t get what I recorded.  
 Not the best description I’m sure but I am not real good with the jargon. 
thanks 

I’m guessing that Garmin uses a different format than Apple does. Have you tried opening the card on a PC?

I am not sure. Like TN boy said I just plug it in the slot and normally it just comes up. In the top right corner there will be an sd card usually titled unknown. I click on it and whatever is on the card opens the contents. Sometimes I have to click on a file but when I do on this card, I don’t get what I recorded.  
 Not the best description I’m sure but I am not real good with the jargon. 
thanks 

Not sure why that posted again. 
when you say, on a pc, do you mean like Microsoft? I have not. I do have access to one so I can give it a try. I am not up on Windows so is it plug and play or would there be a download involved?

Are you trying to open a screen shot or a sonar recording?

So, what I did was take a small Jon boat on a 1 ac farm pond and did a quick contour of the bottom.  Since there is a predictive nature to the mapping, it shows depth of around 5 feet up the bank, where it is high and dry. My path that I recorded shows a pretty good representation of the shape of the pond and I wanted to print a copy of this from the sd card, clear the tracking and make another printout so that I can overlap the two and make a good representation of the pond. The reason for two steps is that all of the trails from mapping it out has all of the contour lines extremely hard to see. And I digress. So it is really neither. 
 Which makes me think that if I took a screenshot of the map, is there a way to download that?

I am a Mac guy and a retired computer geek.   I’m not a Garmin user.   
 

When you have data in a file on an SD card,  you need software on the Mac to display it.  If you have opened files like this before on your Mac then you must have the required software.  If you have not done it before then I would think that’s the problem.   
 

The same is true with screenshots but I would expect that Garmin uses a common image file type that can be opened on any computer.

If you take a screenshot on your Garmin then it should be stored on the SD card or you should be able to copy it to the SD card.  Maybe a Garmin user can clarify that.

Concerning the map showing depth on the bank where there is no water.   Humminbird provides zero-line data for major lakes so you already have the shore line (where the depth is zero).  I assume Garmin does the same. The shoreline data is probably not available for your farm pond so you will need to account for that.  Humminbird allows you to edit the depth readings when you make your own maps.  If Garmin will let’s  you do that then you could change the readings closest to the bank to zero depth.  That might let you define the shoreline for your pond.   Again I have no experience with Garmin so I’m speculating.

Should be able to see a screenshot of the map, but the raw map files won't be readable without some specfic software.

 

On the lake level, hbird has a depth offset that you can adjust, I don't recall the name of it. I think it's included. Garmin has it too but at least on the echomap you have to have the add-on/mapping card which is kinda expensive. 

 

If the mac cant read the card at all and you can't see any files, I'd try it on another computer. I'm almost 100% sure the file format is a standard format like FAT that is readable on every platform. 

 

 

Thanks all for the information and advice. I am going to try and use a different computer and see how that goes. If I get any error codes, I will pass them on and see if I can move forward.