Static and dynamic contours

1. A method comprising:

displaying a contour map to a user on a display of an electronic device, the contour map being rendered by a processor of the electronic device from a union of static contours and dynamic contours, the static contours and the dynamic contours representing specific elevations, wherein the static contours comprise elevation lines derived from a vector source database and the dynamic contours comprise elevation lines derived from a parameter source database that enables user-selection of a drawing of elevation lines according to parameters selected by the user; and

setting a visible property of the dynamic contours to make the dynamic contours visible or invisible, wherein when the dynamic contours are visible the dynamic contours are displayed simultaneously with the static contours on the contour map, and when the dynamic contours are invisible the dynamic contours are not displayed on the contour map and the dynamic contours are used for three dimensional rendering and vertical profiling in the contour map.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the parameters are selected from the group consisting of map scale, contour interval parameters, and map density.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the map scale represents a relationship between distance on the contour map and a corresponding distance on the earth's surface.

4. A method comprising:

rendering a contour map with a processor of an electronic device, the contour map comprising a union of static contours and dynamic contours, the static contours and the dynamic contours representing specific elevations, wherein the static contours comprise elevation lines derived from a vector source database and the dynamic contours comprise elevation lines derived from a parameter source database that enables user-selection of a drawing of elevation lines according to parameters selected by a user;

setting a visible property of the dynamic contours to make the dynamic contours visible or invisible, wherein when the dynamic contours are visible the dynamic contours are displayed simultaneously with the static contours on the contour map, and when the dynamic contours are invisible the dynamic contours are not displayed on the contour map and the dynamic contours are used for three dimensional rendering and vertical profiling in the contour map; and

displaying the contour map to the user on a display of the electronic device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the electronic device is a Global Positioning System (GPS) device.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the GPS device comprises:

the processor coupled with an input device, memory, and the display; and

the processor coupled with a GPS receiver, which in turn is coupled with a GPS antenna.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the parameters are selected from the group consisting of map scale, contour interval parameters, and map density.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the map scale represents a relationship between distance on the contour map and a corresponding distance on the earth's surface.

9. A Global Positioning System (GPS) device comprising:

a processor coupled with an input device, memory, and the display; and

the processor linked to a GPS receiver coupled with a GPS antenna, the memory including a vector source database, a parameter source database and a contour map process to render a topographic map comprising static contour lines and dynamic contour lines, the static contour lines and the dynamic contour lines representing specific elevations, wherein the static contours comprise elevation lines derived from the vector source database and the dynamic contours comprise elevation lines derived from the parameter source database that enables user-selection of a drawing of elevation lines according to parameters selected by a user;

wherein a visible property of the dynamic contours is set to make the dynamic contours visible or invisible, wherein when the dynamic contours are visible the dynamic contours are displayed simultaneously with the static contours on the contour map, and when the dynamic contours are invisible the dynamic contours are not displayed on the contour map and the dynamic contours are used for three dimensional rendering and vertical profiling in the contour map.

10. The GPS device of claim 9 wherein the process further comprises displaying the topographic map to a user.

11. The GPS device of claim 9 wherein the parameters are selected from the group consisting of map scale, contour interval parameters, and map density.