Can gps maps on sd cards be swapped from another manufacturer such as tom tom vs garmin and still work ?

They are competing each other. If I were Garmin, why should I program maps such that when compressed into a file can be also used by Tom2x, Magellan etc.. Some maps may not even work in other software navigation system even if they are of the same brand, so it is expected not to work on other brands. But most maps(not the map software) may be supplied by same organization like Navteq.

Can gps maps on sd cards be swapped from another manufacturer such as tom tom vs garmin and still work ?
I highly doubt it.





TomTom maps have certificate files that are created when the map is installed or activated. TomTom maps that are available on sd card need to be activated, and this is done using two codes, the product code for the map and the device code for the TomTom unit. The reason for this is to prevent the map from being used with multiple TomTom units, and I am sure it would prevent it from being used with Garmin units at all.





Also the software would probably not be compatible.