GeePeeEx Editor

With GeePeeEx Editor I can drag the location cross hair around on the map and/or satellite view to fine tune where I want the coordinates. Comes in very handy when the satellite view reveals that the Google pushpin generated is actually in the wrong place.

Google lets you download one to a few item at a time to your Favorites list. GeePeeEx lets you build and edit a POI file. GeePeeEx editor will single or batch geocode address listings and generate coordinates. They are complimentary, actually. Google for simple one-off send a location to your Favorites. GeePeeEx Editor for dealing with POI files with multiple entries.

GeePeeEx Editor supports all the fields in a .gpx entry including address, phone and comments fields. The resulting display on the GPS unit is nicely formatted and has "dialable" phone numbers if your GPS has bluetooth phone support.

Wow, this is pretty cool! Looks like it is a lot easier than trying it the other ways.

You called it. I am amazed that so many people use much more complicated procedures to create their files.

V1.8.0 will let you manage your Favourites as well - I'm just struggling at the moment, to get consistent handling across ranges - the Nüvi 3xx series strikes again!!

Any anticipated eta for 1.8?

It certainly is. If I'm just searching for an address, I will usually go to GeePeeEx instead of Google. GeePeeEx gives an "accuracy" indication when it geocodes, whereas Google/MapQuest do not. You're not sure if it found an exact match or just a close guess. Then switch to satellite view and see if the crosshair is actually where you think it should be. Most of my personal POI's are located exactly on the driveway, not the middle of the property, for example.

All being well - during this coming week. However, these things sometimes take longer than anticipated...

Just got the full version (1.7) and is really worth it. Not to mention Phil's support which came before I even bought the software.

Just wanted to give Phil kudos for helping newbies like myself around.

I too started to use this program to make POI files for the Nuvi. I find it very easy and fast to make a POI file. For me it is worth every penny. Can't say enough good things about it. Thanks for a wonderful program!

I find GeePeeEx extremely easy to create and edit poi files. Can't say enough about it, other than, try it you'll like it!

I just got the full version a couple of days ago and it is very easy to use. I used it to build my first POI file and plan to use it for planning some routes for my summer trips as well.

The routing feature in the 760 is sketchy at best, so that's where I am hoping that the GeePeeEx will come in fill the void.

A big plus is the support and help from Phil the developer of the program and a member of the forum here.

I have just released V1.8.0 - which includes new functionality for managing Favourites (on mass-storage capable) devices.

This functionality is available for $FREE in the Trial version

The documentation is a bit delayed - but I'm sure you'll figure it out - (Clue: See "File | Import Favourites" and "File | Export Favourites")

[Just remember that when used as Favourites, there are a lot of gpx fields that are not used - so no JPEGS, Audio alerts etc.
Basically, most of the address fields are used, along with the first (dialable) phone number.
You can populate this data from an imported csv, gpx or kml file, or from the Yahoo! geocoder, or built-in Google map. ]

http://GeePeeEx.googlepages.com/downloadlinks

once again GREAT SOFTWARE Phil.

I also can attest to that.. Thanks Phil for the update.

Thanks for the update, awsome as usual...

Thank you once again to Phil for the new version of GeePeeEx editor. As a newbie in GPS, I would recommend that anyone who is serious about getting the most out of their GPS should get the full version.

Definitely worth it.

I've been using GeePeeEx for a number of months now and I've found it to be the easiest software out there to create and manage GPX files, as well as to edit CSV files. Phil is also extremely conscientious and continues to tweak and improve the software...

Sounds like I need to get the software.

Just another kudo for the effort you put in Phil.
Great software and it keeps getting better.

Just one small complaint about the program. When I copy all of the fields into the program for a waypoint and press the GeoCode button to get he coordinates many times it is off. Sometimes it is off by a few hundred feet but sometimes it's off by a few miles or even a few hundred miles in another town.
I double check, whenever possible with the POI own websites "direction link" just to make sure it is accurate. If this is not possible I'll check with Google Maps.
Does anyone else that uses the program find the location of the POI off many times when using the GeoCode button?

GeePeeEx Editor currently uses the Yahoo! Geocoding service. In addition to the returned data, Yahoo! also gives an "accuracy" indication, which GeePeeEx Editor will show you (ie Address,Street,Zip,City,Country etc).

If the results it is returning are not within the stated accuracy, then this is serious bug (that needs reporting to Yahoo!).

Do you have some example data that can be used to reproduce this problem?

Yes I can give you some examples but I'm in a bit of a hurry right now. I will post some example within a day or two.
Thanks
Gus

I'm not around for the next two weeks - I'll be in Florida - so there might be a delay in looking at this (it all depends on the cost of the hotel's WiFi )

Here is an example of one that is a little off location; this is the web site of the POI:

http://southside.fivestardealers.ca/dealership/directions.ht...

Now if you put this in the GeePeeEX it will be off by about 1 kilometer.

This is an example of one that is off much more; this is the web site of the POI:
http://airdrie.fivestardealers.ca/dealership/directions.htm

Now put this in the program and I would say it is off by about 5 kilometer. What's even worse is it didn't even go on the proper street as the POI is really on, it ended on another street.

This is one more example of missed locations;
http://camrose.fivestardealers.ca/dealership/directions.htm
Copy and paste this contact info in the program and hit the GeoCode button and it ends up outside of the town instead of right in the center of it.

There are so many more but you get the idea. I wish I could have found the one that was in another town than the actual POI. If I find it I will post it. As you can see I really can't depend on what the program gives me as coordinates of a POI and have to double check the results with the POI web site or Google maps. That too bad because it would be great if I didn't need to do that.

Gus

If you search previous posts on geocoding, you will find it common that the different map services disagree where a given address is located -- Google, Mapquest, and Yahoo may all show different locations. I don't know whether one is better than another or not, but I definitely know Google has its share of errors in my neighborhood.

The point is, this has nothing to do with the GeePeeEx Editor program, other than Phil has chosen to use Yahoo Maps for geocoding. Have you looked at the first cited example at Yahoo Maps online: http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTExNmIycG51BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkE...

Dear Bent,

I was unable to divine of which phenomenon your exemplar was "the first cited example. . . ." I looked at the history of this thread but could not find the citation; perhaps I missed it. Please enlighten me.

david

I use GeePeeEx editor a lot and have never had this trouble. By that I mean an error that is attributable to GeePeeEx Editor, and not the public map data that it pulls from. If I get a location that is off, it has been the same error as if I searched Google Maps directly.

What I suspect is that your car dealership examples have noted the Navteq error in geocoding and have listed a manually adjusted map location on their own private web page.

If I use your first example and search for the address in Google Maps, I get a location that is quite a bit different than what the auto dealership has posted on their web site. I think this is the "difference" that you are seeing.

Yes that may be true that the dealers may have put the locations manually on the maps to adjust their exact locations. But if you put those examples into Google maps it will find the same locations not so with the GeoCode button(Yahoo Maps).

In the post just before mine, Iceman2k4 posted 3 examples of bad geocoding. I took the address from the first example and put it into Yahoo Maps and it did indeed display at a different location from what his Google Maps displayed, so I assume that is the same thing he sees on his GPSr after geocoding with GeePeeEx Editor.

I finally got around to looking at this. It took me approximately 5 minutes to decide to pay for the full version. Even if I only use it for the one file I have in mind it will have been well worth the money.

I'm still working on the Chrysler Dealers for all of Canada and found another instance of GeoCode button showing wrong location so I'm posting this one too. Maybe someone else can try this with the program and see what results they get.

Here is the link to the POI I'm adding

http://okanagan.fivestardealers.ca/dealership/directions.htm

I'm interested on what others are getting with the GeePeeEx. Then try it with Google Maps. It find the write location with Google but not GeePeeEx.

Here's another one that missed by a block on the wrong street:

http://gardencity.fivestardealers.ca/dealership/directions.h...

If you put the first address into GeePeeEx Editor (or Yahoo Maps with commas) as:
2690 Hwy 97 North
Kelowna
BC V1X4J4 CA

you should get the same location as Google Maps. However, if you spell out "Highway" Yahoo Maps can't find the address and returns the center of the city. I'm betting that similar quirks in the addresses of the other questionable locations are also resulting in center-of-the-city coordinates. Did you notice that GeePeeEx Editor gives you the degree of precision -- probably "ZIP" for the bad address, warning you that it couldn't match the address with that spelling. That tells you that you probably have something off kilter from what it expects. Here in the US, I believe the official Post Office abreviation for "Highway" is Hwy.

Yes I figured the "Highway" spelling was messing things up and spelled it "Hwy" with no problems afterwords. With the other POI and don't think that was the case but I will double check.

I just check the other POI and that is not the case with these POI

I'll have to check this out. I've started compiling a POI file of all the state liquor stores in Oregon (the ONLY liquor stores in Oregon are state stores) and I've found that the geocoding for some of them only give me the "town" level of accuracy - not good enough for locating a store. I'll check for Highway vs Hwy and a few other things like that - Blvd for instance. Hopefully this will correct my problem.

The POI info is being taken from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission listing and will include phone numbers and the stated hours of operation as well as the name of the store, the address, and the coordinates.

A reference to the USPS street abbreviations: http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/abbr_suffix.txt

I don't know if it occurred to you, but it would have been really nice if you posted that you had figured it out -- I wouldn't have stayed up 'til 2:00 in the morning trying to help you figure it out.

I didn't figure anything out, I still have the same problems. For example I put this POI into the program and it is way off and the results precision says it address so I think it should be right on or very close.

http://lapointeauto.fivestardealers.ca/dealership/directions...

Try this in the program and see for yourself. It is way off. It's a good thing most Web Sites have their exact location mapped out or many of them would be way off without manually moving the marker in the correct location.

You will usually get better search results if you omit the street descriptors when searching for an address. So to search for "213 N. Smith Blvd" you should just input 213 and on the street screen input only "Smith". It will prompt you later for Road, Ave, St., etc. and may or may not prompt you for N/S/E/W. This avoids the problem that not all road names are reported by the municipalities the same way. One city may report the name as "Smith Road" and another may report it as "Smith Rd". This type of discrepancy trips up the search function. Of all the street descriptors, Highway and Hwy seem to be the most often misreported names.

Dear Bent.

Thank you. I should have worked that out. I too have been frustrated by a similar phenomenon when obtaining different results from Hess mapped locations of its stations from the Google Earth results from the addresses Hess provides.

david

Does anyone know if GeePeeEx works with the line break problem in the Nuvi 350 and 360 units?

For the most commonly entered information - ie address and phone number(s), GPX format provides fields which correspond to pre-defined areas on the Nüvi screen. Therefore it becomes a simple, fill-in-the-box exercise, leaving the unit to do the formatting. No additional 'line-break' information needs to be supplied by the user.

For the free-form Description field, GeePeeEx Editor automatically adds <br> statements to the end of each line, which the Nüvi 3xx understands.

Other units do too, so long as they appear on 'Page 2' (ie after the "MORE" button is pressed). GeePeeEx Editor ensures that that is where they do appear, on such units.

Just my .02
I have a 350 and a 660.(which format differently)
I interchange the two quite often using Geepeeex.
I started by keeping separate directories for the two units. But then after a lil bit I just started using a single directory to home my geepeex generated files. I load/update both units from the same files and I've had no problems with linebreaks.

I am having trouble while testing this having the program recognize Canadian addresses.

Here is the address GeePeeEx is not finding:

Hilton Whistler Resort
4050 Whistler Way
Whistler, BC VON 1B4
604-932-1982

It shows up in Yahoo and Google Maps, but not with the Program

Just one of the vagaries of Yahoo!'s Geocoding service, I'm afraid. But, since it's free, we can't really complain!

I got it to return a sensible-looking result, by ditching the second half of the 'post code' and the business name.

It returned:

50.113085,-122.956642
4050 Whistler Way
Whistler
BC
V0N
CA


Perversely, if you feed that result back in, it finds a result of much lesser ("city") precision, until you remove the Country code. Odd - but one for Yahoo! to fix.

Great Program from what I have utilized so far. I dove right in and did'nt wait for activation. Now I'm waiting to shut down and cant until I receive my activation code. It would be great if this program could replace mapsource. Or maybe I'm creating work for myself because I didn't take the tour.

I'm
importing from a csv file to GeePeeEx name and address
Add the Geo Codes,
I export to fav on my Nuvi
Import into Mapsource
adjust catagories and icons.
Transfer back to Nuvi.

That's not a workflow I would ever have envisaged - but, hey - you can use it anyway you want

I posted my workflow in hopes that someone would have a better solution to the end. Also I am having trouble with the icons can you help explain how to get them from GeePeeEx to Mapsource then on the Nuvi? I do not see my icons on the Nuvi.

Thanks