Dismanteling Individual state files when there is a combined file.....

I just ran a test with my RCL files. On my computer I have 11 individual gpx files that range from 3.16KB - 283KB for a total of 893.26KB, my combined gpx files is 883KB. On my gps sd card (2GB) the orig poi.gpi file size was 1.76MB and 7429 pois(that included the 893.26KB file). I swapped out the file with the combined file on my pc and ran poiloader the poi.gpi file size went to 1.95MB and 8488 pois. Also I my PC poi loader folder I orig had 12 files for a total of 1.9MB, after with the combined file I have 12 files for a total of 2.48MB. Personally I just load the, unedited, file I need to the sd card and I don't really care if I don't visit every place listed.

My question is, how will combining the state files into larger area or a single file affect my favorites? Will I need to keep checking for a combined file if I have downloaded a state file or will my favorites alert me if and when the state file has been rolled into a combined file?

From my experience if the state file is rolled up into a combined file, you will not receive notices the state has been updated when a change has been made to the combined file.

However, maintaining a combined file also puts more responsibility on the file maintainer to update the file change log every time the file is updated. If the changes to the file are for an area that is of no concern to the user, there is no need to reload. However if the change log is not updated, then as a user you are at a loss as to knowing if the update affects your area.

It certainly is up to the file maintainer, but that is what I just did with the Target store files. I made a log entry with the number of stores affected and what states the changes occurred in.

I also make log entries when I update the Tampa Bay area files. Of course, those are all in the state of FL, but I list the POI so that users can see what specific POI was added or deleted. Then they can decide if it is an update they want or not.

Mahoney does this as well with the McDonalds. I appreciate it.

In the case of the Target files, it would be easy to pull out just certain states as they are arranged alphabetically by state.

As Miss POI stated, I would not want to maintain 50 separate files.

I agree that working on 50 files is a pain so I would encourage those who only want certain states to re-work the POI file to meet thier individual needs. I'll try to keep future files sorted by states to make customizing easier.

Not offering an opinion one way or the other but for those who think "one big file is ok", there's a file for dams in the POI collection. Go load that file and tell me what you think then.

Why? You ask. Good question. At last check, there was something on the order of 56872 entries. Wanna see your memory manager get a cardiac?

I can pull out of that file the entries I'm interested in without loading the whole thing but some folks are SOL when it comes to using the file.

(However, the POI-Factory folks offered to slice it up as needed.)

One thing to look at is if you are traveling then you only need to load one combined file for each poi you are interested in. If you load by state you need to load a number of files. also you need to check for update on each one which takes time, where with combined files you need to do less down loading and in most cases they are more up todate than state files. Just somethings I have run across in my time here.

I downloaded the Dams file and used POILoader to load it to my 765T.

The run took 20 seconds and loaded 56,871 points. The poi.gpi file occupied 2621 KB

Was not sure how to comment on "memory manager" - it just ran too quick to go to Task Mamager.

What is your experience on your machine?

Sorry, I said it wrong, load it into Basecamp, then try to delete all the points you don't want for the rest of the country.

Jack , THANKS!!! I just don't see urge to drop 150$ on a program that I will use now and then to edit some POI's! Is this the correct program? http://www.openoffice.org/

Great discussion here! There are 2 sides of the fence the organizer's and the users. I can see both people's point of view. Maybe there should be a list of people that are capable and willing to help out some people edit POI's for the sole purpose of a state or 2.....

That is the right web site bigk_54. Enjoy.

It runs in Gods OS (Linux/unix) also

A man after me own heart.

I use it on a mac (same functional difference here) and took a huge file like the dams and broke it up into individual state files (also using a makefile as you did).

I have one added file which is all of the New England states so that I can use that for some of the filtering.

I've asked the POI gods here and haven't heard back yet, I've offered to give them back a copy of the dams file with individual state files (in a zip file of course).