Extra_POI_Editor - A tool to View/Edit/Convert POI/TourGuides (Part 2)

 

This thread is a continuation of the original thread here: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/21156

What is Extra_POI_Editor?

It does too many things for me to explain in a short post, so let's say it will allow you to view, edit and convert any GPX/CSV/OV2/JPG/KML/MGLN POI file to GPX/CSV/OV2/KML. Yes! Geocoded JPG can be imported too!

* There are preview windows specially designed to simulate a 4.3" widescreen GPS like a nuvi 760, but the program will work for other GPS; the display in the program will not match exactly the non-widescreen GPS.

* The tool will allow you to see the POIs on a map. You can drag also the marker on the map and update the new coordinate. This is very cool to fine tune the POI location.

* You can also preview linked images and sound files used in TourGuides.

* EPE can do batch geocoding and reverse geocoding. It has special filters to extract State, Postcode, Phone and more. You can create custom column formats for your CSV files input and output, ...

* You can open POI Loader, MapSource or GoogleEarth directly from EPE to see all POIs on the map.

This is it for now. It does more than that and will probably do more later. Please post your comments and suggestions here.

Turbo.

The EPE page and download links are here:

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Extra_POI_Editor

As usual, if you find something missing just post your requests. I will see what I can do.

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Thanks for that...

Box Car wrote:

Try setting your screen to a lower resolution. It will often correct problems just as you are describing. More is not always better.

Thanks, but nope, didn't work. Still does the same thing at 1280x720, next lower option.

The editor runs fine on a 'standard' Dell desktop, 15" monitor at 1280x1040.....guess I do my POI editing over there!!

It was worth the shot

I happen to be running 1280 x 1024 on my desktop and it works, but then it's an older Dell with XP.

EDIT: It's also not a widescreen.

--
Illiterate? Write for free help.

Same thing here with HP

Same thing here with HP laptop running XP .No problem.

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Same Problem

I have Windows 7 and have the same problems. I have communicated with Turbo on this. I tried the new installer but got a lot of errors. Just gave up and uninstalled.

Outstanding

I can't wait to try it... actually... I can wait and will have to wait 'til my return home.

turboccc wrote:

I just posted a full installer which is compatible with both Win XP and Windows 7. Now, there should be no problem installing EPE on Win7 computers.

The installer is posted at the same place as EPE.

Turbo

--
The Wizard of Ahhhhhhhs - Earned my Windmill 4/12/2010

Installer, Win7, Symbols...

jjen wrote:

I have Windows 7 and have the same problems. I have communicated with Turbo on this. I tried the new installer but got a lot of errors. Just gave up and uninstalled.

jjen,

Did you try the installer v4.70 I posted yesterday? There should be no error anymore.

lfc-montana,

I do not know why the maps are 75% normal size on some Win7 system. It works fine on my computer at 1920x1200. It does not work when I remote desktop from my home computer with a different resolution. It has to be a screen resolution issue.

Edit: About the symbols... Symbols are working fine when the maps are fine. So it seems that if you have a map size issue on Win7, you will have the symbol issue as well. My symbols is a big picture which shows one symbol at a time. It could be affected by the aspect ratio.

Again it appears only on Win7. I'll continue to investigate.

Installer 4,70

Yes I tried it yesterday and again a few minutes ago to be sure.
The first error I get is:

C:\windows\system32\expsrv.dll
An access violation occurred while copying the file.

Abort Retry Ignore

There is no good way out of this. It just gets worse.
Yes the files are unblocked.

Installer 4.70

Now I remember your issue with expsrv.dll. It did not complain on my Win7 system. I will remove it from the install package to see if works for you without it. I'll send you an email.

Turbo

EPE .gpx file association

Hi Steve,

When you start EPE v4.70 and you go unser Preferences, do you see that .GPX extensions are associated? Is the checkbox checked?

If not, check it. Quit EPE and double click on a GPX and tell me if it opens.

If already checked, uncheck it and re-check it. Quit EPE and double click on a GPX and tell me if it opens.

Turbo

GPX always checked

turboccc wrote:

Hi Steve,

When you start EPE v4.70 and you go unser Preferences, do you see that .GPX extensions are associated? Is the checkbox checked?

If not, check it. Quit EPE and double click on a GPX and tell me if it opens.

If already checked, uncheck it and re-check it. Quit EPE and double click on a GPX and tell me if it opens.

Turbo

In my case, the GPX box is checked. Even if I uncheck it, it "rechecks" itself right away (when I reopen the preference) whether I quit EPE first or not.

Maintaining window locations

Hi Turbo,
Whenever I open the POI Edit Window, it opens in the middle of the screen. I would like it to work like other products I use, where EPE remembers where I positioned it and opens subsequent Edit POI Windows at that new position, even if part of the window is off-screen, including between sessions. I would also like the main EPE window to open the next time I run it at the window position where I left it.

I'm verifying my POIs using Google Earth street view photos and keep MapSource, Google Earth and Excel open simultaneously in accessible parts of the screen. It's the fastest way to accomplish this.
Thanks,
Dave

--
Zumo 550 & Zumo 665 My alarm clock is sunshine on chrome.

Checking .GPX in preferences resolved the issue.

turboccc wrote:

Hi Steve,When you start EPE v4.70 and you go unser Preferences, do you see that .GPX extensions are associated? Is the checkbox checked?

That was the problem/solution. Checked the box and it now works as expected. It was one of those cases where you configure a program, but when you upgrade you forgot how to configure it! Thanks.

--
Garmin Nuvi650 - Morehead City, NC

I have used it in my Win 7

I have used it in my Win 7 64bit and works fine. Cool app.

--
Samk

Maintaining window locations

Hi dave817,

Yes, it can be done. Opening in the middle of the screen was the easy/lazy option supported automatically by VB. I will add this on my todo list.

Turbo

Edit: I sent you an email with a trial version.

Turbo, here's one for

Turbo, here's one for you.

I'm trying to update my Historic Ships POI to use the GPX format, with added information about each ship. For the most part, the descriptions come from the Internet so I can copy and paste descriptions, edited so that they don't bog down my nuvi too much.

Problem is, on six out of fifty ships in the area surrounding where I live (representative sample), tapping on the POI doesn't pull up a description at all, even though a description is in the GPX file. It's frustrating because there is no common denominator except for the fact the information was culled from webpages and edited in both notepad and word.

What could I be doing wrong? Could this be a limitation of the nuvi 200W?

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Turbo, here's one for

Hi Strephon,

The best is to post your GPX file somewhere so we can all have a look at it. Please indicate as well which POI is causing you problems. There has to be a logical explanation.

Turbo

I exported my GPX to a

I exported my GPX to a 14-column CSV and went through it with Word. For some reason, the export generated a lot of double-double quotes (""). I went and replaced all those with double-single quotes ('') since deleting them completely or replacing them with a single double quote led to problems when reading the CSV back into EPE. When exporting the file, I tried changing the encoding, which didn't seem to help. Then I checked the filters. The filters I had checked were:

* Remove duplicate comment field if same as description field (after MapSource)
* Remove empty comment field in GPX output.

I unchecked "Remove empty comment field in GPX output", saved as a GPX file using UTF-8 encoding and transferred the GPI to my GPS. Every item where I was having an issue came up without a problem. So apparently, some weird combination of the double-double quotes, the encoding, and the empty comment field being deleted screwed things up.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Issues

Empty comment is not a problem for sure. I doubt that double quote is an issue. You see this only in CVS file, but it is removed by any CSV parser.

Probably the UTF-8. It is normally the one that is the most compatible. It is a good thing to encode in UTF-8.

Let me know if the problem re-appear.

Turbo

On further review, it was

On further review, it was deleting the empty comment field that was the culprit and not the encoding. I was working from copies of the original file, so I went back to the original file and saved it to a new location, with the empty comment fields in place.

I transferred the file to my GPS and everything worked fine.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Empty comment field

Well, Garmin at its best! smile Empty comments usually are not a problem. Not on the 7xx family anyways. I'll try to remember it for the 200W. Thanks for the information. We learn something new everyday.

Great work and we sure do

Great work and we sure do appreciate all the time and effort you put into it.

Wow, what a great tool.

Wow, what a great tool. Thanks TurboCCC!

One question/request - would it be possible to add MGLN format to the list of Save To? Currently we can read MGLN but save only in CSV. Conversion CSV to MGLN requires awkward Magellan tools sad

Thanks in advance!!!

Save to Magellan

Hi oayz,

I tried twice and scratched my head a lot to save to MGLN format. No success so far! I understand 90% of the format, but there is still something missing. Unless someone provides me with more information, I won't be able to save to that format.

Turbo

Install for Netbook

I have just recently started using a netbook (vice laptop) when travelling. The Netbook is great with long battery life and small footprint.

Problem is I cannot run POI Editor as my screen resolution (1024x600) will not work. (I have tried lower but if there is a work around forMY native/normal resolution that would be great.

Thanks - absolutely great programme!

--
Tom

1024x600

What do you mean: it will not work?

Is there an error message? What exactly does not work?

Thanks,

Turbo

Turbo, it has nothing to do

Turbo, it has nothing to do with EPE, because I run EPE on my 1024x600 resolution Dell Mini 10V netbook (under Windows 7) without a problem.

That said, if it's a netbook, it's likely that the DPI setting is the culprit. I know that on my Mini 10V by default the DPI was set to 120, which meant big icons and big text. That setting also made it impossible to access certain buttons at times. Setting the DPI setting to the Windows default (90dpi if I recall) fixed all those issues.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

MGLN export

Turbo, thanks for promth reply!

I've found this in GPSBabel thread. Can it help?

http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.gps.gpsbabel.devel...

If you need help testing - let me know

Corrected

For some reason the version I was trying to use (earlier version) would not work (as in it "overflowed" the screen and I could not see the bottom "buttons").

I just downloaded the latest version and the installer and it works great....thank you.

Obviously something on the latest version and the installer corrected the problem!!

I did find out that I must "hide the taskbar" for the entire screen to "fit"

--
Tom

Your DPI Issue Is Still There

birchtree wrote:

For some reason the version I was trying to use (earlier version) would not work (as in it "overflowed" the screen and I could not see the bottom "buttons").

I just downloaded the latest version and the installer and it works great....thank you.

Obviously something on the latest version and the installer corrected the problem!!

I did find out that I must "hide the taskbar" for the entire screen to "fit"

Well, it's good to know that the new version works on a netbook without having to adjust the DPI setting, but the entire reason you were having problems with the older version in the first place (the DPI setting of the screen) is still there. Your newest post (quoted above) confirms this.

As I suspected in my previous response to Turbo regarding your earlier post, your DPI setting is set for large, instead of normal.

Seriously, fix your DPI setting and you won't have to autohide the task bar if you don't want to.

http://www.eukhost.com/forums/f17/dell-inspiron-mini-10v-dis...

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Magellan - You are killing me...

oayz wrote:

Turbo, thanks for promth reply!

I've found this in GPSBabel thread. Can it help?

http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.gps.gpsbabel.devel...

If you need help testing - let me know

Hi oayz,

Ok. I have scanned your link. I read it before in the past. Still, there are some "unknown" bytes in that post.

I will compare with a MGLN file and try to remember what I used to know about them. I took no notes. Ouch. You are killing me, but I will have another look.

Turbo

Edit: Same dead-end. There are a bunch of bytes between the category name and the first POI in that category. The number of bytes in that chunk depends on the number of POI in that category. I have no clue what those bytes are for. I think it may define a polygon region surrounding those POI. I think this is a very important part of the file that cannot be eliminated. This is the same part that eluded me twice.

Magellan - Eureka!

I think I nailed that sucker... I wonder why I did not see this in the first place...

I got the CRC figure out. I got also most of the weird bytes between the category section and the POIs in that category. If this all work, I may be able to generate a MGLN file soon. Yé!

Not DPI

Thank you for the note. Checked the DPI and it is set for normal (actually smaller) and cannot be reduced further (Netbook is Acer). NP as the hidden taskbar works just fine!

--
Tom

Thanks for the upgrade turbo.

Nice work.

--
GPSmap76Cx handheld, Nuvi 2557LMT, Nuvfi 2598LMTHD

MGLN - no solution yet

turboccc wrote:

Edit: Same dead-end. There are a bunch of bytes between the category name and the first POI in that category. The number of bytes in that chunk depends on the number of POI in that category. I have no clue what those bytes are for. I think it may define a polygon region surrounding those POI. I think this is a very important part of the file that cannot be eliminated. This is the same part that eluded me twice.

OK, thanks Turbo. I think I'm as well equipped for reverse engineering as you are. Let me try to break it. In case of success I'll bug you again smile

Regards!!

MGLN - Solution coming

Hi oayz,

IN case you missed my last post, I am coming true with a solution. I was able to create from scratch some Magellan POI files.

If you want to have a look:

1- Bytes 10 to 36 (decimal) are a mystery. I fixed the issue by putting some fixed bytes there. They are changed when I do a Save As using Magellan's POI Editor. They don't bug me so far, but I am curious to know what they are.

2- Bytes 238 to 245 (decimal) are somewhat of a mystery. Again, I put fized bytes and cheated with the ones that follow. Seems to be working fine so far.

Again, remember that the program seems to work so far. I just need to make the big loop to save the editor's content and I am done. After that, I need to deal with the categories, the alerts and the symbols. For now, I will use default values.

I'll send you a beta once I am ready to test. The Magellan POI editor seems to like my files, but I do not know if their GPS will like them.

Thanks,

Turbo

Edit: oayz, plz send me an email at turboccc at hotmail.com I need to ask a couple questions and let you know where to download the beta to create MGLN files. Any other beta tester is welcomed.

New feature coming - BIGGER MAP!!!

A new feature is coming in the next release: you can maximize the MAP in the POI Edit Window. It becomes huge (Even bigger than any other POI editor I have seen! smile ). It really fills the screen.

I should release soon.

Turbo

We will be looking forward

We will be looking forward to trying it out.

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Have Favorite working...

after a few tries, and getting the hint of checking GPX box under Options/Preferences, I have my favorite loaded successfully.

I maintain my favorite file in CSV format, and when I pushed it to Garmin device, EPE saved it as EPE.gpx. All what I need to do is have original Current.gpx deleted, and rename EPE.gpx to Current.gpx. It works perfectly.

Suggestions to all interested in this, REMEMBER to save your favorite to a CSV file and so you have a backup file.... just in case. smile

A very good tool.

My 2 cents

abin wrote:

after a few tries, and getting the hint of checking GPX box under Options/Preferences, I have my favorite loaded successfully.

I maintain my favorite file in CSV format, and when I pushed it to Garmin device, EPE saved it as EPE.gpx. All what I need to do is have original Current.gpx deleted, and rename EPE.gpx to Current.gpx. It works perfectly.

Suggestions to all interested in this, REMEMBER to save your favorite to a CSV file and so you have a backup file.... just in case. smile

A very good tool.

CSV files do not save with all the info fields as gxp file however csv file column D can be used as info catch-all saved out of EPE, but not as good as gxp file. Its better to leave it as EPE.gpx, it will load to favorites as is after deleting current.gpx.

I have been adding HTML to the .gpx descriptions....

Would it be possible to have a checkbox to not convert '&' to '&amp;'? As it stands now, I have to de-convert the file after I save it before I could load it in and view the HTML. I get useless &amp;lt;, &amp;gt;, etc...

Thanks in advance

NOTE: The description field on a Nuvi 500 truncates at 1024 characters....

--
Striving to make the NYC Metro area project the best.

Thanks, phillyguy19020!

phillyguy19020 wrote:
abin wrote:

after a few tries, and getting the hint of checking GPX box under Options/Preferences, I have my favorite loaded successfully.

I maintain my favorite file in CSV format, and when I pushed it to Garmin device, EPE saved it as EPE.gpx. All what I need to do is have original Current.gpx deleted, and rename EPE.gpx to Current.gpx. It works perfectly.

Suggestions to all interested in this, REMEMBER to save your favorite to a CSV file and so you have a backup file.... just in case. smile

A very good tool.

CSV files do not save with all the info fields as gxp file however csv file column D can be used as info catch-all saved out of EPE, but not as good as gxp file. Its better to leave it as EPE.gpx, it will load to favorites as is after deleting current.gpx.

I did couple of experiments and found CSV can only keep 4 fields of data as phillyguy19020 indicated, when saved by EPE. I do not know if other utilities behavior the same.
Second experiment about replacing current.gpx, I had it deleted from GPX directory in Garmin drive, but, it came back when I powered on GPSr. I think Garmin has favorites data stored somewhere else, and had it restored to GPX when it detects it is missing.

Do you know excel

abin wrote:
phillyguy19020 wrote:
abin wrote:

after a few tries, and getting the hint of checking GPX box under Options/Preferences, I have my favorite loaded successfully.

I maintain my favorite file in CSV format, and when I pushed it to Garmin device, EPE saved it as EPE.gpx. All what I need to do is have original Current.gpx deleted, and rename EPE.gpx to Current.gpx. It works perfectly.

Suggestions to all interested in this, REMEMBER to save your favorite to a CSV file and so you have a backup file.... just in case. smile

CSV files do not save with all the info fields as gxp file however csv file column D can be used as info catch-all saved out of EPE, but not as good as gxp file. Its better to leave it as EPE.gpx, it will load to favorites as is after deleting current.gpx.

I did couple of experiments and found CSV can only keep 4 fields of data as phillyguy19020 indicated, when saved by EPE. I do not know if other utilities behavior the same.
Second experiment about replacing current.gpx, I had it deleted from GPX directory in Garmin drive, but, it came back when I powered on GPSr. I think Garmin has favorites data stored somewhere else, and had it restored to GPX when it detects it is missing.

I forgot to mention, you can save csv file with 9 column data but garmin only uploads 4 columns. Thats why I said you can merge colums 4-9 as cauch all and paste result of values.

This formula with combine column values to one colum. Paste the formula in K column.
=CONCATENATE (D1,", ",E1,", ",F1, ", ",G1,", ",H1,", ",I1)

Then copy K column values over to column D using paste special and value.

current.GPX

abin wrote:

I did couple of experiments and found CSV can only keep 4 fields of data as phillyguy19020 indicated, when saved by EPE. I do not know if other utilities behavior the same.
Second experiment about replacing current.gpx, I had it deleted from GPX directory in Garmin drive, but, it came back when I powered on GPSr. I think Garmin has favorites data stored somewhere else, and had it restored to GPX when it detects it is missing.

Current.GPX is an output file only. It is a copy of what Garmin has stored for Favorites in an area the user cannot access.

There are 2 ways to change what is stored as favorites, you can delete them using the features of your Garmin or you can load a new file by copying a file ending in GPX into the Garmin folder. This is what Turbo's EPE does. It reads the Current.GPX, allows you to modify it and then saves the mods back to the folder as EPE.GPX.

--
Illiterate? Write for free help.

Just to add a note.When you

Just to add a note.When you download favorites from Google,Mapquest.Bing and etc.On some models it creates a another file in addition to the current.gpx.Once you boot the added file is loaded to the current.gpx.But the added file remains there.You can delete the favorites on your gps but unless you delete the additional file to current.gpx on the Garmin drive they will reload to the current.gpx again.

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Multiple categories in v4.70

turboccc wrote:

For those of you who wants to test EPE with Multiple categories, here's v4.70:

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Extra_POI_Editor+...

Not released yet. This is just a beta. Let me know how it goes.

Turbo

I had an opportunity to test multiple categories while setting up a 265WT for my son-in-law. (tested with both 4.70 and 4.80 beta 5)

The only problem I encountered was with "Open Garmin Favorites" or opening a copy of current.gpx on the PC.

In this situation, EPE would only detect the first category of favourites with multiple categories.

If I edit current.gpx and separate the <gpxx:Category> tags with CR/LF, EPE detects all categories.

Once the original current.gpx is saved, adding/deleting categories works flawlessly. Great job!

--
Nüvi 2595LMT

@WAASup

Good info.I have had problems in the past on the favorites with my 265.Always just re-name them Temp.gpx with out a problem.Maybe Turboccc can work this in for us.

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Categories and Current.gpx

@WAASup,

probably a parsing issue. I will look at it.

@charlesd45,

I always thought any GPX file name would be automatically added to Current.gpx. I used EPE.gpx as GeePeeEx uses GeePeeEx.gpx. I do not mind using Temp.gpx is this works better.

Turbo

Transfer favorites

I noted in some of my posts the problem.When I sent them back info was lost.Another user also posted same thing.I just load mine to EPE and save as a gpx file.Rename temp.gpx and paste back to gpx folder on the gps.You said it worked fine on your unit but don't remember if your unit has categories for favorites?

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Turbocc

turboccc wrote:

I always thought any GPX file name would be automatically added to Current.gpx. I used EPE.gpx as GeePeeEx uses GeePeeEx.gpx. I do not mind using Temp.gpx is this works better.

Turbo

I have tested that concept out on my 765T and it does not merge .gpx files (my results were verified by others).

I am still trying to determine what files will be merged. If it comes from mapsource, for example, and the date is greater than the last time the 765t was fired, then merging will take place.

So Did I

turboccc wrote:

I always thought any GPX file name would be automatically added to Current.gpx. I used EPE.gpx as GeePeeEx uses GeePeeEx.gpx. I do not mind using Temp.gpx is this works better.

Turbo

I always thought any .gpx file would work as well until I recently tried it on my 765T and found it didn't work. On my 200W any .gpx will add itself into Current.gpx, but on my 765T it has to be Temp.gpx or temp.gpx. And as jgermann alludes to, Temp.gpx is the filename MapSource uses when you transfer directly to the 765T.

I'm not sure what timestamp is being compared, either. I have an 'old' Temp.gpx file on my PC that I use for testing and I get mixed results sometimes. It definitely needs a bit of 'idle' time between copying the file to the GPX dir and re-booting the nuvi. Too quick & it sometimes doesn't add it.

Also on the 765T, I can add to current.gpx directly with EPE and it 'sticks', but deletions don't. I can't remember if that was the case with the 200W so I'll check that later if you're interested.

Lately I'm experimenting with using gpx categories on the 765T. I think they might be more useful when added to Favorites via a gpx dropped into the gpx folder, than when they are compiled into a .gpi and viewed under Extras.

It's getting a bit confusing for my old brain the way my 200W acts as opposed to my 765T.

--
It's about the Line- If a line can be drawn between the powers granted and the rights retained, it would seem to be the same thing, whether the latter be secured by declaring that they shall not be abridged, or that the former shall not be extended.
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