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

Sorry. I tried to run a Mac emulator on my PC, but it was messing around in a bad way with my disk partitions. So, nothing in the short term.

This does not change your problem, but if your SCV has 4 columns, you should only assign 4 columns in the M-Column Assignment:

Lon, Lat, POI_Name, Address

EPE will put the 4th column in the Address field and start its magic from there.

Because EPE seems to be fooled by the zip code and the phone, I would recommend to do this in multiple steps. It is a bit messier.

1- Assign the 4 columns in the M-Column assignment
2- Uncheck phone number extraction in the Preferences, but keep the auto State PostCode extraction.
3- Load the original .csv
4- Change the M-Column to:
Lon, Lat, POI_Name, Address, State, Postcode
5- Save as M-Column
6- Check auto Phone number extraction in the Preferences. Uncheck the Auto State PostCode (although un-necessary)
7- Load the .csv you saved in step 5. Keep same M-Column profile.

Now, EPE probably extracted correctly phone, state and postcode. To check this:
8- create another M-Column profile with these columns:
Lon, Lat, POI_Name, Address, State, Postcode, Phone
9- Save to .csv using the M-Column filetype

If all is fine, no need to reload in EPE.
10-Start Batch Reverse Geocoding to extract the City.
11-You get the picture. Save back again by creating another profile with the City field in it. Then, review what has been done in Excel.

That's the best I can propose. It is much easier when there is a field delimiter character like a comma to separate the fields.

Good luck,

Turbo

Would it be possible if you add a scale on the Google Map portion? Copyright issues?

You mean like indicating the zoom level? 50m, 80m, 200m, ...

For sure I cannot overwrite the Google text for copyright reasons, but maybe I can put it elsewhere.

Yes, that's what I meant. It helps a lot estimating distances. Thanks for replying.

I noticed that your "Sort By Name" is case sensitive.
I did not know that when I was entering my 99 locations.

You've been very helpful, and I appreciate everything.

My 14,000 record file is just in such a mess that EPE can't do the conversion to GPX properly.

1. Nine digit zip codes are not handled properly.

2. Often the Batch Reverse Geocoding routine leaves the correctly entered city and generates a new one several miles from the correct lon/lat/city.

Correcting these errors would require analyzing each and every one of the 14,000 records. I don't have that time.

I've decided to brush up on Visual Basic (I'm an old Pascal programmer) and write a front end to format the record .csv file properly. Then I will use EPE to make the conversion to .gpx.

The major programming issue is to separate the Address field from the City field. I hope to do that by finding the endSymbol for the address. So far, I've identified over 40 different endSymbols used for that purpose in this file.

And of course, there is always the issue of every record does not have all the fields entered.

Again let me thank you for all your help.

Wil

No problem. I am glad to help. It is the first time I cannot find a good solution to this type of problem. As you said, there are too many variations in your file.

Still, I would like to try a bit more. Did you send me your csv file already? If not, could you send it to me by email? Otherwise, what was the name of the file again? I do not find it anymore.

turboccc at hotmail dot com

I’m trying to convert a 4 column csv to gpx using EPE, for the life of me I can’t figure out how to extract city, state, zip, phone to the corresponding fields for the gpx, I’ve been able to extract the state, zip, phone, but not the city, no matter what I try the city stays in the address field, I need HELP!!!

Assuming there is no comma between the city and state you will need an Excel formula.

If the string is: City ST, ZIP, Phone
try =LEFT(X,FIND(",",x,1)-3)

This will search the cell having the city, state, zip and phone for the first comma, back up 3 spaces (the state abbreviation and the space) and then copy from the first character the number of characters to get the city into the cell you have the formula. In the formula, X is the cell where the string currently sits.

The file I'm testing with has a comma between the city and state.

delete the -3. The string has to start with the city though. Why nor post a line of the file and let some of the heavy excel users write you the needed string handling formulas.

What you'd need is: city=LEFT(x,FIND(",",x,1)-1)

e.g. if "x" = "Biloxi,MS.." then "city" = "Biloxi"

Can you post one POI here? Just the 4th column is enough so we can see the format of the data.

EPE can split the information within a column automatically is the format corresponds to one of the predefined ones.

For example, if I had a poi line like this:

343 Elms street, New-York, NY 10921, (123)456-7253

I would use this format for the 4th column in the M-Column Assignment:

Address, City, State PostCode, Phone

Notie there is no comma between the State and Postcode. This is not a mistake. That is how people enters them normally (I think... )

If you do not have commas, then it is a bit more complicated. I would rely on the automatic Phone and State-PostCode extraction. Then, I would extract the City by doing Reverse Geocoding. NOt perfect, but it may do the job right. That is why it is always preferable to have comma-separated data.

Note that EPE supports other formats (other than comma-separareted data) for the address column.

google has shut down labs.google.com and some of the markers used in EPE were coming from there. Please download EPE v5.30 to fix the problem. Same d/l as usual. Refer to post #1.

Changes from v5.29 to beta v5.30

- Uses markers from a different site. Fixes the missing markers on View All POIs on Map and the markers for the circles in the POI edit window.

I downloaded the 5.30. I run it from the administrator on my XP. Now I can't edit an entry.
Here is a screen shot.
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q297/spokybob/EPE530.jpg

Hi spokybob,

Are you saying you can't double-click on a POI to edit it? It works well on my computer.

Do you hear a Windows sound every time you click with the mouse? If so, please check that there is not another EPE window opened asking you to accept the EULA terms. This would happen if it is the first time you run a version 5.xx (coming from 4.xx).

If you do not see another window, just kill EPE in Task Manager. If you can reproduce this problem, just tell me how and I will investigate.

BTW, your EPE window seems pretty big compared to your desktop. Why is that? What is the resolution of your display? Are you below 1280x1024?

By looking again at your screenshot, it seems the POI Edit window is opened and behind the main screen. It will not let you click on the main screen until the POI Edit window is closed. That seems to be the problem.

THe 5.30 seemed to have a bigger size than the previous version. Thanks for the clue.
I am up and running now, but my desktop looks a little funny. At least I know what to do,
Thanks
Edit: The circles around my tour guides look great.
Thanks again.

After many failures, I think I finally have a working Win 7 installer for EPE. It can be found on my download page here:

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Extra_POI_Editor#Extra_POI_Ed...

The installer is only required on the first installation and if the program is complaining about missing OCX or other library files. After that, you can only overwrite the installed EPE by the new version.

kudos: I want to thank VersatileGuy for his help in creating this working installer. His knowledge and help were really appreciated. Thanks.

Please forgive me if this question has already been answered elsewhere in this thread, but what is the issue with using EPE to save to Favorites?

Over the course of the last week or two, I have been playing with EPE's ability to modify my nuvi's Favorites file. I massaged my POI data and ended up with around 140 favorites. But when it came time to save the massaged file back to my nuvi, I found that I ended up with the original favorites -- plus a whole bunch of duplicates.

I stumbled on something in the help file suggesting that the Favorites on the nuvi don't really go away (saving to favorites just adds to the database) -- but there really isn't an explanation as to why this happens. I ended up getting to the place where I want to be, but I had to manually delete ALL of my POIs in nuvi's Favorites to get there. There must be a better way!

Thx.

I load favorites into MapSource, then disconnect the unit and delete ALL favorites. Then transfer the edited favs to the unit. That is what I had been told. It works for me & it's not too hard. It's the only way I know.

Correst. This is not an EPE issue, but a Garmin issue. As suggested by spokybob, the best is always to load the Favorites in EPE, disconnect the GPS and reboot it, delete the Favorites on the GPS, then reconnect and save the modified Favorites back to the GPS. Otherwise, Garmin thinks there are new Favorites and simply duplicates them. It is not true all the time. There are rules where it knows it is an old one (probably when the coordinates and the POI name does not change). The rest of the time, it thinks there is a new one and duplicates it.

Been patiently waiting for v5.32 with the Add POI fix....

Sorry camerabob! With me when it is too long, it probably means I forgot...

Changes from v5.30 to beta v5.32

- Fixed "Open in BaseCamp" with the new BaseCamp Beta v3.0.2.0
- Added a way to reset the EPE windows position when starting EPE while holding the shift key.
- Fixed something related to Add New POI (maybe Prev button autosaving new POI)

Exactly!

EPE is surely a fine application and I use it a lot, but there seems to be a limitation in the GPX Output that is causing me a problem.

The GPX output works just fine when using an eight comumn CVS file, but does strange things with 9 or more columns in the CSV file. Here is a record in a CVS file:

-87.67463,30.37712,AAA RV Park,2621 S Juniper St,Foley,AL,38261,(251) 970-1232,##wcaVerified,One,Two,Three

Here is how EPE outputs the GPX waypoint

AAA RV Park

##wcaVerified

2621 S Juniper St
Foley
AL
38261

(251) 970-1232

As you can see, the ##wcaVerified field is written as: ##wcaVerified and not at the end of the waypoint, and the last three fields are not shown at all.

I don't know a lot about the Garmin GPX spec, but I thing it allows the abality to have as many fields as desired.

Your help will be appreciated.

Wil

I don't think EPE handles Display Mode. Try putting the ##wcaVerified in double quotes to see if it will handle it as a description or comment field.

My 500 looks totally different than what EPE shows. I learned how it's different and programed accordingly.

The way EPE displays the fields is an emulation of my nuvi 760. It is very possible that the newer GPS have different rules.

Still, can you specify the M-column assignement you used? I'll see what it looks like on my 760 and 3750.

Lon
Lat
Name
Address
City
State
Postal Code
Phone
Description
Description
Description

Of course Turbo is the authority but I do know when you have several input fields with the same tag EPE concatenates them in the order they are listed in the M-Column definition. How they are handled when displayed is something else again. It may be that EPE is just displaying the last field it read, in this case what you expected to be at the end of the string.

The better workaround at present would be to combine the fields before being processed by EPE and there are several ways to do that. The most convenient is using the ASAP utilities but there are two Excel strings you can use as well. Both the Excel commands require a target cell while ASAP will use the first.

Yes, EPE will merge the columns with the same name in the order of the column. It will simply add a space between each string. Nothing complicated. WYSIWYG.

Once concatenated together (with a space in between), EPE or the GPS will display the string the same way as if you would have merged them with ASAP.

How can I guarantee that a column will display at the end of the record?

Wil

If you have more than one column with the same column name, they will be merged in the order of the columns.

For example, if column 4,5 and 6 have the field name "Description", the final field Description will have the content of column 4, followed by a space, followed by the content of column 5, followed by a space and finally followed by the content of column 6.

If this is not the order that you want, simply swap the columns in Excel then import/open in EPE.

Garmin 3790
Win 7 64 bits
POI Loader 2.7
EPE 5.32

When trying to load a GPX file created by EPE, I'm getting the following error message.

"There was an unexpected error during the creation of the custom POI file" and the file won't load. I can load GPX files created with EPE from other sources. I just can't do any editing of the CSV file, convert to GPX in EPE and load the file with POI Loader.

I can't see anything wrong with the GPX file. I can see no difference in the GPX files that will load and those that won't.
Below is a copy of a record in the CSV file and a copy of the GPX conversion by EPE.

CSV Record:
-85.06230,35.809490,Breckenridge Lake Resort,395 Oak Park Circle,Crossville,TN,38572,(931) 788-1873

GPX Record
Since this site uses XML code, I have replaced the < and > symbols with ' to try to keep the GPX format looking like it should be. The line indention isn't maintained as EPE does it, but all the stuff is there.

'wpt lat="35.809490" lon="-85.06230"'
'name'Breckenridge Lake Resort'/name'
'cmt' '/cmt'
'extensions'
'gpxx:WaypointExtension'
'gpxx:Address'
'gpxx:StreetAddress'395 Oak Park Circle'/gpxx:StreetAddress'
'gpxx:City'Crossville'/gpxx:City'
'gpxx:State'TN'/gpxx:State'
'gpxx:PostalCode'38572'/gpxx:PostalCode'
'/gpxx:Address'
'gpxx:PhoneNumber'(931) 788-1873'/gpxx:PhoneNumber'
'/gpxx:WaypointExtension'
'/extensions'
'/wpt'

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Wil

A Garmin format CSV is 4 columns or fields, the first 3 are the lon/lat and POI Name. For the 4th or description field it would be 395 Oak Park Circle. So what are the fields you have set for reading a file with multiple columns?

If you display the record as a CSV file in Excel it would have a total of 8 entries. Is the address with city etc. enclosed in double quotation marks and you left that out in your example?

In any event, I have found you need to be certain there are no hidden or non-displayed characters in that particular record. They are usually at the end of the field, so check that. If you eliminate the non-displayed characters the file should load with no problems.

You GPX looks pretty fine to me.

Is this the only POI in that GPX file? Did you just posted one POI or is there more than one POI? The error could be in the other ones.

If there more than one POI in that GPS file, please post a link to the file or send me an email at:

turboccc at hotmail dot com

There are over 13.000 records in the file. I'll email you a copy.

Wil

Yé! 13k records. So much fun... LOL! It will take me 14 tries to isolate the single record causing the issue. Then, I'll let you know.

I found your problem. It is not really an EPE issue.

You have one (or more) POI with a Lat value greater than 90.0000. Lat should be between -90 and +90. Yours was at 94.922632. This seems to be illegal with POI Loader.

I have version 5.32 and when I double click on an entry in the upper left corner of the page (list screen) the program freezes and I have to use ctrl/alt/del to exit. Any suggestions?

Hi donaldb530,

Let's try to clarify your statement.

Is it the main windows or the POI Edit window that freezes?

Are you sure there is not a dialog pop-up window that is also opened?

I can't see a reason why EPE would freeze. Is there any error messages?

Does it do it will all files or just one file?

The whole program freezes. I can not select another POI from that window, can not exit by going to the pull down menu, and can not exit by clicking on the "X" in the upper right hand corner.

No pop up windows, no messages. It just freezes no matter what file I load.

Here's my recommendation:

1- Open a command-line window (Start button and type 'cmd').

2- go in the EPE folder

3- type: Extra_POI_Editor -reset

Try to open your file again and double click to edit one POI. Do you still get a freeze?

I suspect you set something wrong in the Preferences (path to custom symbols maybe).

When I type cmd I get C\Users\Don>

After that none of your commands work.

That's because you're not pointing to the directory (folder) that contains "Extra_POI_Editor.exe". Try this:

- Find the shortcut you use to launch EPE.

- Right-click it and choose "Properties".

- Select all of the text in the "Start in:" field, then right-click and choose "Copy".

- Open a command window.

- Type the letter "c", then the letter "d", then hit the spacebar.

- Click the icon in the top-left corner of the command prompt window (little black square with "C:\" in it) and choose...

Edit > Paste

The command (following the prompt) should now look something like

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\TurboCCC\Extra_POI_Editor"

- Hit the [Enter] key. Now you should be pointing to the right place. The prompt should have changed to something like:

C:\Program Files (x86)\TurboCCC\Extra_POI_Editor>

If so, try the...

Extra_POI_Editor -reset

...command again.

VersatileGuy is correct. If you used the installer, the Extra_POI_Editor.exe is most probably in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\TurboCCC\Extra_POI_Editor

Otherwise, you have to remember where you put it. If you can't do it, I'll make a special version for you to reset the registry from within EPE.

Add ' -reset' at the end of the command line for a one time shot. Remove it to use EPE in the usual fashion once again.

That worked. Everything is back to normal.

Thank-you Don