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

If current.gpx is an "output" file, how can additions stick when the 765T is fired up again?

current.gpx is an input/output file...

If you have a way to read xml (XML Notepad is decent & free.. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72d...) then have a look at your unit's GarminDevice.xml file. It's tagged I/O.

The unit (765T) seems to overwrite manual deletions but will allow additions to show on reboot. Haven't looked at my 200W lately though. As I recall it allowed deletions but I might be mistaken.

This is very close to what I have experienced.
What I had gone through is,
1. Use EPE to take favorite data from Garmin device
2. Add whatever you want to merge in with EPE "Open merge" function, and make additional edit/delete
3. Disconnect Garmin device from PC
4. On Garmin device, go to setting to delete Favorite data
5. Connect Garmin device back to PC
6. Use EPE to save your new favorite data back to Garmin device
7. Use Windows (sorry, not Mac user) explorer to look into garmin device gpx folder
8. Delete Current.gpx
9. Rename new created EPE.gpx to Current.gpx
10. Disconnect Garmin device and reboot

I got everything I expected and in sync with EPE data. No reload coming back, nothing lost.

Once you have done the "merge open" with EPE, have you tried doing an EPE 'save as" directly back to the GPS "current.gpx" file?

That seemed to work for me and reduces the process by a few steps.

Yes. A "Save" or "Save as" should overwrite the Current.gpx

Just did another experiments, and my new procedure can be simplified as,
1. Use EPE to load favorite data from Garmin device
2. Add whatever you want to merge in with EPE "Merge Open..." function, and make additional edit/delete
3. Disconnect Garmin device from PC
4. On Garmin device, go to Tools>My Data to delete ALL Favorite data
5. Reconnect Garmin device to PC
6. Use "Save As.." in EPE, and select Garmin GPX folder to save new favorite data

Done!!

Just what I discovered, I have to use Garmin Tools>My Data to delete favorite data. Without this step, favorite deleted by EPE will come back after Garmin rebooted. That may explain Current.gpx is an input/output file

Have a great weekend!!

That confirms what Garmin Rep told me one time during a phone conversation.If you have deleted all the favorites from the unit.You can put your backup copy of current.gpx back with out re-naming the file.You do have to go in the gpx folder and delete the copies left that you sent by Google,MapQuest and Bing.If you don't want those favorites any more.They will re-load to the current.gpx.

On my 760, any .gpx will add itself into Current.gpx, except for ones created/edited with EPE.

I'd never used EPE to add favourites before, only to prepare POI Loader input. There seems to be a problem with one of the parameters in the .gpx header.

See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/29880#comment-199377 for details and a possible solution. (I've emailed the info to Turbo)

I also posted in the other thread but here's a quick summary for you Turbo.

Can't test with my 765T until tomorrow PM, but my 200W won't accept a gpx if the header says encoding="Windows-1252", but will if it is "UTF-8".

I have files with EPE headers that use both, so I'm assuming that files that had UTF-8 and were edited with EPE retain this, but those that are created from scratch use Windows-1252?

Btw, the 200W still deletes the 1252 'branded' files on reboot, it just doesn't add them to Current.gpx. I say branded because Notepad saves the file as UTF-8 regardless what's in the header (or so it says on save).

To solve this problem, please set the GPX file encoding in the Preferences to UTF-8. This will ensure the EPE.gpx or any other GPX file is encoded with UTF-8.

Turbo

Fixed in version 4.80 which will be posted very soon once I add the POI Name in the POI Edit window when the map is maximized (today or tomorrow morning).

Doh!
I looked there, too. My mistake was looking too fast & looking for either Windows-1252 or UTF-8.. never thought to look closely at the box that said 'Same As Input' .

Well don't look anymore. I just forced UTF-8 encoding when saving to Favorites in 4.80. The "Same as Input" does not work too well when using "Merge Open"...

I just posted EPE v4.80. I think it contains some very nice features compared to previous version. Check them out.

**Changes from v4.70 to v4.80**

* COOL! Added "Save as" Magellan .MGLN file (Got it! At last!)
* COOL! Added button in POI Edit window to MAXIMIZE/MINIMIZE the Map.
* COOL! Import a gpx file with route. You can view the routes using View All POIs on MAP.
* COOL! Find all POIs close to a route (in Edit menu) by specifying a distance from the route.
* COOL! In the POI Edit window, you can right click on the map and find new functions to move or center the marker.
* Remember all EPE's user windows position. When EPE restarts, each window will be restored at their last position.
* Removed confirmation pop-up when clicking "Replace All" in the Field Replace window.
* Improved "Sort by Best Route" when in non-rural areas (unknown route issue)
* In POI List window, typing a letter will make the list scroll to the next POI starting with that letter. When the last POI name with that letter is reached, it wraps around to the start.
* Fixed the Arrow Up and Arrow Down to scroll in the POI List window.
* Added Home and End key to jump to first and last POI in the POI Edit window.
* Added directives for the StreetView(tm) view in the View menu.
* Added a right click menu item in POI List to open selected POI in GoogleEarth(tm).
* Added a right click menu item in POI List to open selected POI in StreetView(tm).
* Yet another fix with special characters in POI name when reading from an OV2 file.
* Renamed POI to have unique name when saving to MGLN.
* When exporting to Excel, limited max length of a column to 911 characters to workaround a bug in Excel 2003. This means Description column may be clipped if more than 911 characters.
* In Find Duplicates, logic is changed and EPE will delete Checked POIs (not the Unchecked ones).
* Corrected a bug when extracting POIs with multiple categories from the Favorites.
* Forced UTF-8 encoding when saving to Favorites.
* Added POI Name in title bar of the POI Edit window. Useful when map is maximized.

Did notice one thing on the 4.80.I loaded the backup copy of my current.gpx from the computer.I deleted a couple of the favorites.When I got ready to save current.gpx back to the computer it would not do any thing like it was froze.Had to use windows task manager to end the program.It showed EPE running.Went back like you stated on earlier post and changed same as input to UTF-8 .I guess the default is only when you load current.gpx back to gps but not the computer.It work great after that.Will leave the setting for UTF-8

Basically, you just open and save a GPX file to your computer. EPE did not even know it was a Favorites file.

Can you email it to me or now the problem is gone?

Once I changed the setting to UTF-8 from Same As Input.It fixed the problem.Always worked before with Same As Input.When saving back to computer after editing it.This was a copy of the current.gpx from the gps drive and was the first time edited.

The new & improved version. Sometimes I hate change. Right now I'm trying to get familiar with my first Win 7 PC. I'm gettting a headache.

Hello.
In version 4.80 I get the same runtime error when saving as .mgln as i did earlier with .ogg with windows in Norwegian language. Work fine with English US.

I am getting a run time error 380 when I try to "ok" from a change. I have not figured out the exact thing causing it. I thought it might be the last record or maybe an add but no luck. The error is inconsistent. I am running 4.81 under windows 7. The file has only 58 records in it.

Please let me know if you find a way to reproduce it.

I sent it to your hotmail account as an attachment with exactly what I was doing.

Ok. Will look at it tomorrow. I just recovered from a nasty computer crash. Could not even start in Safe Mode...

Ok. The runtime errors are fixed. I made a quick change to the scroll bar and this caused the issue. This was only happening on the last 3 or 4 POIs of the list. Fixed now.

I fixed an issues when reading a route from the Favorites.

I also corrected a problem with most of the shortcut key. I introduced this problem around v4.81 or v4.82.

PLEASE: update to v4.83 and forget v4.80 to v4.82.

Sorry for the inconveniences.

Turbo

No inconvenience at all, Turbo. Thank you for the fine program, and your unending support.

Kudos, to you!

That sort by best route seems to be working out pretty good so far.

I had to remember to go back into preferences and change File Read & File Save back to Metric as discussed in other recent posts. No problem!

Sorry to tell, but i still get the runtime error when
saving as .mgln with Windows XP i Norwegian .

Can you email me the file you tried to save? I loaded a GPS and saved it to MGLN without any error. There must be something in the loaded file.

Please, email it at turboccc at hotmail dot com.

Thanks,

Turbo

I will send the file to you, but I dont think is is any wrong with the file course it happands with any others files to. If I set Windows xp to English Us it works just fine. The error comes with the Norwegian setting i Windows XP ,just like a earlier version EPE saving to ov2. Last time you resolved this problem.

Vestenfjell

Hi Vestenfjell,

I emailed you a beta v4.84. It looks like I fixed the problem. Same issue as with the OV2 file. I see why it may have caused an error, but I do not understand why it does not cause an error with English US Locale. Let me know.

Turbo

Thank you, now it works like a dream.

This seems to be a useful feature, but I can't get it to work with the photos that I geocoded with GPicSync 1.27. Can you please tell me what is required for EFE to recognize a JPG as being geocoded?

Thanks for creating a wonderful application!

This is a great program. And it is free. I urge anyone using it to at least make a donation of $10 to Turbocc.

I'm not familiar with GPicSync, but EPE works for me with geocoded photos taken with my HTC phone.

All I do is open the file in EPE.

Perhaps GPicSync is not creating the geotag data correctly? As a test, try opening the picture in another app, such as Google Earth or Picasa...

Hi ellispd,

I have not tested this feature for more than a year. At the time, it had problems finding geocoded pictures. I coded the picture parser myself so it may be incomplete or not compatible with your software. I remember it was not as easy ride.

I will install GPiSync 1.27 and try to find the problem. I am on another exciting project right now so it may take me a day or two.

Best regards,

Turbo

WAASup,

Thanks for the suggestion. I tested the photos with Google Earth and Picasa. Both applications read the location data from the files as expected. I also successfully tested the photos with EasyGPS and PhotoME.

But you made a good point. There seems to be an EXIF formatting difference.

Thanks

@ellispd, you're welcome. Hopefully Turbo will solve the problem for you.

There are a couple of Wikipedia entries that provide technical details on geotagging:

EXIF data:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format

EXIF fields used in geotagging:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging

This is certainly going to help me to straighten a friends GPS out.

I went to show him that he can use Google to download a waypoint to his NUVI, and without allowing the unit to reboot and save the data to the current.gpx file afterwards, I immediately went into mapsource loaded on my work computer and tried to show him that it was in there to download into mapsource.

After that I couldnt get his GPS to download using mapsource, and it was doing so just fine before this all happened. I can however, see the unit as a drive and access all the files inside.

I could use mapsource to upload a waypoint into the GPS, but not to download from the GPS. It would say that it had problems with the USB drivers. I checked the mapsource that is on my work computer that I was using and no USB drivers show up under Help/About/USB Driver Versions, although they are there on my computer at home which I havent tried with his unit yet. (I tried to install the USB drivers from garmin unsuccessfully, but there is more wrong with the work computer than meets the eye in many other ways too...)

It didnt seem to affect the way the NUVI displays by itself, but the side effect was that the current.gpx file keeps getting the waypoint that google uploaded, even though I deleted that waypoint from the favorites and deleted the current.gpx file and allowing the unit to recreate the current.gpx file.

Even though the google waypoint doesnt display on the unit, it is still in the current.gpx file when copied out. Bazaar!

I didnt however try deleting ALL favorites and see if it goes away. This is something that I want to try.

I am hoping that the combination of an entire data dump, using EPE for editing, and using a version of mapsource that shows USB drivers installed fixes him up.

Thanks to ALL for the best overall GPS support site out there! (Sorry about being long winded....)

Ok, I finally got my friends NUVI back and used my notebook that has USB drivers installed and it is all seems to be working as it should.

Just in case, I used the technique of grabbing the current.gpx contents to EPE, then going back to the NUVI and deleting the stored fav's, then going back to EPE and writing back to the NUVI anyways, just to be sure.

Still seems to be working normally, and I gave him some of my POI files and directed him to this site.

Hope he joins!!!

OK, I know I'm missing something simple. I have a small csv file, 25 entries, and can't open it in Extra POI Editor. (running ver. 4.22) When I try to open the csv POI file, I get "Invalid Property Value". Every comma and Quote Mark is there in the POI file. I have searched help and EPE Support, also the EPE Part 1 and 2 in this forum.

I just created some new files and converted a LOT of files from csv to gpx using EPE 4.83. I notice in preferences, the line break pick lists are set to LF but when I hex edit the gpx files, I see CRLF's.
When do the settings apply?
Or is there a bug?

Thanks,
Ken

I downloaded ver. 4.83, and the problem went away. Apparently, you fixed it between ver. 4.22 and 4.83.
Good job, and thanks for a terrific program.

Turbo,

Thanks for your reply. I don't think the GPicSync is causing the issue.

I found several pictures on Google Picasa Web Albums that are were geocoded by other people using different software. Google Earth and PhotoME read the geocoding correctly.

EFE does one of three things with these pictures.

1. Correctly displays geocoding
2. Incorrectly displays geocoding
3. Displays "File is not geocoded." message

I can send you examples if that would help.

Thanks,
ellispd

I use this all the time. Thanks for your work.

Hi ellispd,

I know the problem is coming from EPE. Bouhouhou! I worked so hard trying to get the lon/lat out of a geocoded JPG. In the end, something was missing in the documentation I read and I used a shortcut of my own. Here we are...

Yes, I would appreciate if you could end me two JPG of each type as stated above (good, bad, not detected). I will try to read some more documentation and try to nail it correctly this time.

Thanks,

email: turboccc at hotmail dot com

Turbo,

I emailed the photos. Let me know if you don't get the email or need more files.

Thanks,
ellispd

@ellispd,

got the files. Working on them now.

Ok. got it. The problematic file was geotagged using a Mac-type software... Seriously! JPG may have an Intel or Motorola -type formatting. It's a big/little indian issue.

Now that I know the problem, I will try to adapt EPE. It should not be too long.

Turbo

Edit: Just emailed EPE v4.84 with JPG geotagging fixed to ellispd. Waiting for confirmation.