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

thanks for the quick response - I'm switching over to an iMac and am in the process of transferring updated POI files. As I get used to the mac methods, I figured EPE would help me double check...

I'm confused about how to download a gpx format file and have the Mac understand it as well as having the GPS able to import it properly...any hints welcomed!

thanks

Turbo,

From an old Pascal programmer, this is some of the best programming I have ever seen. You do a great job. When I get it figured out, I'll make a contribution. I have two requests:

1. With the current "copy to Clipboard", the lat/lon coordinates are not copied. In doing error checking, having the coordinates is most helpful and almost necessary.

2. For more error checking with the "Duplicates" option, a means of copying selected lines (multiple) to the clipboard is most useful.

When duplicate coordinate entries are found with the rest of the information the same, just deleting the offending entry is fine, but:

Many files that I check, have duplicate coordinates, but different names, and in fact, different locations. In these cases, none of the "Names" need to be deleted -- their coordinates just need to be analyzed and corrected. That is easier to do when you can copy the exact Excel - csv line to the clipboard for use in the checking process.

I would suggest the standard Windows selecting procedures about selecting "All" and "Individual" lines.

Thanks for your efforts.

Wil

Hi Wil01,

Thank you for your good comments. I invested a lot of time in this program. Most of it was learning time. It has been an interesting challenge.

1. Copy to clipboard. This was a user request from a long time ago. I would need to dig in my emails to remember what was the exact application.

In your case, what are you planning to do with this? Even if I add the coordinates, you will have to cut&paste this elsewhere. What is it? Maybe I can format it differently or propose an alternative. For example, if you plan to search in Google maps, you may use the Copy URL to clipboard instead.

Long story short: it is easy to do whatever you want.

2. Multiple duplicate selection. To export in Excel, EPE uses its own M_Column formatting. The same function is used to export in CSV or XLS, but for the entire file. I need to change quite a few things to support your request. The multiple selection is not the worst part although the single selection was supposed to be to allow you to click in the main window and double click to edit the selected POI while the Duplicates window is still visible. I just noticed the correct POI is not selected anymore in the main (top left) window.

If I c&p this to the clipboard, what will be your next step? Save it to a CSV file and open it in Excel? Maybe I can put it in an Excel file for you directly.

Let me know more about how you operate. you may get more than what you asked for.

Regards,

Turbo

Edit:

Now that I think of it, copying to an external programs allows you to correct the wrong data, but it does not help you to bring it back in EPE. You still have to do C&P again.

Thanks for your reply.

The real issue is to be able to edit (correct) a waypoint. Many times that is lat/lon. Lat/lon are the most needed correction when finding dups.

The best solution is to have an edit function similar to the "Add New Waypoint" function. If you could do that, then you could most always find the correct lat/lon in Google Earth -- copy the lat/lon and then paste it in EPE -- so not having enter by hand.

In fact, the "Add New Waypoint" window would be perfect if it allowed editing an existing eaypoint.

Thanks,
Wil

Hi Wil01,

I am a bit lost. We are not in the Find Duplicates, right?

Or

You want to right click on a duplicate to open the Edit window to correct it? That used to work. You could click on the duplicate and then double click the poi selected in the Main window. This way, you can see it on the map and even move the cursor and grab the final coordinates.

Is this what you want to do? Or do you want to create a new waypoint in EPE by duplicating an existing entry.

Sorry my friend, I think I am a bit slow this morning...

There is distortion in every communication! Let me try again.

There are times that any waypoint -- dup or otherwise -- needs to be edited.

1. I tried right clicking on a dup entry -- nothing.

2. During our discussion, I got the idea to make it all simpler for the programmer --you.

No matter where the error is found -- dup or otherwise. An edit function with the same window as the "Add Waypoint" will solve all these problems.

Add an "Edit Button" to the top left (Main) window. Allow the selected waypoint to be edited.

When a dup needs to be edited, selecting it with a left click will show it selected in the top left window. Then edit it from there.

Solves all editing requirements with one procedure. That appeals to my programming roots.

Thanks,
Wil

Now, I understand perfectly. I will repair the single click button on the Dup that will highlight the right POI in the top Main window so you can edit it.

I may also allow double cliking on the Dup and open the edit window right away.

Thanks,

Wil

I finished implementing the double-click event in the Duplicate window. It opens the selected POI in the Edit window.

An alternative is to single click one of the Duplicates. This will select this POI in the top Main window. If you double click the selected POI in the Main window, you can edit that POI. This method already works in the released version.

Using the double click method will be just faster as it requires less steps. I will release it soon in EPE v5.28.

Before that, I will try to fix an issue when you load a POI file with more than 32700 POIs. It seems there is a recursive error causing a stack overflow if you go to the last POI in the file. When in the Duplicates window, it does not select the right POI either in the Main window. Using the Page Up/Dn or using the scroll bar was also causing unpredictable results. If you have less than 32700 POIs, then all looks good.

Turbo

I'm God I'm a mechanic, I just hit my head on the hoist a few times ,then all is well

LOL! I have been banging my head on my desk as well with this issue. It is not the first time I try to fix it. Everytime I touch it, I break something else. It's a recursive loop problem which has been there since the beginning...

Crown Royal & ASA, for what ails ya

Caipirinha for me. Can't feel anything after the second...

Great piece of software. I have been using for the last 9 months or so. I use it to find coordinates for client addresses and send them to my Nuvi360. The last month or so it has been hit or miss whether the files will transfer. It says they transfer, but when I restart my GPS they arent there. I used to work off a file saved on my HD, then tried opening from Garmin Favorites and got the same result both times. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. I love the program!

"When all else fails, read the instructions." After doing that I find for my issues, you don't need to do anything.

I was trying to edit the waypoint by right clicking on the waypoint. Of course, one must DOUBLE LEFT CLICK on the wypoint to edit it.

Left clicking on a waypoint in the Dups window will show that waypoint, selected, in the top left window. From there it can be edited. Probleem solved!

Sorry for my mistake and thanks for your quick response and good work.

Wil

@Wil01,

You will still get the double-click-on-Dup to edit a POI in the next release. It was easy to do and it makes plenty of sense.

Since this thread is 10 pages long, don't you think it is time to start a third thread?

Wil

Well, the first thread had 22 pages and more than 1000 posts. We are only half done... You may also notice there is already a 3rd thread dedicated to .gpi creation. I never really finished the .gpi creation. There are still a few features missing.

If I understand correctly, you are using EPE to Save To Favorites, but the POIs do not appear in the Favorites. Is that correct? EPE has not changed, so is there anything you changed in the way you were doing things?

Hi. I have now used the EPE with circle list since it was included. I only use it for making directional alerts, but I have made lots of them. What I realy miss is the opertunety to could change the defoult radie of the circles . Is this possible to include? Its no hurry! Thanks for the best gpx editor ever (with circle list also the only )
Vestenfjell

Hi Vestenfjell,

You mean that you do not like my default 164 feet (50 meters) raidus? LOL!

Is there really a better default value? I do not mind changing it.

BTW, you know you can select a circle in the circle list and modify the radius and click the Update button, right? I assume you want to avoid doing those extra steps...

You got me. LOL!

The 50 meters raidius as default is as good as it can be. I think over 80% of my circles are 50 meters raidius.
But sometimes I need like 15 circles with 10 meters raidius in several Pois, and have to change every one of them. So my request is to change the circles raidius in PoiEdit before making them , or to have possibility to change all circles in a poi at one.
If this cant be done, or if you think there is too much work ,its ok.
Vestenfjell.

I thought about selecting more than one circle, let you change the radius in the current box (bottom right) and then click the update button to replace all the circle radius at the same time.

It is a good idea although I won't be able to highlight all circles on the map in red. It may not be as bad as I think, but it is not perfect.

If you select more than one circle, all fields that have different value will be cleared in the bottom edit boxes. Then, you can type values in any of the 3 boxes. When you click update, all non-empty boxes will update the corresponding fields in the circles. Those left blank will not affect the current values.

What do you think?

That will be just fine

Hi Turbo,

I am trying to edit a POI .gpx file to avoid the truncation of the POI name to the limit of 19 characters allowed on the StreetPilot 2620 first line display.
A good example is the excellent Costco_USA_Canada.gpx file by donaldb539 that has address, phone number and other information in the various fields. Each POI begins with the name Costco: [city] and, depending on the POI, adds [(Gas)] if that applies.
Since some long city names causes the (Gas) qualifier to be lost frequently, I would trim the name to remove the redundant title "Costco: " since that is the name of the category already.
Doing this within Excel is straightforward but after such editing the .gpx file no longer opens in Mapsource.
I would edit in EPE 4.88 but I see no way to do a search and replace as in Excel. Can you shed some light on what is going on with the .gpx file such that editing it in Excel causes it to not import into Mapsouce OR can you suggest a way in EPE to trim off the first 8 characters in the POI name?
Thanks for an awesome product!

With my experience using EPE you can't do what you want to do within the editor. The better solution is to use EPE to dump the file as an M-Column Excel file, edit the Excel file and then reload it to EPE for saving as a GPX.

I too have had this error on my nuvi 255w. I have 111 favorites. When I update them every now and then, I often get this same error. It is not predictable, but appears to be related to the number of favorites (100-112ish). And I seem to feel it happens on an odd number of POIs. I found that downloading mapsource for free from Garmin's website to push my EPE-created .gpx file is a fix. After that, the EPE can usually push them for a few more tries.

I originally thought it was a personal problem as I have flashed my Garmin with modded firmware more times than I can count, but this time it is happening on my new unit. And I see others have the same problem.

If it helps, I noticed that when I use mapsource to "fix" it, it takes about 1 minute to complete my gpx thransfer, when it normally takes only 4 secs.

Turbo, I have been using this proggie and your symbol extractor for about 2 years now, and absolutely LOVE IT!! You have done one BANG UP JOB on these!!!

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

I'm curious as to how you are editing the gpx file in Excel. Is there a version of Excel (Newer than v10, or Excel 2002) that will open a gpx file as xml and save it or are you somehow 'round tripping' it with EPE?

My experience with Excel in v 2000 through 2002 is that you can open a gpx as xml (it's a total mess) and as I recall, maybe even save with a .gpx extension but it will be nowhere close to being a valid gpx/xml file.

I've always edited an M column csv in Excel and reloaded with EPE, as Box Car said.

If it's any help to you though, I created a gpx Import add-in for Excel and for Open Office Calc. You can find it at http://gps-pois.wikispaces.com/
I've only tested the add-in & import in Excel 2000 and 2002 but it should work in at least 2003 also. Neither version of it (for Excel or Calc) support import of pois with two address lines or phone numbers, or import track points or routes from a gpx.

It may be of value if you are starting with a gpx file, editing in Excel and saving as csv, then loading it into EPE to save as gpx again. The Excel version will allow you to save as csv and launch EPE at the same time with a menu command.

That works well and serves my purpose.
Thanks, Box Car.

I use Excel 2000 and yes the file in Excel is a mess but readable.

The export to a M column csv works well as soon as I saw how to select the right fields.

Thanks to all for the help!

Yeah, M column export, excel edit, and re-import to EPE is the best route. You might get a small advantage by using my add-in if you are starting with a gpx but it's not a huge time saving for only an occasional edit. Once a gpx is directly opened in Excel with my add-in you still need to save as csv and do a M column import into EPE.

What you got in Excel when opening a gpx was only a small bit of the xml and then it's scrambled so a save from Excel isn't a valid xml/gpx file anymore, as you found out.

Done. For those who wnt to try it, here's a direct link to a EPE v5.28 beta.

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/file/view/Extra_POI_Editor+V5...

You can select more than one circle at a time in the POI Edit window. Once selected, you can delete them or modify each field (lon, lat, radius) independantly by clicking Update. Leave fields you do not want to modify empty.

In the Find Duplicates, double clicking a duplicate will recall the POI Edit window for that POI.

Let me know if this works to your liking and I will release v5.28 officially.

Turbo

Great! I would like to include lat/lon when copying a waypoint to the clipboard.

Wil

Sorry. I think I forgot you.

... with a wet noodle.

I re-read the thread and I realize I thought you did not need this anymore. I can add it anyways. If somebody does not want it, he can still remove it afterward.

Do you like this?

(Lon, Lat)= -157.861342, 21.297130
Jackson Volvo
704 Ala Moana Blvd
Honolulu HI USA 96813
Phone: 808-521-5151

Fantastic!

Wil

This works just fine .
Saves me a lot of editing .
Thanks again.

@Wil01

I released EPE v5.29. It contains the last 3 user requests I got.

Changes from v5.27 to beta v5.29

•Added lon/lat coordinates to the right click menu "Copy POI to Clipboard" function.
•Opens the POI Edit window when double-clicking a POI in the Find Duplicates window.
•You can select more than one circle at a time in the POI Edit window. Then you can delete the selected circles. You can also update one of the 3 fields just by leaving the others empty.

Just what I needed. You realy a great progammer.

Thanks,
Wil

4.88 has been released quite awhile ago. When do you expect to release the version 5 out of Beta? How stable it 5.29?

Releases are very stable, with rare exception. I wouldn't worry.

EPE v5.x was supposed to be in beta until I finished .gpi creation. It took me too long to finish .gpi creation and I encountered a few problems. Now, I am not in the mood to finish it right now. I also got many other requests so I continued to develop new features which I released in v5.xx.

Juggernaut is right. EPE v5.xx is very stable except maybe for .gpi creation. Some features are still missing. If you do not use .gpi creation, then v5.xx is for you as I improved other things compared to v4.88.

My recommendation: switch to v5.xx.

I'm working on a large CSV file -- almost 14,000 records.

In field four, it lists:

Street address City State Zip Phone
with just spaces between them.

Some records have only a few of these item and some have none.

I would like to turn it into a GPX file with fields for each of the above items -- total of nine.

I can't find anything about this when I search here. I hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Wil

I'll be happy to help you with this.

When you configure the M-Column CSV, you can specify what is included in each column. Use the drop-down list to find the field description that matches the best the format of your 4th column.

I would propose:
1- Address, City, State, Zip, Phone

or

2- Address | City, State, Zip | Phone

In your case, you have only spaces to separate the fields. Because of that, EPE cannot do it automatically.

Here's what I suggest:

0- Set the M-Column format for the 4th column as "Address".

1- In the Preferences, enable Phone and State+Postcode automatic extraction. Also, remove any character in the Reverse Geocoder Field Prefix in the Preferences.

2- Open the CSV using the M-Column CSV format.

3- Use the Reverse Batch Geocoder to extract all the City automatically.

This should make 90%-100% of the job. Save as GPX. You may want to create another M_Column CSV profile and put this in 7-8 columns to review the splitted data. Then, save as GPX if all is fine.

You're a jewel.

I must be out of town, and pocket, for a few days. When I get back, I'll try what you say. I hope it works because the file has almost 14,000 records.

Thanks again!

Wil

I gforgot to mention that reverse geocoding of 14000 will probably bust the hourly or daily limit of the geocoder. I posted the information about this somewhere...

Go in the Preferences, and put your mouse cursor over "EPE_Demo". It will give you the site information. You can register your own name on their site and this will ensure you get the full limit for yourself. If you continue to use @EPE_Demo, you will be limited by all the users that use this nickname. Registration is free. If you get the limit warning, restart an hour later. If you get the daily limit (which I think it 5000), you will have to come back the next day.

Thanks Turbo, but I don't understand all I know about this!

I made a short sub-set of the large file to practice with, and I can't get proper results.

I set up EPE as you described and included the followings fields in the M-Col place:

Lon, Lat, Name, Address, City, State, Phone, Comments

I then set Preferences like you said. After processing, here are a few results I got.

Original ASV Col D
9 Ten Acre Drive-Addison- VT 05491

42099 State Route 12 Alexandria Bay NY 13607-2151 (315) 686-2600

Haugan MT

1402 S International Blvd Weslaco TX 7859 (956) 968-7516

The limitations of this window won't allow showing the revised fields in a single line. Here is what the columns were. "" means blank field.

ASV after processing
Col D**************************
9 Ten Acre Drive-Addison
42099 State Route 12 Alexandria Bay
""
1402 S International Blvd

Col E
Vergennes
Fishers Landing
Haugan
Weslaco

Col F
VT
NY
MT
TX

Col G
""
2151 (315) 686-2600
""
7859 (956) 968-7516

Columns D, E, and F turned out just fine.

Column G got the phone number, but added the zip code before the phone number.

What am I doing wrong, or is what I need not supported by EPE?

Thanks Wil

Turbo,

In messing around, I found the issue. I changed the columns to:

Lon, Lat, Name, City, State, Postal Code, Phone, Comments.

Ran the process again. It has only one problem, and that is with the zip code.

When the address line looks like this:

901 Spur 228 Amarillo TX 79111 (806) 335-2677

with a 5 digit zip all works fine.

When the address line looks like this:

42099 State Route 12 Alexandria Bay NY 13607-2151 (315) 686-2600

with an 8 digit zip, the last 4 zip digits get inserted in front of the phone number in the phone column. Note the dash in the 8 digit zip.

Wil

Any chance for a MAC (Apple) version??

Anthony