POI related applications

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This is an interesting problem! A route between 2 points has hundreds or thousants of sub-segments. Computing the distance between each POI and those thousands coordinates would take some time to process

How much time would you expect to wait to get the answer? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?

I need to think a little bit more about this, but I may be able to do something with Extra_POI_Editor.

Turbo

turbocc

How about a list to put check marks on what you want included with the route.Point a to b to include resturants,fast food hotels etc?

Let's make sure I get this. I do not have access to Garmin's poi in maps. So I assume you are talking about poi categories you set in the poi files.

1- You load as many poi in EPE as you can.
2- You import a route
3- You specify the categories of poi you are interested in.
4- EPE finds all poi matching those categories and the maximum distance set.

Is that it?

My thoughts was like on Google Earth you can use the directions search from point a to b.You have categories that you can select like hotels and check them.Some categories for example food is broken down in sub-categories like fast food,BBQ and etc.You can put check marks in them also.Once you click search Google Earth shows purple line from point a to b plus the icons for what ever category you selected to show.Manually you can follow the purple line and right click on any of the categories you selected and save to my places building you a kml file that you can transfer over to Extra Poi Editor and save as a csv or gpx file.It would be nice if the selection of categories you selected could be saved with a program instead of manually.Sure this would be a large under taking if even possible.I know when I use to get my maps the old fashion way from my motor club they always had hotels and attractions on a separate page.So they got it some how.

The OP was addressing custom pois I believe and could better comment on that.After reading the post it got me thinking about the directions and icons on Google Earth for your thoughts.Believe it is all along the same lines.It sure would make for some interesting custom poi files for travel.

I guess the idea is to create a custom POI file that contains multiple categories of POIs along a specific route? So, the difference between a Walmart file and your route file is the route file would contain only those Walmart locations near your route? And the info to create the route file is pulled from other POI files?

I'm wondering if it would provide any real advantage, unless I'm not understanding. Why not just include the Walmart file, your favorite fuel stops, restaurants, lodging, etc? And those would be in addition to what is already included on your device.

Also, once your trip was completed, unless it is a frequent event, isn't it likely you wouldn't need that file anymore and replace it with the complete POI files anyway, assuming you hadn't left them on the device, or if you had loaded files specific to your trip wouldn't you just remove them?

Not sure of the amount of effort to create a program to accomplish this versus the benefit of a route specific file?

There are many scenic highways in the US and Canada that have a lot to offer for travel.My thoughts would be to have the hotels,dining and attractions as a custom pi file for that specific drive.Example Million Dollar Hwy.Sure other users would find use for the file if available.I95 lots of people use that for travel.Would be nice to be able to select certain categories to pull for a file.Some files may be a one time use others may be widely used by other members.

I'm wondering how the application would determine "highly rated POI files"?

Those are valid points. Doing something useless is not very appealing to me.

Still, having all POI files on my GPS is not always possible. Some have 10,000 POIs or more. Having 1,000,000 on a computer is no problem. You can download everything from POI-Factory and, maybe, EPE could select only those POIs within a certain distance from your route. That would reduce considerably the number of POI that are in your range of interest.

It is just a thought...

I guess I wasn't really looking at it as if you would have all possible POI files on your GPS, but rather only those files of the most interest. In any event, if you decided to tackle this I am certainly willing to try it out.

Turbo,

This is similar to what I was asking you about (about 5 months ago,) a program that could scan multiple POI files to extract into a single file, a set of POIs associated with a route.

I was thinking "single" roads like US-50, (inclusive.) But it would be far more versitile for routes "as built" by a user.

Even better if points could be "found" within a radius (ala Tourguide files) so that useful or fun side trips could be identified "along" ones route.

My thinking was why have a special file of all the Walmarts in the USA (especially as they are mostly included with the current mapset) when what I am really interested in are those on my route.

Add in all the micky-Ds, BKs, etc. etc., that's a lot of dupes I usually don't need taking up space. Considering how many people are loading music, pics, and audible books, having smaller poi files for specific trips would be a boon.

I've wanted for a long time, to have all of the POIs from here in a database. I'd be thrilled to be able to select a rectangle (specify the top right and bottom left lat/long), then select categories, and from that you get a list of POIs to download to my GPS.

Like you said - having 1M on a computer, no problem, but I'd only want a subset on my GPS at any one time.

Would make POI Factory a lot more useful to me - it's too hard to shift through 100s of files just looking for what might be of interest, and then, one cannot extract just the key geography of interest.

I might be the exception rather than the rule here, but I travel widely over the country, from San Diego to Norfolk and Seattle to Orlando, with many places in between. While I hate having to have so many POI files from here loaded on my 1490T, the fact is, their 500,000+ POIs still fit within the very limited memory of that unit.

So for me, customizing POI "routes" every time I go out would actually be more work for me than the benefit gained because I'd be spending more time to create the new subset of POIs than to simply refer to the whole files already resident in memory.

For those interested in testing the beta, I now have something as I descrived above. Here's how to use it:

1- Draw a route in MapSource
2- Save route to a GPX file
3- Open the GPX with the route in EPE. You can use View All POI on Map to view the route on the map.
4- Open or Merge Open as many POI files as you want
5- In EPE, select Edit->Find POI on Route (this may take a few minutes to complete)
6- View remaining POI and route using View All POI on Map
7- Save to a new POI file if desired.

The link is here:
http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Extra_POI_Editor+...

Note: this is a beta v4.80. I guess you can post your feedback here or in the usual thread.

Playing around with the beta.Found as a result of new feature it has made another feature not work.Using the sort by best route feature.

1.Loaded my pois for trip
2.Highlighted start point.
3.Clicked sort by best route
4.The route was optimized.
5.Able to show pois on notepad
6.Problem is here will not show on map.
7.Wants to load some more pois first
8.Loaded more pois jus to see what would happen.
Needed route from mapsource.

What I was hoping to do was to use the optimize best route feature then load more pois to it and get results with other pois included witout the mapsource download.Please don't do away with the sort by best route.Nice option.

It was not my intention to remove this feature. I corrected it.

Since I cannot change the existing link, I overwrote the existing beta4 zip. You can use the same download link to get the new version.

Turbo

Thanks.It is back like it was before now.Any way you can use the optimize route feature to find the pois on the route and by pass the Mapsource?

Nope! POIs are encrypted in the maps. No way to get them without knowing the encryption...

I have been playing with the beta for the last 3 hours.You done a excellent job for what I have seen so far.Thank you.What I did was load my gpx file to Mapsource with all the 26 stops planned for cross country trip.

1.Loaded to EPE
2.Once loaded I use optimize route first by highlighting start point.
3.Didn't use the notepad or show on maps.Answer no.
4.Merge several hotels,Gas stations and etc.Loaded it up.
5.Went to edit and selected find poi on route.
6.Reduce the distance to 2 miles.Don't want to get to far off route.
7.After the program ran for several minutes I then selected view all pois on map.
8.Blue marker is route and red pois are pois on route.
9.Then saved it.

Glad it worked! If you load multiple POI files, each of them, will have its own marker color when displayed on the map. I think it works for 10-15 colors max.

It makes a good trip planner for sure.See lots of possibilities for this.Waiting to hear some comments from others who asked about it.Maybe plot route down I75 and I95 and plug in some custom pois to it for a file.Only limitation will be what files available to add.Just give it a category and good to go.

I must be doing something wrong somehow.

I have a route in Mapsource. Save to GPX. Open in EPE and View All POI on Map. The Waypoints of the route show.

I merge/open a POI file and select View POI on Route. I get the error message "Load a route first!"

What am I missing?

Bernhard

Try loading the route to Extra Poi Editor without viewing on map.Go stright to merge open and load the custom pois.Once loaded go to view and click view all pois on route

Note: a route should not be erased by doing an Open poi file. The route should stay until you close EPE or open a new route. Maybe en empty route can clear the existing one.

I tried it again and it works ok.Didn't get it to work that way last night.Once you merge the pois to the route you go to edit then find poi on route.I put view on my earlier post.

Not sure if it is needed ot not, but I decided to support more than one routes. If you are making a trip, maybe you have to use more than one route. Each route will have a different color on the View POI on Map. When selecting Find POI on Route, you will be able to select one or more routes.

This is work in progress. Not in the posted version.

Sounds good.Will try it out once you make it available.

EDIT.turboccc I do get a script error on the program on the pois to route.Something to the effect.If you continue to run script explorer will run slow.

Charlesd45,

1- Can you tell me how you got the error? In View All POI on Map?
2- How many POI loaded?
3- Did you have a very long route?
...

Turbo

My problem seems to be that my first load doesn't establish a route.

What make EPE distinguish between a routine and POI's since they are both gpx files. I assume the XML definition should describe a route differently. Can you give me some info as to what I should look for in the GPX file?

Bernhard

You should find the keyword <rte> in the gpx file.

Once the route is created in MapSource, simply save as something and makesure to specify the filetype GPS blabla .gpx. It should work.

If you find the keyword above and EPE does not work, just email me the file and I will have a look. It is doubtful I missed it, but I have been proven wrong in the past... LOL!

turbo at hotmail dot com

1.Route=26
2.Merge file=total now 846
3.Error in view all pois on map.Note the total is now 74.Also when you zoom in closer on map to get more detail view.

Ok. Send me the package. I'll have to reproduce it here. It has to be a weird character somewhere.

I sent the last one I tried but have used many other files with same results.Have been giving the program a work out.

This is message on internet Explorer 8. A script on this page is causing Internet Explorer to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive. Do you want to abort the script?Clicking yes speeds it back up.Don't re-call any time before getting this message.

Your route has 48900 segments. That is pretty huge. I was able to load the route and view it directly in View All POI on Map, but it took a little while to draw, but no script error.

Now, I merged the Best Buy file and I wait for Find POI on Route to complete.

Then, I clicked on View All POIs on Map again and waited a while for the route to appear. Still no script error.

I guess the script issue may be related to a protection timeout in IE8. If you click Yes it should complete normally. Note: I am using IE8 as well.

Map redraw (zoom in/out) takes forever also to complete. I hate Java...

Edit: not sure what to do. 38k polygone is pretty huge, but normal for a route. I would need to have different route resolution depending on the zoom factor... I guess the only solution is to wait...

Edit 2: Once you zoomed in enough, the redraw becomes much faster. If you have a big route or lots of POI, you can avoid the first zoom delay by simply dragging the map until the route/POIs are not visible. Then zoom in at the level you want. Then, click on one of the POI on the right and you will get there in no time.

Thanks.Will try your tip on dragging the map.I tried Firefox also.No script error but did take a long time.Longer then IE 8.

Here's a new beta which supports multiple routes.

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

I also speed up route display and POI search by 30% by removing some route segments. When zooming a lot, you may notice some part of the route may be 20 meters (67 feet) out of the road. I think this is minor for now.

Turbo

Tried it out but to be honest I think the first beta was faster.I finally just opened it up in Google Earth and Mapsource to see if faster.It was by a long shot.Every thing else worked fine.

Yes, route display are much faster in MS and GE. Still, but this version should be faster than the previous beta. I would need to time the two to check.

To increase the speed furthermore, I need to encode the coordinates and use relative positioning. I read there were problems with that. It is a lot of work, so I decided to leave it like that for the time being.