RV'ing

I think it would be a duplication of effor to start a new one for RVing. All you need to do is make a sub dircetory and put all of those poi's in it before you load them to your gps. Just my thought. Others may have a different view. I drive an rv and just load them to my card.

I understand where you are coming from. It would be easier if someone else pulled together various files that you could load as a group.

However, it is probably impossible to pull together files that would satisfy the desires of everyone. Some would complain that there were inappropriate files included. Others would contend that there were files that should have been included.

Let me suggest a way to pull together the files that you want in a way that lets you easily get to them.

POI files can grouped into categories by using sub folders. These sub folders are created under the top level folder holding all of your POI files. You can only have one level of sub folders but there can be 32 of these folders. Note that there should be at least two sub-folders and there should be at least one POI file in any sub folder.

An example is:

MyPOIFiles [top level]

>Restaurants [sub folder]
>>Applebees.csv (POI file)
>>Applebees.bmp (Icon file)
>>Applebees.mp3 (Sound file)
>>Cracker Barrel.gpx (POI file)
>>Cracker Barrel.bmp (Icon file)
>>Cracker Barrel.wav (Sound file)

>RVing [sub folder]
>>Flying J.csv
>>Flying J.bmp
>>Flying J.mp3
>>Rest Areas.csv
>>Rest Areas.bmp
>>Rest Areas.mp3

>Stores [sub folder]
>>Best Buy.csv
>>Best Buy.bmp
>>Best Buy.mp3
>>Wal Mart (Combined).csv
>>Wal Mart (Combined).bmp
>>Wal Mart (Combined).mp3

Selecting Where To --> Extras (or My Locations) --> Custom POI will show three entries, Restaurants, RVing and Stores. Pressing one of these names will show the POI files contained in that folder. TIP: You must have more than one category in order for the category method to work. Having only a single subfolder will display all the file names rather than the desired group name.

There is no change to how POI Loader is run. POI Loader is told to load the contents of the top level folder, MyPOIFiles. The sub folder names become category names. Using the subfolder method you can have 32 sub folders each with 32 POI files along with custom icons and alerts.

That's really helpful. I'm going to try that.

There seems to be no 32 folder limit as I have 35 on my 750 and 755. The 32 POI files per folder is an actual limit as I've tried to have more per folder but it will only show 32.

I agree that this is the best approach. As a full time RVer, I have been using this approach for the past year and find it easy to implement and maintain. As I move around the country, I just remove the stuff I don't need because it is regional and add new stuff as needed. I update the red light and speed camera stuff as needed.

My 765T is on my daughter's vacation so I cannot re-run my previous testing. As I recall, I determined that I could not have more that 32 sub folders as well as more than 32 POI groups (where there might be a sound and or/icon file).

Since sub-folders become "categories" I think I was numbering the sub-folders so I could see what happened by looking at the nuvi "categories"

Is there the possibility you could add several more sub-folders to your main POI file top level folder and see if they take?

Thanks

I have new POIs to load so I'll see if I can max out the unit's folders.

As an RVer, I do the same thing and it works great.

I will recheck when my unit gets back. Can't imagine that a limit is unit specific. Almost has to be a function of POI Loader (but the help file does not speak of any limits)

From Garmin

Can I load more than one CSV or GPX file of POIs onto the unit?
Answer:
More than one CSV or GPX file of POIs can be loaded onto the unit as long as all of the files are loaded at the same time. If one CSV or GPX file is loaded to the unit and then another one is loaded using the POI loader software, the unit will overwrite the existing POIs with the ones being loaded by the software.

An easy way to work with this is to put all CSV and GPX files onto the same folder on your computer so that they are all loaded together. This way it is possible to load more than one set of POIs.

You can also categorize your files by having sub folders. Each sub folder can have up to 32 CSV and GPX files.

Last modified on: 03/06/2009

No mention is made of a sub-folder limit so perhaps there is none. Make no sense to me as an ex-programmer. Why one and not the other?

jgermann, I loaded my travel list (my local list only has 20 folders) of POIs last night to my 750 and it took all 35 folders. I doubt that there is a limitaion based on model but there could be a limit based on available menory to store the POI file.

Here is some discussion on this but not your model http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15907 .Old thread.

As I posted above, POI Loader itself imposes the limit of 32 files per sub-folder. The reason I wanted someone to check is that Gary Hayman says the following on his web site.

"
I have read that:

you are only allowed ONE LEVEL of sub-folders
that there is a max of 32 sub-folders
there can only be 32 files (I'm guessing excluding the supporting .mp3, .wav, .bmp for these files) in each sub-folder

I have not tested the limits as I have never had a need to go that high. I did not discover this myself. I read about it in a group of forum messages on the highly recommended POI Factory [http://www.poi-factory.com]. Special thanks for highly informative comments by Motorcycle Mama , ACougar and others which prompted my further investigation and testing."

We need to inform him if others agree that there is not a 32 sub-folder limit so he can make appropriate changes.

This is exactly what I do. Everyone has different needs and uses.
guy

My GPS 765T is now home from vacation and I set up 39 folders to see if there was a 32 folder limit.

I took all 39 without a hitch and they show up a categories.

JFCTexas loaded 35 folders to both his 750 and 755.

Looks like we can have as many "category" folders as we want but we cannot have more than 32 POI files in any of them (per POI Loader help file)

http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/pagepoi.03.htm#...

See Swedish Girl Friends section - another option is to rename poi.gpi to "anything else.gpi" and then the new files won't overwrite the existing ones and both files will be used.

This would mainly be recommended if you already had a lot of separate POI's loaded and no easy way to export them (you deleted the originals and don't remember where they came from.)