POI downloads (more than one)

You have to download ll your custom pois at one time.Every time you run poiloader it overwrites existing custom poi files.See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721

Am I misunderstanding the problem here, or did everyone miss the "See Also" on each of the above links about renaming poi.gpi?

ie: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/8779 - How do I keep from overwriting previous loaded POI's?

The common method is to download all of the POI files you want to install on the Garmin to a folder on your PC. When you run POI Loader, you point the source to this folder containing all your downloaded CSV, GPX, etc. It rolls all this into a ball that is seen on the Garmin as one file called POI.gpi, but when you visit your Extras on the Garmin you will find that they are listed as they are grouped by their original file names. e.g. all the Walmarts will be together, but not mixed with your McDonalds....

When you download a newer copy of the Walmart file to your PC, you want it to replace the old one in that folder on the PC. You may have added additional files or other updates by then. Then when you run POI loader again, it replaces the older copy with whatever are the contents of that folder on your PC.

As you acquire more and more POI files, the POI Loader process takes longer. This is one reason some choose to start renaming things. Some get creative in organization by creating a layer of subfolders on the PC to group restaurants separate from fuel or retail.

Could each restaurant chain have its own bmp & wav file so I would know what joint is coming up?

look on the POI page for the sound and icon files.

How you download them depends on your browser.

see http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30519

The link did not answer my question. I loaded my Culvers, Texas Road House, and McDonalds in a sub-folder, along with the associated bmp. & wav. files that I had created & used before. When running the POI loader in manual, it prompted me for proximity alert for each file anyway, so I did not achieve time savings while loading. So next, on my unit, I ran a simulation WHERE TO>EXTRAS>CUSTOM POIs>RESTAURANT>ALL CATEGORIES. I selected a distant Culver's location. As the simulation approached nearby McDonalds, the alerts sounded and its icon appeared... I can see an advantage here if I was hungry and wanted to eat & did not have a preference of which chain.. I still have the option of
WHERE TO>EXTRAS>CUSTOM POIs>RESTAURANT>ALL CATEGORIES>McDonalds.

Have you thought about converting the files you want alerts for to gpx files and building the alerts in?That way you can run poiloader in express mode. See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/28521

What GPS unit do you have? I ran into the same issue, and on my Nav system I had to combine all of the POIs into one .csv file and upload it that way.

The C550 has limited space for additional files. Copy all the files from your unit to your PC (do a backup in other words) and delete unused voice and text files from the unit. This will give you more space for custom POI.

The links to FAQs in you original message gives you good instructions on handling multiple POI and how to handle the loading using different methods. Subfolders is the easier of the two if you are not comfortable with renaming files. Both work extremely well and are easy to do once you become familiar with the process.

The most serious issue facing you is the lack of storage space on your unit as it will limit the number of custom POI that can be loaded.

I think you are not properly understanding how to load POIs. That is understandable because there are lots of ways to do so - some easier and more effective than others.

Charlesd45 has written an excellent FAQ on this subject and I encourage you to go read it right now at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721

In order to be able to come back to this thread, hold down your "shift" key when you left-click the link. In IE, this will open a new window (leaving this window open to come back to). This technique is good practice because there may be more than one link in some responses.

I personally like the technique of renaming certain POIs within the actual GPS folder \Garmin\POI. This would be especially helpful in a location that has lots of cameras and may be adding them from time to time. The camera POI here at poi-factory is updated every week. since it can be loaded in "express" mode, someone might want to update it every month at least. If you had renamed your other file (or files) to their real name(s) - like Walmart.gpi (rather the POILoaders "poi.gpi"), you would not overwrite a previous load. NOTE: you can always delete your "Walmart.gpi" manually whenever you have your GPS hooked to your computer)

Although I am not 100% certain, but will this work on Streetpilots as well, or just Nuvis? I don't have mine handy (won't until next year) but would be willing to test to see.

Whenever I get my updated POI's (lookin at My Favorite Files that have the red star by it), I just save the POI into the proper subdirectory on my PC. Open POI Loader, delete all POI's from my unit, and reload everything again. This takes a little longer but is so easy to do.

Winter_Texan, my FAQ on loading POI files is written to be easily understood. If you want to update your POI files frequently, such as the weekly-updated Red Light Camera and Speed Camera files, it pays to load them as they come from POI Factory as simply as possible.

This FAQ also explains how to load new POI files without the old ones disappearing.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30728

dobs108

I do all of mine individually.

Example:
I send the Wells Fargo Bank poi to the unit and then, in My Computer I open the folder on the unit and rename the file from poi.gpi to Wells Fargo.gpi

Next I send the In-n-Out Burger poi to the unit and rename it on the unit from poi.gpi to In-n-Out.gpi

It's very simple to do. Each new file you send is called poi.gpi so, if you haven't renamed the previous one on the GPS, it will overwrite it. Simply rename the file on the GPS and the next one won't overwrite it.

I have a bunch of files done this way and, when I want to update one of them I only have to update THAT FILE and not all of them. I find it a much better method than having to update one big file containing all the poi info.

Charles: I printed out your links to make sure I was doing this correctly. I put the GPX, wav and bmp files in a different folder for the poi loader. When it came to the HyVee groceries a message appeared that it was not a valid GPX file. I converted it from a valid csv file. So I loaded it again from our poi-factory. Then I converted it to a GPX file and saved it to the folder I am using with POI loader. Still a problem. Can you run the conversion and let me know? Thanks

hi

Just tried it.Downloaded file from Poi Factory.Using Extra Poi Editor converted and saved as Garmin GPX file.Made subfolder called grocerie stores and put GPX file in subfolder.Ran Poiloader in express mode along with all my other files and had no problems.

If you are talking about the HYVee.csv file, the D/L page says it has two unusable records.

I will go over it again & again.
Thanks. I kind of like the GPX method.

You will notice you will get a better display on the screen for the info.It is much faster to me to use the gpx file for built in alerts and use poiloader in express mode.Plus you get the dialable phone numbers for Bluetoothe.

I converted the GPX file back to Garmin csv. I had a (o) instead of a (0) in a latitude column. It's a long story. I'm going with GPX files for now. I have learned a lot in the last few days. Lots of different ways for different needs.
Thanks again

Once you start using the gpx files especially for building alert distance into the file.You start to see the advantages for using them.Make sure to set up the preferences . Under options click on preferences. For example using ft for input. Under units you will see editor, select Imperial/US. For Field Read select metric and Field save select Metric.

I have problem with some people who alway using letter "o" than using number "0". They told me the upper case letter "O" is easier then number "0" (hate for finger jumping outside of alpha typing area) when typing. I told them "You don't know the differ of letter and zero when running the calculation".

Food good