Extra_POI_Editor v5.0 beta (.gpi file creation only in this thread)

Will do. There could have been something corrupted on my laptop, so I figured I'd start completely fresh just in case.

Lately, I changed the number of M-Column CSV Profiles from 10 to 20. I just fixed a problem that was causing EPE to crash when using Profiles above 10. Just use EPE v.521 instead. Link in post #1.

I have the following 3 files in my computer ALERT folder:
Rdlt.gpx
Rdlt.wav
Rdlt.bmp

I loaded up Rdlt.gpx to EPE and saved as .ggi file with Rdlt.gpi.

First I deleted all files in POI folder of my Garmin unit, then copied Rdlt.gpi into POI folder in my Garmin unit.

In simulation, no problem for audio, but Relt icon was not shown, instead, a black spot is shown.

Can you tell why? Thanks

The most common reason for icons not to display is due to a double extension. Windows, by default hides common extensions so the tendency is to add one if it doesn't show. Go to Control Panel, Folder Options and be certain there is no check mark for Hide Extensions for known file types. Then look to see if you have .bmp.bmp

It's not file extention issue.

I used POILoader to load the same bmp file with .gpx, it works well. Is it nuvi660 unit related problem?

Does the alert sound? I mean the downloaded alert, not the Bong. If the icon displays with a GPX but not the CSV then it is a name problem. The file names are not matching exactly. They do when you have the GPX but the CSV file name is slightly different.

And this this same .gpi is generated by Save as from uploaded .gpx file. The same bmp file in the same folder were used in both Poiloader and EPE's "save as".

For sure, this looks like an EPE issue. You have to remember that saving to .gpi is not complete on EPE. Still, I am surprised by the black icon.

What is the format of the .bmp file (how many colors)? 256-color, 16-bit? 32-bit?

The easiest thing would be to email it to me at:

turboccc at hotmail dot com.

Turbo

Hi Turbo

Tried the "Save as GPI" to my nuvi 255W. I briefly see my icon of choice (although small) on the "Where To" screen, and then the 255w goes berserk displaying variations of:
"Variable Speed Camera Zone" and an Alert speed of several million Km/H. (Canada)

Even in "Show Map" I get this result.

I scanned my input csv file again, made sure there were no "@" symbols, SPEED, or other triggers.

I cannot tell if nuvi is cycling thru' all 84 POIs (slowly), or is stuck on just one POI. It appears locked, and I have to turn off.

I have one POI with "Speed" in its Address field (col 4) "Speedvale Ave."

When I save to my Garmin, I am Saving to the root - is this correct?

Back under "Extras" for now. I realize that my senior's brain might be missing the bleeding obvious.

Thanks

So I've partially answered my own question.

From another thread, realized this stuff should be in Gamin\POI. Just have to do the icon thing now.

As for the weird Speed alerts I am getting, I used a different POI file altogether, and it works just fine. So there is something wrong with my 1st file, but I just cannot see any character(s) that may be triggering the alert(s).

I use OpenOffice, not MSOffice; maybe there is some hidden control character screwing with me.

Does Garmin look in >only< column-3 for Speed/Proximity triggers?

In automatic mode, POI Loader will look for numbers in the filename or @number values in the POI name and will use it to set the speed alert. That may explain the problem.

Otherwise, you may want to post your file somewhere so we can have a look.

Hi Turbo,

The file that did work failed the same way on a subsequent load. I redid the gpi file from my original csv, and got the same failure.

I never use automatic mode, and there are no #s or @s in the file name or individual POI names. With the gpi files I am saving directly to the nuvi from EPE (Correct method??).

I did notice that when I re-opened the gpi file in EPE, that the Category field, and also the Timestamp field had been filled on an earlier conversion. I did a ReplaceAll to blank them out, but no joy.

Possibly a quirk of (my) 255W? I am going to make a set of single item files and play around a bit. I'll post results. Does the 255 count as an older, or a newer Garmin? (from your suggestion of ticking certain fields).

Am I correct in assuming that I can "mix & match" both a gpi file via EPE to go under "Where To" AND a conventional manual mode of csv files via POILoader?

Thanks,

Please note that saving to .gpi is an experimental function of EPE. Not everything has been tested.

1- You wrote you opened the .gpi with EPE, but cannot open a .gpi in EPE, only GPX, CSV, ... It is confusing me. Did you save as .gpi or gpx?

2- Yes, you can mix&match although I have seen my 760 merging the Where-To POIs with the Custom POIs. Which POI is giving you problems? The one saved with EPE or the one created by POI Loader? You can try to remove one or the other temporarily to see if it changes something.

3- I think the 255W counts as an old GPS, but this affects only the icon apperance (the colors) in the Where-To menu. It will not affect anything else. Do not worry about checking or unchecking anything in the preferences.

4- The timestamps are not causing any problems. You can ignore them. I am not sure why you saw categories unless you exported by category with EPE.

Tell me more.

Turbo

1. You are correct. I just retried opening .gpi and failed. I thought I must have done it by accident when I saw Categories and Timestamps. Ignore please.

2. Only when I save a gpi file via EPE do I have an issue. That gpi file is based on the same .csv file that I have POILoader work with in normal, Manual mode.

3. Ignore (no effect)

4. Ignore (could have been finger trouble on my part. (Damn users!).

Using the POILoder method, I have about 35 .csv POI files, only one with proximity alerts (SPEED_TRAP via POIFactory). It does not cause an issue.

When my 255W goes berserk, I simply plug-in via USB, and browse via Explorer to Garmin/POI and delete the .gpi file and reboot it, & it's fine.

I will play with some smaller files at a later date (busy). I'll delete my normal POILoaded file and work with just EPE's to get the variables out of the way.

Thanks.

Ok. You can also email me your csv file. I will compare the POI file made with POI Loader to the one made with EPE to see what goes wrong. If you have a BMP or WAV file that goes with it, send them to me as well so I can compare apples with apples.

my email: turboccc at hotmail dot com

Turbo,

...to be not EPE related:

1. Used POILoader to DELETE all my POIs under Extras to get rid of clutter.
2. Loaded 1st of my test files as gpi using EPE, and got NO berserk Alert messages;
3. Loaded 2nd of my test files, and still got NO berserk Alert messages.
Note that this is with NO corrections/changes to .csv files on my part.
4. Loaded back in my regular set of .csv files via POILoader to see if there was a "conflict" and still got NO Berserk Alert messages, except that every so often I would see the "Variable Speed Alert" message flash by ever so briefly.
Realized after walking up and down the street that there is in fact a public school about 3 blocks away that is probably triggering it. I think the Garmin is having trouble locking-in, and as I am testing in my house, but near a window, it is enough to detect and confuse. Maybe a couple of days ago there was more sun-spot activity to mess with the signal ;>)

So the only gpi test result that I can pass on to you Turbo, is that I can get just one gpi file at a time to show up under "Where To". It would appear to be whatever was loaded last, even tho' I can see both files with Explorer. It is not based on file-name sequence.

Thanks for the help and guidance,

Are you having alert (sound) issues? If you are having mixed up alerts, do you know if you are using the sox version 14.0.1? Because anything else has shown to create issues.

@pwohlrab

How do you find which SOX version you have?

Mine is dated Jan 29th, 2008

Mine is also dated the same. There is a post here that went in to detail on it and alert problems. A lot of testing was done by Evert and a couple others.

It is going to be the only one that is suggested and available even on Gary Hayman's site.

Found the post.
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/33887?page=2

In Win 7

* In a RUN box type "CMD"
* At the DOS prompt type "CD c:\program files (x86)\garmin\poiloader"
* At the DOS prompt type "sox --version"

I think this should work

My poi loader is in C:\garmin
so I just did:
In a RUN box type "CMD"
At the DOS prompt I typed "C:\garmin then enter
I then typed "sox" and got the version I have is 14.0.1

I am using XP pro.

* Open notepad
* Type the following 2 lines into the file

sox --version
pause

* "Save As" in your poiloader folder as "sox_ver.bat"
* now just run the batch file

It worked. I am running Sox v14.0.1

I checked the sox command-line options before I posted, but I could not find the right line. It's a mess. Even now, it took me some time to find it.

FYI ...

I haven't kept up with all of the latest problems here but I can tell you that I could not get any more than 1 gpi file to show under the "Where To?" either using the zumo 660. It was a while back when this feature was first coming out. I had 2 gpi, each would work when it was by itself but only one worked when both were present.

I also had problems with the single gpi confusing the alerts and data with my Favorites. It is documented earlier in the thread. I don't know if Turbo has gotten to this problem yet. He was working on the circles at the time.

True, most GPS can handle only one GPI file in the Where-To menu. So far, only the 37xx seems to support 2 files.

Thanks Turbo and Bear - that clears that up - I thought I was losing it (more than usual).

A(nother) dumb thing that Garmin did from the older 250 to the 255 was that going to your own Custom POIs takes an extra step:

Used to be "Where To/Extras" got you your own folder names;

Now it's "Where To/Extras/Custom POIs". that 3rd level will always be a useless menu of 1 item.

I emailed Garmin and bitched, but just got the "that's the way it's designed" response. I don't know if this was carried thru' to all of the newer nuvis, or just some in the range.

In the meantime I'll just have to pick a favourite for the gpi file. Hmm, will that be "Rare Book Shops" or "Craft Breweries". So many decisions.

Garmin made some special packages that appeared directly in the Where-To/Extras folder. This is why they added the Custom POIs folder so you can find yours separately rather than in the middle of the other ones.

Still, I barely see those in the Extras folder. As you said, it basically just give us one additional step for nothing.

Making circle list.
When making a circle by typing/copy lat/lon into EPE523,and by mistake push Update button insted of Add ,I always get an Runtime error 35600 index out of bounds and EPE freeze.

Hi vestenfjell,

Fixed in EPE v5.24. Just use the d/l link from post #1.

I have to confess, I did not read the past 6 pages worth of development info to see if there is an answer and the Help file is too old for this question.

I'm trying to make a gpi file. I have H-D Dealers.gpx loaded in EPE v5.24, a folder called GPI Icons, in the EPE preferences, with H-D Dealers1.bmp and H-D Dealers2.bmp, both 24bit Windows (74x59) bmp files,

From EPE, Save As and change file type to gpi and save in my Z665 POI folder. It does not show on my GPS.

To use a gpi file you first need to create it using Garmin's POIloader software. You can't create a gpi file as you have described it in your post.

I don't agree with you that POI Loader must be used. The point of the EPE save as type gpi is to make a menu button just like Favorites, Recently Found, etc. If you read the past 6 pages you will see that is what Turboccc has done.

I did change to an 8-bit, 256-color graphic pair, no luck. I removed the preferences GPI Icon location so that the Turboccc icon default would be used, but it still did not display the H-D Dealers.gpi as a menu button on either my Z550 or Z665.

OK, if you can use EPE then that's fine but you seem to be having a major problem doing that. If you save the file in EPE as a GPX or CSV file and use POIloader then it will probably load fine on to your units and appear under Where To - Extras - Custom POIs.

Yes, that is the standard way I've done things for quite a while. But besides Custom POIs, EPE has introduced a new feature with v5.x, making a menu button that holds Custom POIs, reducing the button pushes from Where to?>page>Extras>Custom POIs>H-D Dealers
to Where to?>H-D Dealers.

Very useful when you're riding at 70mph and want a quick POI.

Hi dave817,

256-color bitmaps are for the map symbol only. On the 37xx anyways...

In your case, you want a Where-To bitmap. This requires a 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit bitmaps. One of the 3 will do. I did not implement 256-color support for that one.

About what is working or not working:

What's not working yet:
- Saving bearing list to .gpi files (Garmin has not implemented it yet! )
- Specify a tree of external folders and file to write in the .gpi file (like POI Loader). You can just save what is loaded in EPE, but you can export by file, categories, etc...
- No BMP/JPG/WAV/MP3 include with *Link* field (it should work as the poi file name)
- Transparency for Where-To icon on old GPS model like the 760 (works for the 37xx series). This is not a EPE issue, but something I noticed.

Currently has to be even word size, evenly divisible by 4. I used 68x68, 24-bit and set the background to magenta, 255,0,255. I made sure to change EPE preferences, unset the Emulate POI Loader,and set the Alternate "Where to?" Icon Format, though I saw no difference regardless of this setting with the button on my Z665. I also noted that when reviewing these POIs on the map, the Custom bmp symbol does not appear, just a small marble. The file bmp for Custom POIs needs to be 16-color with POI loader on the Z665. As a POI Button, it didn't work at that resolution and didn't as a 24-bit bmp either.

The "Where to?" POI button does not appear on my Zumo 550, no matter what settings I use, including your default icon. But the Z550 is about 4 years old when Garmin used img files for the POI buttons.

I just added 4-bit bitmap support for map symbols in EPE v5.26. The new version is posted.

Changes from v4.24 to beta v5.26

- Added 4-bit bitmap support to map symbol when saving as .gpi
- Forced GoogleEarth to start in a maximized window.
- Displayed an error message when GoogleEarth or MapSource executable could not be found
- Improved Find Duplicates function for POI files with tons of duplicates.

ToDo: add support for bitmaps that are not a multiple of 8 horizontally. Yes. Map symbols in 16-color format must be a multiple of 8 for now. I'll fix this tonight.

"Most compatible Garmin products work well with icons that are 24x24 pixels or smaller." - POI Loader help.

The multiple of 8 horizontally doesn't bother me, but it must be a chore to program in less than byte manipulation.

Thanks for adding the 4-bit bitmap (16-color). We Zumo 66x owners raised an eyebrow when this limitation was discovered in a modern GPS. It brings back the old days when we called 4-bits a nibble.
Dave

I was wondering how had would it be to add a feature to find dups not just in the cord, but maybe have a chose for name, address, phone nume? I am finding a lot of dups but the cord are way off each other so that they are not found as a duplication. I would love to search as a phone number or eave as part of a address or maybe evan part of a name. Then show me in the list of possiable duplications..

What do you think?

Bob, that's where writing the file to an M-Column Excel file helps. You can have a cell dedicated to the street addy, another for city, then state and phone. Do a sort with excel and then as you scroll through dupes become fairly easy to spot.

THat is true (and I am doing that)

But it would be so much easyer to do it right in thhe program instead of writting, finding and then deleteing it and then reconverting it back to a gpx file.

I am hoping to do it right in the program.. much faster and no mistakes..

Bob

I just released EPE v5.27 that fixed the limitation of having a 16-color bitmap in multiples of 8 pixels.

Now, there is no boundary anymore. You can make it 17x17 if you want (at least for the 16-color bitmaps). I also fixed a problem where two adjacent pixels were inverted.

Long story short: delete v5.26 and use EPE v5.27

Turbo

Interesting request, but I wonder how often you would use it. Most POI files I may have seen do not have all the phone information in a dedicated field. Yes, EPE can extract it fairly well. Then, I wonder how many POI have a dedicated phone rather than a common 1-800 phone. In this case, all POIs would be duplicates...

Address? That seems logical as long as the address field (or column 4) has the exact same syntax which is not always the case.

Using partial information from a field is rather dangerous and may return false duplicates (depending on the string lenght and content), but that may work as well.

In the end, the best way to do this is to use a combination of the above and clean each potential duplicate one by one. Right now, it will be much faster for you to do this in Excel than me coding it in EPE. All this sorting is pretty painful to code. Especially when there are >100000 POIs in a file.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep it in mind.

Turbo

Thanks.. Just was a idea.. Maybe you can just add more fields to the way you can sort.. That would get me close to what I am looking for.. I am actully doing this 2 ways now.. one is that I stick it in a access database, then I can do my lookup using the database but I have to use the csv file --- then I lose the gpx features.

I also use the freeware CSVedit program that can do some great things.. Oh yea, when I create the file, I9 try to make all the fields seperte so that I can sort on anything.

Was just asking .. maybe there can be a better way doing this sort of thing.

BTW, when I look to see if new data that I get is already in there I do several searches, 1 by the phone number but as you said, some dont have them, so then I search by, lets say city or part of the address .. Like "Watson" for Watson street. I do get several hits but I need to hit f3 to get each one. I would like to see a list of them all at once.. Can that be done? Just like you do for the Dup cord.

Just asking.. I understand how it can go.. And I really LOVE your program and would not be updating this file so much if it was not for your great effort.

Thanks SO much.. I am sure other will say the same. Thank you so very much .. It the very best application for this stuff that anyone could find!

Bob

Thanks for the feedback. It is always appreciated. I try to improve EPE as much as I can to help you in maintaing your POI files.

Making the "Find Dup" table was a pain, but maybe I can re-use what I have and use it for the search results. It is a good idea. I just need to think more about this.

I will keep doing what I am doing for the time.. Thanks for giving it a thought. I think you know what i am looking for..

If there is anything I can do for you.. just ask away..

Bob

Oh, but Turbo, the "Find Dup" function works sooo much better now. It was worth the pain (of course, I wasn't the one experiencing the pain).

google has shut down labs.google.com and some of the markers used in EPE were coming from there. Please download EPE v5.30 to fix the problem. Same d/l as usual. Refer to post #1.

Changes from v5.29 to beta v5.30

- Uses markers from a different site. Fixes the missing markers on View All POIs on Map and the markers for the circles in the POI edit window.

I created a second M-column profile with v5.30 and the following columns:

POI Name, Address, City, State, Post Code, Comment, Longitude, Latitude, Phone

I edited the data several times, then noticed I forgot to enter forgot to enter Post Code column. SO I re-arranged the column order and re-saved the data as an .xlsw file.

The next time I launched EPE and opened the file, the City field was missing from all the POIs. It was present in the third column of the .xlsw file. When I tried to view the M-column options, EPE gave an error message, then quit. The error was:
   Run-time error '383': 'Text' property is read-only

Turbo, I've emailed the data and more information to you.

This error happens from time to time when the Registry gets corrupted (for some weird reason) and the M-Column Profile values do not match the ones expected by EPE. For example, you may have the field "Address" expected by EPE, but it has been somehow chnaged in the Registry to something else. When you look at the registry, it still looks like "Address" but there is an invisible character in the field. EPE does not like that.

This is one of the reason why I implemented Extra_POI_Editor -reset to reset the registry. Seriously, it's a bug caused by EPE. Any attempt to dump the Registry cleans the issue. You could export the entire key TurboCCCC in the registry, delete the TurboCCC key in the registry then re-import it again from the saved file and I think it would cure the problem.

I know. I know. It sucks and it is complicated. And I still do not know why it happened in the first place. At the very least, I could try to make some kind of validation to prevent the crashing and even maybe fix the bad value.

As for the Profiles in the registry, EPE will only save the ones that you used. No need to create all columns and all profiles.

If you can reproduce the problem at will, then let me know. I will provide a fix and you could test it.

Thanks.