Rand McNally

Mark,

Let me state the obvious by saying welcome to the site.

While I use Garmin I also am responsible for several POI files here at the Factory. From a POI Creator and Maintainer point, we would like to have a FAQ listing on the different formats RM uses in its units. We know that earlier units do not support the eaxct same fields as some of the later versions.

Where it helps is when creating GPX files is in knowing which fields can be converted with JM's extension to this site and which are not. It will also help us in developing tutorials on how to convert CSV files to the RM CSV format.

CC194217:

Since you will be monitoring this site (from time to time) I wanted to mention that Rand McNally needs to do something to improve the reliability of the Dock software. I run Software Version 3.56.2922.1315, Doc Version 1.0.5046.33118 on the Mac running Mavericks (I have the RM 7720) and I have constant trouble with the Dock software. Some examples:

1) It crashes after adding POI files to my 7720. Sometimes these crashes occur after transferring a single file, sometimes after transferring multiple files, one at a time, of course.

2) Sometimes the transfer dialog box shows all of the buttons (Cancel, Open) properly, sometimes it does not. I have seen The Cancel button visible and the Open button invisible. I have seen the Open button visible and the Cancel button invisible. And I have seen both buttons invisible. Oddly enough the buttons still work when I press where they should be even when they are not visible.

3) The link that asks if I want to view any errors from a previous transfer only allows me to delete the file, not to view it. I can, of course, view it through the Mac Finder (and that is what I do) but it cannot be viewed by following the view link.

As for the 7720, it is a great gps and I really like it. I find it to be better than my (admittedly old) Garmin, but there are serious issues with the Dock software on the Mac. I can, if asked, get some screen shots to display some of these problems and I can try to get crash information when those occur. I have not done so up to this point because I had no idea where to send them.

Love the 7720. The Dock software - not so much ...

Box Car:

I have seen several comments indicating that different RM units might use different csv formats so I would also like to see something definite about RM formats, but the format for the 7720 (which I have) is specified in the user manual. Perhaps the other RM units also have their formats specified in the appropriate user manuals? I don't know, but perhaps it might be worth while trying to get the individual user manuals.

As for tutorials on how to convert csv files to the RM formats, I am curious as to what you have in mind. Since I have a 7720 and know its format, I have converted the csv files I downloaded from this web site into what I know to be its proper format and those have added to my 7720 properly. But there does not seem to be a standard format used in posting on this site and my conversions have been time consuming and sometimes painful because of that. I should think that posted files might be easier to convert if they were posted in some standard layout so the process of changing them into a second format would not be so file dependent. Just a thought.

Still I wish to thank you for taking the time to make these files available to folks like me so I can actually get the data and modify it for use with my RM.

I can see several possibilities for FAQs for those who do not have the "formats" down pat.

One that comes to mind would use Extra POI Editor (EPE) to take whatever format a POI file is in and - with the help of "User Profiles" found under 4-column (or m-column) CSV fields - convert whatever data was available in that POI file to a specifically formated .csv file.

Maybe we ought to have a FAQ that points to online sources of user manuals.

To do my conversions I wrote a simple java app to read the downloaded files and change the given order to the proper one. Since there were so many different formats I stripped off the quotes used to combine all the information into a single field and separated those into their proper fields. This required some custom work for each file since the information differed both in what existed and where it might be, but it all worked out without too many trouble (other than spending the time necessary).

The one area that really did cause me trouble was supplying the zip codes and/or Postal Codes that were either missing or invalid. That information is available through either online web sites (give the gps, get the zip code or Postal Code) or on my Mac through the Maps app. But I have not yet found any available online service to allow me to do this programmatically so I have been restricted to either correcting manually (a tedious and time-consuming problem) or supplying invalid Zip and Postal Codes to fill out the required space.

Since the Zip and Postal Codes are not needed by my 7720 it is all relatively make-do work but I do like to be complete and was wondering if you knew of any available online service I can call as part of my app to supply the missing zip codes automatically. I can do manual lookups to take care of some scattered bad codes but am reluctant to do that when the number get into the hundreds (let alone above 1000), especially since the information does not seem to be used anywhere in the gps device itself.

If you know of any service that can be called programmatically I would appreciate knowing about it.

Thanks.

I just got back from MATS (HUGE truck show) and it usually takes me a week or so to get back on track again. I am researching the formatting of the POI db. I hope to have something soon.

I will be out of pocket again for a few days. Nothing like sending you 90 miles to a hospital when one is only 20 miles away... US Govt.

Thanks,
mark