The "new" Rest Areas combined POI

 

I just downloaded Vito's "Rest Areas combined" POI file and noticed two differences between the "old" and "new" copies. I'm not saying the differences are good or bad, they're just different. And by the way, Vito, thanks for taking over a tough POI from Ken. I can't even imagine all the work it must take.
Difference #1: The fourth field (the D column in Excel) has been eliminated. The new format is longitude, latitude, and name. That's it. If you liked to be able to see what services any given rest area provided, that information has been eliminated.
Difference #2: The new POI behaves differently in EPE although the results appear correct. When I wanted to convert the old .csv POI to a .gpx POI, I opened it in EPE. When the file was opened, both the upper left quadrant and the lower left quadrant had information displayed. The upper had the first few entries displayed and the lower had a map of the first entry.
EPE works differently with the new RA POI. Upon opening the new one, only the upper left quadrant has information displayed - the first few entries just like before. However, the lower left quadrant remains empty. I used EPE's edit function to add the proximity value then saved the file just as I always have, and the resultant .gpx file seems correct. (I haven't tested it yet.)
Just to make sure that something hasn't changed in EPE, I ran it against the old RA POI and it runs as it always has - the lower left quadrant has the map of the first entry displayed.

Like I said before, I don't know if these differences are good or bad, they just are. If anyone cares to test it further, I'd like to hear the results.

Phil

--
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

Valid Reason

There actually may be a valid reason for eliminating column D. On older devices such as the 200W the rest area alert appeared in the banner bar. You could tap on the banner bar and get the expanded information about the rest area. On devices where the alert is a pop-up on screen, tapping the pop-up does nothing. Having tried it myself, since there apparently is no way to access that information, that is the reason Vito removed it.

Do I think it was the right thing to do? I'm not sure. Users of newer devices can't see that information anyway while traveling, so it's not a big deal to remove it. It does impact owners of older devices however because that information is gone.

As to some POIs in the file not displaying the map in EPE, the coordinates in the file are corrupt. The Longitude is displayed as, for example, "-72.02920". Clear the symbols out and the location will then pop up.

In the meantime, would you be willing to send me a copy of version BN of the file? My latest is BL, and I didn't get a copy of BN before Vito took over.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Corrup file

I noticed the same thing.This is may be the same example (Lon, Lat)= ?-72.02920, 42.55566
Hwy 2 Eb Rest Area Templeton MA .

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Yes.

That's the one. There's something about Vito's text editor that is adding the extraneous symbols to the beginning of the file. The funny thing here is that when you open the file up in Notepad++ or even Excel the symbols aren't present.

Comparing Vito's file with Version BL (the last I have), every location in version BL is present in Vito's file, but in Vito's file the coordinates are accurate to only five decimal places instead of six. In checking for duplicates between the two in EPE I had to do a distance match of 0.01 miles for the duplicates to be found. In some cases, this causes the POI to not be set at the beginning of the off ramp, but before.

Thinking about it a bit further, I do think Vito should add the column D information back in. Even though newer devices can't use it, older devices can benefit greatly from it.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

lon/lat are okay in my download

Strephon_Alkhalikoi wrote:

...As to some POIs in the file not displaying the map in EPE, the coordinates in the file are corrupt. The Longitude is displayed as, for example, "-72.02920". Clear the symbols out and the location will then pop up.

Strephon_Alkhalikoi, that's really strange. You're right about that garbage at the beginning of the first record. I did some playing around with that file and this is what I found:
I copied the entire file (using shift/ctrl/end + ctrl c) and created a brand new Rest Areas file. That worked with EPE, those garbage characters were gone.
Then I tried just deleting the very first record from the downloaded file but that didn't work - the garbage was still there, only now it was on what used to be the second record but is now the first.
Stranger yet, is if I use Notepad to display the bad file, those garbage characters don't show up. The first record looks entirely correct. If I run a compare program called "examdiff", then the garbage shows up.
Anyway, I deleted the downloaded file, I recopied the copied file (again using shift/ctrl/end + ctrl c) and created a brand new "Rest Areas.csv file and that is now correct; I can see the map in the lower left quadrant of EPE.

Phil

--
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

BO?

Strephon_Alkhalikoi wrote:

In the meantime, would you be willing to send me a copy of version BN of the file? My latest is BL, and I didn't get a copy of BN before Vito took over.

MrKen's last version was BO, not BN. I can send you the BO version if you PM me with an email address. If you need BN, someone else will have to help you.

I wasn't aware he did a

I wasn't aware he did a version BO. I thought BN was the last. Regardless, I'll shoot you a message shortly.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

I have a copy from last January

Strephon_Alkhalikoi wrote:

I wasn't aware he did a version BO. I thought BN was the last. Regardless, I'll shoot you a message shortly.

I still have what I think was the most recent RA file until Vito's. It's dated 01/23/15. It you want it, send me your e-mail address. I wasn't aware there were identifiers like "BO" and "BN" that went with the RA files. Anyway, if you want my copy, you're welcome to it.

Phil

--
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

Version BO and Vito's Version (BP?)

You would have to host yours on a site and provide a link as you don't have your contact form enabled on your profile.

I've always modified Rest Areas Combined because there were more than a few things I didn't like about the layout, mainly the usage of all capital letters and the abbreviations for the column D information. I normally do an update of my modified file when I do a map update, but forgot it this time. To save myself some hassle I do a duplicates check between my modified file and the stock file, delete the duplicates, and whatever remains are the entries to be modified.

The last version of Ken's file will allow me to discover how many locations changed between his file and Vito's, using EPE, as Vito doesn't state what changed, if anything. The ones Vito added will then have to have their coordinates adjusted to return to six-digit accuracy.

As to the garbage information in the file and the missing column D, according to his profile Vito uses a TomTom GPS. OV2 files don't have a column D, which explains why column D is missing. TomTom if I recall also has its own editor, which means converting the file from OV2 to CSV is introducing the garbage characters at the beginning of the file.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Services.

I think it is a shame the services column had to be removed, as I found it very useful. I can understand how this information would be difficult to find and maintain for every rest area. Vito, I do appreciate your work on this file.

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Contact!

Strephon_Alkhalikoi wrote:

You would have to host yours on a site and provide a link as you don't have your contact form enabled on your profile...

Strephon_Alkhalikoi, My fault. Until this very moment I didn't realize that I didn't have 'contact' on. When I looked at my own profile after turning it on, it didn't show but I'm guessing that's because a user wouldn't normally 'contact' himself, so the contact tab doesn't show on his own profile. Anyway, if you want my January version of Ken's RA, you should be able to contact me.

Phil

--
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

Column D Removal Not Intentional

Alan, I don't think Vito intentionally removed the services. Based on the fact he has a TomTom device, I don't think he realizes that Garmin owners can use that added column.

Regardless, I hope he does see this thread, so he knows there is a problem.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

You might be right.

You might be right about removal of the services being unintended.

Regarding your observation of newer devices not showing these details, I wonder if that is only the 2014 and newer models. On my 3597 (a 2013 model), I can see the details if I touch the banner bar when the POI alerts.

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Like having the info.

My 2597 shows the details.Also 2013 model. If I remember right you can set add to route once the the banner comes up and you touch it .

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

I may have painted with too

I may have painted with too wide a brush regarding devices with the pop up not displaying information. Sorry about that. I know on my 1300 tapping on the pop-up does nothing. That may have been a 2012 device decision by Garmin that they chose not to repeat for 2013 and later.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." --Douglas Adams

Column D Data

alandb wrote:

I think it is a shame the services column had to be removed, as I found it very useful. I can understand how this information would be difficult to find and maintain for every rest area. Vito, I do appreciate your work on this file.

Agreed, I found the column D data very useful

--
(formerly known as condump) RV 770 LMT-S, Nuvi2797LMT, Nuvi765T

Character Encoding

It looks like the file was using UTF-8 character encoding. I converted it to ASCII and uploaded the adjusted file.

For those who are curious, here is some more information on UTF-8 and byte order marks. (The  that was at the start of the file is a byte order mark.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark

I'll also send a note to Vito.

Jonathan (aka JM)

Rest stop

JM wrote:

It looks like the file was using UTF-8 character encoding. I converted it to ASCII and uploaded the adjusted file.

For those who are curious, here is some more information on UTF-8 and byte order marks. (The  that was at the start of the file is a byte order mark.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark

I'll also send a note to Vito.

Jonathan (aka JM)

Thanks Jon.

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.