BMP Icon Discussion

Simon, we are a bit limited on some of our features because the site is run on drupal and Jon has to write a lot of programing in order to get special items to work. Right now we are trying to prioritize the things that need to be improved so that I am not drowning in work. Keep in mind there are two of us and thousands of you guys. Just keeping up with the regular running of the site is a full time job.

Miss POI

I did not see that as a problem as the designer sounds open to all types of usage, as long as he is credited. And we can always ask first, there's a big contact me on the page. Just for fun, how many of them can you spot on this page? http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/070108-microsoft-share...

And quite a fantastic job you're doing! The site is quite polished and even after 2 weeks, I can sense your dedication to the cause

Just file it in the suggestions box. If you don't voice your ideas, they're sure never going to be heard.

Thanks again

Simon

Does anyone out there have a Jaguar POI Icon. Or
Jaguar.bmp.

the animal or car?

I have sent this user the icon he requested.

Miss POI

Miss POI, I DID NOT GET THE ICON! How was it sent?
Why isn't it listed up on the ICON section of your site? I'm sure I could get it from there

Does anyone have a bike and jeep icon?

A lot of email I get from this site ends up in my spam folder...

Is one available?

I like you, you have a kind heart. It bothered me that Miss POI said "I sent this ....."! If she had
HONESTLY sent it..then, it wouldn't be so hard to see it posted or listed on the "ICONS". But, sometimes folk like to say they did something that they really didn't to make themselves look good. I deal with this kinda stuff ALL THE TIME. I try to see the good nature, but when I do..I AM THE ONE that gets disappointed for having trusted their so-called GOOD NATURE. I thank you for the suggestion, because you showed you were SINCERE. Did folder search "name", in Windows Mail, NOTHING! I don't go to church much "aophiucus" but, I can tell an honest child of GOD.

Bless you..aophiucus ! !

I just resent the message again, and yes I did send you the icon on the 11th like I said I did!!! I do not appreciate your tone or your implications that I am insincere.

I work really hard running this site and so far I have no files for Jaguar so why would I add it to the library when there are no files to attach it too.

Go check your email and then you can come back and apologize for being rude.

Miss POI

Miss Poi,
I have sent a dog park icon to photos@poi-factory.com.

Thanks for all you do here. Great community.

Q

Thanks Q, I will have that up in the morning.

Miss POI

Wasn't trying to be rude. I was hoping that you could find it in your heart to load it onto the "icons" area. I saw Mercedes Benz, and BMW. Glad my client didn't purchase a Porsche, but they have a Jag like myself, and materials needed for Court supena is already LATE. I DIDN'T Tell you a Client has issues with his repair work, just like I do.

Importance, THIS FILE, can help show the judge as per deposition as to alternative Jaguar Mechanics with in the area including dealerships.

So, forgive me if I was a bit harsh, you should be with me when I get fused out for not having the file ready to show for EXHIBIT C.

Power of Prayer is the best tool!

Wow. You really don't get it. You need to apologize profusely to Miss POI for calling her honesty into question.

This is by far the best site out there. And Miss POI and JM are top notch.

And if you needed something for a court case within some certain time frame, perhaps you should have paid a developer to create what you wanted within your proscribed time frame.

i want to know how to add downloaded poi icons to my magellan maestro 3225? please send answers to my email at sgourvitz@gmail.com. Thanks so much for your help

Does http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1632 not apply to the 3225?

The only other comment I have at this time is....

Good comment in the signature block.

I'd have to agree with that as well...and oh so appropriate.

thanks for all the bmp files

One of the peeps at the Fitfreak.net site built this cool icon for Garmin so Fit/jazz owners can have a custom curser that represents their cool little car. I sent POI factory the srf file so it can be shared with all.

I don't have a way to share SRF files here on the site yet. We would also need to get permission from that other site and the people that created it before sharing it.

You can post a link to where people can find it.

Miss POI

How to I update my nuvi's symbols to so more updated ones?

Which symbols?

Are you asking about the icons for the built in POI? Or for your Favorites?

If so, you can't change either of those.

If you are asking about something else, can you clarify?

Here is the direct download link
http://ravingpsycho.com/fitfreak/
for the HondaFit.srf
This is for the original post;
http://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-ice/30555-red-fit-icon-ga...
Thanks to R2D2 and the Fit forum staff along with Ravingpsycho for hosting the downlaod.

will someone please create a bmp for Legal Seafoods? I am unable to over the next week or so but am asking for help if someone is free to do it. thanks!

I made one from their logo. It came out 24X17 pixels. Rectangular logos with lots of detail typically don't come out very good when made that small, but you can look at it and see what you think.

Your contact tab isn't activated in your profile so I can't contact you, you'll have to contact me through my profile. When I get the email, I can reply and attach the BMP file.

I now have the Legal Seafoods BMP logo attached to the file located here: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/3667

Miss POI

I like the Red Light Camera 08 BMP Icon, but is it possible to get the camera icon in red instead of black, so it will stand out on the screen and so my feeble mind can associate the red camera with red lights. Using a Garmin Nuvi 755T.

Also, what is the proper background color (RGB values) for Garmin Nuvi icons, so the background will be invisible? Thanks.

See earlier post:

It has been sent to Miss Poi for review.
255,0,255

Here ya go http://www.poi-factory.com/node/20520

Miss POI

I saved the icon folder to my subfolder on my computer. Here's the folder structute:

>POI
>>Lowes(sub folder)
>>>Lowes.bmp
>>>Lowes(sub folder)
....Lowes.csv
....Lowes.bmp

After I load this file through the POI loader by selection ..POI\Lowes, I put go to Custom POIs on my Garmin Nuvi 750 and choose a Lowes location. When I check it on the map, it does not show the icon, it shows the default flag. Is there something else that I should be doing?

Thanks,
Cris

It would appear from your source structure that you are loading files individually, and either renaming your POI.gpi files, or you are saving them to named folders on the gps -- is that correct? Otherwise, you'll be overwriting your POI.gpi file every time you run POI Loader.

If you are seeing a flag, you must be routing to the POI. Instead, select a location and instead of touching GO, tap the Show Map button. Your icon should show. It will also show on most models if you are zoomed in far enough and just driving past the location.

Thanks for the quick response. Yes, I am renaming them on the GPS so that I can keep track of them. I tried your suggestion and the icon did show. So does the icon only show when you are looking at the map and not heading to the destination? Do you know if this is the same for alerts? I'm new to all of this POI stuff.

Thanks,
Cris

Cris,
I believe that anytime you choose a POI as a destination, that the destination icon covers up the custom icon. If you set an alert for a file, the custom icon will show unless you choose it as a destination. If you think about it, you don't need to see the custom icon when you choose it as a destination, unless you tend to forget what you chose for a destination. Be advised that the requirements for seeing custom POI icons is dependent on model and may require zooming in or being in 2D mode.

Since you already have a grasp of setting up your computer folders in a manner to give you categories (the double entry of the same folder name), you might want to consider placing the resulting POI.gpi files into separate named folders on the gps. This avoids having to rename them and still gives all the advantages of being able to load a single update. Your Lowes POI file would be named POI.gpi and you would know it was the Lowes file because it would be in the Lowes folder on the gps. If I've done a poor job of explaining, see ScrugneysGundogs' explanation at:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/17095 . You will notice in that thread that I couldn't grasp the duplicate folder names on the computer, and he patiently explained -- but you are already doing that.

I love the Speed MPH icons. I use them to mark where the speed limits change in my area, and then set a proxmity alert to slow down.

The highest one is 65 MPH, however the speed limits in my state go up to 75 (I live in ND).

I tried to edit the 65 MPH one and just change it to 70 and also to 75, however it ended up looking really really ugly. Somehow I'm not able to replicate the soft edges on the numbers. Is there some sort of trick to creating the icons. Like create them large, and then reduce them?

Exactly, to get the soft edge on a 24x24 icon you should create it at a much larger size and then reduce down. I would suggest at least 240x240. Also, in most cases, use good tools, such as Photoshop or the free "Gimp", rather than a crude MS Paint program.

Question, I have a picture in my digital camera that I want to use for my own POI file. I save the picture as a .bmp, and then follow the rest?I understand what to do once I have a BMP, my question is, how to make this BMP. Is it just a matter of changing the name of the file, from pic.jpg to pic.bmp? or, do you need a program to convert it?

You DO NOT just change the extension. There are many different graphical file formats and they all encode the information in different ways. BMP is the way that Microsoft created for Windows (and in fact there are many variations of BMP, for POI icons you not only have to use a bMP file but you have to be sure it is a 256 color BMP file, not a full color file). jpg or jpeg is a much different form of encoding that produces a smaller file (but at the compromise of image quality).

Yes, there are programs that will do the conversion. One that I particularly like and recommend is Ifranview, available here: http://www.irfanview.net/
This utility will not only do the conversion (and resizing, cropping and conversion to 256 colors), but it is a fantastic file viewer. And it is completely free and very well supported. Download both the basic program and the extra plug-ins, install the program first then run the plug-ins file to get lots of extras. I would be surprised if, after using it a little while, you didn't want to make it your default file viewer.

Ifranview can do a lot of file editing and, of course, file viewing. It's not quite on a par with heavy duty editing tools like Photoshop or Gimp, but is a fantastic tool for what it does, and is very easy on system resources. It is one of the first tools that I install on any new system.

I would like to ask if and how I can use custom icons in Magellan's GPSs and the windows application they have "Magellan POI File Editor".

They have a few (very limited drop down list) icons but they are not quite what I need.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, I will try it tonight. This site is the greatest!!!

thanks everyone. this is gonna be real cool.

Hi, I'm new and after reading about POI Editor, I was really excited about downloading it...
...unfortunately it's for PC (and haven't used one in almost 15 years)

I only use Apple Macs and I am desperate to upload some new 'MAP SYMBOLS' to my Garmin.

I know how to navigate through the menu and select "Change Map Symbol" etc., but there aren't many really cool or useful !!
(the existing one's are poor and/or not enough.)

like many others, I also would like to add more symbols for destinations I use like Soccer, Scooter, Train, Ferry, Boat etc. etc..

I wish I could just 'drag and drop' them into a folder when I connect my Garmin to my Mac via USB (as I did successfully with other files).

Any help RE this, is greatly appreciated.

Also, is possible to have a feature on this blog, to enable me being notified automatically when I get a response? – Thanks.

Cheers,
RV

You're trying to do something that isn't supported, MAC or PC. The built-in symbols can not be added too, if you want to set a symbol for a favorite then you have to pick from the Garmin provided list.

What people are mainly talking about here is adding a custom symbol for an added set of POIs that will appear under extras. To do that you have to make a bmp file (yea, it's a windows created format, but I'm expecting that some MAC software can work with the format). The bmp has to be 24x24 pixels or less and 256 colors. As long as you can create that, or download a file that is in that form, you should be able to add it when you load custom POIs, The file name must match the POI file name exactly except for the bmp extension.

BRAVO for the explanation!
- I'm finally clear about that, thanks Frovingslosh.

Yes, Macs can work with any format I can think off... I actually thought BMP was a Mac format. Thanks for that lesson too!

Creating or converting those BMP pics is not a problem (I'm a designer), but now that I got the point, how on Earth do I create my own .cvs or .gpx files?

Let's say I have a different destination every week for soccer training, so I need a soccer ball BMP and a (few different) .csv file to create a custom POI, right?

How do I create those .csv files?
The rest of the process, although very fiddly, I can manage (glup, I think!?)

Thanks again.
Cheers,
RV

There ae plenty of discussions on that here, see the faqs and/or simply look at a csv file (it is just a text file). Some here will tell you to use Excel, but while Excel can read and write csv files is is not at all needed. There are alse poi editing programs, again not needed just to create your own file.

I actually wanted to organize my data somewhat better tham CSV premits, so I laid it out in a simple text file with multiple lines per POI, then used a small AWK script to pack each group of data into a csv line. If you want to try that use my contact info here and send me your email, I'll send my script and a sample data file.

gpx files are a bit more complex, but they are still just text files, just need to follow some xml rules. If there is any interest I'm sure that I can rework my script to produce gpx files rather than csv files, and do it from the same input data.

Got something for Sunoco stations?

There is a Sunoco.BMP icon file on the Sunoco POI file page:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/17136

For some reason, its not listed on the icon page, alphabetically. Could just be an oversight.

I have fixed this for you Gary;)

Miss POI