Getting Started Making POIs On A Mac

 

Hey everyone,

I just ordered my first GPS today and am eagerly awaiting it's delivery. I'm interested in making a POI file for ski resorts using data that I have in google earth. The instructions I found on this site use an editor that is not compatible with OS X. What options do I have?

Great site, I can't wait to contribute some POIs.

Best,

Rich

Sorry, I am not familiar

Sorry, I am not familiar with OS X.

--
Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

Lots of Mac POI file editor choices

The only application cited on POI Factory that you can't use on a Mac without Windows is the POI Verifier. You can easily create a POI file with the TextEdit program that comes with all Macs; but you can use any word processor you have on your Mac.

To see the format requirements just grab a POI Factory csv file and open it in TextEdit. There you will see the format requirement (basically longitude,latitude,Location-Name). No other programs are needed.

I use Excel to manage larger files, but you have to be sure to save it as a csv file stripped of Excel code. I do this by saving the file as a csv file, then open it again in TextEdit, save again, and the file is now fixed.

--
Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

Thanks

Great advice...I'll give it a try.

Sorry about being so thick.

Sorry about this but maybe I'm missing something here. I searched as much as I could for answers but I'm having trouble.

From the FAQ on POI Factory:

Quote:

The .KML file will contain data for all of the locations in your favorites area. Next, you need to convert the KML file to a format that works with your GPS. PoiEdit works well for this.

In PoiEdit:

* Open the .KML file
* delete any extra locations you don't want included in your POI file
* select File / Save As, and select the file format you want (e.g., Garmin CSV)

For longer files, this is a lot easier than typing the data into Notepad or Excel; and Google Earth does the hard work of finding the coordinates.

I cant find a version of PoiEdit for mac and I can't open the KLM file with excel. Sorry about being a PITA, people.

KML files are for Google Earth

KML files are locations interpreted by Google Earth. I sometimes use Google Earth to get latitude and longitude for locations. KML files do contain the information you could use in a csv file, but I do not know of a conversion tool. I just copy and past the data I need into a TextEdit file and then give it a csv suffix.

There are some web-based file conversion tools. Has anyone out there seen a web-based KML to CSV tool? I did a Google search but didn't see anything right away.

Boxofrain I need some more information:
What kind of GPS are you using?
Are you trying to import a set of POIs or a track of a route?
Where did you get the KML file to import, and what are trying to do with it?

--
Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

GeePeeEx & Mac?

brentrn wrote:

The only application cited on POI Factory that you can't use on a Mac without Windows is the POI Verifier.

Is 'GeePeeEx Editor' Mac compatible?

RT

--
"Internet: As Yogi Berra would say, "Don't believe 90% of what you read, and verify the other half."

'fraid not.

only a Mac running Windows sad

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      

Here's a Mac conversion app that may work

Here is a Mac app that converts many kinds of files. I haven't tried it but it be what you are looking for:

GPS Babel

--
Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

gpsbabel

This post (http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4545) has details of the parameters required to make gpsbabel convert kml to csv.

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      

A Nuvi 200

brentrn wrote:

Boxofrain I need some more information:
What kind of GPS are you using?
Are you trying to import a set of POIs or a track of a route?
Where did you get the KML file to import, and what are trying to do with it?

Thanks for all the help, I hope I'm not too much trouble. Ok, now for the disclosure. I just purchased a nuvi 200 on Woot yesterday. I've been in the market for a gps for a while and the price was right. I figured I'd get acquainted with the 200, then hand it down to my wife after I decide what kind of features I like/need and upgrade.

I have a KML file on Google Earth that pinpoints every ski resort in North America. I do a lot of traveling to resorts over the winter (Northeast) and I would like to transfer that data to my nuvi so I can route to it from wherever I am. (This way if we're on a secondary road somewhere and change our plans on the fly I don't have to pull out the old Vermont map.)

Am I expecting too much? Is this possible to do? Is this project over my head? Perhaps I've don't have a solid grip on what POIs are and what they can do for me. I haven't even received the Nuvi...I'm just an eager beaver.

Thanks

brentrn wrote:

Here is a Mac app that converts many kinds of files. I haven't tried it but it be what you are looking for:

GPS Babel

I'll take a look, thanks.

Horn...that thread looks useful. Thanks as well.

.

Sorry, hit the wrong button.

Thanks for the bump

Motorcycle Mama wrote:

Sorry, hit the wrong button.

Thanks for the bump anyway.

My system...using Google Maps, GPS Babel and POI loader

I thought I'd post this even though some of it is covered here already...

I got a system that for me is working quite well as I'm in a business where I need to create weekly routes, client sites, etc.

I have a basic combination for POI files only.
Google Maps, GPS babel and POI Loader beta for Mac.

Here's the process:

1) You start by creating your custom maps in Google, generally just to help you organize. So for example you could create a custom google map for say... all the client sites (or points of interest that you're interested in). In my case I have a day sites map and a night sites map. Make all your reference points on the map and save it. I also do it this way as it's easy to make partial or whole changes with minimal effort.

2) Once done, right-click on the "Link to this page" link in the upper right of the window. Choose add to bookmarks. Now you have a link to your google map in the bookmarks menu.

3) You want to make this link, and automatic KML output link. So open the bookmarks editor and edit the url in the bookmark link. At the very end of the line (without modifying the line) add "&output=kml" without the quotes, no spaces before or after just append it to the link.

4) now any time you want to output a KML file of that map just select the link from your bookmarks and it will create a kml file where you normally download things to.

5) You now need GPS Babel (I use version 1.3.4). In quick mode... select the waypoints option, and in the input section, select and load the kml file you just output from google maps. In the output area, select GPX XML. No filters, and select use as default if you're going to do this often.

6) Save file. It will output a GPX file. I have created one folder that I call POI Files. I keep all my POI files in it and just have POI Loader upload that entire folder to my garmin. At this point you can get fancy if you want... in the same folder you can add sounds, icons etc for the POI's you're going to load. The Garmin's accept .mp3 files for sound, and .bmp for icons. The name of all the files must the same with just the suffixes being unique (.gpx, .mp3, .bmp).

7) Start POI Loader and select the folder you want to upload to your Garmin. You will have to have your Garmin mounted and now you get to decide if you want to add proximity alarms, etc to the files you're uploading. The menus should explain themselves fairly well. Quit POI loader when done, unmount Garmin and reboot... all your POI's will be in the extras folder.

Done.

Tips...

Keep your POI files as organized as you need to speed lookups or to make easier to manage (if you have lots like I do). I personally find Googlemaps is great for this as I can create many of those bookmark kml output links for each google map I have and update only those that need updating while keeping my Mac's POI folder with the most current data in it.

This is a really simple overview of it, I hope I've explained it well enough. It seems bothersome in the beginning making the links and such from google maps for output but for me in the end it saves time as I am constantly updating the same saved maps just with changed sites or locations. You can also do this one location at a time if you like. You can also get fancier incorporating routes etc., I choose not to do this in google as I use traffic on my garmin and let it design my routes for me on the fly each day. I just select which of my day sites I need to visit and it puts the route together.

If you have trouble or even if you have better ideas, please don't hesitate to email me, I'd love to hear what others are doing as well.

I hope this helps someone figure out how to maximize their GPS.

Take care.

Chris Ursulak

--
-- Nuvi 760 with FM Traffic, MacbookPro CoreDuo, Leopard 10.5.1

Google Earth; copy coordinates

Boxofrain wrote:

I cant find a version of PoiEdit for mac and I can't open the KLM file with excel. Sorry about being a PITA, people.

What I do to get a coordinate of a spot in Google earth is to use the Add Placemark option. Then I right-click and change the push pin to a cross-hair. While the dialog is still open, I can drag the cross-hair to a precise location. Then I just copy the coordinates from the dialog box and paste them into Excel or the text editor. Seemed a lot easier to me than editing all the codes from a kml file just to get down to the coordinates.

Google Earth - kml advantages.

johnc wrote:

What I do to get a coordinate of a spot in Google earth is to use the Add Placemark option...I can drag the cross-hair to a precise location. Then I just copy the coordinates from the dialog box and paste them into Excel or the text editor.

There are two advantages in transferring the information, via a .kml file.
Firstly, the coordinates of that precise location are, well, more precise!
For example, I did a test and ended up with on-screen coordinates of -2.00566,52.9977

The kml file contained coordinates of:
-2.005661617871411,52.99769484046804
(admittedly more than I need!)

Secondly, if you access existing Placemarks set up by other users, they often contain long textual descriptions of the place. With the right software, these can be incorporated into your POI file as well. Earlier this year, I made myself a GPS guide-book for Malta, using this method.

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      

re: My System...

very helpful post! thanks so much for this cursulak.

Thank you

I have found alternate methods and tricks that get you to the same ultimate end point, but I keep coming back to this method for it's speed and data that work for me. It seems to be the most efficient so far.

Now all we need is a developer to write a Google API to do this direct to GPX (and with the ability to embed phone numbers etc).

BTW - a fella was asking me about the syntax of a GPX file for adding numbers etc.

The Wiki entry is the nicest one I've seen. If you want to tweek your GPX file after creation to add a few things... here is a link to tell you what extensions are supported in the GPX file. THis was posted by the author of GeePeeEx editor (windows) software.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPX#Example

It is my understanding you don't have to have them all, and you can leave some blank (ie null value), but I haven't played around with the full list to see exactly what combinations work or don't together.

Take care.

Chris Ursulak.

--
-- Nuvi 760 with FM Traffic, MacbookPro CoreDuo, Leopard 10.5.1

Thanks for all of this

Thanks for all of this wonderful information.

google earth is worthless,

google earth is worthless, the coordinates don't match up with mapsource. Be wary of creating your own POI's. I tried to place red light cameras at my HOUSE and the lat/long of google earth placed them 200 miles away.

--
Zumo 450, Mac user

.

It sounds like you might be using the wrong (or a different) coordinate format.

Coordinates can be expressed in several different formats. They are most commonly Degrees Minutes Seconds (DDD MM SS), Decimal Degrees (DDD.DDDD), or Degrees Decimal Minutes (DDD MM.MMM). The last format is the most common in current GPS models. The second one is the one we use in Custom POI files.

Degrees, Minutes and Seconds
DDD° MM' SS.S"
N 32° 18' 23.1" W 122° 36' 52.5"

Decimal Degrees
DDD.DDDDD°
N 32.30642° W 122.61458°

Degrees and Decimal Minutes
DDD° MM.MMM'
N 32° 18.385' W 122° 36.875'

You might need to go in your GE settings and change the format.

Any luck?

Hi Rich, this is my first post. I'm new at both GPS and POI and am also a mac user. Have you found a solution in the past weeks? I see that Garmin have a beta POI loader. It can be found on MacUpdate.

Hi to everyone else too.

David

poi edit for mac

Hi,

Do you have a link for the download?

Ron

Re: Poi Edit For Mac...

Hi sidha7001,

I might be wrong, however, I don't think a "Poi Edit" for the Macintosh operating system exists. If I am wrong, I hope someone will correct me...

Regards,

Tailspin

Nüvi 670 & 880
Mac Pro & OS 10.5.7

--
Sullivan's Law: Murphy was an optimist!

Use any text or spreadsheet program

You don't need a specific POI editing program. Any text editor or spreadsheet application can easily be used to generate POI files on a Mac (or Linux or Windows or Commodore 64).

Patrick

--
Garmin nüvi 200 (my first GPS), 780, & 3700 Series. And a Mac user.