garmin 350 poi

You can't have more than 32 Custom POI files per directory. Just create another directory and place some of them in there.

You might break them up by State or County or A-K and L-Z or something that makes sense for the POIs you are trying to load.

I had to split my "contacts" folder into two. One was personal and the other was business.

I have 35 files in my POI folder now, but I've only loaded about half of them. That 35 includes bmp icons. A lot of files are fuel and campgrounds. Then there are miscellaneous ones like speed traps, Walmarts, bridge clubs, low clearances, historical markers, Ford dealers.

I loaded the first half all in one folder. Am I going to have trouble doing that with 35? I'm not sure if "directory" means "folder".

Does the way you load these have any effect on the way they are viewed on the GPS menu? If so, what do you suggest as the preferred way to organize them? If it makes a difference, I like doing it by function: all campgrounds together, all fuel together. Or, if it doesn't matter, I'll just keep and load all 35 in one folder, if possible.

Thanks.

Dean nuvi200

People have reported having issues with the 32 file limitation, so the general advice is to put them into separate folders. (And yes, folder and directory are synonymous.)

Here's an example of how I organize them. I would say that organizing them by function makes sense for many people. I tend to organize them by name/type for the most part.

You can create categories by putting your POI files in folders under your main POI folder, if you want. The folders will create categories. You can't have more than one level of subfolder. The files themselves will create the subcategory.

For example, it might look like this.

> My POI (Main folder)
>> IHOP (subfolder)
... IHOP.csv
... IHOP.bmp
>> National Parks (subfolder)
... National Parks.gpx
... National Monuments.gpx
... National Recreation areas.gpx
... National Parks.bmp
... National Monuments.bmp
etc.

In this example, IHOP and National Parks show up as categories and then under National Parks, the subcategories of National Parks, National Monuments, and National Recreation Areas show up.

Here are some screenshots of what it would look like.

This is a shot of the folder and files on my computer.
http://i18.tinypic.com/4q8bl8m.jpg

This is how the first level shows up on my GPS unit.
http://i9.tinypic.com/4t6c8ye.jpg

When I select the National Parks category, this is what I get.
http://i2.tinypic.com/62qyi4z.jpg

Then if I select National Monuments, I get this.
http://i8.tinypic.com/4kbd8jc.jpg

Thanks. I knew I would get a very thorough answer from you. Now my only concern with many files is how much effort it would take to keep them updated.

My csv and bmp extensions don't show. One of your previous posts indicated that it might be a good idea to adjust the browser to show them. But it didn't seem to cause a problem on my first download. Do you have any reason to think it is better to show them?

I don't think it would be that difficult to keep them updated. Most probably don't change that often. But it's a fairly simple process to download a new file, stick it in the folder, and reload the files.

The only reason we recommend that people have the file extensions visible is to guard against having double file extensions when renaming files.

For instance, you might have POI file named Starbucks_US.csv. Then you download an icon named Starbucks.bmp and go to rename it. If the file extensions are not showing, you might type int Starbucks_US.bmp on top of the .bmp file extension that is already there resulting in Starbucks_US.bmp.bmp which will end up not loading as a Custom Icon.

The other reason we might recommend it is when people are trying to load sound/song files and are trying to verify that they are actually MP3 files.