Adding POI's

Getting the data formatted correctly by cutting / pasting into Excel can be pretty tricky.

Another user (jassoma) has already made a Flying J file and shared it at this page: Flying J Travel Plaza

I looked at some output from the GPS Visualizer site, and it looks like they're producing a tab-delimited file. Instead of cutting / pasting into Excel, you might have better luck if you use their download link to save the data in a TXT file. (alternatively, you could also cut / paste into a Notepad file and save as a text file from Notepad).

Once you have the data in a TXT file, you can import the file into Excel using File / Open and select file type = "Text Files". The import wizard should break the data into separate columns that will be easier for you to re-arrange into a POI file.

JM

Thanks for the info, I think I understand inputting POI's. Several sections had numbers missing, are they zeros missing, do I need to put them back in? If this info is useable as is, how do I send it to you?
Frank

"32.375010," -112.8722 ," AZ Shadow Ridge RV 431 N 2nd Ave Ajo (520)387-5055 FREE Wifi
"33.429701," -111.571878," AZ Carefree Manor 1615 N Delaware Dr Apache Junction (480)982-4008 Wifi
"33.439820," -111.54568 ," AZ Countryside RV 2701 S Idaho Rd Apache Junction (480)982-1537
"33.407800," -111.55482 ," AZ Golden Sun RV Resort (Encore) 999 W Broadway Apache Junction (866)226-6090
"33.431289," -111.563201," AZ Santa Fe RV 1800 N Iron Wood Dr Apache Junction (480)983-3299
"33.421010," -111.58051 ," AZ Happy Days RV Park 451 N Meridian Apache Junction (480)982-4369

Trailing zeros can be dropped (after the decimal point, of course). For example, your GPS will read 33.407800 and 33.4078 as the same.

The sample CSV data you included in your post has a few problems. Here's the same data, reformatted to work a little better with POI Loader:

-112.8722,32.37501,"AZ Shadow Ridge RV","431 N 2nd Ave Ajo (520)387-5055 FREE Wifi"
-111.571878,33.429701,"AZ Carefree Manor","1615 N Delaware Dr Apache Junction (480)982-4008 Wifi"
-111.54568,33.43982,"AZ Countryside RV","2701 S Idaho Rd Apache Junction (480)982-1537"
-111.55482,33.4078,"AZ Golden Sun RV Resort (Encore)","999 W Broadway Apache Junction (866)226-6090"
-111.563201,33.431289,"AZ Santa Fe RV","1800 N Iron Wood Dr Apache Junction (480)983-3299"
-111.58051,33.42101,"AZ Happy Days RV Park","451 N Meridian Apache Junction (480)982-4369"

It's a little hard to read because the lines are wrapping to fit on the page

Key issues:

1) Longitude and Latitude needed to be swapped. (Longitude always comes first in Garmin CSV files)

3) I broke the remaining data into two fields: name and description. (It's best to keep the name under about 30 characters)

4) I fixed quotation marks. (they're not needed around lon / lat, and they should be used at the start/end of the name and description columns)

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask follow-up questions.

Once you have a file that tests out okay with POI Loader, you can share it with everyone at POI Factory by clicking the link on the right side of the page that says "upload and share a CSV file".

JM

My first addition was d/l the Red Light and I added to my secure digital card, works perfectly, I used the poi loader and it created the folder on the sd drive, then I d/l Flying J poi and now the sd only shows the Flying J when I go to explorer I do see both files but only one displays in the Nuvi.. any help will be appreciated.
Thank You
nickjr

I've been doing the same thing with several files from the discovery group, specifically the COE and Passport files.

If you download the .txt file you will find that they are already setup in comma delimited format so it's easy to convert them to poi's, at least for garmin units.

The files open in Notepad by default, so just change the name, save file as with a .csv extension and use Garmin's POI loader to save to an sd card.

I have noticed lots of errors in formatting the text file so some editing is required. Once you save as a .csv file they will now open in excel which makes them a bit easier to edit.

Hope this helps.

Should have added that the Lat/Long needs to be swapped but see that the admin did it.

By reading another post I was able to answer my own question by creating a folder on your PC where you place all your POI files you want to loaded together at one time, then you select that dirctory which contains all those files and the loader will load all of them at one time.
Thank You for that information
nickjr

I have just finished the TX Rest Areas, and would like to submit School POI's for my area.
However, you have Regional Files of the Western USA, which has 45,359 schools noted. None of the schools in my area are on this list. That leaves an uncomfortable feeling downloading these files, and none of your schools show up.
How are school files going to be handled for specific areas, or is it better to not show them?

Not to many of the schools show up in my area as well. The one that does is incorrect.

This is good feedback on the schools file.

I obtained most of the data at the federal level through the Department of the Interior. It's a very large data set, but clearly, from your comments, it's not entirely complete for all parts of the country.

After we're a little farther along with some basic improvements to the site, I may have an opportunity to blend in more data from state or local agencies.

JM

I've been working on the list with the info you gave me and thought I was ready to upload it. I thought I should check the info, I used gpsvisualizer.com on several addresses and found them off. Do I redue the whole list, or is there another way to check the list? I don't know where the original list came from.
Frank

Which list were you working on again?

JM