gpsvisualizer

GPS Visualizer -- http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ -- will do exactly what you want; the only catch is that you have to type the desired coordinates into a text file first. But making a file is easy; just make sure you include a header row. For example, type this: type,name,desc,longitude,latitude W,point1,First test point,-90.0,40.0 W,point2,Second test point,-90.1,39.9 W,point3,A little further to the northwest,-90.5,40.2 (The "type" field contains W's, indicating that they are waypoints, not trackpoints.) Then save it as a text file whose name ends in ".csv" and upload to GPS Visualizer's map form. (Or, if you use tabs to separate your fields, save it as ".txt".) Voila. Of course, other file formats (like GPX) are also supported; this is just the easiest way to do it by hand. And in the near future (today, if I have time), I might also create a form where you can type in your comma-separated data without having to save it to a file first.

So far so good... and the original source is back up as well. At least we know they're not planning on taking them away any time soon. (We hope.)

Good news! Less than 10 minutes after posting that last message, I found an alternate NRCan server that contains exactly the same data. It's still slow as molasses, but it DOES work; I've re-enabled all the nifty Canadian background map choices.

That's real sad - they were excellent. What type of source maps are you looking for - maybe we can find an alternate. The data I was using before was from the National Topographic Data Base (NTDB) by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) -- and I was getting it straight from their server. Now, when I try to send a request, it returns some kind of database error that suggests they're having software or hardware problems at the moment. I hope it's just temporary problems, because those NRCan maps, for all their slowness, are wonderfully detailed and amazingly accurate. I sent a message to the guy in Sherbrooke who's supposed to be the contact person for their map server, but I haven't heard anything. Keep your fingers crossed. In the meantime, of course, I'd welcome any suggestions of alternate sources for Canadian maps. (And don't suggest the "Toporama" site, because that won't work; it doesn't let you specify coordinates to generate images on the fly.)

Try GPS Visualizer: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ ...Just download a .loc file from geocaching.com with the coordinates of the caches you're interested in, and GPS Visualizer can plot all of them on a variety of background map choices. (If your .loc file has only a single point, you can easily set the scale/range of the map.)

Just thought I'd let people know that GPS Visualizer is now living on its new server, and things seem to be working fine... but PLEASE let me know if anything goes wrong. (One ongoing glitch is that the high-quality digital Canadian maps are unavailable, but that has nothing to do with my server.)

Okay, I'll give it a couple days and then check with "Scout."

Markwell, are you able to add links to those pages, or should I contact Scout[at]GPSgames.org?

Robert, I think you're the one who gave me the same advice ("avoid them") about trying to read MapSource files.

Tell your Chicagoland friends, Markwell!

fixed it. finally. I think.

I wonder who you have to sleep with to get a link on geocaching.com... I've written to them twice and never heard a peep back from them.

The giant boldfaced prose in the linky link that Jeremy posted might offer a hint that he does know. Hint: he wrote it. But the "MacGPSBabel" link on Jeremy's page just points to the main GBSBabel page, and I don't see any link there to the Mac version!

testing again...

When you download ".loc" files from Geocaching.com, they are XML files. When EasyGPS opens them, apparently it converts them to something that is most definitely not XML, and they won't even tell anyone how to read those files! The answer is, as I now see you've discovered, is to export the non-XML .loc file from EasyGPS as GPX.

It's not just you. I just found out I'm losing my dedicated server, and I'm investigating other possibilities. Try again, either now or in a few minutes, and it should work again.

stupid signature won't display right!

test

Jeremy, do you know if anyone has made a user-friendly Mac front-end to GPSBabel yet?

Do you suppose you could add a mention of GPS Visualizer to your "Northeast geocaching" site? Adam

(I posted this message a couple days ago in the "GPS Units and Software" forum, but it occurs to me that this might be a better spot for it, so please pardon the redundancy if you've seen this already.) GPS Visualizer -- http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ -- is a free web-based program that takes your GPS data and generates customizable maps or profiles in standard browser-viewable SVG format. Here's some of what makes GPS Visualizer so useful: It's free. (But donations are warmly welcomed!) It accepts a wide range of input file formats, including, of course, geocaching.com LOC files. Both tracks and waypoints can be plotted, and you can plot multiple sets of data on a single map. Geocaching waypoints are clickable and take you back to the relevant page on geocaching.com. You have a wide range of choices for background maps, including:30-meter Landsat imagery for the entire world Street-level maps for Europe and the U.S. Aerial photos and USGS topo maps for the U.S. Excellent digital background maps for Canada [*]The maps are interactive: labels can be moved or removed, and the backgrounds' position and opacity can be adjusted. [*]It's platform-independent (works great on both Mac AND Windows), because it runs on-line. [*]The output is in the form of vector drawings (SVGs) that can be scaled to any size and/or edited in a program like Adobe Illustrator. [*]The owner (that's me) is responsive to problems and suggestions for improvement, at least when I have time to work on it. Again, the URL is: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ Have fun, and please let me know if there are any problems. Adam Schneider http://adamschneider.net/

Whew. As I'd hoped, the Landsat maps (which include coverage of every continent at 30-meter resolution) seem to be up again. Adam

No, it doesn't. I thought about trying to support some of those manufacturer-specific formats, but when I asked the author of GPSBabel for tips, his advice was that it's a big pain (because they're always altering the format without telling anyone), and I shouldn't bother! So I leave the weird formats to GPSBabel for now. Adam

Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I post this message, I find out that the Landsat imagery is unavailable at the moment! I've seen this happen before; hopefully it'll be back up on Monday. As far as I know, the other background maps are all working.

Correct. You have to upload the data from your hard drive to GPS Visualizer. It accepts data in a LOT of formats, including GPX of course. But I like to try to insert it in lists of Mac-compatible GPS software because there are so few Mac mapping tools available. (Which is, I suppose, why I created it in the first place.)