truello

There is an option in POI loader to clear all POIs.

Penn State does have a website with some useful data: http://www.pasda.psu.edu For counties I've found that census.gov has a nice shape file that contains county borders for every state. It won't answer your question but may provide you with an alternate shapefile (and they list the metadata for it on the site as well): http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/co2000.html

I feel like I preach GPS Visualizer but I use it so often and it has so many features it's often the answer to a lot of questions... Anyway, I noticed that he put up a new tool that allows you to create waypoints/tracks/routes on Google Maps with many different layers (Google's, USGS's, NASA's, etc). Trails are usually too hard to see under tree cover, but sometimes the USGS DRG maps will have them for major trails, and you can then outline it with the track/route tool and download as GPX or KML. This is a very quick and simple way, however there are probably better options. Google Earth can do it, I believe, and may also include elevations with it if you have terrain turned on? National Geographic's software doesn't look to expensive and creates some very nice maps from what I've seen. [Edit] After re-reading your post I don't think you were talking about creating track files at all, but creating topo maps from them. For that, the NatGeo software should still work but I don't think you will find any very good software for free.

If you really want a MapSource icon you could take a screenshot of the list in MapSource, crop it, etc and upload it to your unit with xImage.

It seems that your PDA has to support USB host mode for this to work. My xv6700 does not.

Awesome, thanks. I will have to give this a shot then. While on the topic, is it possible to do this with a (Windows Mobile) PDA? That is, tether a PDA and a NMEA GPSr to get location via Google Maps Mobile?

The keyword in all of those instructions is Earth Bridge. Basically any device that supports NMEA will work. Unfortunately it seems that the Vista is not one of these.

Have you considered parsing it without the XSD? I've never read an XML file using an XSD so I can't say that this is any better, just that this is how I've done it successfully. ' Prompt user to select a file Dim strFileName As String strFileName = Application.GetOpenFilename("GPS GPX Files (*.gpx),*.gpx,All Files (*.*),*.*", , "Import GPX File", , False) ' User hit cancel If strFileName = "False" Then Exit Sub Dim objXMLDoc As New MSXML2.DOMDocument30 objXMLDoc.Load (strFileName) ' Error while parsing document If objXMLDoc.parseError.errorCode <> 0 Then MsgBox "Invalid XML file." Exit Sub End If Now that you have objXMLDoc created, you can process it using IXMLDOMNodeList and IXMLDOMNode. Dim objNodeList As IXMLDOMNodeList, objNode As IXMLDOMNode Dim strLatLon As String, intCt As Integer Set objNodeList = objXMLDoc.selectNodes("//wpt") For intCt = 1 To objNodeList.Length ' Loop through all wpts Set objNode = objNodeList.NextNode strLatLon = objNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("lat").Text & ", " & objNode.Attributes.getNamedItem("lon").Text MsgBox "Waypoint " & objNode.selectSingleNode("name/text()").Text & " (" & strLatLon & ")" Next intCt This requires the use of xPath notation (i.e. "name/text()").

The only people I see using payphones anymore are the homeless people searching for coins in the return tray

Try this: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert You can enter your waypoints (including the header) like so... name,desc,latitude,longitude LotsaFish1,Area with lots of Bass,36.142,-79.493 BigStump,Avoid this stump,36.158,-79.229 And it will convert it to a GPX file which you can load to your GPS.

Touchscreen is nice and has its place, but I don't think its in GPS units. I've never used a touchscreen GPS so I can't speak from personal experience but I can see it being too fragile for the outdoors environment. I don't cache that much (anymore) and use my GPS more for climbing trips and it can take a beating, especially in less than sunny days. I have a phone (verizon xv6700) pda that is touchscreen and I have already got it replaced once with considerably less abuse than my GPS unit gets. I also can't stand entering data on a soft-keyboard (aka touchscreen keyboard). Not being able to feel the buttons makes it ten times harder. Also, while touchscreens DO work with screen protectors, the problem is replacing them. When you peel off the screen protector it can separate the layers/pressure-crystals in the touchscreen and cause damage to the digitizer.

Here you go: http://mt3.google.com/mt?n=404&v=w2.63...3089&zoom=4 I guess they didn't change it that much. I may be able to fix the bookmarklet if there is interest.

Each tile in Google Maps is a simple PNG. Because it has few colors and a simple structure the compression algorithm works well, which is why they load quickly. When you request a route, it displays the PNGs as a background image then draws a polyline, using their route vectors behind the scene, to display your route. The GMapToGPX bookmarklet mentioned above can read this polyline into a track. However, I believe what the OP wants is all of the road data. For a trip to Italy where I wanted maps on my PDA without an internet connection, I created a bookmarklet that downloaded all of the visible tiles on Google Maps. They are simply square image tiles in PNG format. It then just laid them side by side in rows in columns and saved it as an HTML file. This allowed me to view the map in a browser on my PDA but gave me no routing/searching capabilities. I would post the bookmarklet but it seems Google changed the way they serve the tiles and it no longer works correctly.

There are many different ways to make maps for Garmin units. I've been doing it for a while. http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm That is the tutorial I first followed and still refer to occasionally. If you are trying to save money though, I don't really feel it is worth it. The number of hours I spent learning + the 2 or 3 hours it takes per (pennsylvania) county + the number of times my girlfriend complained that I was paying more attention to the Earth's contours than hers etc.

Google Maps tiles are raster images, like a bitmap. GPS units need vectors to be able to calculate routes and "stick to road" etc. Vectors are like saying "this is a line from 32.12,-79.84 to 32.13,-79.87". Unless your unit is able to overlay a graphic as the map, and use Garmin's base map for all routing purposes, it won't be possible. Even if it was, you would likely find yourself driving off-road by ~40-100 feet the whole time.

I've had a Vista Cx for about a year now but never purchased any map software for it, because I felt its a very hefty price. I've been making my own topo maps for a while but still wish I was able to do autorouting with the Vista (its able to, if you want to pay extra for the software). I saw the nuvi 350 for $298 on Walmart's website yesterday and purchased it. I don't understand how all of this map licensing stuff works, so thats why I am asking here Does anyone know if I will be able to make use of the City Navigator software that comes preloaded with the nuvi on my Vista? I realize this is a long shot but just thought maybe there may be some way to download it off of the nuvi and onto the Vista. But if that were possible then I'd probably run into the license key issue.

I've uploaded all of the ones I've done so far to mapcenter. Please remember that I only do mine in 1 arcsecond resolution (to keep filesize down). If you want higher resolution (more accurate) maps in 1/3 arcsecond resolution, download Bus36s. http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/maplist.php?author=6513

I remember changing that setting to Most and completely forgot about it. I feel dumb. Anyway the maps now look great. However that means I have to recompile them which should take the at least 3/4 of a day

Bus36 -- What bit levels do you use in GPSMapEdit? The site I learned from had me using: Layer 0 = 24 Layer 1 = 22 Layer 2 = 20 Layer 3 = 19 Layer 4 = 18 Layer 5 = 17 But I found that it was too cluttered (big map of brown on my GPSr) so I played with them a little bit and have become happiest with: Layer 0 = 24 Layer 1 = 23 Layer 2 = 22 Layer 3 = 20 Layer 4 = 18 However its still not as great as I'd like. Just thought maybe you'd have a better suggestion. Also, do you find that you get duplicate rivers and such when doing transparent maps? When I was doing the New River Gorge area, I had the more accurate river from my map and then the less accurate default river making it look like two rivers criss-crossing. The only way I know to avoid this is to not make them transparent (which is less than optimal because i'd still like to see basemap features).

I found that my school's GIS department had Global Mapper available for download. It lets me open the .tif file, then open a shape file (I have two... one for PA and one for WV) that contains the county borders. Then I simply select which county the .tif I downloaded is overlaying and when I go to the export menu there is a "clip to selected boundary" option. ArcView can do the same. Unfortunately neither of these are free, and thats why it took me so long to find something that would work. If you are desperate I will clip some for you, as that doesn't take too long. The time consuming part for me is importing water data and compiling. I am at work so I will be able to try uploading my maps to mapcenter later this evening I hope.

NP. Glad you could use them. I will probably go after Elk county next since I will be using it this summer then go from there. I will let you know when I get some done. I wish I would have seen this thread earlier. It took me a couple of weeks but I've finally nailed down the process. One of my big hurdles was clipping out counties but I wouldn't settle until I figured it out. I hated having square boxes that overlapped with neighboring counties. I also just ended up doing them all myself because I didn't like the ones on mapcenter that are split into multiple tiles per county. I haven't uploaded any to mapcenter yet but I plan to eventually. So far i've done the following counties: Butler, PA Lawrence, PA Venango, PA Allegheny, PA Fayette, PA Fayette, WV Nicholas, WV Pendleton, WV Pocohontas, WV Grant, WV Randolph, WV I only do them in 1 arcsecond resolution just because I personally do not need a ton of detail and would rather fit a ton of maps on my GPS. Some that are on my todo list: Potter, PA Somerset, PA Blair, PA Indiana, PA Cambria, PA Westmoreland, PA Clark, KY I'd be more than happy to add more. And I'll try to get the ones I've done on mapcenter. Batch files have been a lifesaver by allowing me to compile 5 overnight .

You could make yourself look even more suspicious if you get one of those Solar powered USB ports and carry it around while caching

I used to use an eTrex Legend that wasn't mine but I can't remember what type of connection it has. I have an eTrex Vista Cx now and it is simply a USB Series-A to USB Mini-B cable. A lot of people get fooled (aka pay $60 on eBay) into thinking that they need a specific cable manufactured only by the brand of their product but it is 90% of the time just a basic $5 USB cable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_USB

I do not know anything about your unit or the cables provided, but I do know that I power my unit while in the car through a Cigarette Lighter to USB adapter which I then connect to the USB cable used to download data to the unit. This cost me $6 instead of the $30 they want for the adapter. Therefore I assume as long as there is a way to connect your GPS to the cigarette lighter using some sort of combo, it should work no problem.

I find my electronic compass to be invaluable for those times when I'm moving under 10mph. If you ask me it's a ton easier to turn in one spot and have an arrow point to the cache than have to walk around in circles or straight paths trying to get the satellites to tell you what direction a cache is. I've experienced older GPS units with electronics compasses that complained if it wasn't perfectly horizontal but my Vista Cx seems to register the direction no problem even when almost at a 45 degree angle. It doesn't always work well in a car or house though, as it has too many distractions. But when in the woods it seems pretty accurate.