elmo-fried
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Posts posted by elmo-fried
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I have personally chosen a "pizza" for owned by me, "skull & crossbone" for archived/not available, "campground" for home, Mom, daughter etc. and "car" for parking waypoint. When uploading to my GPSr I only have to change the "not found" to one of the above.
This is not what I'm asking for- I know you can already do what you are describing.
I would like to select which icons I use for active cache types (virtual, mystery, micro, etc.) (the way spinner does) and have them uploaded in one shot, rather than having to filter each type and do each list individually.
You can already save the preferences as to how you'd like them to match up. If you like the way spinner does it, just duplicate the icon matching and then save that as the default.
Check out the Combine Both icon matching radio option.
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Feature request: I know we can drag and drop .ZIP files, but I'd like to be able to just open them from within GSAK so I don't have to navigate to the directory first with explorer.
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could you add the gpsbabel functionality for delorme xmap hand held if you have a chance and its not a ton of work please?
db
I'll second this request.
Thanks!
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Bug: When exporting to HTML, the filename specified in the index.htm link for "Index by Distance from ..." is "Dist1.htm" but the file generated is "dist1.htm". While Windows may not care about case, when I upload it to a linux system it does care.
Feature request: I'm using the exporting to HTML option to easily show off what caches I've found (using the appropriate filter first). It'd be cool when exporting to HTML if the "Index by Found" could be toggled to be by the "Date Found By Me" data (in other words, so folks could see the order in which I found the caches).Here's an example of what I'm doing (just edited the "Dist1.htm" link to be "dist1.htm" and nuked/edited some other text):
http://jason.roysdon.net/geocaching/found/
Note that I added linkage to the GSAK text.
Bug: Same case problem as before for "archived.gif" vs. the file is "Archived.gif". For now I've solved this with:$ ln -s Archived.gif archived.gif $ ls -la *rchived.gif lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Mar 19 04:42 archived.gif -> Archived.gif -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 232 Jan 5 2003 Archived.gif
My advice when it comes to case sensitivity and filenames is to just keep it all lower-case.
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*snip*
I guess I can see why you may not wish to remove the "You placed", "You found", etc from the logs as persons viewing without images enabled need the specifier although it would have a cleaner look if the phrases were removed.
There is no need for the text at all. Those browsing without images would see the text alt tags instead of the icons:
<img src='../images/icons/icon_smile.gif' width=16 height=16 border=0 alt='Found it'>
Also, as others have pointed out the icons look poor as they're 15x15 and the html is stretching them an extra pixel to 16x16.
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Liking 3beta2 so far...
Feature request: Allow logical operators in the free-text search boxes. For instance: State Contains CA || NV
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The issue with the Tiger database around Modesto is a long-running one. Everything is, as you point out, off by about a quarter mile.
Because the area is such a small one, you can just add the proper amount to the lat and long and it will work fine.
Given the numbers you quote, the amount to add would be .109 minutes to the lat and .204 minutes to the long. But those numbers are suspiciously close to even tenths of a minute; try adding .100 and .200 minutes, respectively, and see how that comes out.
Yeah, that worked as a start. I actually just went out to my street corner and marked a Waypoint, and then made an XLS that linked to the CSV but did modifications. I then linked the XLS to MapPoint (actually a lot easier than linking a CSV into MapPoint). I could then easily tweak the correction and update it in MapPoint:
LAT +0.001727
LONG -0.003433
=SUM(Home.csv!A1+0.001727) =SUM(Home.csv!B1-0.003433) =Home.csv!C1
I then applied this to all the other two files I use and checked out a few caches I knew about, and they were dead on correct on the map. Hoping MapPoint 2004 will fix this as we have a copy at the office from our MSDN subscription, but I haven't felt like driving 40 minutes round-trip yet just to check.
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LOL MMC N/S 3Kids
(Married Male Cacher Non/Smoker) SORRY HAD TO ADD IT!
I am always looking for someone to cache with. If you ever plan on goin' out for some caching all you gotta do it email me and let me know. I have a couple of kids and it just slows me down. My 5 year old is a trooper so even if we need to take the kids atleast he would have someone to hang around with if you got your kids. He and I did caching from 8 AM until about 6 PM the other day and he never once said he wanted to quit.
LOL, sounds like a perfect match. I almost put some initials like that.
I understand exactly on the kids-slowness thing. It's the other parental unit insists that she have some alone time.
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Gsak
in Benchmarking
That'll work.
My GPX files converted by BMGPX actually don't have the state field populated, so GSAK prompts me to enter a state. I believe what I'll do is use something like BMca###coname (ca for california and ### is the NGS county number designation, and for my own sanity coname=the real county name). Like: BMca099Stanislaus (I just turn off the state field in the display mode anyway since Calif. is so huge, so length isn't an issue).
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*sigh*
I need a cachin' buddy. My brother left for Navy bootcamp 2 months ago and my Wife just isn't into it as much as I am (especially doing all-day cache trips).
So, speaking of finding a cachin' partner, since I'm posting this anyway, I guess I might as well be specific, eh?
Looking for a guy (preferably married so we've got simular commitments as far as time) who likes to hike and perhaps even ride a motorcycle (although I've never 'cached using my Honda, yet, I did install a bicycle mount that works great). I say a "guy" as that way if we're gone all day or late into the evening my Wife won't be having worries. Preferred to be non-smoker (I've a co-worker that has a GPSr and thought Geocaching was a cool idea, rides a motorcycle, but smokes).
I've got a 6 year-old and a 3.5 year-old that like to cache with me, but I take them on more "local" / easy caching trips, mainly looking for traditional/non-micro caches as they're into the swag, not the hunt. My 6 year-old is pretty tough and has gone on a couple mile hikes up at Knight's Ferry in the blistering hot sun. I take a backpack carrier with me for the 3.5 year-old. I only take the kids when I've done a bit of planning first, and obviously since the majority of caches out there aren't traditional/large caches I hunt without them.
In the past, my brother and I would go caching whenever for no particular reason and without planning (hey, that's what a laptop and Pocket Queries are for). We'd been known to cache from 10pm-2am, just 'cuz (night caching adds a +1 or +2 to the difficulty in some cases, but then you also don't have to deal with muggles
).Oh, and I'm in Modesto, but within a month or so I'll have those couple dozen new caches found and plan to be traveling around to find more.
Gads, a "personal ad" for a Geocachin' bud... what has my life come to?
I'm also planning to hunt benchmarks near 'caches.
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Ok really dumb question. I have a Legend now, and a Vista on the way. As long as they are both Garmins can I use the same cable to load waypoints from GSAK?
Same difference, all the eTrex use the same cable. Gilsson lists their cable as compatible with "Compatible Garmin GPS Models eMap, Geko 201, Geko 301, eTrex, Camo, Venture, Mariner, Legend, Summit and Vista."
http://www.gilsson.com/page5.html
BTW, they've got really cheap Garmin-compatible cables and accessories. I've bought a bike mount (used on my motorcycle), windshield mount, and dual cigarette/data cable from them.
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*snip*
One more URL for you to add for BM lookups:
NGS=http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=%code
Please note: These URLs are user configurable and not limited, Tools=>Options=>Html tab (polite way of saying do it youself
)Understood and I've added it for myself (great feature allowing us to easily add them).
Perhaps something to put on your low-priority list when you get around to doing all the BM stuff (it's the official US NGS site, which naturally has all the most up-to-date content vs. the more stale GC.com data)?
I'm guessing you don't have BM's "down under" (or at least not supported by GC.com), but it's really nice while out cachin' to have all the BM data side by side with caches you're searching for... I don't "plan" to go after BM's (well, that's not true, if I spot someone else has found one nearby, I'll go after it since it is know that it can be found), but if I'm close by, why not...
Keep up the good work, keep focusing on the Geocaches first, and just add our BM suggestions to the bottom of your todo's ;-)'
However, I'm betting if folks had a better way to manage BM data, they'd be more inclined to go after them when they go out Geocaching.
Shoot, I've already got another "feature request" to add to that low-priority BM todo list ;-p
How about the ability to filter BMs against GCs within a giving distance? Say .1 mile or so. In other words, just show me the immediate BMs around a GC. Obviously it'd be CPU intensive and you'd only want to run specific times (like, uh, when you know you're planning to go after a handful of caches). Maybe even have it tied to the user-selected button.
Oh, and you should set up a Paypal account so we can tip ya for the good work.
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*snip*
Also, while I'm at it, it'd be useful to have two sets of coordinates for each BM. Often they're 150-300 ft. "off" from their "official" LAT/LON coordinates vs. the accuracy of a GPSr. Part of the goal of benchmarking is to record the "accurate" LAT/LON info.
GSAK provides the "Corrected coordinates" option which I believe fits this perfectly.
Doh! Newbie to the app, didn't spot that! Thanks. Are the corrected coordinates sent to the GPSr on a transfer, or the original (one would think the corrected coordinates should be sent).
One more URL for you to add for BM lookups:
NGS=http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=%code
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Basically that is what the filters are for. I suggest you just get a PQ of all the caches you want then let GSAK create your required subsets via filters. If you find this a problem becuase you have to set up different filters all the time, don't forget you can save your filters. That way you only have to create the filter once, then select it on demand without any re typing.
Clyde & Olar,
I understand your rationale. But right now I've got 150+ caches and since you are relegated to 500, that only leaves 350 caches. Normally that would be great, but I commute 30 miles to work and I don't want to start missing caches due to caches I've found. Everytime I download my latest PQ, I ALWAYS have 500 caches (and thats throwing out virtuals).
I am going to try just creating one query for Not Found and Another for Found, and do it that way for a while. Notheless thanks for a great program!
I have a similar problem. Because I do service work, I am constantly driving all over a wide area of southern California (100 to 150 miles a day), where there is also a zillion caches. 500 caches will only get me a small area, so I created multiple queries to cover a wide area. 5 queries each with 500 caches gives plenty of room for overlapping queries. That way I am sure I have them all, even the few I have found so far. Just open them all in the same database, and GSAK will merge them, and you will get all you need. GSAK is truly an amazing program.
The hack of a solution I have to get the most caches possible downloaded daily (or weekly, now that we get 20 PQs and I spread out the load) is to have the same center, but different date ranges (2100 right now going out about 120 miles).
2000-20020531
20020601-20031231
20040101-20041231
(actually, I have 5 different PQs to cover my present date ranges and 120 miles, but I don't feel like typing them up). I did this back when you could only have 5 PQs max (instead of 20 now, and run up to 5 on different days). I just took the date ranges and 100 miles and chopped it up so I got somewhere between 450-499 caches in each PQ.
Now that we can have 20 queries total, I have one that is just "found" caches that runs once per week and all the other queries are for not found and they run on different days of the week. Each day I run a PQ of the 500 closest GCs to my house (no date filter), as the other 5 PQs are offset about 50 miles south-east from me (to try and avoid Sacramento and Fresno but still cover a large area around where I live).
Anyway, with proper date filtering, you could easily have 18 PQs running off the same LAT/LON (save a PQ for your closest 500 non-date-filtered caches that will run daily and another spare for "emergency" runs):
Each day (except Sunday as we run out of total PQs):
1 closest 500
3 date-filtered
1 unused (for "emergency travel")
Weekly look
M: 1,3abc,1
Tu: 1,3def,1
W: 1,3ghi,1
Th: 1,3jkl,1
F: 1,3mno,1
Sa: 1,3pqr,1
Su:1,none,1
Note that the 3 date-filtered PQ that would run each day would be unique and repeated only once per week. Oh, ack, make that 17 date-filtered PQs as you'll probably want 1 that contains "found" caches.
17 PQs x 7650 is a heck of a lot of GCs ;-) The trick is the work it takes to split out the dates to get ~450 GCs per PQ. But you know that the older date ranges will never grow, and in fact they'll slowly shrink as caches are archived (or you find them)... anyway, I'm sure Jeremy would just love us all if we're running 5 PQs per day, but I guess it's ok since he has a dedicated server for it now ;-p
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Sorry if this is in the thread, but I got to page 5 (of 11) and got a little tired reading thru it all (might I make a suggestion of splitting the thread into 3? Announcements, Troubleshooting, and Feature Requests).
Anywho, I'd taken a break through the winter and just getting back into the GC scene, and I must say GSAK rocks. I was using a combination of Watcher, Spinner, and gpsbabel, and I'm glad to see all these features in one package (probably still going to use Spinner/gpsbabel to automate exporting to my GPSr, but love that I could send a handful of GC's from my "database" program straight to my GPSr).
Feature request: Benchmark icon/"cache" type. I'd also like to see NGS benchmark files be able to directly be imported, or at least be able to handle GPX output from Fuzzy's bmgpx conversion tool (source is GPL2). What I'm thinking might be required during import is a checkmark for to tell GSAK that it's a BM GPX file and not a GC file and to flag all the items being imported as the right type (as the GPX file just uses the "mystery" cache icon type by default).
Also, while I'm at it, it'd be useful to have two sets of coordinates for each BM. Often they're 150-300 ft. "off" from their "official" LAT/LON coordinates vs. the accuracy of a GPSr. Part of the goal of benchmarking is to record the "accurate" LAT/LON info.
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Well I hope I can brag Garmin up when I get my GPSr back. I sent it in for service on Monday. Here in Canada you have to send the unit to a third party supplier who says the turn around is 3-4 weeks. With my unit being a RINO120 the 3rd. party supplier tells me that they assess the unit but can not service the RINO, so after they get it the unit is forwarded to Garmin repaired and sent back to the 3rd party then to me. With the extra steps involved with the 3rd. party supplier I am looking at the end of April I guess.
Thought GMRS/FRS wasn't allowed in Canada? Has this changed recently?
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I just went to the MS MapPoint Site. It states that Lat/Long is either decimal degrees or dd.mm.ss............. If you are entering 42.33.75 you will either get an error message or be in the wrong place (42.33.45).
You could convert a file worth of points from geocache (dd.mm.mmm) to either
dd.ddddd or dd.mm.ss by using Corpscon a free program on the NGS website.
That's not the issue. GPX files already have it in decimal degrees and gpsbabel doesn't do anything to mess that up when creating the CSV files. Further, it'd be off a lot more than 0.225mi.
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Going OT here, but I've been playing with GSAK for the last hour or so. Looks great, and what I like the most so far is the internal DB it maintains of caches. Still getting used to the differences vs. Watcher, but a big thumbs up thus far.
It even handled the importing of Benchmarks (downloaded from NGS and then converted to GPX with Fuzzy's bmgpx. I just wish it would allow you to set the cache-type on import (it sets it to mystery, and if they added a BM icon that'd be great).
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Get GSAK. Geocaching Swiss Army Knife.
You can export to a .csv file. Then use the Data Import feature of mappoint to do a direct import of the points.
Steps:
1. Download and install GSAK
2. Get GPX files
3. Start GSAK
4. Load GPX file(s)
5. Go to File --> Export --> Microsoft Streets & Trips CSV File...
6. Open MapPoint
7. Go to Data --> Import Data Wizard... --> Follow wizard to import set
I'm not sure if you get different icons this way or not to be honest. It'll save you a lot of hassle I think though. I only import my unfound. Then I do the same thing you do as far as planning.
It sounds complicated but after the first time, it takes like 5 minutes.
While this might work (and I'm going to check out GSAK as it looks very cool), the gpsbabel solution I talked about can be totally automated in a batch file/shell script and requires no user intervention. It takes <2 seconds with gpsbabel to convert a 500-Geocache GPX to EST for Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002/2003 (or generic CSV as I said in the post above):
gpsbabel.exe -s -i gpx -f ../55388/55388.gpx -o s_and_t -F ../55388/55388.est
Here's a timed session under cygwin (AMD 1.788GHz, not sure the processor model):
$ echo Start: `date`; ./gpsbabel.exe -s -i gpx -f ../55388/55388.gpx -o s_and_t -F ../55388/55388.est; echo Stop : `date` Start: Wed Mar 17 14:00:31 PST 2004 Stop : Wed Mar 17 14:00:32 PST 2004
If you only process one PQ once per weekend, doing things manually might not be a big deal.
However, I actually have 7 different PQs that cover 2400 caches over about a 150 miles radius from my house. I download 5 per day Fri-Sun, and I'd hate to manually process each one.
Also, depending on your email situation, you could automate the downloading/exporting of the PQ email. I've not yet done this, but it wouldn't be handy to have done so a single click would update all my offline GC.com data.
gpsbabel supports a ton of different input/output formats (including Microsoft Streets and Trips, but I've never used that format). There is a front-end GUI for those that fear the CLI, but again, it think that defeats the purpose of using a powerful CLI tool.
$ ./gpsbabel.exe -? GPSBabel Version 1.1.1_beta08122003. http://gpsbabel.sourceforge.net Usage: d:\personal\fun\geocaching\gpsbabel-1.1.1_beta08142003\gpsbabel.exe [options] -i INTYPE -f INFILE -o OUTTYPE -F OUTFILE d:\personal\fun\geocaching\gpsbabel-1.1.1_beta08142003\gpsbabel.exe [options] -i INTYPE -o OUTTYPE INFILE [OUTFILE] Converts GPS route and waypoint data from one format type to another. The input type and filename are specified with the -i INTYPE and -f INFILE options. The output type and filename are specified with the -o OUTTYPE and -F OUTFILE options. In the second form of the command, INFILE and OUTFILE are the first and second positional (non-option) arguments. Options: -s Synthesize shortnames -r Process route information -t Process track information -w Process waypoint information [default] -x filtername Invoke filter -D level Set debug level [0] File Types (-i and -o options): xcsv ? Character Separated Values style Full path to XCSV style file (required) snlen Max synthesized shortname length snwhite (0/1) Allow whitespace synth. shortnames snupper (0/1) UPPERCASE synth. shortnames snunique (0/1) Make synth. shortnames unique urlbase Basename prepended to URL on output prefer_shortnames Use shortname instead of description geo Geocaching.com .loc gpx GPX XML gsshortnames Prefer shorter descriptions from Groundspeak files snlen Length of generated shortnames suppresswhite Suppress whitespace in generated shortnames magellan Magellan protocol baud Numeric value of bitrate (baud=4800) noack Suppress use of handshaking in name of speed deficon Default icon name mapsend Magellan Mapsend pcx Garmin PCX5 deficon Default icon name mapsource Garmin Mapsource snlen Length of generated shortnames gpsutil gpsutil psp MS PocketStreets 2002 Pushpin cetus Cetus for Palm/OS dbname Database name copilot CoPilot Flight Planner for Palm/OS gpspilot GPSPilot Tracker for Palm/OS dbname Database name magnav Magellan NAV Companion for PalmOS garmin Garmin serial protocol holux Holux (gm-100) .wpo Format tpg National Geographic Topo .tpg tmpro TopoMapPro Places File gcdb Geocaching Database tiger U.S. Census Bureau Tiger Mapping Service nolabels Suppress labels on generated pins. genurl Generate file with lat/lon for centering map. scale Dimension in pixels of map. easygps EasyGPS quovadis Quovadis dbname Database name gpilots GpilotS dbname Database name xmapwpt Delorme XMat HH Street Atlas USA .WPT (PPC) xmap Delorme XMap HH Native .WPT s_and_t Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002/2003 ozi OziExplorer Waypoint nima NIMA/GNIS Geographic Names File mxf MapTech Exchange Format mapconverter Mapopolis.com Mapconverter CSV gpsman GPSman gpsdrive GpsDrive Format fugawi Fugawi dna Navitrak DNA marker format custom Custom "Everything" Style csv Comma separated values arc GPSBabel arc filter file Supported data filters: position Remove Points Within Distance distance Maximum positional distance (required) radius Include Only Points Within Radius lat Latitude for center point (D.DDDDD) (required) lon Longitude for center point (D.DDDDD) (required) distance Maximum distance from center (required) exclude Exclude points close to center duplicate Remove Duplicates shortname Suppress duplicate waypoints based on name location Suppress duplicate waypoint based on coords arc Include Only Points Within Distance of Arc file File containing vertices of arc (required) distance Maximum distance from arc (required) exclude Exclude points close to the arc polygon Include Only Points Inside Polygon file File containing vertices of polygon (required) exclude Exclude points inside the polygon
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someone explain wardriving to me....
I assume netstumbler is a pcmcia card wiht an antanea used for looking for free hotspots.....sooo.......what is it in relation to the gps? thanks....
Netstumbler is a Windows application that tracks your LAT/LON from your GPS source and listens to your 802.11b WIFI card plotting Access Point SSIDs along with their signal strength. It then tries to triangulate the location of the AP (naturally if you go up and down enough streets so it has more than one set direction to the AP it'll be more accurate).
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Look, at GPSBabel as well. It seems to be able to convert from just about anything to just about anything. A batch file could easily be set up.
In fact I use it for just this application and I've used the "Link Data Wizard" to the CSV file. Note that I'm using GPX files and not LOC files:
Here's the syntax:
gpsbabel.exe -s -i gpx -f 35909.gpx -o csv -F 35909.csv
I just have a PQ for "found caches" and another for "haven't found" and I have two different pushpin icons for each CSV that is using the "Link Data Wizard."
Sure, this isn't as good as the home-grown system you're talking about, but I've found between MapPoint and Watcher I'm all set.
I have links, screenshots and scripts of some of the stuff I do on the webpage in my sig.
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I checked the help file:
Note MapPoint maps are based on the WGS 84 (World Geodetic System 1984) datum.I suppose that's not it then :/ Back to the original request of how to automate shifting waypoints. What I really need is a CLI version of GeoCalc.exe. You reading this, Fizzymagic?
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Excellent point and no doubt that is in fact the problem. However, the version I have (Microsoft MapPoint 2002) doesn't have any way to change/specify the DATUM (nor does it let me know what it is using/expecting).
Say I did know the DATUM, again I'd need a way to automate changing of waypoints from the DATUM Geocaching.com uses in PQ/GPX to what MSMapPoint expects... Any suggestions (I could just test as there are only so many DATUM options)?
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Does anyone have a way to shift all LAT/LON coordinates by a fixed amount? I've found that a certain mapping program (Microsoft MapPoint) is off in my county when mapping lat/lon and comparing to streets. I've found that if I shift a coordinate by .225 mi. bearing 304 degrees it appears at the proper location.
The reason I use MSMapPoint is so I can quickly plot a number of waypoints and then have it figure out the shortest/quickest path to each using the best order. I can draw a box around a cluster of waypoints, right-click and say "Add pushpins as stops" and then use the "Optimize Stops" and then "Get Directions." Of course it's only as good as how well the LAT/LON projections on the map correspond to the streets.
Right now I use gpsbabel to export all my PQs to CSV and then MSMapPoint "Data Link Wizard" option that allows my to plot them all on the map (and I can link multiple CSV files giving each their own distictive icon). I can download the PQ, kick off the script I have that unzips, convers to CSV and then "Update Linked Records" in MSMapPoint to refresh all the waypoints.
What I'd like to do is shift all the waypoints .225mi. bear 304 degrees. I used a program called Fizzymagic's GeoCalc.exe to manually figure this out, but I need to automate it from the command-line. Unix tools preferred, but I'll take a Windows tool if I must.
Just for those curious, here's an example of what the optimized routes portion of MSMapPoint looks like:
Bug: When exporting to HTML, the filename specified in the index.htm link for "Index by Distance from ..." is "Dist1.htm" but the file generated is "dist1.htm". While Windows may not care about case, when I upload it to a linux system it does care.
Feature request: I'm using the exporting to HTML option to easily show off what caches I've found (using the appropriate filter first). It'd be cool when exporting to HTML if the "Index by Found" could be toggled to be by the "Date Found By Me" data (in other words, so folks could see the order in which I found the caches).
Bug: Same case problem as before for "archived.gif" vs. the file is "Archived.gif". For now I've solved this with:
(Married Male Cacher Non/Smoker) 
Automate Shifting Of Waypoints
in General geocaching topics
Posted
MS MapPoint 2004 has no problems with the data for Stanislaus County. Also, MS MapPoint 2002 had no problems with Santa Clara County, or at least not with the caches I did around Rancho San Antonio.