Help - Route Planning

[+dibbler69]

I was just woundering how people work out there caching routes.

 

What I mean is..

Say I live in Town A and im visting Town B, I want to vist some caches on the way home. How do people find the caches on the route.

 

Is there an easy way to do this.

 

Thanks

[+Birders]

Guess the method used by many cachers is to download details of caches in the general area and display them in Memory Map, or similar programme.

[+dibbler69]

Ive been looking at memory map. How do I go about importing the details.

Still class my self a newbie (only 41 finds!!)

[+Skippy and Pingu]

Ive been looking at memory map. How do I go about importing the details.

Still class my self a newbie (only 41 finds!!)

Use the pocket queries (PQ). Get that to send you GPX files - I get mine in zip format.

Download GSAK which is free without registration reminders for 21 days and it is quite cheap to register if you then chose to.

 

Import the file that you got from the PQ into GSAK (you can let GSAK import the zip file so you don't have to mess around).

 

Apply any filters you wish to apply (not nessary if you want everything that you downloaded).

 

Then go to File/Export/Memory Map. This saves the file as a CSV file.

 

In Memory Map goto Overlay/Import and chose the CSV file you just created.

 

Hey presto you have all your points on the map.

 

You can personalised GSAK and Memory Map but I couldn't tell you how I managed that, a lot of reading the help in GSAK. I've got the geocaching icons, I'll have a root around and see if I can find the thread that I downloaded them from.

 

Found the icons (in this thread).

Edited July 30, 2005 by Skippy and Pingu

[+Bill D (wwh)]

If you use GSAK you can use Search->Filter->Arc/Poly to filter down to just the caches within a given distance either side of a line between the two places. That can be a simple straight line from A to B or as intricate a route as you have the patience to make it.

Edited July 30, 2005 by Bill D (wwh)

[+dibbler69]

Thanks for all the infomation.

Ive been playing with gsak so ive got all the gpx files.

Just got play some more

[+Archer4]

If you aren't doing anything with GSAK you can import .loc or .gpx files directly into Memory Map. Save the file on your PC then in MM > Overlay > Import. Browse to the folder with your .gpx file in (which will look empty as the import defaults to .mmo files) > drop down + select the file type, double click + in they go...

[+John & Hazel]

I was just woundering how people work out there caching routes.

 

What I mean is..

Say I live in Town A and im visting Town B, I want to vist some caches on the way home. How do people find the caches on the route.

 

Is there an easy way to do this.

 

Thanks

You might find this helpful Caches along a Route

[+Stuey]

I was just woundering how people work out their caching routes.

You might find this helpful Caches along a Route

Further to reading this link, I have been playing around with routes and tracks in Memory-Map Navigatorand exporting those to GSAK to be used as an arc filter. Hopefully the following instructions might be useful to any premium members who are familiar with Memory-Map and GSAK: (it's not a tutorial by any means, but might point you in the right direction)

 

In GSAK, create a database with as many pocket query GPX files loaded into it as you can. Cover your approximate route area as much as you can.

 

In Memory-Map create a route by clicking on the map to follow the roads you wish to drive along. (You could also draw a track and convert it to a route - right click on the track)

 

In Memory-Map, right click on the route and choose Save As. Save it as a Maptech Terrain Route file .rxf file

 

In GSAK, create an Arc filter and in the dialog box choose Load from File. Select the .rxf file that you created from Memory-Map. Set the distance from the arc.

 

Click GO.

 

You now have a database filtered to all caches within a certain distance of a route.

 

This isn't smart enough to know the driving distance from the route though. So you might have a cache right under a motorway bridge which is a 10 mile drive away from the nearest exit.

 

You can export this filtered database from GSAK as a new GPX file so it will happily fit on a PDA in one efficient file. I also use the fantastic roolku script to create Memory-Map icons and export these to Pocket Navigator on my PDA as well.

[+Birders]

<<This saves the file as a CSV file.>>

 

Using the "Memory Map" export simply covers our MM with blue dots and hundreds of huge cache-names so presumably we haven't got it set up right. However, we prefer to use the "Custom" export feature using a script kindly provided by Roolku (see http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...opic=75496&hl=). With that our MM shows caches with their correct symbols in different colours depending on found, not found, archived, etc.

[+dibbler69]

Thanks for all the replys. I knew somebody would have the answer.

I will have a look at all the replys and see which I can use.

 

Thanks

[+Learned Gerbil]

TomTom 5 now is very neet with POI searches when you have a route planned. Once aroute is planned, you can searc hfor POIs and it will provide one of three icons nest to POIs within a few feet of the route, within anbout half a mile of the route, and within about two miles of the route. Using the OV2 download from GCUK makes this simple.