Extra Waypoints

[+Nellies Knackers]

Has anybody found the extra waypoints to be any use yet,the seem to make right jumble in GSAK with no real structure to the naming,I keep filtering any waypoints without GC in the code and deleting the lot,the coordinate grabber gives much easier to use results and well as ticking all results for easy deletion afterwards.

Is it just me??

[+Munkeh]

think 90% of people will agree with you, theres no way of associating the waypoints to the caches

 

its a good idea to do the waypoints , its just been executed badly

[+S&G.Davison]

Maybe just wait until GSAK catches up. I have my own database which I have now updated to cater for these and it does save a lot of time in entering the additional waypoints. Also saves the very red face when I've transcribed them incorrectly.

 

Sue

[+The Wobbly Club]

Hi We have found the extra waypoints very usefull. There is a way to associate them with caches. For example take this cache After the Picnic its cache waypoint is GCT9JR. The first stage waypoint is APT9JR and the guardian is GUT9JR. So you see there is a way to associate these waypoints.

[+Munkeh]

that works if everyone is following that formula.....& there not

[+Nellies Knackers]

Theres also some that gc.com have extracted themselves that don't seem to follow any rule,one of my caches has extra waypoints and I certainly never added them.

Guess I'll stick to deleting them and using coord grabber for now.

[+wildlifewriter]

that works if everyone is following that formula.....& there not

The four-character suffix - which associates an added waypoint with the correct cache - is added automatically. A cache owner has no way of changing it, as far as I can tell.

 

Can you give an example of a cache (with waypoints) where this didn't work? If there's a fault in the software, then TPTB would need to be made aware of it.

 

-Wlw

[+Mr'D]

The latest GSAK versions have an option to exclude these additional waypoints.

 

Go to File - Load GPX/LOC - and tick the 'Exclude Extra Waypoints' box.

 

Jon

[+Kryten]

The additional waypoints are very useful if you do a little bit of renaming. For example, if cache GCABCD has two additional waypoints named PX and PY by the cache author, their IDs will be PXABCD and PYABCD. I use a filter to read the gpx file and then do a bit of renaming as follows.

Cache names have the "GC" prefix removed.

Additional waypoints have their prefix moved to the back, (e.g.PXABCD becomes ABCDPX)

Why do all of this.

When loaded onto a GPSr, they appear together as a block.

ABCD

ABCDPX

ABCDPY

All caches appear next to their additional waypoints and nothing gets mixed up. The length difference means it's easy to tell caches and additional waypoints apart. All letters of the alphabet get used instead of everything collecting under "G"

[markandlynn]

We have written the GC code and cache name into the long and short description fields for all of our caches. This makes them very easy to spot without using the 4 code suffix to search.

Like this

Additional Waypoints [Add/Edit] Prefix Lookup Name Coordinate

AA YEAR GCKQP9 Let Battle Commence A= (Question to Answer) N 52° 44.806 W 002° 43.889 Edit

GCKQP9 Let Battle commence.

Find the year the battle took place this will give you A

A= _ _ _ _

The code assigned to this is AAKQP9

 

As for managing these waypoints we have them in a separate database at present waiting for GSAK to catch up.

[+Flyfishermanbob]

From a personal viewpoint, I've disabled GSAK from loading them.......

 

The waypoint which is of most interest to me, and probably most cachers, is the suggested parking, but if the waypoint is called " parking" , its about as much use as tits on a bull......it just fills the GSAK database with meaningless waypoints.

 

If everyone adopted the convention of calling the waypoint

 

"cache-name" parking

 

then it would be a real benefit......

[+Moote]

Problem with the new waypoints is that GSAK at present has no separate table for these, so the data gets mixed with the main data set.

 

I would have put them in a separate table with a join across the tables, to link the records to the correct cache. I think it would be easy to do and they are identifiable through the file having the addition of wpt within the file name, so import routines could use that for the distinguishing mark on import. Then some clever Macro could link records.

[+Pharisee]

It's really not that difficult to handle the extra waypoints.... After loading the PQs into my 'All UK' database, a simple macro filters the 'other waypoints' and moves them to a second 'Other Waypoints' database. If you want all the extra waypoints associated with a particular cache, for example GCABCD, just select the 'Other Waypoints' database and type 'ABCD' in the code search field. Any waypoints associated with that cache are filtered for your perusal. If you don't mind the extra points being in your main database, then forget the moving bit, just type 'ABCD' in the code search field, the cache and the waypoints are filtered.

[+Nellies Knackers]

Would it not be better if they were named GCxxxx-1 GCxxxx-2 so they naturally stayed beside the cache they related to.

[+Happy Humphrey]

I believe that a new version of GSAK is on the way which will address the additional waypoints issues a bit more elegantly.

 

HH

[+Nellies Knackers]

It rarely takes Clyde long to catch up,you'd have thought by now TPTB would tip him off to new developments in advance being as so many cachers use GSAK.

[+Nellies Knackers]

Has anyone worked out how to set the extras to found if they relate to a found cache?

[+Wadders]

got to say, i'm in favour of them!

[+John Stead]

Has anyone worked out how to set the extras to found if they relate to a found cache?

Simply delete them!

[+rufty tufty boys]

Seems to me that being able to put the parking places into Tom Tom would be very useful, but just the parking not the other extra waypoints.

 

At present I am using the following method but I am sure that you clever people will have a better solution.

 

Import gpx file into Memory Map

Hide all the non parking waypoints

export to another gpx file

convert to ov2 file using poiconverter

 

The major problem with this is that it does not convert the names. I can't find a way with GSAK to convert just the parking places.

 

Any ideas chaps (and chapesses)

[+flipflopnick]

Seems to me that being able to put the parking places into Tom Tom would be very useful, but just the parking not the other extra waypoints.

 

Any ideas chaps (and chapesses)

 

Have wrestled with add wps naming, decided on sequential unique names, based on cache location so all appear together in gpsr database. Until GC.com provide hard and fast rules ......

 

names eg CON01 CON02 CON03 CON04 etc

 

Can't see a consensus here. will wait for a few more threads to draw up guidelines :-)

[+walkergeoff and wife]

I use the Tools/Grab coordinates feature of GSAK, which does much the same thing, but leaves me to choose which extra waypoints I display and which not. This feature adds an 01, 02 etc to the GC code - depending on the number you grab.

 

When I download them to my Palm and GPS I strip off the GC code, and that leaves them nicely in sequence on my GPS (which can only handle 6 characters - hence I have to remove the GC part of the waypoint).

 

After all, what is the use to me of extra waypoints of a cache that I am unlikely to visit?

[+Learned Gerbil]

Seems to me that being able to put the parking places into Tom Tom would be very useful, but just the parking not the other extra waypoints.

 

At present I am using the following method but I am sure that you clever people will have a better solution.

 

Import gpx file into Memory Map

Hide all the non parking waypoints

export to another gpx file

convert to ov2 file using poiconverter

 

The major problem with this is that it does not convert the names. I can't find a way with GSAK to convert just the parking places.

 

Any ideas chaps (and chapesses)

 

Once you have filtered to get just the parking waypoints, why not use GSAK to export to the OV2 file directly?

[+KiwiGary]

I think they are great now that GSAK has caught up with them.

 

You can now set icons on the GPS depending on what the child waypoint is for. For example all the parking co-ordinates are now automatically programmed into my GPS with the correct icon.

 

This works for me because this I used to program in the parking manually and go to the next nearest until I have used all the co-ordinates I have programmed or I have had enough of walking that day.

 

This seems to work for me anyway.

 

So these days I tend to visit caches with the parking co-ordinates as child waypoints first. As these is no manual process involved on my part.

 

I have also started going through my old caches and adding in the child waypoints for multi’s and parking. It will be great when all caches have them, saves loads of time at home looking at maps etc .

 

See ya…Gary

[Nediam]

I've found them useful in TomTom to navigate to, but a bit of a pain in Memory Map as the icons were all the same. Now that I hear GSAK has altered them I'll check them out again

[+drums4monty]

Where do you get poiconverter or is it part of a programme?

[+Wadders]

One point that it has made is to my PQ request, my gps only takes 500 waypoints, my PQ's run at 450, this used to give me some space for any "work in the field" of 50.

 

Because of the new waypoints, (and some of them are useful) i have to delete some of them off as i have had as many as 130 extra waypoints!!!