Where to put GPX files on Garmin nuvi 660?

[+Fells Walker]

I'm the lucky recipient of a new nuvi 660. I doubt I'll take it into the woods, but it will still be very useful for all those times I drove off the edge of the map.

 

I really would like to transfer parking waypoints to the 660, however! It mounts on my computer as an ordinary filesystem, but there seems to be just one master gpx file: Garmin/gpx/current.gpx.

Is there a place to put additional gpx files where the firmware will pick them up?

 

Alternatively, is there a way to use gpsbabel to merge two gpx files so I can pick up the current file, merge in the new points, and write out the merged file?

 

Any help appreciated.

[+Cacheoholic]

Anything you put in the “gpx” file shows up in your favorites. These also show up on the display. You can only load 500 waypoints in your favorites. Your can use Garmin’s free POI loader to load an unlimited (well almost, you’re limited by size memory) amount of waypoints as a gpx file. These will show up in you’re POI’s. GSAK works great for merging waypoints and exporting as a gpx file. You can also put a gpx file right into to your POI folder in your nuvi.

[robertlipe]

You can use GPSBabel to merge files of GPX or pretty much any other type. But as said above, you don't have to. current.gpx is what's in the GPX curently. On next boot, the device will read the contents of that directory and that will become the 'current' set.

[+Fells Walker]

Thanks for the help, everybody!

 

current.gpx is what's in the GPX curently. On next boot, the device will read the contents of that directory and that will become the 'current' set.

So if this is the case, I can just add more .gpx files to that directory

and the Garmin will effectively merge them at boot time?

 

(I'm linux-based so Garmin's free Windows tools and GSAK are not great options. Plus I like to know how things work )

[FlaPenguins]

Hello, I also got a new Nuvi, but a 200 and I was trying to add Geocache GPX files to it using the latest version of EasyGps (5.7) and GSAK. The file gets merged to the favorites, but it loses the "GC" number in the process. They show up in favorites as 1, 2, 3 and so on. When I tried this on my laptop with an older version of EasyGPS, the Nuvi is not recognized but I was able to manually save the GPX file to the Nuvi and it still had the "GC" number. Is there a setting I missed on the newer version of EasyGPS and GSAK?

Thanks!

[Motorcycle_Mama]

You can copy the GPX files directly to the unit or to the SD card and unit will ask you if you want to import the data, and the points will become Favorites. The unit can have multiple GPX files on it at the same time.

 

A better way might be to use POI Loader and load them as Custom POIs. Then the number of locations you can have loaded is virtually unlimited.

[robertlipe]

Thanks for the help, everybody!

 

current.gpx is what's in the GPX curently. On next boot, the device will read the contents of that directory and that will become the 'current' set.

So if this is the case, I can just add more .gpx files to that directory

and the Garmin will effectively merge them at boot time?

 

(I'm linux-based so Garmin's free Windows tools and GSAK are not great options. Plus I like to know how things work )

Yes, that's how it works.

 

Nuvi (and GPSBabel) work fine on Linux.

[+pppingme]

current.gpx is what's in the GPX curently. On next boot, the device will read the contents of that directory and that will become the 'current' set.

 

If I place a new .gpx file in the directory, does it merge with current.gpx or does it overwrite it?

 

I did notice the gpx file I placed there disappeared after it booted back up but current.gpx is bigger. What I'm unsure about is if I put another new gpx file out there, is there a chance of old info still being there?

 

If it merges then I assume the current.gpx file is safe to delete?

[+Red90]

When you turn the unit on...it looks in teh directory for any changed files and read them. It then puts the waypoints into a hidden database file somewhere that it uses for favourites.

 

When you plug it into the computer, it writes a new current.gpx file with whatever is in the favorites at that time before mounting as a drive.

 

So yes, you could delte the other GPX file, but it is not needed.

 

Note that some Nuvis have NO WAY to delete all of the favorites and they must be deleted one at a time.

[+kusli]

Hi, I do not copy any file on the nüvi. I download the gpx file from Groundspeak (mail). I then start easygps (download from http://www.easygps.com/download.asp) and open the gpx file.

After I made shure I have the right caches in the file I then send it to the gps device.

Good luck

 

Ich kopiere keine Dateien auf mein Nüvi. Sondern ich starte die Anwendung EASYGPS. Danach öffne ich damit die GPX Datei und lade deren Inhalt mit dem Programm auf das Nüvi.

Viel Erfolg damit.

 

http://www.basteltreff.ch

Edited April 21, 2010 by kusli