UK Counties in GSAK

[+Guanajuato]

I know GSAK has its own forums, but I thought I'd try here for advice as well as the GSAK forums (fora?)

 

Since the demise of GeocacheUK, I'm missing being able to add the UK county data to my GSAK database.

 

I've found the County Macro, but this only applies to US States.

 

Is there a way I could modify this to apply UK counties to the database?

 

GrandEdgemaster has produced some SVG outlines for the UK Counties, but I don't think these are in Lat/Long format, so would need some processing.

 

Has anyone else done something similar already? If so, any chance of sharing it with us all?

 

Thanks

Adrian

[+talkytoaster]

Has anyone else done something similar already? If so, any chance of sharing it with us all?

Here's the simplest solution I know of to do what you want:

 

http://marnanel.org/counties

 

Hope this helps?

 

Regards,

Martin

[+Pharisee]

I have Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire set up as GSAK filters. The county boundaries were created on MemoryMap and exported as GPX files. These were read in to GSAK's polygon thingy and used as the basis for a normal search (In my case, for unfound caches). I'll happily pass those on if they're any good to you. PM me with your email address if you want them.

[markandlynn]

You could also add your voice to this long running thread asking Groundspeak to do this for us, it appears to of risen up the to do list as Italy went live with counties this year.

[+Guanajuato]

I think I'll have to go with Pharisee's filtering for now, though I'm sure there must be a way to automate the process.

 

I've got an OS county outline map from the link given by Talkytoaster, so I might do a few counties at a time and produce a set of polygons approximating to the boundaries, though it'll be a rather labourious process to do the lot!

 

I'll try and post them up as I do them for each county - not making any promises about time though!

[+Moote]

I have a set of files which provides me with all the county boundaries, but I always say there is no real reason for them, as you are not going to ignore a cache just because it is a few feet within another county, if you are close by you would go for it.

Edited January 31, 2008 by Moote

[+minstrelcat]

I have a set of files which provides me with all the county boundaries, but I always say there is no real reason for them, as you are not going to ignore a cache just because it is a few feet within another county, if you are close by you would go for it.

 

It would be really useful for me for two reasons. 1 - the boundary between Essex and Kent is the Thames estuary so there won't be a cache a few feet over the border. 2 - my 'Kent caches' PQ gets filled up with caches in London which is a very high density area and I'm more interested in the caches in the extreme corners of Kent than those in London. So two PQs for my usual caching areas of Kent and East Sussex would do me just fine!

 

Lisa

[+scottpa100]

The guy who runs www.itsnotaboutthenumbers.com maybe able to help as his website does have details of the counties.

[+Simply B]

I've just found exactly this data available for free download on Nearby.org.uk:

http://www.nearby.org.uk/counties/

I've just tried the Cheshire file and it loaded straight into GSAK's Set Filter dialog box Arc/Poly tab. It uses a manageable amount of data (312 points for Cheshire) so it didn't hug the border closely but was within about 1km of it wherever I looked. Which is more than good enough for me!

[+Guanajuato]

I've just found exactly this data available for free download on Nearby.org.uk:

http://www.nearby.org.uk/counties/

I've just tried the Cheshire file and it loaded straight into GSAK's Set Filter dialog box Arc/Poly tab. It uses a manageable amount of data (312 points for Cheshire) so it didn't hug the border closely but was within about 1km of it wherever I looked. Which is more than good enough for me!

 

Fantastic! I knew they were around somewhere!

Now to backup my database before I start playing!

Thanks.

[+browni]

Can someone please let me know how to use the files for the counties in GSAK once you have down loaded them pleae.

[+PopUpPirate]

Do a search / filter, and click the ARC/POLY tab. Add the file and click the poly button.

[+Guanajuato]

I've given up trying to automate the addition of county data. As a dabbler rather than a proper programmer, I've not really managed to produce anything particularly useful.

 

At present I've manually created named filters for each county. I also had to manually create replacement text for each county/country.

I've got a macro that applies each filter one at a time and sticks the county & country names into the State/Country fields. However, its incredibly slow - left running overnight and it was still going in the morning! I have set it so that it uses a temporary database containing only caches with no state info, which should speed it up, but the initial setup is laborious! As a macro for others to use I suspect it won't be any good.

 

There's probably a nice elegant way of automating the setup of filters & replace text, but I can't work it out and I have other (Better ) things to do with my time (or so the wife keeps telling me!)

 

Thanks for the pointer to the country polygons though!

[+PopUpPirate]

If you have Memory Map, its easy to just draw a polygon for the day, and run a filter on it.

 

If I wanted to start the day in Preston and finish in Oldham, for example, I'd draw an L-shaped polygon around the M6 and M62, with a blob on either end to capture the two towns.

 

 

Idea above is demonstrated with AutoRoute cos I don't have MM installed at work