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Map Checkmarks


VentureForth

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quote:
Originally posted by VentureForth:

They are extremely useful to me when I'm looking for a concentration of caches that I haven't found yet.


They way I do this now is to take my Pocket Query for my area (or what ever area I'm thinking about) and download it into my GPS (Sportrak Pro). Then I upload all the waypoints into MapSend topo. Now I just use MapSend topo to scroll around nice a quick, and it only shows me unfound caches (plus, you can filter out other caches in your Pocket Query, such as "No Multis" or "No **** or greater terrain" caches. It works great.

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

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quote:
Originally posted by LarsThorwald:

This is prime stomping territory and no one's taken the bait. Bravo on the restraint! icon_wink.gif


 

Ahhh, but VentureForth is not a newbie. If he was a noob, somebody surely would've stomped by now. But not me.

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

If there's no accounting for stupidity, then why do I need to file a tax return?

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I used the map page when I first started out, but found it faster and easier to maintain my own map in MS MapPoint (I have 2001 beta, but I bet MapPoint 2000 could do it, and maybe even Streets & Trips). About once a month, I manually go through the 'new caches in Washington' page, and create a .loc file for each 25 (since they come 25 to a page). Those open easily in Excel 2002 (or with some work in Excel 2000), which can then be imported directly into the map as push pins.

 

Then, every time I find a cache, I change it's icon from a purple X (my default) to a green/white check mark. 'Not Founds' get a frown. Archived caches get a 'no' symbol. Caches I've hidden get a red flag. Caches I've archived get a red/white X. The newest caches get a red square. Regular pushpins mark other stuff. Each mark is hyperlinked to the cache's page. For example:

 

demomap.gif

 

(The red line through Seattle and the vertical black lines are remnants from a geo-hot potato game I was running.)

 

"I'm sure she would have been thrilled to find so much pooh in a little metal box."

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quote:
Originally posted by travisl:

About once a month, I manually go through the 'new caches in Washington' page, and create a .loc file for each 25 (since they come 25 to a page).


 

Why?

 

Every day, I get a pocket query of the caches within 100 miles that I haven't found, and another one with my caches. I use Geobuddy to change those files into CSV files for MS Streets and Trips. I have an offline database create a CSV file of the caches I've found. I also tag on the current month's Geodashing Waypoints.

 

Result:

225464_1400.JPG

Click to enlarge

 

Yellow are my found

Green are unfound

Purple are mine

Red squares are dashpoints

Pushpin is my house

 

Double click on any dot, and you get the dialog box.

The map is REALLY scalable.

Archived and temporarily disabled caches are eliminated (until they come back online).

Auto routing is incredibly easy.

I can update it in about 4 or 5 minutes.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

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*Phew!*

 

Lars is right, it was prime stompin' territory. Glad I had a reputation to precede me. icon_wink.gif

 

I really never thought of using MapPoint. I use a Visor and don't have a Palm-Based mapping program with GPS waypoint inclusion capabilities. I can easily take a screenshot of MapPoint and print it, though. GREAT ideas. Thanks guys.

 

By the way, I noticed that MapPoint was like $224 whereas MS Street was around $25. Will they both allow importing of waypoints and thumb-tacking them onto a map?

 

And, yes, the frugal side of me must ask...is there a free alternative?

 

VF

 

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burnout.gif Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

 

[This message was edited by VentureForth on January 23, 2003 at 08:30 AM.]

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To answer Markwell's 'why?', the main, honest reason is that I started this before pocket queries were available, and its the intertia keeping me there. I have tried the pocket queries, and got reports of caches I've found and caches I haven't, but that excludes caches that have been archived (something I like to be able to keep tabs on). That's come in particularly useful when someone replaces an archived cache, making it really easy for me to tell where it was in relation to the original.

 

Someday, I'll probably end up accidentally munching my data files, or hitting some kind of limit in MapPoint, and going to pocket queries. For now, this works for me.

 

To answer VentureForth's question about a free alternative, well, I was lucky enough to get a stable, running, free copy of MapPoint 2001 in the summer of 2000 at a programmers conference. But Streets and Trips 2001 seems to be going for less than $10 on Ebay (S&T 2002 is going for around $20). If that works (and Markwell is implying that it does*), you'll get more than $10 value out of it the first time you load in your waypoints.

 

It's particularly cool to pick a couple dozen caches, and your house as the starting point, and tell it 'Optimize Stops' and 'Get Directions'. Presto -- your day of caching is already plotted out for you.

 

TravisL

 

* Microsoft implies that it does, too.

 

"I'm sure she would have been thrilled to find so much pooh in a little metal box."

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I would just like to comment on this subject. I also miss this feature and I am anxiously waiting for its replacement that will appear in late February. The main issue I have is that maybe features like this should be LIMITED to paying CHARTERED Members only and this might entice others to PAY and offset some of the hardware/software issues that are creating this type of problem. Keep up the GOOD WORK, this site is outstanding !!!!!

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quote:
Originally posted by Markwell:

Yellow are my found

Green are unfound

Purple are mine

Red squares are dashpoints

Pushpin is my house


 

Is there a way to differentiate between found/unfound/my hidden other than manually coding them or running multiple queries?

 

Multiple queries may be the easiest - just curious if there is a better, more automatic way of doing it.

 

VF

 

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burnout.gif Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

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Funny you mention likeing the checkmarks. I'd like the ability to not see caches I've found at all on the map page. It would make zooming in and checking out the logs for a cache trip easier if I didn't have to dodge around my found caches. The worst case is not being able to tell found from unfound though...

 

Wherever you go there you are.

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quote:
Originally posted by VentureForth:

Is there a way to differentiate between found/unfound/my hidden other than manually coding them or running multiple queries?

 

Multiple queries may be the easiest - just curious if there is a better, more automatic way of doing it.


 

On MS Streets and Trips the only way I've seen it is that different subsets of data would have the different markers. So - I think the answer to your question is that you need multiple queries.

 

I currently only draw from the caches not found and my own from a Pocket Query. Since archived caches don't show up, I keep my own found logs and their coordinates in my offline database. I can export the information to match that of MS Streets and trips. Dashpoints are changed each month from a separate source.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

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quote:
Originally posted by Renegade Knight:

Funny you mention likeing the checkmarks. I'd like the ability to not see caches I've found at all on the map page.


 

Well, yes. And in reference to my original post, the current mapping solution on geocaching.com doesn't show found caches, so I can't distinguish between caches I found and caches needed to be found.

 

Multiple queries will work great to also distinguish between multi, virtuals, traditionals and my hidden. I'll get one more query for later.... icon_smile.gif

 

Bought Street & Trips for $39.99 and I get a $10 rebate for a total of about $5 less than from Microsoft's website.

 

---------------

burnout.gif Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

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quote:
Originally posted by VentureForth:

Multiple queries will work great to also distinguish between multi, virtuals, traditionals and my hidden. I'll get one more query for later.... icon_smile.gif


Actually, you can just get them all in one query and use Watcher to split them up, unless you like Mobi and want split Mobi eBooks... or you live in a large enough state that you need to split for the numbers. icon_wink.gif

 

If you do want to refine your cache sets (or combine them), however, Watcher's there for you.

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quote:
Originally posted by VentureForth:

What is Watcher?


 

Watcher is ClayJar's great little PC program that lets you use your GPX files from Pocket Queries nearly to their full potential. With it you can view and print cache details, merge multiple GPX files into one, filter out types, sizes, directions, difficulties, and more; as well as search not only the cache details, but logs as well. you can also ignore caches, mark caches for an upcoming hunt, and find caches close to other caches or from a set location. And much more, and even more good stuff on the way! Watcher's main forum thread is here.

 

You can get Watcher at it's current home at http://www.clayjar.com/gc/temp/. Download the latest version exe file and give it a try.

 

Some people are like Slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

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quote:
Originally posted by VentureForth:

When I converted my queries to comma delinated, I was only able to import three fields into S&T. Since I'm at work now and the program is at home, I want to learn as much as I can before I go home. icon_smile.gif


 

You could try my script.

 

It provides an easy way of making .csv suitable for Mappoint, Streets & Trips and Autoroute. It works with both loc-files and gpx-files, but gpx-files gives you more information in your maps (difficulty levels).

 

Oh ... It is a VB-Script using regular expressions, so it requires a Windows machine with the lates Windows Script Host.

 

[This message was edited by Nocturnal on February 12, 2003 at 07:25 AM.]

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quote:
Originally posted by VentureForth:

When I converted my queries to comma delinated, I was only able to import three fields into S&T.


 

The common CSV mutant only has three fields: lat, lon, and name. Some strains of CSV support more fields; S&T is allegedly one of those.

 

If, for example, I run gpsbabel with -oxcsv,style=s_and_t.style, I get output that contains more stuff that S&T can presumably use:

 

Name,Latitude,Longitude,Name 2,URL,Type

GC989A,36.968817,-122.013783,Ocean View,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=39066,""

GC3500,36.953583,-122.029917,Lighthouse Field,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=13568,""

 

(Making the style syntax less ugly is on my list before 1.2.0 of gpsbabel...)

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quote:
Originally posted by travisl:

Then, every time I find a cache, I change it's icon from a purple X (my default) to a green/white check mark. 'Not Founds' get a frown. Archived caches get a 'no' symbol.


 

Is this something you're doing in MapPoint or does Mappoint allow you to define individual pushpin icons in the .loc/excel/csv file?

 

I've hunted around a bit in S&T, and can't seem to locate any hidden or otherwise flags to allow this from the .CSV.

 

I only ask because I use GPSBabel to process PocketQuery GPX files into S&T friendly CSV (among about 2 dozen other things), and being able to add an "Icontype" column to the CSV would be a really neat feature to differentiate between 600 or so anonymous black pushpins on a map.

 

Currently I'm programmatically marking-up the waypoint names with a hybrid naming scheme of "GV0A0A" for virtuals, "MYD00D" for my caches, "FCBEEF" for found caches, etc... and have to click on the pin to see what it is and whether I've found it or not. icon_smile.gif

 

Thanks,

 

alex

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quote:
S&T is allegedly one of those.

 

If, for example, I run gpsbabel with -oxcsv,style=s_and_t.style, I get output that contains more stuff that S&T can presumably use:

 

Name,Latitude,Longitude,Name 2,URL,Type

GC989A,36.968817,-122.013783,Ocean View,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=39066,""

GC3500,36.953583,-122.029917,Lighthouse Field,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=13568,""


 

Actually Microsoft's mappoint variants (including S&T) isn't too particular about header names.

In the script I mention above I use the following headers:

Latitude

Longitude

Name

Type

Website

 

However, I combine some of the fields from the GPX-file into each field in the CSV (comments in parenthesis):

 

"55,762567"

"12,946483"

"GC9BB4 - Gillhög" - (Waypointname & Cachename)

"Traditional Cache (1.5/1)" - (Type and difficulty)

"http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=39860"

 

You might be able to use this idea in GPSBabel?

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And it works great... Except to the limitation of 5 pocket queries.

 

That is to run separate queries. Last night I ran one for unfound-traditional, one for unfound-multi, one for unfound-virtual, and one for my hidden. With four different files, I was able to import them separately which allowed me to assign one different icon for each query.

 

---------------

burnout.gif Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

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quote:
Originally posted by Nocturnal:

quote:
S&T is allegedly one of those.

 

If, for example, I run gpsbabel with -oxcsv,style=s_and_t.style, I get output that contains more stuff that S&T can presumably use:

 

Name,Latitude,Longitude,Name 2,URL,Type

GC989A,36.968817,-122.013783,Ocean View,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=39066,""

GC3500,36.953583,-122.029917,Lighthouse Field,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=13568,""


...

 

However, I combine some of the fields from the GPX-file into each field in the CSV (comments in parenthesis):

 

"55,762567"

"12,946483"

"GC9BB4 - Gillhög" - (Waypointname & Cachename)

"Traditional Cache (1.5/1)" - (Type and difficulty)

"http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=39860"

 

You might be able to use this idea in GPSBabel?


 

It's funny that you're manually editing the files to put that IN when just this morning I added an option to automatically take that OUT. :-)

 

The same waypoints, run with the default options of GPSBabel and not the new gpx "suppress the Groundspeak kitchen sink in the desc field" option, show more as you describe:

 

Name,Latitude,Longitude,Name 2,URL,Type

GC989A,36.968817,-122.013783,Ocean View by Marky & Joani Traditional Cache (2/2),http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=39066,""

GC3500,36.953583,-122.029917,Lighthouse Field by Iron Chef Traditional Cache (2/2),http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=13568,""

 

The diff, terr, container, and placer are all in the description.

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quote:
It's funny that you're manually editing the files to put that IN when just this morning I added an option to automatically take that OUT. :-)

 

[snip]

 

The diff, terr, container, and placer are all in the description.


 

I am not manually editing it. I've made a script to do it.

The field annoyed me as well, so I take my info from various fields instead.

 

This way I can get a proper, well formatted CSV-file with just the information I want, and with proper headings in the information balloons in Mappoint.

 

This is what it looks like.

 

I would love to ditch my script and use GPSBabel, but only if it allows me to do such things.

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quote:
Originally posted by Nocturnal:

The field annoyed me as well, so I take my info from various fields instead.


 

This is precisely the strategy employed by the new "gsshortnames" option that I added to GPSBabel's GPX input parser this morning. If you specify "-i gpx,gsshortnames" for an input type, it will use Groundspeak:name instead of desc.

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quote:
Originally posted by robertlipe:

If, for example, I run gpsbabel with -oxcsv,style=s_and_t.style, I get output that contains more stuff that S&T can presumably use:

 

Name,Latitude,Longitude,Name 2,URL,Type

GC989A,36.968817,-122.013783,Ocean View,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=39066,""

GC3500,36.953583,-122.029917,Lighthouse Field,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=13568,""


 

Great... Now how can a non-programmer execute that line?

 

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burnout.gif Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

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