Automating Adding Additional Waypoints

[+BigFurryMonster]

For a cache, I'd like to add a LOT of additional waypoints to the listing.

 

Is there any way to automate this? Manually entering them one by one is a pain.

[+Yorkshire Yellow]

No pain, no gain!

[+Walts Hunting]

I guess the question is why would you need "a lot" of waypoints?

 

Without even seeing the listing I have to wonder what they are for. If people have to visit all of them to log the cache you would not expect to get many visits.

[+J Grouchy]

I'm assuming it's a "points of interest" thing...?

 

If so, it would probably be more helpful to actually write that stuff out in the cache description unless their locations are just too difficult to describe.

[+The A-Team]

I guess the question is why would you need "a lot" of waypoints?

That's what I was thinking. If you need to add so many waypoints that it's painful to do, you should probably reconsider the concept. Personally, I'd rather not have a cache clutter up my GPS with a huge number of waypoints.

[+Isonzo Karst]

If you can use Greasemonkey, then you can use one of Prime's Scripts, Quick Waypoint Entry to enter coords into boxes as a copy/paste function.

You'll find that on his site http://gmscripts.locusprime.net/

I never type coords into boxes, I always copy into a buffer and then use that script to paste into the boxes. No typos that way, and easier.

 

For the text part, the waypoints tool will auto-fill the wayppoint fields for some of the waypoint types, up to some number. If you want them visible, use Parking over and over. You'll have go back and manually edit each one as you create it to get unique identifiers. PARKNG , PARKN1 PARK10 PAR100 etc. Or use a mix of the other types, for a LOT of points, you'll end editing some part of the auto-fill to get the unique codes. And may have to edit the default from visible to invisible or vice versa.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Isonzo Karst

[+Bear_Left]

I happen to know what this is about (I asked for advice from someone who asked the poster, who thought it was a good idea and now wants to know the same answers as me!) and I can assure you that this will only be a wild goose chase if the finders miss the point entirely!

 

Cluttering up GPSrs, sadly, will happen, but only if the cacher doesn't solve it and find it, so it's just an added incentive!

[+BigFurryMonster]

I guess the question is why would you need "a lot" of waypoints?

 

The answer is ... well, it can be part of a mystery! Figure "something" out from the given waypoints, even though you need not visit them or even load them onto your GPS.

 

Or it can be a set of reference points for a multicache. For example, this cache of mine (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC1Q33H) leads the cacher through a park, where he must spot objects and trees and relate their locations to a given grid. I provide the grid points, which I had to enter manually. Better to do this automated.

Note that the grid points themselves don't need to be visited.

[+Cardinal Red]

Cluttering up GPSrs, sadly, will happen, but only if the cacher doesn't solve it and find it, so it's just an added incentive!

 

Bull

 

You never grab ALL the local caches in an area on a PQ just so you have them? I do. I might not even look at your puzzle, and those waypoints would end up being loaded to my GPS. Exactly how much clutter are we talking about? If it really is a lot, I don't like it. And an automated way to annoy me hopefully would NOT be possible.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Cluttering up GPSrs, sadly, will happen, but only if the cacher doesn't solve it and find it, so it's just an added incentive!

 

Bull

 

You never grab ALL the local caches in an area on a PQ just so you have them? I do. I might not even look at your puzzle, and those waypoints would end up being loaded to my GPS. Exactly how much clutter are we talking about? If it really is a lot, I don't like it. And an automated way to annoy me hopefully would NOT be possible.

 

Agreed. A lot of GPS devices have a limited amount of waypoints they can store. When I used to download waypoints for my "old" GPS I used to set my PQ limits to allow for caches with additional waypoint so that I didn't go over the limit. If we're talking about a dozen additional waypoints but if it's 100 or more that's 100 or more caches I can't load onto my GPS. I'm going be taking a 735 mile road trip for a vacation in August, and, of course I'll be creating a caches along a route PQ. A PQ for a route 500 miles long (the maximum length one can create) could easily have 500 caches even with a search radius of .5 of a mile. If one of them happened to have 100 additional waypoints, although GSAK will tell my how many "real" waypoints and how many additional waypoints will be sent to my GPS, as far as I know, there isn't anyway to discover which of those 500 caches is limiting the number of caches sent to my GPS by 20%.

[+The A-Team]

The answer is ... well, it can be part of a mystery! Figure "something" out from the given waypoints, even though you need not visit them or even load them onto your GPS.

I guess my next question would be, "Why do they need to be additional waypoints on the cache listing?" If you don't need to visit them, I don't see a reason to have them listed as additional waypoints. Just put them all into a GPX file, host it somewhere online, and include a link to it in the description (along with the required disclaimer, of course). Puzzle-solvers can download the file and view it on their computer in the program of their choice, and they can load them into their GPS if they so choose.

[+Lil Devil]

Just put them all into a GPX file, host it somewhere online, and include a link to it in the description

But then you wouldn't see the pretty picture (or whatever) on the geocaching.com map!

[+The A-Team]

Just put them all into a GPX file, host it somewhere online, and include a link to it in the description

But then you wouldn't see the pretty picture (or whatever) on the geocaching.com map!

You wouldn't anyway with the way the site currently works.

Regarding the mini-map on cache pages, if a cache doesn't have any additional waypoints, this map defaults to zoom level 14. As soon as you add any waypoints, this map defaults to the very-close-in zoom level 18. Unless the waypoints are very close (~200 feet) to the posted coordinates, they won't be visible (by default; the viewer could still manually zoom out to see them).

And we all know the large map doesn't show any waypoints.