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Who uses Garmin waypoint icons and why?


Guest Point2Point

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Guest Point2Point

Garmin provides a LOT of icons that can be used for waypoint identification on the map screen, but, I don't really find myself using any of them.

 

So I was just wondering if anyone uses the icons and why. Are you really setting a waypoint and icon for your bank, post office, airport, truck stop, zoo, shopping center, museum, oil field, live theater, bowling alley, shower, fitness center, etc?? I mean, c'mon,, who uses their GPS to find their way to a fitness center????

 

[This message has been edited by Point2Point (edited 02 November 2001).]

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Guest topografix

It's pretty clear that the purpose of the symbols in the newer Garmin GPS units is to sell you their MapSource software and business listings. It's been interesting to watch the evolution of the symbol sets in consumer GPS units over the past 5 years. In the past, you got 16 symbols, and they were broken down equally between hunting, boating, and flying. Now at least 50% of the symbols are dedicated to steering you to the nearest WalMart.

 

Is this progress?

 

Enough ranting, I'm off to the "fitness center"...

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Guest Choberiba

Topografix wrote:

Now at least 50% of the symbols are dedicated to steering you to the nearest WalMart.

 

I'm waiting for Walmart, Chevron, Dennys, Starbucks, and any other company that caters to the travelling set to offer downloadable LOC files. The nearest 50 locations to the zipcode I enter sounds about right.

 

Maybe have the ability to enter two zip codes and have it grab all the locations in between.

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Guest rgerman95

quote:
Originally posted by Avatar:

The primary reason I use them is to sort by


 

What model Garmin are you using? I find no sorting capabilities on my eTrex Legend. Or is it just that I am not accessing the proper set-up menu?

 

 

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

Rich in Western Pennsylvania

N 40 33.029

W 079 59.408

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Guest mrgigabyte

quote:

I find no sorting capabilities on my eTrex Legend.


 

As topografix said... "sell you their MapSource software and business listings.".

 

You cannot sort the waypoints in the eTrex. You can only perform this function within the MapSource application itself.

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Guest blscearce

quote:
Originally posted by Point2Point:

So I was just wondering if anyone uses the icons and why.


 

I use the car icon to mark my car's position. One of the cache setters near me thoughtfully mentioned where there was water in a park, so I marked that location with the "foamy beer glass" icon. I going to a dog event a few months ago, I marked the location with the little splotch that's supposed to look like a deer, but it could really be any quadruped.

 

Aside from that, I don't use the icons much to mark my own waypoints, but they help a little when I'm using my eMap to find my way around an in-town area. They're not particularly helpful for geocaching, but I don't think that geocachers (or hikers or hunters) are the sole intended audience of consumer-grade mapping GPSRs.

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Guest Latitude11

quote:
Originally posted by Point2Point:

I mean, c'mon,, who uses their GPS to find their way to a fitness center????

B]


 

The tone of your post is um.. humerious.. I *think*

 

*I* use the icons.. I mean sheeesh, .. c'mon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Guest Prime Suspect

One of the nice features is that you can perform a mass delete of waypoints, based on their icons. These makes it easy to keep the waypoints you want (geocaches, of course), while you "take out the trash".

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I don't have the geocaching icon but do use diffrent icons. (3+)

 

The ist reason is any temp icon I leave as the default waypoint (small box) - this way when I get too many of them I can easily delete by symbol and they all go.

 

I use the icons to represent gruops of places so when I am traveling to a job (I work all over the NYC metro area, including LI, NJ, Westchester, Rockland) - I can set my gps to show the nearest waypoints - I can easily see if there is a fast food chain that I like (Boston Market btw), regular sit down rest., geocache, train stations, trail, or even shortcuts to avoid traffic (that last one I treat as gold and could most likely sell it if I get a few more good ones). Using the icons make it very easy to see which ones I might be intrested in.

 

I really don't care what the icon is suppose to be as long as I know that a oil rig is a geocache I placed, a tunnel is a shortcut w/o traffic lights, a bridge is a shortcut with traffic lights, the fast food is BM (OK that one corosponds), etc.

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quote:
Originally posted by Point2Point:

Garmin provides a LOT of icons that can be used for waypoint identification on the map screen, but, I don't really find myself using any of them.

 

So I was just wondering if anyone uses the icons and why. Are you really setting a waypoint and icon for your bank, post office, airport, truck stop, zoo, shopping center, museum, oil field, live theater, bowling alley, shower, fitness center, etc?? I mean, c'mon,, who uses their GPS to find their way to a fitness center????

 

[This message has been edited by Point2Point (edited 02 November 2001).]


 

I use the icons for quick reference, rather than taking the time to enter text. For example, I use the small city circle to mark caches, because it makes them distinct from the default squares that mark my route waypoints. I use stuff like the car and buildings to mark destinations, etc.

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I use the icons because I d/l all the waypoints for caches within a certain distance from my house and then when the fancy kicks in, I just ask my GPS for the nearest one, see if it's found (can tell by the icon) and then off I go.

 

Other than that, I only use them to mark houses or bases I start from. Otherwise I try to name the point something useful and use the dot because I'm lazy.

 

If easyGPS or some other app allowed me to easily change the icon on bulk selections, I'd use it more. But I usually just use the icons to denote caches I've found vs. ones I haven't. And that's only if you have a model that supports that icon and have done the upgrade for your software.

 

--------

Trippy1976

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I'm not too far from the 500 waypoints at a time in my Vista.

Icons are good, because I can delete by symbol. If I do something that requires several waypoints, that I'll need for a week only, I give them their own symbol. When I'm thru with them, I delete them all at the same time.

 

But you can't sort by waypoints, unless you upload them all to MapSource first.

 

Anders

24148_200.jpg

 

[This message was edited by Anders on March 13, 2002 at 01:01 AM.]

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... for all the reasons stated in the above posts: quick indentification, convenience, sorting, mass-deleting, etc. However, I think 95% of the kinds of icons that Garmins provides have little other practical value. icon13.gif I would prefer having the ability to upload my own set of customized icons.

 

Cheers ...

 

~Rich in NEPA~

 

1132_1200.jpg

 

=== A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

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quote:
Originally posted by Hawk-eye:

Absolutely ... and I love it how not all icons are recognized by the Garmin software anyway!

 

http://img.Groundspeak.com/cache/348_1002.gif


 

I haven't played too much with that. In which way aren't they recognized? Going from the GPS to Mapsource, or the other way? Are you referring to all these light bouys that show up in Mapsource?

 

Anders

 

24148_200.jpg

 

[This message was edited by Anders on March 13, 2002 at 02:11 AM.]

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Actually I find the icons very useful.

I use the Hotel symbol to indicate waypoints which are my base of operation. (sometimes I start out geocaching from my house, the office, or the folks place in another state). This is useful when I'm in unfamiliar territory and want to quickly autoroute back to my base.

 

I also use the 'parking lot' icon for those cache reports which give coordinates for the best place to park or approach the cache from.

 

I use other various icons to mark interesting things I find while hunting. (I seem to find a lot of junked out cars in the middle of forests -- I like to post the coordinates on the reports so others can find them.

 

ANd of course I love the Geocache and Geocache Found icons. One of my favorite parts of finding a cache is changing that icon over to FOUND.

 

IN short I find icons useful for organizing my waypoints. I use the Skull and crossbones to indicate cache's I've placed for example.

 

I rarely use them for what they are officially named.

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quote:
Originally posted by Hawk-eye:

Big thumbs up on the sign. graphic ... but I like the one of you holding the GPS icon_biggrin.gif

 


And I thought you just wanted to see the suit, and would be very much happier with a nice girl like Caroline inside!!! icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

Should I hand over the GPS to here, for another shot??? icon_wink.gif

 

24148_200.jpg

 

Anders

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quote:
Originally posted by Hawk-eye:

Big thumbs up on the sign. graphic ... but I like the one of you holding the GPS icon_biggrin.gif

 


And I thought you just wanted to see the suit, and would be very much happier with a nice girl like Caroline inside!!! icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

Should I hand over the GPS to here, for another shot??? icon_wink.gif

 

24148_200.jpg

 

Anders

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quote:
...would be _very much_ happier with a nice girl like Caroline inside!!! ...

 

I don't want to hurt your feelings ... but she does look better in that suit than you amigo ... ahem ... HOW DID SHE GET INTO YOUR SUIT? ... and does that mean you were wearing ... er ... never mind ... icon_eek.gif

 

348_1002.gif

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quote:
...would be _very much_ happier with a nice girl like Caroline inside!!! ...

 

I don't want to hurt your feelings ... but she does look better in that suit than you amigo ... ahem ... HOW DID SHE GET INTO YOUR SUIT? ... and does that mean you were wearing ... er ... never mind ... icon_eek.gif

 

348_1002.gif

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I use the icons all the time. It is nice to be able to sort them in mapsource, but it would be a big improvement to be able to sort on the GPSr. Maybe Garmin will add that capability in the future. One feature I didn't know about is the global delete by icon. That's a great feature to get rid of temporary waypoints.

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quote:
Originally posted by Hawk-eye:

ahem ... HOW DID SHE GET INTO YOUR SUIT? ... and does that mean you were wearing ... er ... never mind ... icon_eek.gif

 


 

Easy! Think about it:

How do you place five rhinoceroses in a Volkswagen?

Two at the front, three in the back seat.

Now, how do you fit in five elephants in a VW?

Take out the rhinoceroses first! icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

 

Just as easy in this case. Caroline is definitely not fat, and fits very well in the suit, assuming nobody else is in it.

 

For the last question, didn't you think I had any other clothing??? At least another geosuit??

Maybe I have icon_rolleyes.gif

 

24148_200.jpg

 

Anders

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quote:
Originally posted by Hawk-eye:

ahem ... HOW DID SHE GET INTO YOUR SUIT? ... and does that mean you were wearing ... er ... never mind ... icon_eek.gif

 


 

Easy! Think about it:

How do you place five rhinoceroses in a Volkswagen?

Two at the front, three in the back seat.

Now, how do you fit in five elephants in a VW?

Take out the rhinoceroses first! icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

 

Just as easy in this case. Caroline is definitely not fat, and fits very well in the suit, assuming nobody else is in it.

 

For the last question, didn't you think I had any other clothing??? At least another geosuit??

Maybe I have icon_rolleyes.gif

 

24148_200.jpg

 

Anders

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For a while, I was collecting local waypoints and using the Garmin icons on my Vista. The exercise was a combination of building a local guide for work and to study accuracy of my Vista.

 

Once I picked up the Metroguide, I had little need of the Garmin Icons. In fact, I'd like to disable a few in the Metroguide.

 

There is a need for custom icons, or downloadable icons in some situations. Plotting fires, accidents, potholes, and gates are examples that friends have encountered with my Vista and there wasn't the right icon for them to use.

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My StreetPilot doesn't have the GeoCaching icons, so I use the Information Icon (? inside a box) to indicate caches. I haven't been marking them found, but I probably should start as this quantity gets larger! icon_smile.gif

 

I mark moving caches with a car icon, that way I recognize it before I start a search. If I have just checked the latest co-ordinates on a moving cache, it is OK to search there. I mark my car with the parking lot icon.

 

A friend's house I have marked with the restaurant icon. They cook GREAT food

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My StreetPilot doesn't have the GeoCaching icons, so I use the Information Icon (? inside a box) to indicate caches. I haven't been marking them found, but I probably should start as this quantity gets larger! icon_smile.gif

 

I mark moving caches with a car icon, that way I recognize it before I start a search. If I have just checked the latest co-ordinates on a moving cache, it is OK to search there. I mark my car with the parking lot icon.

 

A friend's house I have marked with the restaurant icon. They cook GREAT food

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I use some of the icons in my V. The only problem I have is that when the unit is on my dash it's hard to see the geocache icons. I use the "Mine" symbol (it's huge & no mines in my area) to indicate caches I haven't found & the "Cemetary" to indicate founds. Much easier to see & they import to mapsource.

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I have a Garmin GPS48 and have mostly fished and dove offshore. I use the fish Icon for fishing places. I use the skull & crossbones for wrecks and cool dive sites. The Gas icon is real handy should I need some close to shore. When I expand my map page the Icons show easily what's around. The waypoint name field is too small to be descriptive. I'm just starting to use it on land to play this game, but I've been using GPS, Loran C, and Loran A for over 20 years. I can usually get my EPE within 15 to 25 feet and nearly 100% repeatability. Pretty important when there's nothing but water to the horizon all around. icon_cool.gif

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I have a Garmin GPS48 and have mostly fished and dove offshore. I use the fish Icon for fishing places. I use the skull & crossbones for wrecks and cool dive sites. The Gas icon is real handy should I need some close to shore. When I expand my map page the Icons show easily what's around. The waypoint name field is too small to be descriptive. I'm just starting to use it on land to play this game, but I've been using GPS, Loran C, and Loran A for over 20 years. I can usually get my EPE within 15 to 25 feet and nearly 100% repeatability. Pretty important when there's nothing but water to the horizon all around. icon_cool.gif

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