Guest cleenjeep Posted May 13, 2001 Share Posted May 13, 2001 Okay, I have gone through some recent posts, but I still have questions about software! Which is the most popular for cachers to use, who use simple GPS units, like my GPS 12? I just need something to work on my computer and with the data wire to the unit. I hope to make it easier to load waypoints into my garmin. I am a newbie, and it is a pain for me to enter them in manually, I usually forget and have to reference the manual! Also, I am not ready to plunk down a lot of change for software, so the cheap to free suggestions are best. I hope to find something in the latter! Michael ------------------ Webmaster and List Admin for Southern Michigan Rockcrawlers Personal Site is Cleenjeep's Site Quote Link to comment
Guest topografix Posted May 13, 2001 Share Posted May 13, 2001 Please have a look at EasyGPS (http://www.easygps.com), a free waypoint manager for Windows, and PanTerra (http://www.topografix.com), an advanced GPS data manager with over 1.6 million US waypoints. I wrote both programs, and continually add features based on my field tests on geocaching adventures. - Dan Foster TopoGrafix http://www.topografix.com Quote Link to comment
Guest cleenjeep Posted May 14, 2001 Share Posted May 14, 2001 Do you suggest I use them together, or does one do the job of the other? Do they interface? cleenjeep ------------------ Webmaster and List Admin for Southern Michigan Rockcrawlers Personal Site is Cleenjeep's Site Quote Link to comment
Guest topografix Posted May 14, 2001 Share Posted May 14, 2001 You should pick the one that fits your purpose. EasyGPS (http://www.easygps.com) is free, but it only handles waypoints and routes. PanTerra (http://www.topografix.com) is $29.95, and handles all your GPS data. PanTerra gives you access to over a million waypoints, and adds a bunch of powerful tools that are worth the price alone. For instance, you can plan a driving route on MapBlast, import the HTML into PanTerra, and download all the turns to your GPS, along with all the TopoGrafix waypoints along the way. That feature alone gives the basic $100 eTrex a point-to-point driving solution that rivals a $500 GPS. EasyGPS and PanTerra share the same file format, so you can start with EasyGPS and upgrade to PanTerra when you need it. Let me know what you think. I wrote both programs, and most of the good ideas came from user suggestions! - Dan Foster TopoGrafix http://www.topografix.com Quote Link to comment
Guest cleenjeep Posted May 15, 2001 Share Posted May 15, 2001 I started using panterra, and it is great. I had some trouble in the beginning, but realized I had waypoint+ running in the background. I like this much more. I dont know how to use the map thing yet, but that sounds really good. Do you have directions on how to do that? Michael ------------------ Webmaster and List Admin for Southern Michigan Rockcrawlers Personal Site is Cleenjeep's Site Quote Link to comment
Guest Prime Suspect Posted May 18, 2001 Share Posted May 18, 2001 I'm surprised no one has mentioned G7ToWin yet. It's freeware, and available at members.home.net/crh24/gps/g7towin/g7towin.htm It not only allows up/downloading of waypoints, routes and tracks, but can interface with Street Atlas software. It also allows you to do mass changes to waypoints. For example, you can change the displayed icon, or whether a waypoint name or description is displayed. The Street Atlas interface is nice to have. I was trying to see if their are any caches near hwy 69 through Oklahoma. I loaded all the cache waypoints in the state into G7ToWin, then had it display them as drawn objects in Street Atlas. Piece of cake. Quote Link to comment
Guest Prime Suspect Posted June 14, 2001 Share Posted June 14, 2001 quote:Originally posted by Scout: How did you get the list of all cache waypoints in the state? Not manually, I hope. No, I wrote a program that captures waypoint information. Only takes 2 keystrokes per cache. I captured all of Texas (100+) in just a couple of minutes. The program lets you save the lists, sort them in various ways, combine them, and export them in formats that can be read by G7ToWin, or imported into Street Atlas or Access. I'm going to release it as freeware. I'll be letting it out to some beta testers as soon as I finish writing the help text. Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted June 14, 2001 Share Posted June 14, 2001 ginally posted by Prime Suspect: ...and export them in formats that can be read by...Access. I'm going to release it as freeware. I'll be letting it out to some beta testers as soon as I finish writing the help text. I've currently got a list of all of the local caches on a pretty robust Access Database, but I upkeep the data manually (including who logged what caches, when and successful or not). Will this freeware be able to help with that? And (of course), I'd be more than willing to be a beta tester... ;-) MarkLent60544@aol.com Quote Link to comment
Guest gnbrotz Posted June 14, 2001 Share Posted June 14, 2001 Dan, I am currently using EasyGPS and testing ExpertGPS. In addition to the blank map tiles (which I knew to expect), at some magnification levels there are NO tiles visible. With the full pay version will all maps be visible at all levels? Also, where are your topo images coming from? The reason I am asking is that I have been using images from topozone.com. However, I have been comparing them to some actual WGS 84 quad maps, and the "real" maps are of a much higher quality/accuracy (both maps at 1:24000). I would be interested in the map package with ExpertGPS, assuming it would be better than the topozone maps. Third, how old are the aerial photos being displayed? I am assuming they are not current real-time images as I request them. How often (if ever) are they updated? BTW...let me just say to everyone else that when I first got EasyGPS I had some problems with it and Dan was very prompt in helping me get the problem corrected. Way to go Dan!! It's not easy to find good customer service these days. This great service, coupled with the ease of use of the software is quickly making me a convert to the topografix family of products. ------------------ Greg N39°54.705' W077°33.137' Quote Link to comment
Guest Prime Suspect Posted June 14, 2001 Share Posted June 14, 2001 quote:Originally posted by Markwell: I've currently got a list of all of the local caches on a pretty robust Access Database, but I upkeep the data manually (including who logged what caches, when and successful or not). Will this freeware be able to help with that? And (of course), I'd be more than willing to be a beta tester... ;-) MarkLent60544@aol.com It records the Lat/Lon, Waypoint name, Cache Title, Owner's Name, and Date it was originated. It also calculates and displays the distance of the cache from any point you choose (which doesn't have to a one of the list's waypoints). It will sort in ascending or decending sequence on any of the above. Decending by Date it the most handy, since that's the order the website displays them, assuming you haven't logged on yet. Makes it easy to see what new caches need to be added to your list. I keep a separate file for each state I'm interested in (Tx,Ok,Ar) and combine them on the fly when necessary. The one thing it currently doesn't have is an option to filter out duplicate waypoints. It's pretty simple to code, I just haven't decided if there's a need for it. And that's something that's already built into G7ToWin. While it will generate a Lat/Lon file in a format suitable for Street Atlas, its main purpose is to generate files that can be opened directly into G7ToWin, with no conversion necessary. It can also export the data into a CSV file for import into a spreadsheet or database. Quote Link to comment
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