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Gsak (geocaching Swiss Army Knife)


ClydeE

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No prob...

 

If you just want to select a few, turn any current check marks off (User Flags>Clear All User Flags) and then select (flag) the ones you want. Then go into the filters (Search>Filter) and set up a filter that only searches for flagged items (see "User Fag" near the bottom right in the filter). If you want to do it again a little easier next time just remember to save the filter and then it's on your filter drop down list. I call mine "flagged".

 

I should add that all the real power in GSAK is learning how to use the filters.

Perfect!

That's exactly what I was looking for...Thanks Team GeoDillo!!

Ed

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I always hesitate to suggest a new feature, because 80% if the time it turns out to already be in there. Nevertheless...

 

The centre point management in the database seems to work well, but to generate a distance index in the HTML output it looks like one has to manually enter a set of coordinates in the locations tab. Could there be a provision to add a database waypoint as a location as easily as it can be designated a centre point in the database?

 

Let me illustrate with a recent experience: I vacationed in Vermont last week. Before going, I downloaded a pocket query for the area (as well as a set of benchmarks for the county). In order to include a distance index in the HTML from where I would be staying, I had to find the coords of the address and type them into the locations box. Not too onerous, but I found myself desiring an easier way. Designating a close cache or benchmark as the centre would have quite satisfied me, but it looked like that wouldn't carry through to the HTML (did I miss anything?)

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I always hesitate to suggest a new feature, because 80% if the time it turns out to already be in there. Nevertheless...

 

The centre point management in the database seems to work well, but to generate a distance index in the HTML output it looks like one has to manually enter a set of coordinates in the locations tab. Could there be a provision to add a database waypoint as a location as easily as it can be designated a centre point in the database?

 

Let me illustrate with a recent experience: I vacationed in Vermont last week. Before going, I downloaded a pocket query for the area (as well as a set of benchmarks for the county). In order to include a distance index in the HTML from where I would be staying, I had to find the coords of the address and type them into the locations box. Not too onerous, but I found myself desiring an easier way. Designating a close cache or benchmark as the centre would have quite satisfied me, but it looked like that wouldn't carry through to the HTML (did I miss anything?)

No, you did not miss it - it is just not there.

 

This sounds like a good idea (and not a big ask) :smile:

 

I will add this to the next release

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<_< Like many I suppose, I keep about 60 waypoints that I call my "base", these waypoints get loaded into the GPS regardless of where I'm going or what I'm doing. I'd like this to be more automated than it currently is, right now if I do a filter on nearly anything they are left out. Is there a way or how would you recommend I handle these?

 

I guess if there was a way to mark the record of each one of these it would help, how should I do that? I don't want to use the User Flag because I use that in building complex filters, I can't use the State because I set that, ditto with most of the fields that make sense.

 

It would also be nice if they did not have their waypoint name changed by using the special tags, because most have names I gave them... like HOME or MOM's... etc.

 

Thoughs?

Edited by KaiserKlan
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While 'playing' with this wonderful program, an idea popped into my head. Would it be possible to make the export buttons on the toolbar user configured? I don't have any of the programs that the first three deal with, but I do use MS Streets & Trips and NG TOPO!. I know I can export from the File menu, but it would be nice to have the buttons that I use available. Thanks.

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I guess if there was a way to mark the record of each one of these it would help, how should I do that? I don't want to use the User Flag because I use that in building complex filters, I can't use the State because I set that, ditto with most of the fields that make sense.

Why not use the "user data" for this? If you are already using this for something else you can have an unlimited number of "flagging" via the user notes - please see this post

 

It would also be nice if they did not have their waypoint name changed by using the special tags, because most have names I gave them... like HOME or MOM's... etc.

If you want the the waypoint name to be exactly the same as the description of the cache then use the %name tag instead of %smart. For help on all the smart tags and how to use them please see using special tags in GSAK

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The problem of using the User Data and then putting it in as part of a filter is that it is an inclusive search, so BASE in User Data (for example) means that all the conditions of the search must be met plus BASE must appear in it. In my test this changed the output from 417 hits to 3 the three I put BASE into for testing.

 

Or did I do something wrong?

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The problem of using the User Data and then putting it in as part of a filter is that it is an inclusive search, so BASE in User Data (for example) means that all the conditions of the search must be met plus BASE must appear in it. In my test this changed the output from 417 hits to 3 the three I put BASE into for testing.

 

Or did I do something wrong?

Ok from this reply you are implying you want to send all these waypoints in one go. The only way to do this in one filter is using the user flag.

 

However I don't see why you need to send them in one go. Just send them down to your GPS in two trips, via two filters.

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I do something very much like what KaiserKlan does, though admittedly not with GSAK. If you really want these "out of band" waypoints to be invisible to the geocaching s/w and only blasted to your receiver on upload, perhaps you can keep them in a separate file totally and smuggle them through to GPSBabel for upload, bypassing GSAK totally.

 

Clyde, is 'babel.bat' an editable thing? If so, can you just merge the inputs (GSAK's output and your set of extras) down at this level?

 

Yes, this naive approach could cause hilarity for the percentage of users that use it for anything but serial waypoint transfer...but even that could probably be addressed by a batch file jock.

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I do something very much like what KaiserKlan does, though admittedly not with GSAK. If you really want these "out of band" waypoints to be invisible to the geocaching s/w and only blasted to your receiver on upload, perhaps you can keep them in a separate file totally and smuggle them through to GPSBabel for upload, bypassing GSAK totally.

 

Clyde, is 'babel.bat' an editable thing? If so, can you just merge the inputs (GSAK's output and your set of extras) down at this level?

 

Yes, this naive approach could cause hilarity for the percentage of users that use it for anything but serial waypoint transfer...but even that could probably be addressed by a batch file jock.

I think for the moment, the 2 step process may be the simple way to go.

 

If you really want to do it all in one step now you could use the automation feature of GSAK (see automating GSAK in the help file)

 

In a future release I will be adding "super" or "cumulative" filters. These new "super" filters will allow you create a filter by combining any number of saved filters (just select from a list) to make a new filter. This would give you a resulting subset of the accumulation of each of the individual filters (any duplications would be resolved to just one record) You would then be able to do this in one step natively from the GSAK GUI.

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OOPS!

 

Spotted another anomaly! It appears that if I use '%name' in the 'Smart Name' box of the edit current waypoint window to override the '%smart' it only works if

'%smart' is used. I use '%drop2 %ter1 %con1' for my waypoint names.

 

Or??

Ok, this is really just a variation of your 2 step problem as stated before.

 

What you are really wanting it to do is use one set of special tags for geocaching.com waypoints ('%drop2 %ter1 %con1' ) but a different set for your "home made" ones (%smart).

 

So as before, just make up 2 filters and do 2 exports with different tags as above.

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When creating the gpx file, what doy ou gett additionally when you check "Include GSAK extra fields in Export"? tks.

The extra data is only useful to GSAK. Leave that checkbox unticked when exporting GPX files for other applications.

 

If you are exporting the GPX file to later import back into GSAK then you should check that box. Extra information that is currently added to the GPX file when exported with this option:

Lock status

User Data

User Flag

Found by me date

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On another thread, a while back, there was a discussion on how to transfer your database from one computer to another. I tried it and the filters didn't transfer. What I copied was:

gsak.ini

filter.* (dbf, nsx, smt)

data folder

Did I miss something? Trying to load a saved filter, all I see is "NONE".

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On another thread, a while back, there was a discussion on how to transfer your database from one computer to another. I tried it and the filters didn't transfer. What I copied was:

gsak.ini

filter.* (dbf, nsx, smt)

data folder

Did I miss something? Trying to load a saved filter, all I see is "NONE".

The next version of GSAK will have backup and restore options that will do all this for you.

 

However, version 4 introduced views and these need to be saved like filters. Rather than have separate files for these and filters (and more again for any other similar additions) they are now all combined.

 

So to copy over your filers, views and settings the files you need to copy now are:

 

GSAK.ini

gsak.dbf

gsak.smt

gsak.nsx

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I’ve been using the “export to HTML” to create webpages which I then put on an SD Card, in my Treo 600 (PalmOS), so while I’m out, I have the webpages with me. I also have CacheMate, but like being able to see the data in a variety of forms.

 

I’ve been dividing them up for trips. For example, I’m taking an Alaskan Cruise, so I have one set for Juneau, one set for Sitka, and one set for Connecticut (when I stop at my parents before flying out). Currently, each is in a different directory on the card so the files don’t conflict with each other (e.g. index.htm), and as such, a lot of the “support files” (mostly graphics) are duplicated several times. Is there any way that all the support graphics can be in one specific directory, and all the created html files point to that directory?

 

One idea is GSAK creates the Cache directory, so that could contain the files that are common to all, then create subdirectories inside of Cache for the different categories (so it would be Cache/Sitka/index.htm, Cache/Juneau/index.htm, etc. The links would then have to be ../pic.gif instead of pic.gif) The files aren't huge, so I'm not sweating about the space, I'm just thinking like a computer scientist, trying to minimalize redundancies. :rolleyes:

Edited by nighthawk700
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I’ve been using the “export to HTML” to create webpages which I then put on an SD Card, in my Treo 600 (PalmOS), so while I’m out, I have the webpages with me. I also have CacheMate, but like being able to see the data in a variety of forms.

 

I’ve been dividing them up for trips. For example, I’m taking an Alaskan Cruise, so I have one set for Juneau, one set for Sitka, and one set for Connecticut (when I stop at my parents before flying out). Currently, each is in a different directory on the card so the files don’t conflict with each other (e.g. index.htm), and as such, a lot of the “support files” (mostly graphics) are duplicated several times. Is there any way that all the support graphics can be in one specific directory, and all the created html files point to that directory?

 

One idea is GSAK creates the Cache directory, so that could contain the files that are common to all, then create subdirectories inside of Cache for the different categories (so it would be Cache/Sitka/index.htm, Cache/Juneau/index.htm, etc. The links would then have to be ../pic.gif instead of pic.gif) The files aren't huge, so I'm not sweating about the space, I'm just thinking like a computer scientist, trying to minimalize redundancies. :rolleyes:

Thanks for your feedback.

 

However, aside from the very minor space saving there is little to be gained here.

 

The downside is that you are adding another level of complexity (having to remember to also copy over this shared folder and put it in the right place) that I think users just don't need.

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If you have 60 or so waypoints that you want to always be able to send to the GPS, why not put them in a separate database? That way you can quickly select that database, and send everything easily. I keep a separate database of GPS waypoints, because I have things like home, friends' homes, work, and lots of other places that I want to always have available and backed up, so that I can clear the entire GPS, or lose it and buy a new one, or whatever may happen, and easily get these back. They will never come in a pocket query, and have little to do with geocaching, but GSAK provides a way to save them permanently, and edit them as necessary. I keep them in a separate database for many reasons.

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Clyde I have been digging away trying to find a reason why my find count in GSAK is higher than the official record on gc.com. I have discovered 3 caches in my database shown as found that I have not hunted. Looking at the find logs I see in all 3 cases that there have been logged finds by cachers having names that contain "olar" withing theirs. They are "solar" and "solardog".

My guess is that GSAK is not looking for an exact match for user name when interogating the logs???? Is this possible???

I can correct it by editing out the "found" checkmark but it reoccurs the next time I import a gpx file.

 

Cheers, Olar

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I keep a separate database of GPS waypoints, because I have things like home, friends' homes, work, and lots of other places that I want to always have available and backed up, so that I can clear the entire GPS, or lose it and buy a new one, or whatever may happen, and easily get these back.

I have user created waypoints that won't allow me to filter them. Is this because they need the "GC" at the beginning?

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Olar -

 

Use your Geocaching.com ID instead so that it will always be an exact match. To do this, open a GPX file with a text editor (like notepad) and search for an instance of your username under a cache that you have found. Near your username you'll see your user ID (a 5 or 6 digit number). Use this and it will eliminate your problem.

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I go to the select database and there is nothing in the list.

The list that should be displayed when you click Database / Select is the list of directories under C\Program Files\GSAK\Data\ ... (or wherever you installed GSAK to). If you browse to that Data directory using Windows Explorer (My Computer) do you see sub directories there?

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Under the HTML options , is it possible to run a program apart from just running a url? I'd like to run (for example) "c:\scripts\map.bat %gcid" which would then run map.bat passing across the id of the cache for me to use in the script.

 

Also, related to this, the ability to have your favourite custom htmls as a click on the toolbar would be great too?

Pretty pleasE? :o

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The GC at the beginning should have nothing to do with it. When you say 'won't allow you to filter them', what do you mean, exactly? The filters in GSAK should work on any waypoint, AFAIK. But if your waypoints don't have the attribute you're trying to filter for, you may not get the expected results.

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Clyde I have been digging away trying to find a reason why my find count in GSAK is higher than the official record on gc.com. I have discovered 3 caches in my database shown as found that I have not hunted. Looking at the find logs I see in all 3 cases that there have been logged finds by cachers having names that contain "olar" withing theirs. They are "solar" and "solardog".

My guess is that GSAK is not looking for an exact match for user name when interogating the logs???? Is this possible???

I can correct it by editing out the "found" checkmark but it reoccurs the next time I import a gpx file.

 

Cheers, Olar

GSAK is not using an exact match because you have not told it to do so. You are using the wild card match option. There are 3 options you can use to match placed and found caches (see Tools=>Options=>General) They are Exact, wild card, and GC #. For more information please see this help topic http://www.gsak.net/help/hs10900.htm

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Under the HTML options , is it possible to run a program apart from just running a url? I'd like to run (for example) "c:\scripts\map.bat %gcid" which would then run map.bat passing across the id of the cache for me to use in the script.

 

Also, related to this, the ability to have your favourite custom htmls as a click on the toolbar would be great too?

Pretty pleasE? ;)

I will add these to my ever growing "to do" list ;)

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Clyde I have been digging away trying to find a reason why my find count in GSAK is higher than the official record on gc.com.  I have discovered 3 caches in my database shown as found that I have not hunted.  Looking at the find logs I see in all 3 cases that there have been logged finds by cachers having names that contain "olar" withing theirs.  They are "solar" and "solardog". 

My guess is that GSAK is not looking for an exact match for user name when interogating the logs????  Is this possible???

I can correct it by editing out the "found" checkmark but it reoccurs the next time I import a gpx file. 

 

Cheers, Olar

GSAK is not using an exact match because you have not told it to do so. You are using the wild card match option. There are 3 options you can use to match placed and found caches (see Tools=>Options=>General) They are Exact, wild card, and GC #. For more information please see this help topic http://www.gsak.net/help/hs10900.htm

Thanks Clyde. I didn't realize that the 3 options also applied to my "found" caches. All the references on the subject refer to user hidden (placed) caches only.

 

Cheers, Olar

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Been playing with this program for the last day or so and it's GREAT! Very well done so far ClydeE!

 

1) Do you have any plans for adding USB comm options? I use a Garmin GPS 60CS unit which transfers data via a usb cable. It does have a serial port but does not come with that cable. (With this option added I will send for my registration)

 

2) You said that in your release of 4.0.2 that you fixed the "Found by me" date not being exported/imported in GPX file. I had to manually add my found dates to all of my 177 caches found. I'm sure you're now going to tell me how to do it automatically right? :mad:

 

Thanks for a GREAT product!

 

iBrew

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1) Do you have any plans for adding USB comm options? I use a Garmin GPS 60CS unit which transfers data via a usb cable. It does have a serial port but does not come with that cable. (With this option added I will send for my registration)

Yes, this is coming. Please also read the FAQ http://www.gsak.net/help/hs1070.htm#3

 

2) You said that in your release of 4.0.2 that you fixed the "Found by me" date not being exported/imported in GPX file. I had to manually add my found dates to all of my 177 caches found. I'm sure you're now going to tell me how to do it automatically right? 

If your GSAK database is being updated with GPX files from Groundspeak (Premium membership) then the "Found by me" date will be automatically updated.

If it does not, then it means you have not specified how GSAK should match your Geocaching name correctly (Tools=>Options=>General). This would also mean your "Placed by" cache count would be incorrect as it uses the same logic. For more information please see the help topic http://www.gsak.net/help/hs10900.htm

Edited by ClydeE
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1) Do you have any plans for adding USB comm options? I use a Garmin GPS 60CS unit which transfers data via a usb cable. It does have a serial port but does not come with that cable. (With this option added I will send for my registration)

Yes, this is coming. Please also read the FAQ http://www.gsak.net/help/hs1070.htm#3

 

2) You said that in your release of 4.0.2 that you fixed the "Found by me" date not being exported/imported in GPX file. I had to manually add my found dates to all of my 177 caches found. I'm sure you're now going to tell me how to do it automatically right? 

If your GSAK database is being updated with GPX files from Groundspeak (Premium membership) then the "Found by me" date will be automatically updated.

If it does not, then it means you have not specified how GSAK should match your Geocaching name correctly (Tools=>Options=>General). This would also mean your "Placed by" cache count would be incorrect as it uses the same logic. For more information please see the help topic http://www.gsak.net/help/hs10900.htm

OK, I'm sold!

The check's in the mail (via PayPal)

Thanks for the fast reply!

:mad:

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Per these instructions, I have been able to select waypoints in Mapsource and use them to set a user flag and filter the database in GSAK.

 

The only problem is that when I open the LOC file in GSAK (The one that I created from the Mapsource Waypoints), the state gets removed from the GSAK database entries that match the waypoints in the LOC file. Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

 

Thanks,

Rocket Man

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Per these instructions, I have been able to select waypoints in Mapsource and use them to set a user flag and filter the database in GSAK.

 

The only problem is that when I open the LOC file in GSAK (The one that I created from the Mapsource Waypoints), the state gets removed from the GSAK database entries that match the waypoints in the LOC file. Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

 

Thanks,

Rocket Man

Currently no. However, in the next version of GSAK I will add the option "only update user flag"

 

That is, when you load a GPX or LOC file and there is a matching waypoint in the database, the only item that will get updated is the user flag. This will enable you to compare any LOC or GPX file to your GSAK database, without overriding any of the data in your database.

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I had used this program before and everything seemed to work well

I just re installed it and I am not gettitng any logs or hints or description

Am I missing some setting

 

Thanks

Doug

Could you please elaborate on where this is not happening. Are we talking about split screen view, HTML Generations, some particular export, what?

 

Please also see items 2 and 10 of the GSAK FAQ here http://www.gsak.net/help/hs1070.htm

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Per these instructions, I have been able to select waypoints in Mapsource and use them to set a user flag and filter the database in GSAK.

 

The only problem is that when I open the LOC file in GSAK (The one that I created from the Mapsource Waypoints), the state gets removed from the GSAK database entries that match the waypoints in the LOC file.  Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

 

Thanks,

Rocket Man

Currently no. However, in the next version of GSAK I will add the option "only update user flag"

 

That is, when you load a GPX or LOC file and there is a matching waypoint in the database, the only item that will get updated is the user flag. This will enable you to compare any LOC or GPX file to your GSAK database, without overriding any of the data in your database.

Sounds great, I can't wait.

 

Thanks Clyde,

Rocket Man

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I'm not a premium member yet, so I download loc files, which I put into GSAK. I filter the ones I want to hunt and export into MapSource. I then download the the 60CS. Somehow I get the same waypoint twice, one with the GC # and once with the truncated name of the cache. Anyone have any idea why?

When you do the export from GSAK to MapSource what do tag(s) do you use for the waypoint name.

 

It sounds like to me that at some stage you have exported using the %code tag (generates the GCXXXX code) then at another time you have used the %smart tag (genearates unique smart names based on the cache description)

 

This scenario would result in the caches being effectively in your GPS twice.

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Why would I have them twice in MapSource then? Ley me try to answer that myself. I had done a few caches and found them with my 60CS, so the symbol changed to an open chest. I wanted to see if it would refect the change in MapSource, so I uploaded the waypoints from the GPS. Would that do it?

Yes, again it sounds like you are using the %code for one and %smart for the other. They must both be the same if you don't want this type of duplication.

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I agree with Clyde, somewhere along the line you've added the duplicates by using different names, likely by sending the codes to the GPS and then adding them back from the GPS. You can delete everything and replace them all with whatever name you like, or maybe just set a filter that will eliminate all the caches with GC**** in the name.

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Hi Clyde.

 

These questions may have been raised before...but I'm just now considering to go "paperless" and have a couple of questions. I plan to use a pocket pc.

 

When you "export html"

+ I don't see an option to save to desktop when you hit "generate."

+ I really want the html files to use the %smart tag for naming...rather than the GCxxxx code. I use the smart tag to name waypoints on my GSPr. I tried using the %smart tag in options | html view ... but this only seems to name the local html view versus the filename.

+ Do you have any recommendations for a pocket pc app that's particularly useful or good?

 

Couple of other suggestions / questions.

 

+ Recently on a trip I created a separate DB for the waypoints at that location. I found a bunch of these caches. Is there a way to get a >merged< view of ALL found caches? I might have been better off simply using the same DB ... however, I thought it intuitive to keep them separate. Can you easily copy these found caches between DBs.

 

Thank you for a very useful product!

 

Hal Zenner

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+ Recently on a trip I created a separate DB for the waypoints at that location. I found a bunch of these caches. Is there a way to get a >merged< view of ALL found caches? I might have been better off simply using the same DB ... however, I thought it intuitive to keep them separate. Can you easily copy these found caches between DBs.

What you can do is filter the other database to show only those you found (I assume the ones you want to copy). Then export that subset as a GPX/LOC file (File / Export / GPX/LOC File...) and in the window select GPX, the 2 check boxes next to it to include any extended info you entered, specify the name of the GPX file and Export it.

 

Then select your main GSAK database and import (or drag/drop) the GPX file you created and it should load those caches into your main database.

 

That should do it.

David

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I found a minor bug. If you export a file to a network folder (like to another computer), it creates the file locally as it should then sends it out over the network. The problem is that the generic "OK" dialog box which normally comes up after a file is finished exporting to a local drive, ends up popping up before the file finishes transferring across the network and thus pops up behind the export dialog box. At this point, since the OK box is waiting for you to click it (and you can't get to it) you can't do anything. Clicking on the export box just cause the computer to send the exclamation sound. The only way around this is to try opening another application in front of GSAK, then bring GSAK forward and the OK button is now on front, and you can finally click it. It's not a major bug, just kind of a hassle. Maybe Clyde could just get rid of the OK dialog box all together.

 

GSAK is by far, still the best GPX program out there! Thanks Clyde

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Hal, why do you want to 'save to desktop'? I can't imagine putting all that junk, several hundred html files, on your desktop. You can easily select the folder where they go - I put them in a folder under my geocaching folder, and point Plucker there. Or am I misunderstanding what you want?

 

You can export an entire database to a gpx file, and then load all the gpx files into a different database. It's pretty easy to do. For instance, load the trip database, export everything to trip.gpx, and then have GSAK load trip.gpx, and it will be automatically merged. Or do what Team Demp said, and just export the found caches to a .gpx, if you only want them, or filter however you like and export that.

Edited by NightPilot
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