Gsak Newbie

[+DadONine]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm going to be taking a few boys who have never gone GCing this weekend, and I want to be able to use my newly-downloaded copy of GSAK. I've got Plucker, a Magellan 315, DeLorme TOPO USA 4.0 on my laptop, and a Palm PDA.

 

How do I make the most of all these?

 

TIA,

 

Eric (DadONine)

Edited August 19, 2004 by DadONine

[Keystone]

Moving to the GPS Units and Software forum. There, you'll find multiple discussions of GSAK.

[+hedberg]

I assume that you are a premium member of GC and therefor can download pocket quires (PQ).

 

Download them, import them into GSAK. Then can you filter out everything you want to find or not to find

 

Export them from GSAK to your GPS and to Plucker (don't ask me how you export to Plucker.. We use CacheMate for Palm).

 

When you use your GPS will you see all the caches in the area on the maps (if the GPS have maps?), and you can use Plucker to find more information, hints, previous logs etc about the caches.

[+DadONine]

I'm working at it this morning, and I think I have figured out how to export to Plucker (waiting for Palm to sync).

 

What about Topo USA? I wouldn't mind bringing the laptop along.

 

Thanks,

DadONine

[+Dan_Edwards]

I'm working at it this morning, and I think I have figured out how to export to Plucker (waiting for Palm to sync).

 

What about Topo USA? I wouldn't mind bringing the laptop along.

 

Thanks,

DadONine

Delorme uses some custom formats so its a bit of a pain. Using GPSBabel thier are a couple of different methods of getting waypoints in. If you have XMap or Streets and Trips mobile for your Palm added to Topo USA you can have GPSBabel create a file that looks like the file your palm would generate when it syncs waypoints. Its really just a CSV file with "Begin and End" inserted at the begining and ending for no apparent reason. I did see some more direct methods available in the latest version of GPSBabel but I have not tried them. Another way would be to load the waypoints onto your GPS with GSAK and then import them with TopoUSA from the GPS.

 

As to why you would want to go to the trouble, one advantage to having them available with the TopoUSA display is a real 3D View of the routes you plan to take to Geocaches. If your in heavy mountain area like me, the closest Geocache to your current location if often on of the furthest away if you consider drive time, something you won't see on the GSAK view. If your just going after "park & grabs" in a flat urban area I would not consider it worth the trouble except for road routing. TopoUSA 4 is ok (not great) at road routing, TopoUSA 5 is much better though still not quite as good as other dedicated routing programs for urban areas.

Edited August 19, 2004 by dan_edwards_1966

[+mogle1]

To get your points into Topo4.0 You would first open the gpx file with GSAK, then click on File - Export - StreetAtlasTextFile make sure the file name is what you want. Also check the cache descritpion format box just says %Code then click on generate.

 

Open Topo usa 4.0 with the area that will contain your cache sites showing. Click on Draw - File - Import - find the *.txt file you just made and open it. You should now have a bunch of green flags showing with the PID beside them.

[+DadONine]

That's what I've been doing (PQ to GPS, then GPS to TopoUSA). It's not that much trouble, really, but I'm always looking for a better mousetrap.

 

Thanks,

DadONine

[+kayakanimal]

That's what I've been doing (PQ to GPS, then GPS to TopoUSA). It's not that much trouble, really, but I'm always looking for a better mousetrap.

 

Thanks,

DadONine

Check out CacheMate for your Palm. It is THE BEST!

[+DadONine]

Hey Mogle1! Thanks!

 

Worked like a charm!

 

DadONine

[+Quintheeskimo66]

To get your points into Topo4.0 You would first open the gpx file with GSAK, then click on File - Export - StreetAtlasTextFile make sure the file name is what you want. Also check the cache descritpion format box just says %Code then click on generate.

 

Open Topo usa 4.0 with the area that will contain your cache sites showing. Click on Draw - File - Import - find the *.txt file you just made and open it. You should now have a bunch of green flags showing with the PID beside them.

Thanks for the information!! I tried this with Deorme Street Atlas USA 2004 and it worked like a charm.

 

Now I can use my laptop with my Earthmate GPS while on cache trips to get closer to the caches while driving, and not have to connect and disconnect my handheld GPS from the laptop. And Street Atlas has much better maps than the topo software I have for my Magelland and my Garmin.

 

Thanks,

John