Nearly Paperless...

[+globalgirl]

O.K. I give up. I've now got PQ's down pat, GSAK is a breeze, and even Cachemate is working on my new T3 like a dream. So I'm all but utterly paperless but for... What do I do about maps? I've researched a gazillion different sites and most every thread I can find on 'em here, but am getting more befuddled by the moment.

 

Not even sure what I'm looking for - maps for the GPSr? (a Magellan Sportrak Map) or maps for the PDA (Palm T3 w/ 64 MB)? I'm thinking maps for the latter 'cuz it has such a wondrous color resolution, not to mention that sweetly spacious screen (vs. the Maggie which is a super fine GPSr, but alas b/w with abysmal resolution)

 

Also - I don't understand the mapping software - which/how do you get the sweet wpts from Cachmate to overlay on a map? I presume it takes maps compatible w/ Cachemate (such as those files listed in the Export of CM like... Delome Topo USA, Fugawi, MapSent, MapSource, MaptecheXchange, MemoryMap, MSStreets, StreetAtlas and TomTom). And presumably only those from that list that are compatible with Palm (vs. PC). And what about Mapopolis that I hear so much about?

 

From what little I can gather, I'm thinking maybe my cheapest route might be... Delorme's Street Atlas USA Hand Held for about $40. But then again, I honestly don't have a clue and am utterly confused as to which way to turn.

 

Ideally, what I think I need/want, to polish off my paperless learning curve - is simply some means of getting sweetly colored maps into my pda (mainly street maps as most my caching is urban), that I can overlay the cachemate PDB files (that have been coverted via GSAK from gc.com gpx files) onto.

 

Am I dreaming? Can anybody at least get me on the right track here?

[+NightPilot]

Get USAPhotomaps. It will download either topo maps or aerial photos, or both, of any place in the US, and open .gpx files and display the waypoints. It will also let you draw routes on the maps or photos and upload them to your GPS, download tracks from your GPS and display them on the maps/photos, and send the waypoints from the .gpx file to your GPS. You can save either the screen view or any selected area as a .jpg file, put that on your SD card, and use one of several apps to view it. VFSi is a good one, or the regular photo app.

 

Very cool software. It's not freeware, but it's donation-ware, which means you just send however much you think it's worth, if you want to. If you don't pay, you get a nag screen when you close it. If you live in one of the urban areas for which they are available, you can download high-resolution color photos. With these, I can see who was parked in my driveway on the Sunday morning when they were taken and I was away at work.

 

Another church lady.

Edited March 24, 2005 by NightPilot

[+globalgirl]

Well gosh - at a quick glance that looks surely nifty AP, but...

 

I'm not looking for topo or aerial maps, but rather street maps 'cuz as I said, most my caching is urban here in Washington and I mainly need maps just to get me in the near vicinity of the cache (i.e. cross streets, etc.)

[+JohnnyVegas]

For street maps I use Micro Soft Streets and Trips, there is a function in which you can load the streets into a PPC or PDA. You just outlint the area you want to load into the pocket device.

 

I with GSAK you can save a set of caches for Micro Soft Streets and Trips, form there you can send the a selected map area with waypoint and POIs to you pocket device.

 

Costco had the new version of Streets and Trips now with a rebate that I think would wind up being less than $40.00. it might be on Costcos web site.

 

Edit to add:

This is the Costco price

 

Online price $34.99

Less mail-in rebate -$20.00

YOUR COST $14.99

Edited March 24, 2005 by JohnnyVegas

[+globalgirl]

Goodness, thanks JV but...

 

RATS! That's a super price but... alas it seems that S&T only runs on Pocket PC - not my Palm....

[+WildGooseChase]

Try Mapopolis. There is even a utility to convert GPX to map files that will overlay the street maps, Here. Read all about it, Here

[+embra]

I'm not sure if I got the drift of your question right, but I personally find maps easiest to manage on my GPSr rather than on the PDA. If you've got a SporTrak Map, I'd suggest MapSend Topo (not the newer Topo 3D). It has detailed road info as well as top features.

 

One factor for you is that your ST Map has limited memory available...that might argue to get stuff for your PDA, which I presume would have more memory capacity. However, the convenience of having a map display with your position marked on it (without connecting wires between GPSr and PDA) is hard to beat.

 

MapSend products (particularly the older ones like Topo) are not as good in general as most other mapping software. But the GPSr requires proprietary format, and with a ST map you will be effectively limited to MapSend Topo or Streets & Destinations.

[+globalgirl]

Thanks for the tips embra, but - my main reason for not going w/ maps for the Sportrak is 'cuz, as I said - it's but black/white, poor resolution, and a good deal smaller screen than my Palm T3 pda.

 

And while (as you say) I believe I can get the best of all worlds by connecting the GPSr to the pda (and thus get real time position progress on those pretty, high res full color maps), all I really need/want maps for is to to get me to the general location of the cache (i.e. hwys/cross streets, etc.) not for guiding me in my travel nor ro provide every detail within a park, etc. (which I doubt the GPSr maps would provide much in that regard anyway, yes?)

 

And yes indeed, at 64MB, my pda has far more memory capaicity than my STM gpsr.

[+Renegade Knight]

Mapopolis, it's expensive but it's probably what you are looking for. You can probably do your own maps with Ozi Explorer but I've never messed with it. People do like it though.

[+IVxIV]

Of course you know it's not considered illegal or immoral to carry around a good old fashioned "folded all wrong" paper map...

 

The concept of paperless caching doesn't really imply using no paper of any kind, it just suggests your not having to print off countless cache site pages before heading out looking for them.

 

Sometimes the old fashioned way (ie a paper map) has big advantages over the high tech alternatives

[+NightPilot]

If you're looking for mapping on a Palm, Mapopolis is the way to go, without a doubt. On your T3, you get voice directions to any address, with autorouting and rerouting, no PC ever required. You can get the newer NavCard, which is the entire US on a 1GB SD card, for $149, card included. If you want just a smaller region, you can get that for less money. You can also get the Navigator version for a little less, but you have to provide your own SD card. You can download the Navigator software and trial maps from the Mapopolis website. The trial maps are good for 9 days, IIRC, so you can try it out and see if it does what you want before you spend your money. It works very well on a T3, which is probably the optimum Palm model for this. You basically get the features of the Garmin 2610, for about $700 less.

 

You can use Cachemate to send caches to your addressbook, and Mapopolis picks it up. The way I do it is to keep one entry in my addressbook names 'Cache', and I just change the lat/lon as necessary. Mapopolis will take me to the closest road, which isn't always the best parking area, but no mapping program can do any better than that.

[+embra]

Thanks for the tips embra, but - my main reason for not going w/ maps for the Sportrak is 'cuz, as I said - it's but black/white, poor resolution, and a good deal smaller screen than my Palm T3 pda.

 

And while (as you say) I believe I can get the best of all worlds by connecting the GPSr to the pda (and thus get real time position progress on those pretty, high res full color maps), all I really need/want maps for is to to get me to the general location of the cache (i.e. hwys/cross streets, etc.) not for guiding me in my travel nor ro provide every detail within a park, etc. (which I doubt the GPSr maps would provide much in that regard anyway, yes?)

 

And yes indeed, at 64MB, my pda has far more memory capaicity than my STM gpsr.

With that clarification (which I guess I could have picked up with a closer reading of your original post) I concur that you are seeking Mapopolis.

[+globalgirl]

All great advice thanks. But I'm trying to keep costs down and really don't believe I need voice prompts, etc. Indeed, my main concern is cost and space, and thus... Seems it's now boiling down to either Mapopolis Platinum Map Pack ('cuz I don't need/want to pay for gps "realtime" support) at $34.95 which gives me a years worth of d/l N. American maps, or...

 

Actually Delorme's Street Atlas HandHeld at $39.95 for all N. America is looking mighty good for several reasons:

 

1. unlike Mapopolis, they're listed as an export option in GSAK

2. unlike Mapopolis, they have a handy 800 number contact on their website and I was able to talk with them directly to get answers to stray questions.

3. They have the absolute SA-WEEEEEEtest Flash getting started tutorial that demonstrates precisely how it all works and...

 

4. What would seem majorly significant is that you have great control over just what chunks of map you install onto your pda. i.e. as the tutorial demonstrates, you peck in your region (say Boston) and it divides the entire region into a gaggle of shaded rectangles, and then you can pick and choose to select only those areas that you need. In short you create your own map chunk, and install only that onto the pda.

 

Not sure if you can do such w/ Mapopolis, but given that pda space is precious, surely seems best to not have to carry around all of WA state (much less the entire Northern hemisphere) when all I need any given week is a small area of western WA at most.

 

But I'm still open to Mapopolis as that seems so very popular with many of you. Guess the question is...

 

1. how come GSAK doesn't list Mapopolis as an export file option? And/or can you export GSAK files into Mapopolis?

 

2. Why would I want Mapopolis over Delorme StreetAtlas Handheld? Does Mapopolis allow you to choose smallish chunks of maps? And/or what's the pros 'n cons to each?

 

3. Anybody out there tried Delorme StreetAtlas HandHeld?

 

Surely appreciate folks taking the time to offer their views and tips here, and meanwhile... I'm going to try d/l the demo Mapopolis and see what it's all about.

[Moun10Bike]

I know you specified a Palm device, gg, but in case others come to this thread looking for PPC mapping, I thought I'd add some comments about what I use.

 

For basic street mapping, I use Microsoft Pocket Streets, which comes with the PC-based Microsoft Streets & Trips package. Thanks to GSAK, it is easy to automate things so that when my Pocket Queries arrive, GSAK takes the data and formats it in the various file types I need. One of those file types is the .psp format that Pocket Streets uses. Here is a screenshot of the application in action showing one of your caches:

 

 

For topo mapping, my preferred application is OziExplorerCE. It is an add-on to the main PC-based OziExplorer package. The great thing about it is that any map that you can view in OziExplorer can be exported for use in OziCE - from aerial photos to USGS topo maps to scanned roadmaps and much more. GSAK can also export in Ozi format, so that file type is also part of my GSAK automation. Here is a screenshot of OziCE with my map of Seattle loaded showing the same cache as above:

 

 

The program is even more useful in applications where you typically use topo maps, such as hiking. Here's a screenshot of a section of Squak Mountain with a track of a trail displayed:

 

 

The Pocket Streets maps are vector data, so they are pretty small (relatively speaking). My Seattle map, which comprises all of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett and extends east to the Cascade Crest, is 3.34 MB in size (note that it also includes POI data). The OziCE maps, on the other hand, are raster data and so are pretty hefty. My shaded Seattle topo map, for example, covers only a little beyond the city limits and comes in at 22.4 MB. One of my maps covering a section of Idaho consists of 36 topo quads stitched together with DEM shading added and comes in at a whopping 164 MB. Thank goodness I have a big SD card in my PPC!

[+NightPilot]

I haven't used DeLorme in some time, because I got so disgusted with it that I tossed my CDs. It was absolutely the worst Windows software I ever tried to use. It may be better now, but I just don't feel ambitious enough to find out.

 

With Mapopolis, you don't need to futz around with your PC putting maps on your Palm. You just put them on your SD card and go. SD cards are getting really cheap, and you can find 128MB cards for about $15 or so if you look around. Put the maps for your area on a card, and forget about the PC. The pack you're talking about has the maps by county, so you just copy the counties you want to the card and head out.

 

But it's your money. If a sweet flash demo turns you on, go for it. But I'll bet you a dollar to a donut that the flash demo is the only thing that works well. Mapopolis support is very good, although their website isn't flashy, and truthfully could stand a total redesign. They've been told that, but they seem to be spending time on making the program work, not on flashy flash demos. I understand that you're trying to save money, but the GPS-enabled maps aren't that much more, and you don't realize how nice they are until you hear the voice telling you to turn right ahead.

[+McMurdo1]

I love my DeLorme Street Atlas on my handheld, The problem is without having the full version of street atlas too, you can not import the draw points (waypoint) file generated by GSAK.

You can still enter the waypoints by hand but that is a real pain.

[+globalgirl]

Really MdMurdo? Well heck, that defeats the whole point. The Delorme reps I spoke with didn't mention that (and I precisely explained just what I mainly wanted it for - overlaying wpts for geocaching. If that's the case, then nope, that surely won't work.

 

And no AP, I'm surely not dazzled merely by a silly flash show (indeed, as a site designer I hardly endorse such razzledazzle) but... All I'm saying is that when you're trying to find out what a product does, it sure beats having to d/l the whole blessed Mapopolis viewer and map, just to get a feel for the look of it and how it works. It also doesn't hurt to offer a handy 24/7 toll-free number for sales... But nontheless, as I said, I've never yet ceased to be open to Mapopolis but mainly still wonder why GSAK doesn't show it as an export option.

 

And indeed AP, I did bite bullet and d/l the Mapopolis viewer, along with the sample map, and for good measure - the near 6MB demo map of King county so I could see territory I'm familiar with. It looks fine on my T3 and seems to be quite fast - easy and quick to scroll the map, as well as zoom in on "boxed" areas, etc. But... for the life of me I can't see how one gets wpts on the map. I tried adding my home coords plus my nearby Dumb Luck Detour cache (as M10B so kindly demonstrated - so very helpful) to the address book in hopes of accessing them that way via the Mapopolis menu "Find", Addr Book, but... no dice.

 

So it seems I'm back to square one, and... halfway wishing I'd sprung instead for a PPC like Moun10Bike's. Just kidding, I love my T3, but just wish someone could post the same sweet examples (w/ info on how one actually overlays the wpts in Mapopolis or whatever) for something that runs on a Palm.

[+NightPilot]

You can either enter coordinates manually in your address book or by tapping and making the position a 'geomark'. Mapopolis doesn't make this entirely transparent, and it took me a little investigation to figure out the format. Basically, I entered a geomark and then looked at what was there. The coordinates have to go in the Custom1 field of the addressbook, in the format dd.mm.mm, with a decimal point between the degrees and minutes, plus the usual decimal point separating the decimal portion of the minutes. No decimal point after the degrees, no lat/lon as far as Mapopolis is concerned. It's not exactly standard, but I've seen other programs that use this format, and it's not that hard once you understand it.

 

I usually just have one entry named Cache, and change it as needed, but you can use Cachemate to export the caches automagically.

[+DocDiTTo]

I love my DeLorme Street Atlas on my handheld, The problem is without  having the full version of street atlas too, you can not import the draw points (waypoint) file generated by GSAK.

You can still enter the waypoints by hand but that is a real pain.

The full version of Street Atlas (PC anyway) can import waypoints from CSV format, which is listed in GSAK as "Microsoft Streets & Trips" format. I use that all the time to import waypoints into Delorme. I never use the SA format. Whether this works the same on the handheld version I don't know, but it's worth asking Delorme about. I use SA USA 2005 Plus which not only allows me to import the waypoint, but turn them into links so I can click on them from within Street Atlas and bring up the cache writeup. GSAK allows me to create all the data files for that. But like I said, that's the PC version, not sure whether the handeld version has the same capability.

[+globalgirl]

I usually just have one entry named Cache and change it as needed...

Thanks greatly for the tips on entering a single wpt manually into the pda AP. I'd actually figured out a similar scheme for putting each one straight into my contact adress book - but only via the decidedly laborious process of - bringing up and zooming into both Mapquest and the Mapopolis maps, and then "guesstimating" the spot on the map, then tweaking the correct coords in the address book (and not sure at all if Mapopolis then likewise moved the point on the map a tad...) ANYWAY, a lot of work and surely not viable for longterm use of Mapopolis for serious geocaching. So the question izzz...

 

...but you can use Cachemate to export the caches automagically.

How so? How do I do this?

 

And/or what export format do I use in GSAK to do this?

[+Terrible Ts]

...but you can use Cachemate to export the caches automagically.

How so? How do I do this?

 

And/or what export format do I use in GSAK to do this?

You don't use GSAK. You have to download a cachemate plugin (Mapopolis Export 1.0) from here: http://www.smittyware.com/palm/cachemate/plugins.php . Then in cachemate you can export a bunch or just one cache into your addressbook and mapopolis will see it. The plugin adds a couple of new buttons to the cachemate display. When you are in the list there is a "Ex" button next to the "New" button which exports multiple caches. When viewing a cache, there is a "Map" button addded to the bottom row near the "Done" button which exports the current cache.

 

I was playing with this last night, after reading this thread. It seems to work fine. I have not tried this in the field yet.

 

JimT

Terrible T's

[+NightPilot]

Yes, in GSAK just do a normal Cachemate export, and then open the file in Cachemate. Get the plugin from Smittyware (free) and while in Cachemate, tap the "Ex" button and select Mapopolis. There is also a plugin to export the coordinates to your Garmin GPS, and you do both from the same button, selecting the export you want. If you're on the page that lists all the waypoints, you send all of them to Mapopolis. If you're on a specific cache page, you send just that cache. At least that's how I remember it, I haven't used that in some time.

[+Pasha]

I was going to check this out but apparently the export plugin only works with PalmOS 5. Globalgirl sad she had a Tungsten so that should be fine for her, but not for us poor version-challenged older Palm owners. Mapopolis is still the only way to go for mapping on the Palm.

[+NightPilot]

If you have an older Palm I think you can use MapConverter to convert to Mapopolis. GPSBabel does .gpx to mapconverter, and then you can convert that to a Mapopolis maplet. Maplets aren't supported in the OS5 version, unfortunately, and I'm not sure why. I'm not that thrilled about filling my address book with caches. The only feasible way to do it is to put all the caches into a separate category, in which case you can delete all of them from the desktop. Otherwise, you have to do it one by one, and if you put several hundred in, it can take a long time that way. I don't bother.

[+Pasha]

I'm with you, basically. My version supports maplets, but it's a bit much of a hassle with not much reward to add cache waypoints into it. The maps themselves are useful, but only about as useful as the maps I already have loaded into my Legend. I mainly use Mapopolis as a reference when I don't have the GPSr in my hand, since I carry the Palm everywhere anyway.

[+Blaidd-Drwg]

 

Actually Delorme's Street Atlas HandHeld at $39.95 for all N. America is looking mighty good for several reasons:

 

I personnally would not recommend going with the Delorme SAH. I have a copy and find it to be abysmal at managing waypoints. Once you load your PQ into SAH, you can only delete them one at a time. If you load a waypoint a second time, then you have two separate labels for the same point, and this requires two delete processes to remove from the map. Additionally, I find it much more user friendly to use maps on the GPSr, so that tracking is a constant.

[+globalgirl]

Yippeeee! Thanks to AP and Terrible Ts for pointing me to that Cachemate Mapopolis plugin. Though I'm still not sure how it all works, I just tested it with both a single at a time, and a full (deliberately small) database of 29 caches and...

 

IT WORKS! All the wpts sweetly plopped on the Mapopolis map!

 

And yes, it seems that you can either transfer a single wpt via opening the cache page in CM and tapping "map", else the whole database via the "EX" on the full list of caches in the db. In either case, it allows you to load them all into a category of your choice (GEOCACHES).

 

Only question izzz... as TMadDog sez about SAH - it would seem here too in Mapopolis, the only way to delete a wpt from the address book is individually, unless... perhaps you could simply delete the entire GEOCACHES category - though I've not figured out how to do that (yet) on the T3.

 

All in all, I'm ever so relieved to be able to get wpts onto a map, and will likely drop some rubles on Mapopolis maps shortly.

 

BIG THANKS! to All here for your patient help. No doubt I've still got a long road on the learning curve for all this, but it sure is mighty magical to be able to cache paperless.

 

Meanwhile - one quick burning question - I'm leaving on a major trip to review hotels in Costa Rica in just 8 days and... YIKES! I need an expansion card for backup of this T3 badly (i.e. I'd hate to get 63 hotels reviewed in Documents to Go, and then... lose/drop the T3 in the Caribbean or somesuch, yes? Soooo...

 

Anybody here know where I can grab a Palm T3 expansion card - cheap and QUICK!???

 

Thanks again...

 

P.S. WoooHoooo! I can even get this puppy (Mapopolis) to now give me voice navigation between two caches! Woaaaaa - this is surely technocache HEAVEN!

[+NightPilot]

You can get an SD card almost anywhere - WalMart, Best Buy, CompUSA, anywhere you can buy electronic stuff. Get the biggest you can afford, because software is a gas, and expands to fill its container. While you're at it, get a backup program. I like BackupMan. You can download a trial version (it's shareware) and pay the huge $10 for it later. It's worth far more than that to me. I set it to do an automatic backup of my T3 early every morning, and I always have a fresh backup when I go out the door. I've had many hard resets, and BackupMan always has done a perfect restore, with my Palm back in the exact same state it had at the time of the backup. You can also do manual backups whenever you want. If you have stuff on your Palm that you need, you absolutely must have a good backup program, and back it up religiously. I keep the last 3 days' backups on my card, just in case, but you can set it to any number.

 

The only feasible way to delete stuff from your address book is with the desktop. You can easily open the Palm desktop, select Contacts, select the category, then Ctrl-A or Edit, Select All, and then Delete. Trying to do it from the handheld is an exercise in frustration. This is why you really need to have the caches in a separate category, so you can select the category and then all the entries in that category.

Edited March 27, 2005 by NightPilot

[+Xangxa]

Anybody here know where I can grab a Palm T3 expansion card - cheap and QUICK!???

The last two I bought were from NewEgg.com. But getting the best price requires watching the prices, which tend to fluxuate. I got a 1Gb SD for less than $70 and it didn't require those painful rebate forms My next SD will be the 2Gb, when prices drop just a bit more. Today they have 128Mb SD's starting at $13

 

http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=68&DEPA=0 (select type of SD)

Edited March 28, 2005 by Xangxa

[+Jeeters]

I did bite bullet and d/l the Mapopolis viewer, along with the sample map, and for good measure - the near 6MB demo map of King county so I could see territory I'm familiar with.  It looks fine on my T3 and seems to be quite fast - easy and quick to scroll the map, as well as zoom in on "boxed" areas, etc.  But... for the life of me I can't see how one gets wpts on the map.

There's a free PC utility called GPXToMaplet (just google for it) that will take a .gpx file and convert it to a Mapopolis "maplet" (i.e. ".mlp") file. You copy this maplet file to your PDA and then load it into mapopolis along with your map(s). (When Mapopolis asks you what map(s) to open, make sure the maplet file is selected along with your map file(s) ). Mapopolis then shows all waypoints that were in the .gpx file as locations on the map. If you click on one of these map waypoints, you'll get some basic information about them: the cache name, the cache number, coords.

 

And don't know if you've noticed or not, but there are various versions of Mapopolis. The priciest is the 'navigator' version that you said you're not interested in. There are much cheaper versions that are just the maps, though. it's also much cheaper to download the maps from the mapoplis website than it is to buy a CD of maps from them. When I bought Mapoplis last yeare I think I paid around $30. I then downloaded all 50 states over two 1-hour lunch breaks.

Edited March 28, 2005 by Jeeters

[+NightPilot]

Maplets aren't supported in Palm OS5, which the T3 has. That only works on older models.

 

There are various editions of Mapopolis, using various map data and doing different things. Some run only on certain OS versions, so be careful about which you get. Start at the main page, and select the OS and version you have, and then you will be shown the options that will work on your device. IMO the NavCard is the best buy. It's only $149 for the most advanced version, which has the latest data, does voice routing, and includes a 1GB SD card. But if you're only interested in a single county, or a couple, and don't want the actual guidance, just maps, then you can get that. Most programs don't give you those choices.

[+globalgirl]

Each day a new revelation. Firstly, I snagged a 256MB SD card at Radio Shack on sale for $30. Yes, yes, I know, I know, a paltry 256 when I SHOULD have sprung for a gig or more (I can see AP heaving a sigh now ) But hey, every buck matters and we each have to make hard choices. I have tons of other things I need besides the biggest SD card on the Planet - like $20 for a nice cushy case to protect my precious T3 for starters... Shoot, there's lots of folks with 16 MB pda's that are happily caching paperless, and the T3 has 64MB from the getgo. I honestly think the 256er will do me just fine, at least for a goodly while. That said, I haven't gone looking for that backup software yet AP, but that will be next.

 

Meanwhile... I did a multi cache today and in this case, the several wpts were unusually spread out - each about 5-6 miles apart. So... after using the swell new "map" function to get the 1st wpt on the Mapopolis map, and then tapping "Navigation" to get a voice routing to downtown Seattle (not that I need a tinny fellow blathering at each and every turn mind you, but it IS rather magical) - I figured out a way to easily get the new wpt on the map. There may be other ways, but what I did was to edit the coords listed in the Cachmate listing, and then remap it. Worked like a charm - moved that icon clear across town - kewl! Though I did make sure I also tweaked the cache name to "2" else I'd have duplicate names in the address book and when running a "find" for the navigation routing, couldn't easily tell them apart (i.e. tell which was the new wpt). Later, I tried just tweaking the coords that were in the address book instead - but that didn't seem to work (i.e. didn't change the location of the wpt on the map), so it looks like you need to do it in Cachemate and then remap it. But that only takes a moment.

 

Now speaking of all those many options for Mapopolis maps. Yes indeed AP, given that you get the 1 gig SD card with the Navcard maps for just $149 surely it's the most economical way to go. (I mean at least half of that is worth it just for the card.) Still... I may just go for the Platinum maps as I really don't need voice prompts and for $35, I think that will do me.

 

Tune in manana for the next episode of "As the World (of Nearly Paperless) Turns...

[+globalgirl]

Just a quick one here to say - firstly, dunno why I referred to you earlier as "AP" Night Pilot, clearly meant to say "NP". ANYWAY... reviewing all these previous tips, I ran across this and...

 

You can use Cachemate to send caches to your addressbook, and Mapopolis picks it up.  The way I do it is to keep one entry in my addressbook names 'Cache', and I just change the lat/lon as necessary.

 

So that sounds like you're tweaking the coords in the Custom1 entry in your address book to change the location of the wpt on the map, yes? As I said yesterday, I thought I'd tried that, but didn't seem to move it. Thus I find I have to instead tweak the coords for the cache in the cachemate file and then remap it changing the name to "whatever2", etc.

 

But if it can be done via the address book - great. One less step for multi wpt changes. Guess I'll have to test it again...

[+NightPilot]

Yes, I just change the coordinates in the address book. Make sure you keep all the decimal points in the correct places, though. Just to repeat, there has to be a decimal point between the degrees and minutes. You'll also have to exit and restart Mapopolis to force it to read the new coordinates, I think.

 

And no, I'm not sighing. The biggest I have are 256MB, except the 1GB I got free from Mapopolis as a beta tester. 256 seems to be the sweet spot right now, best bang for the buck. I just said get the biggest you can afford, not necessarily the biggest available. My budget is somewhat limited, because SWMBO needs new shoes every now and then. I buy mostly on the best MB/$$, and 256 is close to that, unless you find a deal. I've seen 128MB cards for $14.96 at WalMart, but it was a short-term sale, apparently. Fry's has cards very cheap every now and then, so look around as you browse for other stuff. My wife is expert at this - she has dragged me through every store in 2 different malls, taking all day to do it, and walked out empty-handed. When I asked her why we even went, she replied that she just wanted to know where stuff was and for how much in case she ever needed something.

Edited March 30, 2005 by NightPilot

[+globalgirl]

...I buy mostly on the best MB/$$, and 256 is close to that, unless you find a deal.  I've seen 128MB cards for $14.96 at WalMart, but it was a short-term sale, apparently.  Fry's has cards very cheap every now and then, so look around as you browse for other stuff.

As it turns out, I got the 256MB on sale at Radio Shack for $35 - and there's $15 worth of rebates, bringing the price down to just $20 - yea!

 

And yup, you're right - I tried it again, and tweaking the coords in the address book works great - kewl! Goodness but all this is truly a marvel.

[+Ellteejak]

So exactly how do you tweak the coordinates in the address book (aka CONTACTS)? I am confused on this.

 

Someone else mentioned changing the CONTACTS entries via the PALM DESKTOP application on my PC that I upload and synchronize with. Is this the optimal setup?

 

Just bought some generic SD cards at Walmart for 128mb they are $15. Not too bad at all.

[+NightPilot]

In the address book, the cache coordinates are in the Custom1 field, in the format dd.mm.mm, meaning there is a decimal point between the degrees and the minutes, and another between the whole and decimal minutes. It's not standard, but that's the way Mapopolis does it. You can just edit the coordinates to make them whatever you want, or you can enter new coordinates in that field for any contact. I recommend doing this only if Mapopolis takes you to the wrong place using the address, which can sometimes happen, because NavTeq, which supplies the data, does not survey every address in the world; they just get close coordinates for each block, or a few blocks, and extrapolate the other addresses from assumed algorithms, and sometimes the municipality does things very differently.

 

It's easier to enter data via the desktop than it is using Grafitti on the Palm, in most cases. It's certainly easier to do mass deletions from the desktop, and to import data from .csv files.