Garmin Nuvi … adding cache waypoints

[EnergySaver]

[hogrod]

@EnergySaver wrote:

CONS:
The POIs don’t show up as little treasurer chests on your electronic road. You do get a dot when actively auto-routing to a waypoint. But unless you have it selected as your destination, the other waypoints (POIs) don’t show up on the map.

You can have a custom waypoint icon for each of the gpx files you load(see link below for more info). On my 60cx there is a mapsetting that does get the POIs to show up on the map, but only if you are zoomed close enough.
http://hogrod.googlepages.com/page2

[EnergySaver]

@hogrod wrote:

On my 60cx there is a mapsetting that does get the POIs to show up on the map, but only if you are zoomed close enough.

Wow, your right … but you have to really zoom way in (in the case of nuvi to the 200 foot range) and at that it only shows up on the over-view of the map, not in the normal 3D driving-view.

I’m not seeing any way to set an Icon choice, other than the little silver dot that the nuvi uses for POIs. The GPX file I started with had standard geocache treasure chests. The look like the chests when it uses the GPX file for Favorites, but POIs seem to turn into silver dots, not matter what is specified in the GPX. Might be the way a nuvi works.

[Team Deejay]

[entering technical mode, all non-technical people please cover your ears and chant nananana until this message ends]

The trick to changing the icon of a POI is that, in the same folder as your gpx file, you need a second 16×16 bmp file with the same name as the gpx file. i.e. if you load all your caches in a files called caches.gpx, you would need a file called caches.bmp with the custom icon. You can probably see that this would be extensible so that you could have different gpx files for each cache type, each cache type and size, or any other system you can think of, with a separate bmp for each.

Here is a site with a bunch of applicable icons if you want to use them.

http://www.thepropers.com/geocaching/60SeriesCustomSymbols.htm

[exiting technical mode, you can open your ears and stop chanting]

[Cachew]

Only slightly off-topic: here are some links to reviews of

the Nuvi760/660
http://gpsinformation.info/nuvi/660/760.html

the Nuvi 660/680
http://gpsinformation.info/nuvi/660/660.html

and Garmin’s POI Loader
http://www.gpsinformation.org/penrod/poiloader/poiloader.html

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

[EnergySaver]

Thanks for all the feedback … it’s amazing how much info we’re pulling together.

The concept about naming a 16×16 pixel with a .BMP name the same as the .GPX file does work great! It stands out much better having a cache symbol instead of a stupid dot. It works great when your navigating to a specific cache POI … I still wish they’d make them show up when your “just passing by” one, withOUT using the Alert function or zooming in to the 200 foot overhead view.

It’s becoming very obvious that Garmin treats the POIs very different than the FAVORITES. A POI seems to be a “locked” item you can delete one (you must delete the whole POI file) and you can’t change the name or symbol of a POI. However, if you have a POI on screen, you can hit [Save], thus turning it into a FAVORITE … at which point it behaves more like a traditional waypoint: you can see it in all views, you can delete it (just not in mass), you can change the name or symbol.

[hogrod]

@EnergySaver wrote:

I still wish they’d make them show up when your “just passing by” one, withOUT using the Alert function or zooming in to the 200 foot overhead view.

You might be able to change what zoom level the POI’s show up at on the nuvi, you can on the garmin handhelds. Garmin updated the firmware on the 60series awhile back & made it possible for POIs show up at higher zoom levels. Before it was limited to under 800ft, I just tried and I was able to set mine to 5miles no problem(software version 3.50/chipset 3.00).

To change the zoom level POI show up on my 60cx I goto: main menu, setup, map. I then highlight the third icon from the left(map setup-points) and change the map points setting(see image below).

This setting also effects how all other POI show up(gas stations, parks, hotels, ect.) so you still might want to keep them from showing when zoomed way out.

[EnergySaver]

Nope … Garmin’s in-car navigational units (at least the nuvi), have much less in the settings / setup functions.

The closest thing is “Map Detail” on the “Maps” setting … but it only effects to what detail level smaller streets show up.

[Author]

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