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If anyone is interested, Streets & Trips 2003 is available at Sam’s Club for $34.84 – $20 rebate = $14.84. Worth it at that price.
will
I would suggest to anyone that doesn’t use any mapping software to grab this while the deal is going. Streets and Trips has been invaluable in our cache hunting and normal travel experiences.
And, if anyone is interested I can put together a little how-to on downloading, converting and importing waypoints into streets in trips so that you don’t have to manually enter them in
Nick
of The Cacheseekers http://www.cacheseekers.comI’m currently using it to plan my caching in vegas next week. I can create a map with points marked with waypoints and coords, know where to go next and how to get there, and tick them off one after the other. I kind of like this.
will
It’s great if you have a laptop you can bring along your trip. We hook the GPSR up to it and ‘watch’ the little car on the map go as we drive It’s great for trip planning, and adding stops as your driving and then creating a new route instantly. We also found it useful to update the construction data before you leave, it’ll save you time in by passing construction zones.
It’s also great when your hungry and want to know what kind of restaurants are near your present location
Nick
of The Cacheseekers
http://www.cacheseekers.comquote:
Originally posted by cacheseekers:
And, if anyone is interested I can put together a little how-to on downloading, converting and importing waypoints into streets in trips so that you don’t have to manually enter them inI bought S&T 2003 over the weekend at Sam’s Club.
Please post your tutorial, I’d sure appreciate it
I’ve learned a little…
For example, I’ve downloaded the excellent freeware GPSBabel program which can take a geocaching.com .loc file (even with multiple geocaches in it) and convert it to a Streets and Trips specific .csv file.
Using the S&T import wizard does a beautiful job of importing and displaying all the waypoints on the map.
It took me a few minutes to figure out hos to take all those imported waypoints and stick them into a route (as opposed to clicking on each one individually and adding it to a route).
Then I just add my starting location to the route list, click on ‘optimze route waypoints’ and get my driving directions from home to each cache in the most efficient route!
Sweet, it sounds like you found a one step shop for converting into S&T. What we currently do is merge multiple loc files using GeoBuddy and then exporting into loc and csv files.
I’ll still put together a how-to on what we do… But i’m definately checking this other software out.
Now, my next question concerning this is, would it be against Geocaching.com policy to have available on a website a .EST (Streets and Trips data file) containing all of the waypoints within say a 300 mile radius from Madison? (I have this created already hehehe)
I figure, after spending as much time as I did downloading the waypoints and importing them etc it may be useful to others if I shared this file.
Nick
of The Cacheseekers
http://www.cacheseekers.com[This message has been edited by cacheseekers (edited 03-10-2003).]
When you use gpsbabel, you basically select an input file and type (.loc) and then select an output filename and type.
It took me a bit to figure out that when yoy pick an output filename, you have to include a file extention of .csv
The output file type should be set to S&T 2002/2003. What this does is create a .csv file exactly lined up for what S&T wants to see without having to manually line up the columns.
Just use the S&T import wizard, and you will see the columns already line up.
As to your file… I can’t see how gc.com could possibly mind your .est file. The only problem I can see is that it will start to become out of date (acrhived, disabled, new) caches from when you create it.
Thanks for your help, I’m enjoying the new S&T
Yup, that is pretty much what I did with GeoBuddy and ExpertGPS, just with one quick action. ST&T is very useful
I like this GPSBabel, I can use it on my FreeBSD box now
Yeah, for the most part the archived/disabled caches would not be removed from the .est file. What we do, is open up the file and go look for the caches that are around the area where we will be and then go to geocaching.com and save/print the page of the caches that we may go to so we have updated info. And it’s nice to see where all the caches are. If you go to our website and click Wisconsin Caches we have a screen shot of all the caches in WI as of yesterday afternoon. I try to update it at least once a month with all new data.
Nick
of The CacheseekersI’ve been reading and re-reading what you have been talking about and I’m getting the feeling that I’m missing something… Maybe a little nudge in the right direction is in order…
First off, when downloading a “loc” file from geocaching.com I can’t make Easy GPS open up to “view” the data. My browser prompts me to save the file. The file would be something like “xxxx.loc.asp” So, what I do is go ahead and save the file but, I drop the “.asp” part.. This much I can deal with ok. Still, it’s kind of a hassle to have to download each page for a 25mi. search and then have to merge them..
Second, I take the “loc” file in EasyGPS and have to convert it to a “.gpx” file
The “.gpx” file then goes off to gpsbable and gets converted to a “.csv” file…
Import that into Streets and trips…Save the result as an “.est” file…
This is what (I think) it takes for me to do it…..
Have I added a couple of steps?Thanks for any help!!
Team Flushingrouse
First, when prompted to ‘save’ the asp file, don’ save it, but rather click on ‘open’ and click okay. you will then be prompted again to ‘save’ or ‘open’, but this time you will see that its a .loc file, so go ahead and save it.
Second, if you want to have multiple caches in a .loc file, and not just one, you need to get the caches displayed on one of the geocaching.com search pges. For example, find a cache you want, and on its cache page click on ‘nearby caches’. Or, enter a zipcode on the main geocaching.com which will display all the caches near that zipcode. Once you have all the caches listed on the search results page, put a checkmark in each of the ‘download’ boxes for each cache you want included in the .loc file. Last, scroll down to the bottom of the search list and click on ‘download’ which will give you a .loc file with all the caches included.
Third, you do not need to load the .loc into EasyGPS and convert it to a .gpx. Gpsbable reads .loc files directly. Just open the .loc file you downloaded with gpsbable and convert it to a csv for S&T.
Hope that helps!
quote:
Originally posted by CacheCows:
First, when prompted to ‘save’ the asp file, don’ save it, but rather click on ‘open’ and click okay. you will then be prompted again to ‘save’ or ‘open’, but this time you will see that its a .loc file, so go ahead and save it.Third, you do not need to load the .loc into EasyGPS and convert it to a .gpx. Gpsbable reads .loc files directly. Just open the .loc file you downloaded with gpsbable and convert it to a csv for S&T.
Hope that helps!
Is this another example of the differences between Netscape and IE? I’m a Netscape user and probably always will be… In Netscape, I’m not given the opportunity to Save/Open. Just save. AND it has this “.asp” extension on it… I have to “manually” drop it off of the xxxxx.loc.asp filename before saving it..
If I’m not mistaken, I could have saved the file the first time around instead of the extra open step first…I’m learning all the time!!!
I got the rest of it now!
Thanks!!But, what do you use EasyGPS for then?
What do you use easygps for then
EasyGPS is a waypoint management tool. Its sole purpose is for organizing waypoints to upload and download to your GPS receiver.
Is this another example of the differences between Netscape and IE?
Yep, that’s what it is. I just tried it on Netscape. When I click on the download icon, I get a netscape box that asks if I want to save or open the .asp. If I use the ‘Open’ option, Netscape reports there is no application to open it with. So I have to use ‘Save’. In my case though, I don’t have to drop the ‘.asp’ part… the save name is ‘geocaching.loc’.
So just do that part the way you have been. But skip the step where you use easygps, it has no purpose, as I mentioned earlier, gpsbabel can read the loc file as is and export the CSV.
Only use easygps to upload or download waypoints to your gpsr.
Thanks a bunch. Looks like I’ve worked out a couple of bugs.
Maybe someday I’ll just give up on the Netscape thing and go along with IE…Time will tell!
Thanks again for all your help
Team Flushingrouse
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