Best software for GPS Hiking

[Wildchild121007]

What overall is the best software for hiking through footpaths and woodland, e.g lake district. I already have tomtom 3, but need somthing with the footpaths on, or posibly any body has any ideas of how to possibly put the footpaths somehow onto the tomtom map.

[Sven Johannsen]

Am I correct you are in England? I guess that from "lake district". Mapping things are very locale specific. It is very useful to post where you are to get tailored responses. If you were in the US, I would have you look at Delorme's Street Atlas Handheld and their TopoUSA package, or National Geographic's TOPO!. There are a good number of mapping programs out that allow you to use bitmap maps and calibrate them which may be of use to you.

[Wildchild121007]

Sorry, yea im from england.

You said there was software avaliable to use bitmaps as maps, and convert them over, is it possible to put them into tomtom navigator 3.

[Sven Johannsen]

You said there was software avaliable to use bitmaps as maps, and convert them over, is it possible to put them into tomtom navigator 3. I don't believe TomTom works with anything other than their own maps. Maybe take a look at http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/ . I believe they are in England and have a lot of good reviews that might be useful to you.

[Wildchild121007]

Ok, thanks for the advice.

Ive been looking for quite a while now and theres plenty to choose from, ive read all the reviews and it says some can and cant make there own maps, and body out there got any ideas on what sofware i should use, mainly for applying my own home made maps.

TomTom 3 doesnt allow you to type in, go to co-ordinates, e.g, GPS locations ive got on a walk, or from anotherweb site.

It would be a big help if i could just type them in, like tomtoms itineary, from 1 place to the next.

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Ok, heres my situation, i want to be able to change this file:-

MAIN SITE:http://www.36haroldstreet.freeserve.co.uk/walks-noscript.htm

http://www.36haroldstreet.freeserve.co.uk/waypoints/g030420.txt

Into somthing that maybe tomtom3 will understand, or possible that another pocket pc program will understand, so then i can wak from 1 to another.

[Jorgen]

I stumbled over this one while looking for something else: http://gpsdash.com/manual.php

Will that do what you want? It mentions Tomtom so they should be able to co-exist. However, if you Bluetooth instead of a cable you are probably out of luckl. However, you may have to make your own maps though just plotting the wayploits and see a bearing may be enough.

Please let us know your experiences if you try it.

Jorgen

[Jorgen]

This expands TTN3 with routes and waypoints and various other things.
http://www.gpsassist.net/

Jorgen

[Hrun]

I think you will find that tomtom is aimed at drivers and uses its own road maps only. I hope you find what you are looking for.

[Wildchild121007]

Jorgen, thank you very much, that is exactly what im looking for. I can now covert that file into several others, and incorporate them into tomtom. Ive not tried it yet, but ill give it a go in the morning and give some feedback.

[Jorgen]

Great! We look forward to hear about your experiences.

Are you planning on using external power for the GPS and PPC?
Can they run continuously on the internal batteries or do you switch them off at times?

Jorgen

[Wildchild121007]

Ive been trying all morning and just cant figure it out, ive being trying to convert the text file into waypoints using GPS ASSIST, which is a pain, then you have to save it as a POI so that tomtom can read it, but it does read it and doesnt bring up anything on the map, when i try to go to nearest poi, its got no co-ordinates in it.
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Ok im still going.. Ive opened a file created with the itinerary with notpad, i cant figure out how tomtom3 saves the file, and in wat combination.

There is software that will save txt files to itn files, POI Converter, but its how to save the txt file to begin with...

Any body got any ideas on converting it, so that tomtom3 can understand.

[Wildchild121007]

Ok, its took me all day, but ive finally done it.

Ill go through the steps just in case you would want to do this yourself, im going on a walk this weekend, so ill give it a try.

Ok try it yourself, use the text file below..

http://www.36haroldstreet.freeserve.co.uk/waypoints/g021006.txt

Save it as a text file, then convert it to a TXF file using GPS Utility..

http://www.gpsu.co.uk/

Open GPSU up, then open the text file, youl see all the waypoints.(You can also press MAP, which shows you the route on a point to point map.) Then SAVE AS, .TXF

So now you have your .TXF file, open the next program up, POI Converter..

http://rjdavies.users.btopenworld.com/html/poiconverter.html

Open POIConverter up, go to options/data type and select TRACKS.
Then open the .TXF File, and it should say how many waypoints are in the file, then Options/date type and select POINTS, then save as OV2.

Thats the converting over, now you have to open up your new OV2 file using (THANKS TO JORGEN) http://www.gpsassist.net/

I wont bother going through the steps for the software, it straight forward, and theres a help file on the main website anyway.

Any other problems or questions, please ask..

[Jorgen]

Sounds like you have had a lot of fun!

The GPS Utility converter (version 4.15) can save the first file in OV2 format and save one of the steps.

UPDATE: OOPS! I now see that the OV2 file is empty! Either it has not been implemented yet or a conversion data file is missing.

Jorgen

[Wildchild121007]

Yea, thats one of the reasons i was getting stuck, maybe its an arror on the conversion side, but it would be a lot easier.

Do you or maybe anybody else have any GPS points for any other walks within the UK.

[Jorgen]

This site has some and look interesting:
http://www.guy-wilson.co.uk/waypointdocs.htm

http://www.36haroldstreet.freeserve.co.uk/GPS.htm

http://gps-waypoints-uk.ultim8uk.co.uk/

Jorgen

[Wildchild121007]

Great stuff..

Ive got some great sites..

http://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/index.shtml

On the walking britain 1, if you read the directions, you will see that everty so often they will give u a grid reference, put that into GPS Utility and youve got a map layout and convertable waypoints :)

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/walkingroutes/

Good luck..

Anybody else got any GPS walk routes for with in the UK?