POI Conversion Issue
Travelingman00
Posts: 8 [Apprentice Traveler]
Travelingman00 back again, with another question. I've created a POI file for all 276 Masonic Lodges in SC to include the Grand Lodge and several other Masonic locations. Did this using Tony Anderson's POI Editor with very little trouble. Took great pains to insure VERY accurate Lat/Lng directions of each place, hours to be exact, by Google mapping EACH LOCATION and finding the lodge building and hand typing the shown coordinates. Saved them to TomTom's OV2 format and imported them to my VIA 1525M. File ended up being 17Kb long. My TT finds the Masonic Lodges POI, but indicates "No POI's Found". After several tries with deleting and re-importing the file, I finally went to an online converter and converted my original (copied) OV2 file - back to OV2 using "their" conversion program. Their program added extraneous characters to the name of each lodge. I imported this reconverted file to my TT and it would only show me the closest lodges (approximately some 18-20 lodges) that were within a ~32 mile radius of my home location. Can anyone give me any feedback as to what or why my original OV2 file can't be read directly by my VIA 1525M or why it only shows this close range of lodges from my HOME location. Seems to me, any correctly formatted (to OV2) file should be able to be read regardless of the distance from HOME. FYI - the 18-20 lodges that did appear after the online reconversion; all had some extraneous characters behind the lodge names that showed up as part of the 18-20 lodges shown... Thought about just deleting the extraneous characters from the names and resaving the file to see if the same 18-20 files (with name corrections) would still appear, but don't really want to spend the time to delete the extraneous characters from ALL 282 ENTRIES!...
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Best Answers
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YamFazMan
Posts: 18,727 
SuperusersHi
@Travelingman00
If the POI Categories transferred from an older Tomtom device or maybe a Website offering older POI Categories... Some POI files that worked on the older Tomtom models do not show on the latest NAV4 devices
If you Load and then Save the POI file to/from this on-line POI editor...
http://www.poieditor.com/
As far as I'm aware it changes/updates the POI file header
Also, try loading the file into Softops POI editor... If it's an iffy file it usually won't load
the free version of Softops POI editor
Download SoftTop Tomtom POI Editor to a folder on your desktop; open the folder and un-zip the file.
My Dropbox account... https://www.dropbox.com/sh/przt4eetzpp4oqf/AAB6X7RjTBilT-xH3p85p0X2a?dl=0
File checked virus free....
Using Avast Virus Check & Malware Bytes Virus Check
Note...I think the development SoftTop POI editor has stopped as you can no longer access Google Earth or Maps from within the program and the author does not reply to Email
ATB YFM11 -
Travelingman00
Posts: 8 [Apprentice Traveler]
Thanks for the feedback YamFazMan. I tried the version of POI Editor that you supplied and it didn't work, either. But, what I did discover; I loaded my file to an online editor called POI Manager and saw the extraneous characters as before. Noticed most of them to be "question marks" around my MEMO entries. So, I deleted each question mark from all 282 entries. Also noticed the format of each line that it allowed me to edit and noticed that 'their entries' showed the delimiter of a "comma" between the Lon/Lats (with Lon coming BEFORE the Lats, not after them) and a "comma" delimiting the MEMO data from the lodge names. So, I corrected ALL of the entries (didn't take long, once I got the rhythm of hitting the DELETE key) and saved it from POI Manager (assuming them to be the experts) and the full 11Kb loaded to my device, BUT, only to still show the first 18-20 lodges w/i a 33 mile radius of HOME. This time though, I got my MEMO data to appear with each entry. So, now I understand the format of aTomTom OV2 POI entry. I've emailed TomTom to ask them WHY and WHAT (if anything) can I do to make more of my entries show up on my device. Your reply was 'spot-on' about no reply from the SYSOP of the other editor program. Tried contacting Tony several times, to no avail. Thank you for your reply and Rock On brother...1
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PrivateerUK
Posts: 374 [Supreme Pioneer]
Hi @Travelingman00,
The fact that you're using POIEditor indicates that you're using Windows.
As a Mac user, I have found that there are limited ways to create .ov2 files, the following works for me and you can get the equivalent Windows version of the same software:
I store all of my Custom POIs in MS Excel (for Mac) .XLSX spreadsheets. The spreadsheets create unique URLs for each POI so that I can check the location of the POI on Google Maps, Open Street Map, TomTom MyDrive, Here Maps, and even TomTom GO iOS URL Scheme.
I save the .XLSX file as a CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) file and remove the unnecessary columns.
I then use GPSBabel to convert the .CSV file to an .OV2 file.
Using this method has always given me good results. Unfortunately, you can't see any .BMP files on any current range TomTom products, which I wish TomTom would change so that we can see custom .BMP icons on the screens.
Regards,7
Answers
Superusers
@Travelingman00
If the POI Categories transferred from an older Tomtom device or maybe a Website offering older POI Categories... Some POI files that worked on the older Tomtom models do not show on the latest NAV4 devices
If you Load and then Save the POI file to/from this on-line POI editor...
http://www.poieditor.com/
As far as I'm aware it changes/updates the POI file header
Also, try loading the file into Softops POI editor... If it's an iffy file it usually won't load
the free version of Softops POI editor
Download SoftTop Tomtom POI Editor to a folder on your desktop; open the folder and un-zip the file.
My Dropbox account... https://www.dropbox.com/sh/przt4eetzpp4oqf/AAB6X7RjTBilT-xH3p85p0X2a?dl=0
File checked virus free....
Using Avast Virus Check & Malware Bytes Virus Check
Note...I think the development SoftTop POI editor has stopped as you can no longer access Google Earth or Maps from within the program and the author does not reply to Email
ATB YFM
Superusers
@Travelingman00
Displaying Personal POIs on the Driving View/Map
Be aware... You can't install the POI associated .BMP files
You can only use the 5 Tomtom supplied generic Icons....
But you can use one icon for for more than one POI category i.e... place all your fuel categories under one Icon, then if you tap on a nearby 'say' Fuel Icon a Quick menu opens --> Tap the 3Dot Icon for more options & more Information
Setup... After installing your Personal or 3rd party POIs....Tap 4Dot (....Menu) --> Settings --> Appearance --> Show POI lists on the Map
It says a restart is required, but I've never found it to be necessary
After choosing the Generic Icon.. Tap the coloured (^) Icon screen top right... Pinch zoom the Map, the Generic POI Icons all appear live and working
Note... The Generic POI Icons disappear when the Map is highly zoomed out (I guess so you can scroll around a clear Map to find your location)
The Icon reappear as you zoom back in again
Here the Yellow Pentagon Icons --> National Trust
Searching an installed 3rd party POI Category....
The search engine is excellent you usually only need to type around three characters of the POI name for a hit...
For example... I have loaded the 3rd party POI's for the National Trust... To show the POI's for "National Trust" on the map, work your way down to option (2)
From the main screen
Tap (....)4Dot Icon (Screen Bottom left)
Swipe left or Tap the mid/right edge of the screen to go to and tap the MyPlaces Icon
Scroll down and select the required POI Category For example "National Trust"
You now have three options
The Main search area turns blue and "National Trust" is offered with a flashing cursor
Continue typing the name of the required "National Trust" site, Type Dud (Or as much of the word that's required for Dudmaston Hall appear at the top of the National trust list)
Tap on the offered Dudmaston Hall and select the Drive Icon
You also have two further options.....
After the initial "National Trust" POI selection
There's a dual Icon (screen bottom right) with Three Lines and Two circles
(1)..... Tap the three Lines Icon (bottom right screen) and a list will appear of the "National Trust" sites in distance order
(2)...... Tap the Two circle Icon for the "National Trust" sites POI's to appear on the screen (Pinch zoom for detail) (Note..... On the Start range its easier to tap the plus and minus buttons to zoom the map screen)
as far as I'm aware it will show the nearest 60ish POI's around your location
There is also a Keyboard Icon (screen bottom right) to return to the search window from the options (1) and (2)
An example of the generic Icons on the search screen, the Icons are dynamic so the closer you zoom more icons appear
ATB YFM
Superusers
@Travelingman00
Found this... http://www.poi-factory.com/node/36194
Displaying Personal POIs on the Driving View/Map
ATB YFM
The fact that you're using POIEditor indicates that you're using Windows.
As a Mac user, I have found that there are limited ways to create .ov2 files, the following works for me and you can get the equivalent Windows version of the same software:
I store all of my Custom POIs in MS Excel (for Mac) .XLSX spreadsheets. The spreadsheets create unique URLs for each POI so that I can check the location of the POI on Google Maps, Open Street Map, TomTom MyDrive, Here Maps, and even TomTom GO iOS URL Scheme.
I save the .XLSX file as a CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) file and remove the unnecessary columns.
I then use GPSBabel to convert the .CSV file to an .OV2 file.
Using this method has always given me good results. Unfortunately, you can't see any .BMP files on any current range TomTom products, which I wish TomTom would change so that we can see custom .BMP icons on the screens.
Regards,