Guide To Creating A POI (Point Of Interest)

[BoPeep]

Once you have decided what you want to make a POI of (for example, Burger Kings in the UK), you need to collect the data of the various locations of the restaurants. To do this, you may find it helpful to visit the company website and record the information in a spreadsheet. The columns could look something like this:

Restaurant name; Postcode; Longitude; Latitude

You can also use OSGB36 rather than longitude latitude, but I have used the latter format in this example as this is the way I prefer to create my POI’s. The company website is only likely to give the restaurant name and postcode, so once you have this data, you can input the postcode into a program such as Richard’s postcode converter or use a website such as Streetmap.co.uk to convert the postcode into longitude and latitude co-ordinates (there is a link at the bottom of the Streetmap map to do this.)Your spreadsheet may now look something like this:

Restaurant name; Postcode; Longitude; Latitude
Aberdeen AB10 1BA -2.098369 57.148931

TIP: When using Streetmap.co.uk, inputting the postcode will place the map arrow right in the centre of that postcode area. If the company website has a map of where each restaurant is in that particular area (e.g. what side of the road it is on, etc.) and you can easily compare this with the Streetmap map, you can make the location of the POI more precise by making this the new point on the Streetmap map.

Once you have completed the list of longitude and latitude co-ordinates for each restaurant, you are ready to copy and paste this information into an ASCII text file (.asc) A good program to use for this is Notepad (one of the standard Windows text programs.) When using longitude and latitude co-ordinates, the standard way to enter the data is like so:

; Longitude, Latitude, "Name"
-2.098369, 57.148931, "Aberdeen (Upperkirkgate)"
-2.105066, 57.144560, "Aberdeen (Union Street)"

You can see that the values are separated by commas and the name of the location always goes between " and ". When you have all of this information in the ASCII file, you need to save it and then open it with one of the POI creator programs (e.g. WinOV2.) When you open the file in WinOV2, make sure the options are set to 'Make OV2' and 'Long/Lat' if you are using Longitude/Latitude (set it to OSGB36 if this is what you have used in the ASCII file.) The process will run and your .ov2 file will be created immediately.

You will find that a .bmp bitmap logo has been created in the same folder as your .ov2 file. This is the standard POI bitmap and is just a black asterisk on an orange background. If you want, you can change this so it resembles the logo of the company you are creating a POI for so you can tell just by looking at the screen what POI's are in your area and so that it is distinguishable from any other POI’s you may create.

To do this, I use MS Paint as it is an easy program to use. You can either find a logo on the company's website which can easily be resized or create your own from scratch. When starting MS Paint, set the canvas area to 22 x 22 pixels (the required size for the POI bitmap.) and be sure to save the file as a bitmap (256 colour maximum.)

TIP: To make your icon stand out on the map, draw a 1 pixel wide black border around the image.

To create your POI, the files you need are the .ov2 file, the .bmp file and (if you want to submit your POI to the Pocket GPS World website or want to add this information for your own personal use), a text file containing the details of the POI. This basically gives the date of creation and the name of the user that created the POI. If you want to see an example of one of these, download one of the various POI’s on the Pocket GPS World website and have a look in the POI folder.

If you want your POI to work, the most important thing to remember is that all files contained in the POI folder (i.e. the .ov2 file, .bmp file and .txt file) must all have exactly the same filename. If you wish to use spaces in your filename, use the underscore key. For example: burger_king


Congratulations – you have successfully created a Point Of Interest!



POI TROUBLESHOOTING (COMMON PROBLEMS)

I cannot see my POI in the list of POI’s on my PDA.

Once you have installed the POI onto your PDA, close down and then restart your navigation program (e.g. TomTom.) This should refresh its memory so that it now picks up your newly installed POI, which should now be visible in the list.

I have installed my POI correctly and restarted my navigation program but cannot see the POI icon on the map.

Go into the properties menu and make sure that in the list of available POI’s, the check box next to your POI is selected.

Does it matter which way round I put the following values in the .asc file?
; Longitude, Latitude, "Name"

Make OV2 and Richard (Oldie)’s POI converter program require the values to be in this order. POI Edit can take the following format: ; Name, Longitude, Latitude.

I’m having problems getting MS Word to recognise my .asc file.

Use MS Notepad (not MS Word) for editing the .ASC files. You can get your PC to associate .ASC files with MS Notepad, so a double left clip will open the file. This is done by a single right-click, then select the Properties where you will see the “opens with”. If it is not Notepad then you can change the associated application there.
_________________
TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)

[Trigrem]

:D
Thanks for your guide, I have been considering creating a POI list of all Aires in France, And have been studying info on the website in order to allow me to do that.
Your guide has answered many of the details I was not clear on and has given me confidence to have a go.
Thanks again
Merry Christmas
Doug
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Slow Learner

[BoPeep]

Great, Doug - I'm glad you found it useful!

Thanks for the comment - it's always nice to know when someone finds a post helpful and gets something out of it.

Hope your POI turned out well.

Regards,

Bo Peep.
_________________
TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)

[rother]

Bo peep thanks for the instructions, does the Longitude number have to follow each other in a logical sequence, or can they be in any order.
6.08872, 50.77501, " "
6.30000, 51.30000, " "
6.44197, 51.16602, " "
6.48335, 50.80486, " "

or can you have
6.48335, 50.80486, " "
7.18289, 50.77437, " "
8.01561, 50.87505, " "
8.02677, 50.89490, " "
6.08872, 50.77501, " "
6.30000, 51.30000, " "

can i also recommend this prog for ascii files NoteTab Light
http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php

[BoPeep]

Hi rother,

No, the sets of Longitude/Latitude numbers do not have to be in any particular order, as they get jumbled up by POI converter programs anyway.

Regards,

Bo Peep.
_________________
TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)

[Melismobile]

Thanks for the interesting post.
Very basic question but

>; Longitude, Latitude, "Name"
-2.098369, 57.148931, "Aberdeen (Upperkirkgate)"
-2.105066, 57.144560, "Aberdeen (Union Street)"

The minus Lat & Long , am I correct in thinking negative values represent W and S and positive N & E as mostly they tend to be written with a NSEW indicator

Thanks

Mel

[alsavs]

Hi all im trying to write my own poi's but appear to be having a problem.I'm using tomtom software.I downloaded makeov2 to convert my text file.I'm getting a icon ok but no ov2 file.Below is a sample of a script i'm trying to convert does it look ok.

-5.4131,50.1428,"River Valley"

Cheers
Alan

[davast]

I have successfully created my ov2 file. However, when I save my bitmap file as 22x22 pixels it only shows as a red square in TT5. When I check it's properties, it is set at 300 x 300 dots per inch, where as the other bitmap files are set as 72 x 72 dpi. I cannot see how to change the dpi setting in MS Paint. Anyone point me in the right direction. I am using a previously used bitmap image and don't want to start drawing it from scratch again.

[Oldboy]

[Pocketgps]

Paint cannot alter the dots per inch, you need to use a program like Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7 or later, there may be many more but that is what I use as you can specify dpi when you start.

Some PDA's or certain programs will only show the image if it's set to 72x72 dpi, that's why it's a red square on your PDA.

[BV]

Your guide was a big help, but I am having a problem. I have laid out the text as per instruction on notepad, following the instructions it appears to have worked, saying "conversion complete", however each time I try to "save as" a message "no input file selected" appears.
Any advice?

BV.

[cavok]

Isn't it possible to create POIs based on the street address? At least TomTom Mobile 5 let's you do that, so I would image it would be possible to do it also on a PC software?

Or TTM5 also just convert the address you give to a coordinate and store that?

[Nutrocker]

Another tip to include in the guide...

You can get the Longitude and latitude from Microsoft Autoroute 2005 (not sure about earlier versions.)

Launch Autoroute
From the menu at the top of the screen, navigate to 'tools' and then click on 'Location Sensor'

This displays a small window with the Long, Lat details depending on where your mouse cursor is.
Be aware that if the Location Sensor displays a Longitude similar to 3.20205 W that this is obviously a negative value and not a positive!

Enter your postcode
Zoom in
place your mouse over the area where you think the place is and voila you have your Long and lat details. make a note of these and enter into the afore mentioned spreadsheet.

[phily]

Hi,

I have created a new poi file in ov2 and a bitmap. Also a wav file for audible warning.

How do I insert the wav file into TTG 5.201
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phily

[Oldboy]

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