Thanks. i apologize as I wrote my last message last night but it apparently did not get sent until just a few minutes ago. i had only read dave's response to me at the time I sent the last message. I have a bunch more questions but will try to keep it at just a couple for this message. While there are lots of places that I want to make points of interest, many of these may also need to be a waypoint within a route (a place where one needs to make a turn, for example). Is there a way to make a POI a waypoint in a route or do I just create a new waypoint for that location each time I create a new route in which i want to use that POI as a waypoint? I also noticed today as I followed the first route I created across campus to my office that every single waypoint and POI I had created was identified as being in the opposite direction from me as it actually was. Is this just a function of the inaccuracy of the GPS or did I do something wrong as I was creating this route? I understand that the GPs can't be accurate down to a couple of feet and since i'm walking along sidewalks that are just a couple of feet wide, it's likely that things won't always be right, butI found it interesting that every single thing I had included in the route was identified incorrectly. I had good satellite reception, too. Thanks, Jana -----Original Message----- From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Michael May Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 7:21 PM To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Creating Useful Routes Jana, You cannot copy and paste routes to each other. You can only copy and paste points within a route. If a route has points in close proximity, you should turn on the Force Sequential mode so the subsequent waypoints do not trigger prematurealy. Mike >Hi Dave, > >Thanks. These comments are helpful, and I, too, hope others will chime in. > >Just to clarify, I wasn't expecting the GPS to help identify where >sidewalks are available. I was bringing this up in two >regards. First, how do people handle creating a route in which they >need to make several turns in close proximity as in the case of >needing to cross both streets when one comes to an intersection and >then perhaps needing to make a turn once on the correct corner in >order to be heading down the block one wants to travel down >next. Second, I was asking about whether one can create an >alternate route to one that would be provided if one asked the GPS >to automatically create a route and then if that manually created >route can be appended to other routes so that one can follow the >manually created route and at the end travel (depending on the route >one has open) to a variety of different locations that are possible >after getting to that point. Don't know if that makes things any >clearer or not. > >Thanks, >Jana > >-----Original Message----- >From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >[mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Dave >Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 7:50 PM >To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Creating Useful Routes > >Hi Jana, > >Your note is a long one. I will offer some of my opinions and we >can hope for help from more experienced users too. Basically you >asked some routing questions, and some about the accuracy of the GPS. > >A point of interest does not need to be part of a rout so if you >want the dormitory that you may never visit to be a POI so if you >arrive at it, you will know you are not where you want to be, you >could designate it as such without it not being part of any >rout. If you do that you would always be able to find it and create >a rout to it if you wanted to in the future. In the case of >diagonal sidewalks though, you might try switching your heading to >clock mode so you can see the angle you are traveling at and you may >never find that residence hall you don't wish to visit. > >I am not totally sold on the absolute accuracy of any GPS at this >point so I may be corrected on this but I don't think you could >create a rout accurate enough to tell you when to cross a street >because of available sidewalk. I believe that GPS will help you >find the corner you are looking for and after that, it's up to you >to make the best decisions that meet your needs. > >I believe that the GPS is more than a gadget. For example, you >should never get lost again, but if you should find yourself off >rout, you should be able to find your way back independently, which >is a heck of a good thing. I don't think the GPS is accurate in >distances to the next street, but it will always tell you what the >next street is going to be before you reach it. That is why I don't >believe that WAAS technology is very helpful to us. I don't think >it's as much GPS accuracy as it is the maps. For example, I could >walk up and down the street in front of my house all day long and it >will never give the correct street number, it just isn't >there. However, once I created a POI called home, it fines home >with no problem, but if I check the GPS to see what address I am >near, it will still not be correct unless I name the street number >as my home, as part of the POI information, then it will give me >that information unless I ask specifically what address I am near, >then GPS will default to the maps, and it will not be correct, but I >will be home, which is where I want to be. > >I believe, for example, that if one marks their car as a POI so they >can find it in a large [parking lot when they are finished shopping >that it's possible that they could walk around within 30 feet of >their car, looking for it for a while. However, if one forgot where >they parked GPS would get them headed in the right direction and >within 30 feet or less of the car, so if one has one of those remote >horn buttons you would certainly be close enough to find the car by sound. > >Hope this helps some, and I too look forward to comments from others. > >Dave > >To read about the next Peace Seekers meeting click on the link below. > ><http://www.ThePeaceSeekers.org/program/>http://www.ThePeaceSeekers.org/pro gram/ > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: <mailto:jlschroeder@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>Jana Schroeder >To: <mailto:gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 2:05 PM >Subject: [gps-talkusers] Creating Useful Routes > >Hello, > >I am new to GPS and am just beginning the process of learning how to >create and edit routes. i work at a small college on a residential >campus with many meandering sidewalks and thrange intersections. It >seems that whenever a new building has been constructed, they have >added sidewalks but never taken any existing sidewalks out. plus, I >have seriously been told that decisions about where to place new >sidewalks have been made by observing the most common paths taken by >people who cut through the grass. In any case, there are a number >of tricky spots, and if one gets onto a different sidewalk than the >one intended, a person can end up in a completely different location >on campus than expected. So you can imagine that I am excited about >the prospect of creating many routes and points of interest to help >me more reliably navigate around campus. > >I already have several questions that I imagine some of you more >experienced folks can help with. > >First, I am wondering what strategies people have used to create >routes and points of interest. By that I am wondering if people >generally go around an area and create a bunch of points of interest >and then go back and record routes taking them from place to place >that they need to go or do they do it the other way around or do >they just record the points of interest as they go. Here's an >example to illustrate what I mean. I was creating a route today >from the building I work in to my home which is a few blocks from >campus. There is one place where two sidewalks split apart. If you >accidentally stay on the right fork instead of taking the left, you >will end up at a residence hall. I don't normally visit this >residence hall so probably don't need a route to it, but it would be >helpful to have it designated as a point of interest so if I >accidentally approach it I will be alerted as to where I am. I >thought for a minute about walking over to the dorm today to record >the POI but then realized that this little detour would then be part >of the route I was recording and wondered if that meant that if I >didn't take the same detour every time I was in the route I'd be >told I was off course. So it would be helpful to know how others >have approached this. > >I also wonder how people have designated turns where you need to >cross a street in one direction and then cross the other street in >order to get to the corner you want to proceed on. I have read that >you don't want t oput two waypoints too close together. So what do >I do if I come to an intersection and want to turn left, cross the >street and then turn right and cross again and then turn left to >proceed down the block. There are some intersections where i only >cross in a certain way because it's not a perfect intersection >and/or there are not sidewalks on all corners or some other feature >that makes it a better idea to cross in a certain way tha nin >another. How do people handle this when creating a route? Also, if >the right/left/straight designation is off, is this what will >trigger the GPS to say that you are off your route or is that based >on how you walk when you are recording the route regardless of what >you specified when asked straight, left or right? > >Finally, I have noticed that even when the GPS says it is getting >good satellite reception i am being told that the next intersection >is 198 feet ahead when, by my estimation, it is more like 50 feet >ahead. It's my understanding that by changing if the announcement >is made sooner or later this is based on the GPS's guess about how >far you are from an intersection or POI, but if the accuracy of the >distance from the intersection or POI seems to be considerably off, >is there anything to be done about that? Do some cities have >information that is just 'off" or what? > >In terms of creating a route, do I need to specify a destination >and, if so, should I do that before starting out or once I get there >or do I only do that if I want to have the program create an >automatic route for me? > >is there any way besides traveling the route over and over to make a >certain sequence part of multiple routes? In my situation, I walk >to work via a different route than that generated if I do an >automatic route from my house to the campus because there are not >sidewalks on many parts of streets around here so i have to take >that into consideration. Thus, I want to have routes from my house >to a number of different points on campus. Can I take the part of >the route that is common to all and somehow drop it into other >routes? If it involves route editing, I'd appreciate some specific >instructions on how people have done this--if it is typically done >sitting down in one place or if you do it as you'r ewalking on the >route or if that depends, then what factors are involved in deciding >what method to use? > >I apologize for so many different questions in one message. I hope >that folks can help with each of these areas as I want this to be >more than an interesting gadget which is what it will be if I can't >figure out how to create quality routes. > >Thanks, >Jana Schroeder > Michael G. May CEO Sendero Group Developers and distributors of BrailleNote GPS Distributing BrailleNote, VoiceNote, Miniguide, The Tissot Silen-T tactile watch, Talks cell phone software and the ID Mate, bar code reader MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.SenderoGroup.com (1-888-757-6810, Fax (530) 757-6830, Mobile (530) 304-0007 Sendero Group, LLC 1118 Maple Lane, Davis, CA 95616-1723, USA Latitude, 38 33 9.239 North Longitude, 121 45 40.145 West