How to import my POI (Points of Interest) to Navigator FREE
  • With OpenStreetMap data you have two options:
    1) Add your data to the source, i.e. openstreetmap.org. You will then see your update when we release the next set of MCA files for that country. This way you can also share your data with others.
    2) Import the data directly in to Navigator (this way your POI are not automatically added to the openstreetmap.org database). Download the import utility for Windows PC (http://download.mapfactor.com/digger_10_0_57_exp120101_8ca2c32e11.rar [edit link]) and create your own MCA file. Note, that this way you can import only points.

    Edit:
    version 12.x (and Android) http://download.mapfactor.com/digger_12.zip
    version 11.x: http://download.mapfactor.com/digger_11.zip

    older version 10.x: http://download.mapfactor.com/digger_10.rar



  • 107 Comments sorted by
  • Hi

    I am a new user of Navigator 12 and have found it a useful satnav.

    I wanted to add some poi's showing campsites around Europe and found the Digger program but could not get it to work and could not find any clear instructions on how to use it anywhere. I then found this Forum and it seems that others had struggled like I did, but by reading all the comments and trial and error I finally got it to work ok.
    My apologies if all this is obvious to all of you out there (and for the length of the post) but for the sake of anyone out there who has problems (and so I don't forget!) here is what worked for me.

    1 Open  diggerQt.exe

    2 Enter a new file name in the box at the top of of the first page.

    3 Click on next

    4 I used a csv file which I knew was in UTF-8  encoding. Drop down the select data type box and select Comma separated values in UTF-8 encoding and a new screen will open . Go to the location of the csv file you want to use and select it.Click on next

    5 The coordinate screen will open.Select the latitude and longitude format in your csv file. Click on the longitude drop down box and you should see the info on your csv file and click on the longitude value. Repeat this for the latitide value. Click on next.

    6. The Object appearance assignment screen will open. This screen caused most of my problems.
    It is not obvious but you need to double click in the style box which will open a new screen and then double click on select image and then click on the little icon that appears to the right of the select image box.
    This will let you go to wherever you have stored the icon you want to use for your poi's. The file will need to be a .png or .ico file. I used a png and you may have to try different sizes of files to get one that you can see at whatever scale you usually use.
    You can then ok back to the main screen and now you will be able to click on next.

    7If you want information to show at the poi location you can set it up here.Then click next.

    8 You will then see a summery screen of what you have set up. Click next.

    9 The Run import screen opens.click on save configuration and run import. The screen will run down until import finished and you need to click close to save everything to a .mca file

    10 Digger will then save the .mca file to the diggerQt.exe file folder in a folder called Import.
    To see the poi's on your map you need to have the .mca file in the main pc navigator folder.
    Depending on your configuration this may happen automatically but in my case it did not so I had to copy and paste it from the import folder in the digger file to the PC_Navigator folder.

    You need to open PC Navigator and you should see the new poi icons.
    If they are not the way you want them to be you can go back  and open diggerQt where you can edit the details in the Object Appearance assignment screen.
    It took me a bit of time changing a detail, saving the changes, viewing them on my maps before I got them looking the way I wanted .

    gmmas 

  • Hi, I have translated the Camping Car Infos (http://www.campingcar-infos.com) text comma separated POI's to .mca format and using them with MF Navigator on my Android Devices. By the way, I originally tried to do the conversion using the tomtom .ov2 files from the site but my POI’s all ended up in Africa. I didn’t look into it too deeply but I suspect DiggerQT is reading Lat and Long the wrong way around when importing this ov2 file format.

    I see there is a lot of trouble with doing this process generally so this is what I did and I hope it helps someone.

    1) From a PC (I'm using Windows 7) Download the ASCII Aires_CCinfos_totales_asc.zip from http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/recherche.php

    2) Unzip the file and take the ATOTALES_CCI.asc file, rename it ATOTALES_CCI.csv and open it in MS Excel (or some other Spreadsheet you have)

    3) Delete all the double spaces by searching for "  " and replace all with " ". Do this again and again until there are no more double spaces to be found. This makes sure the file sorts correctly ready for conversion.

    4) Sort the spreadsheet table alphabetically by the POI name (column C). This is really important as I found if you generate an unsorted .mca file and try to use it with MF Navigator, the search function throws a proper hissy fit, the application hangs and flashes white and black screens at you before giving up. (If the developers are reading they might like to incorporate the name sort into DiggerQt or MF Navigator in a future version).

    5) The original text file has double quotation marks around the POI name text field. Having imported the file and saved it again as csv Excel doesn’t add the quotes back in by default so you have to add them back in. You do need them. To do this concatenate two double quotation marks with the text field into column D. Also add 3 spaces on the front after the first quotation. For Excel the formula looks like =char(34)&”   “&C1&Char(34). Paste this formula all the way down column D. Copy column D and paste Special->Values back into column C. Delete Column D. Save the file again back to the same .csv as text, comma separated values. However, because a double quotation mark is an escape character, you will find that when you look in the file with Notepad, Excel has put 3 double quotation marks around your text field. Just find “”” and replace with “ in the file.  Finally “Save As…” select “Encoding->UTF-8”, click Save. You now have a csv file ready for DiggerQT. You need the three spaces so the text field does not get partly obscured by the icon in MF Navigator.

    6) In the zip file you unzipped earlier there are also some small .bmp image files for use as icons. Open each one in turn in your favourite paint program (I use IrfanView because it is free and also has all kinds of really helpful batch conversion functions) and scale each image to 200% (44x44 pixels) and save as a .png file (MF Navigator only supports .png and .ico files for use as icons). I did this because I found the 22x22 sized icons a bit small at any scale in MFN in use.

    6) Download Digger 12, uncompress the zip, run DiggerQT. You should have a rather blank looking application in front of you. Select “Create a new import” Choose a file name for your .mca, say, “ATOTALES_CCI” type it into the text field and click “next”.

    7) Select Data Source Type->Comma separated values. At the dialog that appears select your ATOTALES_CCI.csv. You should have a green bar at the bottom that says “Connected”. Leave “Meaning of imported Data” as “icon” (I don’t know what this does.) Click Next

    8) The Geographical coordinates in this file (and most files) is WGS84, dd.ddddd deg. Select Longitude and then the smaller number. Latitude, the larger number then “Next”
    9) Double click the box under “Style”. It should say test and have an orange “?” icon in it. A dialog will appear.

    10) These settings control how the text and icon appears in MFN. Double click “select_image”. It should become active with a “…” button to the right. Click it and select the ATOTALES_CCI.png file you created at (6). Now in my case I wanted the Icon for these POI’s to be visible on the map when zoomed out a long way, you will have to find what suits you, but in my case I set scale factors detail zoom:50, min scale factor:25, shrinking ratio:40, horizontal alignment:left, max font:14, min font:10 and set max.icon.zoom to 1:5,000,000 and max.text.zoom to 1:1,000,000 on the screen before. Having set the settings, click “OK”.

    11) Try the “zoom tester” if you want to see what it does. Click “Next”

    12) Select “User Data”, then against the POI name text field select “Name” (you must do this) and probably also “Text on map” (so this object name text also appears on the map next to the icon), and for the Lat and Long numbers I selected “note”, so you can see them when clicking “object info” on the map in MFN. Click “Next”

    13) At the Import summary, assuming you are happy with it, click “Next”.

    continued on next post....
  • ...continued:

    14) Make sure “compress imported data” is selected and then click “save configuration and run import”. There should be a progress bar and if your import file integrity is good, things will run OK. Don’t click “Close” when it is done. The output path for your .mca is shown in the dialog and is the “Import” folder under the folder where you unzipped Digger to at step (6). (Incidentally, I’m always getting 1 record too few reported at “Step #1” of “Run Import” against that which is in my import file.)

    15) Your newly generated file will be located in the import folder, at the path indicated at the dialog and called “ATOTALES_CCI.mca”, if that’s the name you used at (6). Find a way to get the file onto your Android device, and for where to put it see (16). You can use things like Google Drive, FTP, or a flash drive connected to a OTG cable. How you do that is up to you.

    16) The documentation says to place the file under the /navigator/data folder on your Android device. At time of writing it doesn’t exist. There is a /navigator folder, which is empty, and having created the data folder under that and placed the ATOTALES_CCI.mca file into both /navigator and /navigator/data it doesn’t work. After some digging about and checking the log files (after having found them), you need to place the file into the same folder as the maps etc. So copy your ATOTALES_CCI.mca to  /Android/data/com.mapfactor.navigator/files/navigator/data/

    17) Start Navigator on your Android Device and select Search->Search Imports->ATOTALES_CCI (your mca file). You will get a list of the first 100 POI’s in the file. Start to type something and the list will sort giving, once again, up to the first 100 matching records. You get the idea. If instead your screen starts flashing black and white before returning to the main menu, something is wrong with your mca file. Go back and check what you did.

    18) If it appears to be working, go back from here and look at the map. All being well you will see the icons and name on the map all over Europe. Lots of them, especially if you look at France.

    OK, that’s it. However, if you want to go a step further, I also did the following:

    a) Translated the country names into English from French using a simple Windows PowerShell script. I got a list of unique country names by using an advanced filter in MS Excel

    b) Split the file into the icon categories (ie AA, AC, ACF, ACS etc) using Grep and coded each file separately with its respective icon.

    Have fun.
  • Hello

    I installed Navigator 11 FREE and tried to import the POI files generated with digger. This does not work, I get the message "You have installed new Maps, which are not supported ba the application: Filename, please install new version." The import worked with Navigator 10 FREE.

    How can this be solved?

    regards
    yogi
  • Hi, it is "work in progress" - hopefully next week there will be a new conversion utility (digger version 11)
    regards
    Martin
  • Hello, Any News on the Digger Version 11.
    Thanks
    Chris
  • Hi,

    If it is of use to anyone have batchmade a load of POI from the Garmin POI website and converted them to mapfactor with digger 10.

    Please note I cannot confirm their accuracy, but would appreciate some input if they are any good.

    http://www.rpg-systems.com/import.zip

    thanks

    Dagaz
  • Hi,
    here is very first experiment with digger version 11. It is work in progress, and there are many issues (like you cannot browse for icon, so you have to fill the path manually), but ... let me know about problems.
    http://download.mapfactor.com/digger11_110701_exp110715_cbe0e4a8a3.zip
    regards
    Martin

    Edit:
    version 11.x: http://download.mapfactor.com/digger_11.zip
  • Hello Martin,
    I have try the new version with a csv file. I get an error on the second page by clicking the "next" button.
    The csv file contains only two lines:
    lat,lon,note
    12.394639,5.44106,xyz

    In the Log-file I found the following entrys:
    ERR 2011/07/01 18:29:52 XPathNode: can not access source file: C:\Users\Lnb\Downloads\NavigatorFree_install\digger11_110701_exp110715_cbe0e4a8a3\digger11_110701\import\MyPOI\digger_config.xml
    ERR 2011/07/01 18:29:52 XPathNode: can not access source file: C:\Users\Lnb\Downloads\NavigatorFree_install\digger11_110701_exp110715_cbe0e4a8a3\digger11_110701\import\MyPOI.mca\digger_config.xml

    What went wrong?

    Best regards
    JosHom
  • There is some serious mistake - I removed the link. I am sorry Martin
  • In digger:
    http://download.mapfactor.com/digger11_110711_exp110715_a83c7e27ac.zip
    is fixed bug with default conversion system. There is still problem with search, but at least you should see icons on the map ... I expect another update soon.
    Martin
  • search fixed into
    http://download.mapfactor.com/digger11_110712_exp110720_1056881ec8.zip
    If you find any problem, please let me know
       thanks
    Martin
  • Hi Martin,

    just tried to import a csv using digger11 - worked until I tried to set the icon. You wrote, that the path has to be filled in manually. OK so far, but how can I do this:-?

    Regards
    Michael
  • Double click on Style (normally there would be default icon already), in the tree view you should see icon\file name, click on three dots (browse) and that should be it ... worked?
    thanks
       Martin
  • I tried DIgger11 with a trial file and it didn't crash, so I should assume it's worked. My problem now is where do I find the info I wanted to import? Has it been incorporated into Navigator already? Is it one (or more) of the files in the newly created "Import" folder inside Digger folder? Where is the POI file (If any) in Navigator?
    Thanks

    Adriano
  • Hello Martin,

    doubleclicking "style" did the job - thx!

    Michael
  • Hello,
    having succeeded in creating an .mca file I am now facing with the problem that Navigator crashes as soon as I try to visualize the newly imported POI's on the map. The chosen icon doesn't show up, cold that be the problem? It showed up during the editing with digger though....

    Thanks

    Adriano
  • Hello,
    I have dome some more experiments and can give some hints for a fix:

    - data are imported from .xls -- file is recognized and everything seems to work
    - I tried both dd mm.mmm and dd.ddddd with same results
    - Nav crashes if I ask to show POI on the map straght after selecting it from table
    - Nav doesn't crash if I save POI in favourites and disply it in a separate step
    - Icon and POI name are never displayed on the map even if selected during the importing procedure

    but.....

    the .mca file contains the correct coordinates as boundaries but then places the POI at 0° 0° . The reason why Nav crashes is presumably because I only have the Italy_ta map.
    No matter what I do to the POI coordinates it always get imported as 0° 0° despite the boundaries are correct

    I think this is a bug in DIgger, as if the file or cell format in excel were unappropriate the boundary wouldn't be calculated correctly.

    Has anybody else had the same troubles?

    Thanks

    Adriano
  • I installed Navigator 11 FREE and tried to import the POI files
    generated with digger. This does not work, I get the message "You have
    installed new Maps, which are not supported ba the application:
    Filename, please install new version." The import worked with Navigator
    10 FREE.



    How can this be solved?
  • Hello all, Importing with digger works however there are several things you have to watch out for. I use a excel import it seems to work best for me. Durring the import in the Object appearance assignment mask you need to double click on the object style icon and change the values for  scale factor for detail zoom and minimal scale factor under icon to bigger values I found 20 and 50 to work for me but it also depends on the icon.

    @vijayashreeMsc where and when did this message come up?

    Hope I could help

    Regards Chris
  • @vijayashreeMsc import for version 10 do not work in version 11. You need to re-import them. The warning message in Navigator 11 was misleading (fixed in 11.0.13 - it will say that you have older data)
    Martin
  • Hello, 
    still no clues for my little problem....? pleasepleasepleaseplease....... 
    [-O< [-O<   [-O<
  • you need digger for v11 - did you try it?
  • Hello tomas, yes I did,  I have version 11_110712. Will it work with fee and commercial versions?

  • ok, so that doesn't seem to be the reason. As a matter of fact, I cannot import POI's from either comma separated text or excel spreadsheet, there must be something wrong, either in the format of the input data, or in the way the output file is generated or read by navigator. Having an input  excel file that did work for someone else, as well as an imported file that is read by navigator could help may be. I can give my email if necessary.

    Thanks

    Adriano

  • I think there must be something in your file which prevents import
    you could email it to support-at-mapfactor.com
  • Tomas, we are currently discussing it with Adriano directly ... one issue was invalid ICO file used for import icon. When it will be solved we will post here result, thanks
      Martin
    • Hi, I have installed in my car's GPS Navigator 11, and wanted to get him the ticket poi restaurant on its website is to download a csv. Try using the mdx diggerqt says that it is neat, but at the last step, when saving in the short, step 3 of 5, stops working demo and close.I tried to run windows 7 WindowsXP professional and, if the diggerqt can not run on some, but still fails at the same time.What I can do?And sorry for my English so bad.Thanks.Nuria.
  • Hi Nuria,
    thanks for your report and the test data you sent me by email. The problem was related to encoding of CSV file. Please convert it to UTF-8 (you can use converter like http://www.download3k.com/System-Utilities/File-Disk-Management/Download-Simple-Text-Encoding-Converter.html ). Please add also the first descriptive line like lat,lon,name,id
    thanks
       Martin

  • Hello.

    Could you please fix the links to digger, no one is working right now.

    Thanks.

  • Hello Galonet,
    thanks for reminder - I updated the link for digger version 10.1 (the same executable as it was before), but for version 11, here is newer (with newer Qt):
    http://download.mapfactor.com/digger_11_0_27-2_exp111111_c3502dbced.zip
    Let me know, if there is any problem
      thanks
          Martin
    Edit:
     persistent link for version 11.x: http://download.mapfactor.com/digger_11.zip
  • Hello Martin,
     
    I just imported arround 15k poi`s and have not found any problems.
    The only trouble i had was with the excel import of the GPS cordinates. Excel 2007 when importing the numbers converted everything to another number format and the import did not work. Once i changed the excel import to text only everything worked like a charm.

    Thanks for the Great Program
    Regards
    Chris
  • Thanks martin,

    Workin fine here.

  • Hello Martin,
    I have tried the version digger_11_0_27-2 (as reported on september 26) with a xls file and also a csv file. On the second page the "next" button does not activate. The Log-file reports the following entries:

    ERR 2011/11/17 23:35:24 XPathNode: can not access source file: E:\MY_POI\import\Rome\digger_config.xml
    ERR 2011/11/17 23:35:25 XPathNode: can not access source file: E:\MY_POI\import\Rome.mca\digger_config.xml

    Regards

    Mario

  • Hi,

    sorry, "next" button does not activate on window "Object appearance assignment", so I have to "cancel".

    Apologize.

    Regards.

    Mario

  • Hi,

    I´m very happy with the Navigator 11. Connection with my old Garmin gps 128 was no problem.
    Now I´m trying to import the Garmin gpx file download in Navigator11, but it seems that I ran into the same problem as Mario did when using DiggerQT No next button.

    Regards
    Gerrit

  • Hello Martin,

    In addition to our ( DiggerQT No next button ) challenge:

    I first copied all the digger_11_0_27-2 files in C:\Archivos de programa\Navigator11\downloads\Data\images\

    After running digger I got the next errors in the log:

    ERR 2011/12/02 12:53:04 XPathNode: can not access source file: C:\Archivos de programa\Navigator11\downloads\Data\images\import\test\digger_config.xml

    ERR 2011/12/02 12:53:04 XPathNode: can not access source file: C:\Archivos de programa\Navigator11\downloads\Data\images\import\test.mca\digger_config.xml

    ERR 2011/12/02 12:53:28 Exception thrown: .\src\filedriver\ArchiveCursor.cpp(31)
    ERR 2011/12/02 12:53:28 Exception mpfc::exception& ex caught: .\src\mpfc\PictureReader.cpp(30) message:'mapFactor exception: ArchiveCursor: file 'C:\Archivos de programa\Navigator11\downloads\Data\images\poi.mca\style_10.03075.png' not found in archive 'C:\Archivos de programa\Navigator11\downloads\Data\images\poi.mca''

    etc.

    I couldn´t find any style_*.png files or digger_config.xml

    Maybe it helps to save our problem.


    With regards

    Gerrit

  • Found IT:

    In the diggerQT List of object types double click the cell in the Style column.
    Add an ico of png file to the ico file name.


    With regards



    Gerrit

  • I have been using navigator II for a while and am very impressed with the results. For a continuing project it has very few glitches. However ya'll know that my reason for writing is one of them. Been toying with "digger" and can create .mca files without a problem. But the files are sitting in the digger import folder and I don't know what to do with them to make them work with Navegator II. Could you please make some step by step instructions for me on how to proceed from this point?
  • Hi smocpec,

    Just copy the .mca file where poi.mca is located and navigator11 will pick up your POI´s up automatically (when you zoom IN a bit you will see them too). C: Program Files  Navigator11 downloads Data images

    Cheers
    Gerrit


  • Did just what you recommended and it worked without a problem. Now could you point me in the right direction for adding icons to the poi? I shrunk a png file and tried it during the digger process but can't see it with the poi name. Don't know where to try next. Any help would be appreciated.


    Gratefully


    Phil 

  • Hi Phil

    As far a I (newbie) know and expierenced by myself is that when you use an ico  95 x 95 it will be good visible. But when you want also a text too be shown, Navigator will put the text over the ico. So I have choossen for just an ico with one (backgroundcolor) so you can see the text better. I have only one ico for the comlete poi list. I would be great to make different poi groups with different ico´s in one poi file. But I´m knowligde wise not that far yet.

    Regards

    Gerrit



  • Hi,
    First thanks for this greate free ware!!!
    But one question:
    Where I can download diggerqt t oimport own POI databases, or exist any other solution to import own POIs?

    Thanks

    mowenta
  • O.K. I found it , thanks for this.

    If I will import a gpx file witg digger, it works, but if I select multiple objects determined by data of column" and I select for any column a specified icon, I got the error during running the import:

    [Step #5 of 5] : put objects into the graphic entity files...

    Error: Cannot copy the file 'D:/GC/digger/ICONS/earth.png'.


    Error: Cannot copy the file 'D:/GC/digger/ICONS/event.png'.


    Error: Cannot copy the file 'D:/GC/digger/ICONS/multi.png'.


    Error: Cannot copy the file 'D:/GC/digger/ICONS/tradi.png'.


    Error: Cannot copy the file 'D:/GC/digger/ICONS/mysterie.png'.


    Error: Cannot copy the file 'D:/GC/digger/ICONS/default.png'.


    1 icons copied.


    In the map is displayed only the text, but no PNG.


    Thanks in advanced


    mowenta


  • Hi
    When I import POI with digger I notice that there is no support for the Swedish characters " ÅåÄäÖö", there are some otter signs instead. Is there someone who have an solution to my problem?

    Roleno


  • Hi Roleno,
    is your source CSV file or something else? Do you have it in UTF-8 encoding?
    regards
       Martin
  • Hi  mdx

    My source is CSV, but they where obviously not  UTF-8 encoded. Wen I did that it works fine.

    Thank´s for a fast answer Roleno


  • Hi,

    where can i download this digger Software for the import of the POI into navigator free.

    Forget it. I found it.

    Thans

    FUB
  • Struggling a bit with digger are there any docs ?

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