Data Hacking

Chapter 8 — GPS Data
As normal, connect your GPS to the PC and then you are ready to set up the application to
communicate with the GPS. If your GPS is connected to serial port 1 and is a Garmin unit,
the application is ready to go and will automatically detect your GPS receiver; if not, click
File ➪ Configuration and configure the GPS type and the serial port used.
After everything is hooked up, download the waypoints by clicking on GPS from the menu, select
Download from GPS and then choose what you want downloaded (All, Waypoints, Routes, etc.)
After you have downloaded the waypoints (see Figure 8-35), you can then do some useful
things with them, such as removing duplicate waypoints and ones with duplicate filenames,
as well as removing all that have names longer than six characters (see Figure 8-36).
FIGURE 8-35: Downloaded waypoints
FIGURE 8-36: Working with waypoints
Want to create waypoints instead of working with existing ones? No problem. To create a
new waypoint, click Waypoint ➪ Create. This brings up a dialog box for creating the waypoint.
This dialog box not only enables you to enter waypoint information such as name, coordinates,
elevation, and icon details, it also enables you to choose icons that relate to GPS models and
manufacturers, giving you greater flexibility. You can also easily specify the format for the coordinates
you enter.
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