Topographer: transfer P.O.I.s data between
PDA and external sources

Topographer is the Windows PC-based POIs Management companion to any GPS Pilot applications.

This utility assist you in the managing of GPS Pilot POIs databases on desktop machines. It allows POIs transfer databases between a PC machines and a Palm device: in order to import new POIs from a text file to your PDA or export them to be used by GIS applications.

Main functions

The main view of Topographer presents the list all the records contained in current positional database and details the attributes of the selected record. Available functions are:

• File-Open: opens a GPS Pilot way points database (*.pdb). If the backup option is up, the personal points database are backed-up during HotSync in the directory c:/pilot/<Palm user name>/backup. To set the backup option, check the menu preferences of any GPS Pilot applications on your Palm.
• File-New: creates an empty GPS Pilot database. This database is a removable one.
• File-Save: saves the current database in PDB format. To load this database on a Palm device, run the Install tool on the PDB file. GPS Pilot applications will automatically detect it.
• File-Save As: saves the current database in PDB format. The name of the database on the Palm device will be the one entered here.
• File-import: adds the positional data described in a comma delimited file(*.csv) into the current GPS Pilot database. Major GIS compatible.
• File-export: converts positional data contained in the current GPS Pilot database into a comma delimited format (*.csv file). The exported file are directly readable by major data sheet software like Microsoft Excel. This function is available in the registered version.
• New button: creates a new record in the database.
• Delete button: deletes the selected record.
   

Import/export

This function reads/writes comma delimited format in an ASCII file. Each line describes a data record following this format:

name , [ label , [ note , ] ] latitude , longitude [ , magnetic variation [ , altitude ] ]

• name should contain at least one non-numerical characters; # maximum of characters: 35
• label (optional) should contain at least one non-numerical characters; # maximum of characters: 8
• note (optional) should contain at least one non-numerical characters; # maximum of characters: 160
• latitude & longitude are in degrees with decimals format : dd.ddddd
  North / East is positive, South / West is negative
• magnetic variation (optional) degrees, positive for East negative for West
• altitude (optional) in feet.
• [ ] shows optional attributes.
   

Compatibility

Exported files are directly readable by all major data sheet software and had been mainly tested on Microsoft Excel. Import files can be any files following the import-export format described above. The DeLorme Street Atlas file format is directly importable in Topographer. To do so, use the function Export Draw Objects Info... available under the File menu.