Polygon filter for GSAK

[RuffRidr]

Hey,
Today I created a Polygon filter for GSAK of the Northwest Arkansas area, based on the map that Longdogs posted in the Central Arkansas forum. I think this would be very handy for identifying which caches fall within this region and which ones don't. Could be helpful in future organization. Anyway, I'm going to try and post it in the Files section.

--RuffRidr

[Gaddiel]

Nice work! I've thought about doing something similar, but never really had enough free time to pursue it. I'd love to have a tool like that.

[lukywest]

HOW DID YOU DO THIS. IS IT A EXTERNAL PROGRAM OR IT IS EXTENTSION YOU ADD DIRECTLY TO GSAK. I CANT WAIT TO SEE THIS PROGRAM, I LOVE GSAK. SEND ME A COPY I WOULD LOVE TO BETA TEST FOR YOU. THANKS LUKY

[RuffRidr]

HOW DID YOU DO THIS. IS IT A EXTERNAL PROGRAM OR IT IS EXTENTSION YOU ADD DIRECTLY TO GSAK. I CANT WAIT TO SEE THIS PROGRAM, I LOVE GSAK. SEND ME A COPY I WOULD LOVE TO BETA TEST FOR YOU. THANKS LUKY

First, hopefully this filter will be in the downloads section soon. I'm working with Longdogs to get this up here.

The polygon filter is just a GPX file with a list of coordinates in it. These coordinates are the points that make up the vertices of the polygon. To use this GPX file with GSAK you go into the search filter and click on the "Arc, Line, or Polygon" button. Then change the filter type radio button to "Polygon". Finally click the "Load from File" button and choose the GPX polygon filter. Hit OK-OK, and you should have a list of all the caches that fit in that area.

Also I can tell you how I make arc or polygon filters. I use Microsoft Streets and Trips 2004. I'm sure other programs would work too, but the process might be a little different. First I open the map to the area I want the polygon or arc to be in. Then I zoom into where the first point is and place a pushpin. Then I place the next pushpin so that it and the first pushpin would create a straight line. The next pushpin will be so that it and the second would create a line. So on and so forth until you are done. For instance a straight road would have exactly two points, one at the start and one at the end. A windy road might have hundreds of points. Now the next step is to save the file as an .est file (S&T default). Then you will need to take that file and run it through ST2GPX. ST2GPX is a program created by Robert Lipe to convert streets and trips files. You should be able to find it in on the same page as GPSBABEL. Do a google search on it if needed. Then when you have created a GPX file, that is what you import into GSAK's filters.

Easy, huh?

I'll be making some more of these in the future. Hopefully, we can come up with a website or something to share these arc and polygon filters with each other.

--RuffRidr

[GEO]

HUH?
You guys are going to have to teach me about this.
I am not familiar with it yet.
But will get a laptop soon and will need to learn how to do it.

[nonnipoppy]

Hey RuffRidr,

Being ever vigilant I just now spotted this topic. 8)

I have a question for you. While I think the polygon filter is neat why do you need these specific ones? Is it for caching purposes or statistical purposes?

If stats is the answer even dense old me can figure it out but I can't dream up a reason for caching purposes. In our case we have a PQ with all our unfound caches in Ark and keep it loaded all the time into the GPSr and the PDA.

The only time we have used the polygon filter is when we are traveling and want to exclude the caches that are not close to our route. S&T is not one of our programs and we had to do it much more slowly. Thanks for your contributions....poppy

[RuffRidr]

Poppy,

I created that polygon filter because I thought it would be useful for ArkGeo organization purposes. You could use it to determine how many caches were within the NWA region, for instance. It is not real useful for caching itself. While caching I find that arc filters work much better. I will create an arc for the route I am taking. Then I tell GSAK that I want all the caches within 5 miles of that arc. That creates a nice little corridor along the route I am taking. Last time I came back from South Dakota I used this and bagged around 20 caches on the way back.

--RuffRidr

[nonnipoppy]

Thanks for the answer. I thought it was for stats purposes.

Earlier this summer when we were in Colorado we had a good deal of lattitude with our choice of route. I did the polygon around the areas that we might want to visit. I had combined 3 or 4 PQs and had to reduce the number of caches available to be able to get them all in the GPSr.

see ya...poppy