Thread: Post here please your help request regarding Garmin

Originally Posted by JavaGTO

I'm sure some of you here have seen my post before, but I'll just post it again.

How do you load POIs in *.gpi file format when the Official Garmin POI loader only recognize file in *.gpx format? Is the gpi format for Symbian devices only?

BTW I'm referring to this thread...
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Proprietary Garmin format is GPI, which is compatible with all Garmin devices
Garmin’s POI loader converts GPX and CSV files to a proprietary Garmin format (GPI), which is compatible with your Garmin device. Many of the custom POI sources provide points of interest saved in the above file formats or offer POIs that can be converted to POI Loader formats.
POI Loader
POI Loader is free software for your computer that lets you upload customized points of interest (POIs) to your compatible Garmin device. With the help of POI Loader, you can update your compatible Garmin GPS with the latest restaurants, safety camera locations, tourist destinations and more.

Download the latest version of our free [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].

How Does POI Loader Work?
Simply download and install POI Loader software on your computer and you're ready to find and load new POIs. You can find new POIs from both Garmin and third parties through our Custom POI Sources page. Once you've downloaded the POI files (GPX or CSV format), use POI Loader to find the files on your computer and upload the data to your compatible Garmin GPS or third-party SD card


If you want to convert pois to another format ad ex. tomtom format
I found this tool Gpsbabel that can convert .gpi files to .gpx
What is GPSBabel?
GPSBabel converts waypoints, tracks, and routes between popular GPS receivers and mapping programs. It also has powerful manipulation tools for such data.
It contains extensive data manipulation abilities making it a convenient for server-side processing or as the backend for other tools.

It does not convert, transfer, send, or manipulate maps. We process data that may (or may not be) placed on a map, such as waypoints, tracks, and routes
Almost certainly. GPSBabel runs on Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista plus POSIX OSes such as Linux, UnixWare, OpenServer, Solaris, FreeBSD, and OSX.

GPSBabel 1.3.6 released!


This is an evolutionary release that adds support for several new GPS types, adds features, and of course, fixes problems.

While there's a mind-numbing list of fixes available (and an even more comprehensive list of changes in the source tree since we ARE an open source project...) here's a list of highlights.

New Formats
Support for Holux M241 GPS and files.
Added Iblue747.
Added support for Igo8.
Added support for VidaOne version 2.
Add Navigon Wpt format.
Add Medion GoPal.
Add Humminbird format.
Add Lowrance .usr version 3 support.
Add Mapasia tr7.
Add Google Navigator.
Add Navitel.
Add Geogrid Viewer.
Add iGO2008 POI support.
Add Jelbert GeoTagger format.
Add Skyforce support.
Add SBP format for LocoSys GPS.
Add Memory-Map Navigator Overlay support.
New Features
The garmin format will try to detect if the device isn't really a Garmin protocol device but is instead actually a mass storage device that reads and writes GPX and will synthesize filenames on a write and use the device-specific files on read.
Discard feature can now toss points with no or unknown fix.
NMEA reader now can read AMOD 3080GL waypoints.
Garmin Training Center now does lap splitting, can now read.
Added the height filter.
AN1->KML conversions now preserve line colors.
Doc improvements.
Route reversal can reverse tracks, too.
Magellan geocache files can now be read.
Workaround for Garmin Venture HC weirdness on Mac and Linux.
Major Fixes
Entity encoding problem in Google Earth KML writer for Geocaches.
Fix NMEA writer bug that caused everthing to be a GISTeq file.
Fix writing waypoint names under 6 characters to old serial Garmins.
Several improvements to Navilink.

Production version: 1.3.6 GPSBabel for Windows and XP is distributed as a zip file. To use this, create a directory to hold GPSBabel and extract the contents of the zip file to it. This will result in two runnable programs.
gpsbabel.exe is the standard command line version described in the help text.

GPSBabelGUI.exe is a graphical wrapper that allows you to pick single files to read and write from menus.
For OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard)is a .dmg that contains the GUI and a universal binary for GPSBabel. It runs on both Intel and PPC Macs.
GPSBabel for Linux is provided both as a binary distribution and a source RPM.
The binary version is compiled on Fedora and may not run on other Linux distributions.


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