Garmin custom POIs on a Mac

After a recent road trip up North I realized I wasn't all that familiar with my Nuvi 1490T and it's capabilities. Then I came across custom POIs while searching the web for Nuvi related articles. Here are a few useful links:

• Gary Hayman's Garmin GPS, Tricks, Tips, Work Arounds, Secrets and Ideas
• Dave Brillhart's GARMIN GPSCustom POI Alerts & TourGuides
• Garmin's POIloader utility

The CSV method is simple and works nicely but it doesn't allow one to specify both speed and proximity parameters simultaneously when installing into your Nuvi with POI loader in express mode. Preparing CSV files mean having to cut and paste coordinate parameters from Google Earth or Basecamp or some other program.

So here's my preferred approach for generating POI files right now (only good for small lists):

STEP 1: Create and export waypoints in BaseCamp
Fire up BaseCamp on your Mac. Load your map (see previous articles). If you wish to create a waypoint by browsing the map and dropping a pin, select a waypoint tool. Keep things a little better organized by creating a new list under "My Collections". Let's call it MyPOI. Now go to File > Export "MyPOI" and give it a path to save the GPX file. Now you have the GPX "source" file.

STEP 2: Edit and rename the exported waypoint GPX file
There are several methods you can use. Here are several examples:

1. Rename the GPX into a XXX_redlight.gpx file. This will turn all your waypoints into proximity alerts. If you specified a proximity radius while creating your waypoint, that will be the distance used. Otherwise it will default to 400m (assuming you select the metric option in POIloader).
2. Rename the GPX into XXX_speed_NN.gpx file, where NN is the speed. That will turn all your waypoints into speed alerts.
3. Rename the GPX into a XXX_speed.gpx file and include "@NN" at the end of your waypoint name. This allows you to set different speed alerts for POI's in the same file. However, this is probably of limited use since the POI icon and sound file are associated with a single file name -- which means you cannot represent the alerts with different speed icons.

Other than renaming the file, you can also delete portions of it. For example, if you are preparing a speed alert POI file, keep all the speed alert waypoint instances, but delete all the proximity alert instances.

STEP 3: Load POI file into your Nuvi with POIloader
FIre up POIloader and follow on screen instructions. Make sure you have your Nuvi connected.