help with waypoint search

[roadkill]

long time user first time poster

in the past i used topo usa 5.0 to map the location of customers homes and then i could find them by searching their name (what i used to name their waypoint) and it worked great for me. it has been a while since i tried any of the fancy stuff so i could be forgetting something simple. i will explain what i want to do and what i have done sofar. if any of the new programs street atlas or topo will do what i want out of the box that would be cool. but i dont want to upgrade if i am still going to have to do a lot of customizing


i am on a rural volunteer fire department in the mountains of colorado. while topo 5 and sa2005 seam to have most of the roads, they are off considerably as to the street numbers. this can be a criticle thing when responding to a fire or medical emergency. what i have been doing is going to each persons drive way and recording the GPS location. then uploading the way points into topo 5. i need a way to quickly and simply search for these by address so we can get directions from the station.
for example there is a house at 120 texas creek ln. if i search for this address in topo 5 or sa2005 the location it takes me to is half mile away. i saved a gps way point and uploaded it to the topo 5 and it shows right were it should be. i named it "120 texas creek ln" but when i search for it it still takes me to where the map thinks 120 texas creek ln is, not to my way point. i also tried making a short routable road where the driveway is and made sure it conected to the main road (texas creek ln) but a search still took me to the spot on texas creek ln where it thinks that address is not the new routeable road.

the reason i need to use the actual address for the waypoint or whatever is that when a call comes in to dispatch they will be giving their address and i need to be able to search that. also this needs to be simple so that any of the volunteers can just punch in the address and get directions. i figure we will leave the topo 5 running with our station already set up as the start of the route and the hibernate the pc. this way anyone responding to the station can just cue up the computer (takes 30sec to come out of hibernate) punch in the dispatch address and print the basic directions.

ultimately i will be creating a "url" for each home, especially those with special circumstances such as severe allergic reaction or heart problems. this will come in handy as often we just get a call asking for medical help and we have no idea what we are walking into. with an easily accessable source of info and directions we will be better able to provide life saving assistance.

so the basic question is how can i identify a location like a driveway with a street address and then do a search for that and have it pop right up and get added into a route?

thank you

[roadkill]

forgot to mention. the time required of me to make this work is basically unlimited. i have considered turning off all the delorme and maping in all new routeable roads from gps data. if this would be a way to make it work the way i want, let me know. of course if there is a simpler way i would prefer that than having to re map 100+ square miles

[John Moran_2]

Wow. Sounds like you need XMap 6.2 for starters.

[John Moran_2]

for example there is a house at 120 texas creek ln. if i search for this address in topo 5 or sa2005 the location it takes me to is half mile away. i saved a gps way point and uploaded it to the topo 5 and it shows right were it should be. i named it "120 texas creek ln" but when i search for it it still takes me to where the map thinks 120 texas creek ln is, not to my way point. i also tried making a short routable road where the driveway is and made sure it conected to the main road (texas creek ln) but a search still took me to the spot on texas creek ln where it thinks that address is not the new routeable road.

Small world. I drove northbound on CO SR69 (Texas Creek) a few weeks ago. Yep, Topo5 is a little obsolete and the PN-40 doesn't cut it in the big picture for road routing. But you certainly can use the 3D to your advantage in that location. Also a basic version of Delorme XData should be useful for locating Street Addresses by coordinates. So the combination of contour lines and XData means you need to go with the latest version of XMap 6.x Pro.

Now, i don't personally have XMap Pro, but do have XData capabilities in SA2008 Plus, and it is possible to locate an externally created database by Lat/Lon coordinates in SA2008 Plus. So it seems that with a copy of Excel (or Open Office.org Calc) and Delorme XMap, you should be able to grind out what you need. Excel for storing the primary data, and Xmap for quick routing.
Good luck,
JM_2

[HorseTrailRider]

I think TP8 will do what you want.

First I created 5 waypoints with address on Texas Creek Ln:



I then did an Advance search by Name:



And these are the results:



As you can see, the first result were from the waypoints. At this point, just double-click on the right address and it will display it on the map.

You can even right-click to set the waypoint as the finish point of the route:

[John Moran_2]

I suggested XMap for its (admittedly restricted) XData sorting capabilities, as well as for the included Phone Database. Personally, I'd wait for the PN-30 to go on sale (3 days?) and buy one of those with Topo8 bundled.

Then, if I thought I had a real need for XMap capabilities for Arial Imagery too, I'd go that way to have a couple more computer licences covered.
JM_02 cents

[roadkill]

Small world. I drove northbound on CO SR69 (Texas Creek) a few weeks ago. JM_2

small world indeed. this particular "texas creek ln" is about 10mi south east of that town. you should have stopped in for coffee....lol

thanks guys for the input. i will check out the xmap but as someone mentioned for sa2008 i think they still had to enter waypoints and then search. if a new program out of the box was capable of locating an address within a hundred yards or so i could justify the money for un upgrade. but if i would still have to mark each drive with a way point i cant justify $

remember a volunteer fire department. that basically means no money

i keep playing with what i have (sa2005 and topo 5) i noticed if i changed search parameters to 25mi radius it brought up the waypoints first. still kinda a pain to get them into a route quickly but i am making progress


to the person that posted the pic of sa2008 (i think) where you made your 5 way points and then searched

could you just do a search for "120 texas creek ln cotopaxi colorado" and show me where the program says that is without any of the other way points. my sa05 and topo 5 are both off by half mile. if i could see the newer program was more accurate it might save me a lot of time


thank again for the input
peace out
kenny

[John Moran_2]

Small world, big jpg.
(Moderator: Please don't downsize immediately).
Note: this map is from Delorme Topo8.
Street Atlas SA2008+ or SA2009+ not recommended for Cotopaxi.

JM_2

[roadkill]

thank you. i can see they still dont have it quite right, actually about the same as my sa05 and topo 5. and they added in a fire station that does not exist and right cose by that they show "la veta town government" lol la veta is close to 100mi away. it seams i will just need to fine tune what i have. i am noticing in several areas the roads are off set up wards of 100ft it doesnt really hurt but i have to adjust waypoints to be "on the road" but i can work with it.

i am working out the best steps to make it happen. right now it seams the best approach is to search for the name of the way point using the 25 mi radius from map center, then right clicking on the spot on the map and adding it as a stop for the route. i leave the computer with an existing route with the station as both the start and stop. i had to do this as some times when i had the station as the start and then made the destination the finish i would just get a striaght line from the station to the finish. not so good





thank you again for the help