Add my own POI (Waypoints)

New Kurviger user here, but not new to GPX and creating tracks. I want to be able to add my own custom POI/waypoints and have them become part of the exported GPX file. I’m talking about points of interest in an area of my track that I want to have noted on the map while I’m navigating. Things like “Waterfall7”, “CreekCrossing2”, “Cliff Overlook”, “MissileSilo”. These may be actually on my track, but more often they are not–just interesting things in the area. Although I want to call these “POI”, the systems I’ve used in the past create these as waypoints which seem to be more commonly supported. I don’t care, I just want a context-specific icon or at a minimum, a generic flag, and a point name to indicate something I might care about along the way.

The fact Kurviger does not let me do this (or that isn’t a fact, and I’ll be pleasantly surprised!), I have to assume there is a standard way folks do this outside of Kurviger. My experience is the old Garmin Mapsource program followed by their Basecamp application. For the last 2 years, I’ve been using RideWithGps.com to create my tracks. All of those tools allow me to create custom waypoints/POI.

Kurviger lets me create waypoints, but they are true waypoints–actually points IN the track.

Hopefully my desire here is clear and a relatively common one.

:coffee:

Thanks for the request.

Currently POIs are only available as overlays, these can come from GPX files or they can be stored as bookmarks in the app.

Currently there is no way to export a route with POIs on the side. I understand that this is important to many people and this is something we are thinking about supporting in the future.

What do others think about this?

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Is this relevant to Names (and even colours) for waypoints?

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I would say “yes” related. However, technically, POI are not the same animal as Waypoints, but…as I said in my original post, I don’t really care if it’s a POI or Waypoint as long as I can create, name, and include in my GPX. Custom colors, or better yet, custom icons like many apps support, would be even better.

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I think in most of the longer tours there are some waypoints worth to be named or made visible in a special way. So yes: I also would appreciate POI support (or an alternative solution to be able to identify those waypoints).

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I would appreciate custom colors as well. Custom icons (e.g. Flags) are fancy but IMHO don’t add any extra functionality. Well I would be happy with either.

And of course it should be possible to give Names (and even colours) for waypoints.
This does not mean that the current numbering scheme should be replaced. The program could treat custom names as a comment and show it to the user.
If you use a custom POI as a waypoint then the waypoint would inherit the name of that POI

Manfred

Technically add own POI is like Bookmarking your Favorite Spots and use them for Routing which is already available, so can import POI from external sources in GPX format.

Yes, this works perfectly well for Kurviger, I think the issue is when you want to plan with Kurviger but use an external navigation device. Is this correct @TroyWolf? So you use Kurviger for planning but for example a Garmin for navigation?

First, thanks for the response and consideration! :coffee:

@devemux86, THANK YOU for the the link to Bookmarks documentation. I read through that, and yes, it seems that “bookmarks” are what I’m looking for. However…

Per the doc, I see I can create bookmarks in the Kurviger app, export them, and use them in the website so they are handy when creating routes in the website:

It is easy to export your bookmarks as GPX file. This allows you to use your bookmarks in the Kurviger Website, in external systems or to back them up. Go to the Menu, Bookmarks, Export.

The documentation does not explain in detail, but I assume the import process into the kurviger.de browser app is the normal “import” feature. Since I’ve never seen anything about “bookmarks” in the website, I assume they import as “waypoints”. I’ll have to install the app and try this.

This sounds almost perfect. I want to use my computer to create these points–not an app using touch on a tiny phone screen. (Guess I could buy a large Android tablet and connect a bluetooth mouse.) What I really want is to be able to create and manage these “bookmarks” (custom POI) in the same application I use to create my routes. (Kurviger.de browser app in this case)

@boldtrn, yes. My current process is to use OsmAnd on a rugged Android phone that I use as a dedicated GPS device on my motorcycle. Therefore, I want a way to create my routes and “bookmarks”, export them to GPX, then import into whatever GPX-compatible navigation system I choose–currently that is OsmAnd for me. It could be Garmin’s Basecamp for others who then want to use Basecamp’s feature to load the data into their GPS device.

The Bookmarks documentation also mentions that we can import Bookmarks into the Kurviger app, but does not go into detail about what one might use to create Bookmarks for import.

I should probably install the Kurviger app to see what I’m missing there, but had planned to use Kurviger for route GPX creation and OsmAnd for on-device navigation.

Is a “bookmark” an official entity in the GPX specification just like a <wpt> or <trkpt>? Seems I’ve got more to learn!

Yes, I you probably should :wink:

Yes, we simply use GPX wpts. However routes and bookmarks are two different things.

The browser version doesn’t support the creation of bookmarks right now. Planning trips with the Kurviger App is pretty convenient, I plan most of my rides on the smartphone and just go for the ride. So this could work for you as well, who knows :slight_smile:.

I think one of the reasons, why custom colours and names are somehow a challenge for Kurviger is the way, routes are shared until now: it’s just a shared link with all waypoint coordinates as params. No real “save format” to store additional infos, so those Infos would probably only possible if exporting as .kurviger or GPX files.

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This is correct that’s one of the challenges. There are ways to do this in a URL as well, but it’s a bit more tricky :slight_smile:.

Also GPX has no real standard for colors or symbols. AFAIK, these are just random text that might be understood by some navis and might not be understood by other navis.

The GPX Spec states:

Text of GPS symbol name. For interchange with other programs, use the exact spelling of the symbol as displayed on the GPS. If the GPS abbreviates words, spell them out.

AFAIK, there is no standard way to specify the color in GPX.

Also related to this thread in an external forum.

This is a highly awaited feature for me, too. Giving names to the points as well.

Same to me.

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For the website it will be a very higghly awaited feature to manage your own pois, because the only other software that supports this (bascamp) is ending development.
I doing all my planings on pc on a very huge screen and looking at the same time to maps or something.

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would love to add my personal poi and name them like “restaurant goodfood”, “hotel goodsleep”, “siteseeing1_aarschlucht” etc…

This is how BaseCamp exports GPX data for the rtept and wpt tags:

BaseCamp_Export_rte

BaseCamp_Export_wpt

And this is how it looks like after importing it into MyRoute-app and exporting it as GPX again:

MyRouteApp_Export_rtept

It is obvious that non-standard-infos (like “smybol”) are lost (they’re only interpreted in BaseCamp or Garmin devices). But the “name” tag seems to be the right one for saving a waypoints name, so this info will be preserved even if exported/imported to other systems and devices.

Here are are the corresponding tags after being imported from BaseCamp’s GPX-file into Kurviger website and exported as GPX again:

The content of the “name” tag is automatically replaced by a numbered identifier for the waypoint (“Wegpunkt 6”). I think the orginal content (“Lokal: Cableturn Thannhausen”) should be preserverd here.

More regular GPX tags (like name) will be introduced, when the platform process that information and provides it also for user input, essentially with:

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