Adding your own POIs to TTs built in ones

[Andy_P]

EDIT: I wrote this as I was working it out... There's a more concise description in the FORTH post below.
I've just posted this on another forum, but make no apologies for sharing it with PGPSW too.

Do this at your own risk....

If you have downloaded Mapshare corrections for POIs you will see they come as CAxxxx.ov2 files where xxxx is the number corresponding to the categories (I've done a list of all the codes HERE) . These manage to "link in" with the built in POIs in poi.dat.

If you have downloaded the add-on UK POI files for Doctors/Dentists/Police Stations and Pharmacies (from HERE) you will have noticed that they come as ov2 files with "ordinary" names like "gbr_doctors.ov2", BUT they also link into the original categories just like the mapshare ones.
I've discovered that this is done by a "linking file with an .inf extension and the same name as the add-on POI file (e.g. "gbr_doctors.inf").

Now, if you open that .inf file with Notepad, there SEEM to be just a few empty lines and then a line such as "*9373" which just so happens to be the same category number!

So far, all I have tried is renaming one of these .inf files to have the same name as one of my OTHER POI files, and it worked - my POIs merged into the main "Doctors" category.

What I haven't tried yet is:
1. Make an inf file from scratch
2. See what happens if you have TWO inf files for a category (for example MY doctors file AND the TT add-on file)

You can't just merge them because TomTom's ones are encrypted and can't be opened in POIEdit and the like.

Have a go people and report your findings... (but make sure you're backups are full and up-to-date first!!)

[Andy_P]

Update:

I've just tried #1

I have successfully made a brand new POI category called "Test" and written an inf file so it merges with the built-in Petrol stations POIs.


EDIT: And I've just tried #2 and it works! You can have MULTIPLE files all merging into the main built-in POI category.

So you can have (for example) the main "Doctors" category PLUS the Mapshare corrections, PLUS TomTom's GB add-on file, PLUS your own file, all listed under "Doctor"

..waits for applause...

[andy-c1]

erm start again please ,got a bit lost
_________________
TomTom 5001

[Andy_P]

The short version :
With v7 software, if you have POIs that you have added yourself or POIs from sites like this, you can now add them to the BUILT-IN ones.

You need to make a file in a text editor, consisting of:3 empty lines (just press return 3 times) followed by an asterix and then the four digit number from my list HERE of the category you want to add to.

Save the file as myPOIfile.inf where "myPOIfile" is the name of YOUR POI file, and put it in the same place as the POI file itself (i.e. your map folder.
Done.

The POIs from YOUR file will show up in the list of TomTom's POI. Your ones will retain their original icon, so if you want them to be the same as TomTom's ones, you'll have to make that icon or find it somewhere.

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