I searched the forums but cannot find the answer to this question.
I am in the medical field and have to inspect all of my providers. they are located all within the NY metropolitan area. I like to hit about 5 in a day. What I am trying to do is see what locations are close to each other so I can goto one location and then hit the others that are within a short distance. I made routes for each of the 5 locations and hit them in order of distance from my home, then started at the furthest. The problem was that they all werent in the same "area" on the map.
Is there any way to better plan for this??
Faced with this sort of problem (and I am, but with entirely different destinations), here is what I would do.
Start with Google Earth. It's a decent map engine in addition to providing satellite data. It is one of the easiest ways to create your own list of "points of interest" on a big map. I've found that the files it creates are easier to convert and move to the TomTom than those of Google Maps or other similar services. There are some great utilities for turning address lists into the KML files that Google Earth uses. You might want to have a look at the site
Map Multiple Locations by Address as one example. Here is a site with a good tutorial on how it's done:
edTechTrainer: Google Earth Mashup - Batch Geocode You'll only do this at the beginning to get the bulk of your address list imported. Later it's easy to add the odd new ones one at a time.
Once you have your address list imported to Google Earth, you can break it up into areas in your "My Places" so that you're always working on nearby batches of facilities. "My Places" lets you create you own subgroups. Look at the map in Google Earth and slide each of the facilities you want to subgroup into their own subgroup "folder" on the sidebar.
It's easy to add more facilities to a subgroup or to create a new subgroup later. You pop in the address, let Google Earth identify it for you, and then you can slide it into the appropriate subgroup. If you want to group things differently, you just slide them around between subgroups.
When you have a working map full of subgroups that satisfy your need for number per subgroup and location, that becomes your working list from here on out.
Of course, the TomTom has no clue about a KML file, so at the very beginning, and after you add or delete facilities, you'll need to convert the KML into a file the TomTom can manage.
You have two choices here. The most profitable will be to use the Google KML file to create a single TomTom POI (Points of Interest) file with all of your facilities listed. You can then decide each day (looking at your big Google collection of subgroups) the names of the ones that interest you. Or you can grab one immediately as needed. They'll all be there under the names you used in your original list.
If/when you add or delete facilities, there are several tools that convert KML to TomTom's POI file type of OV2. Here's an online version:
Edit Garmin POI files, TomTom POI files or Navman POI files - Online POI Manager and here's one you can use on your own computer:
PoiEdit - Downloads
Now you have two choices: you can look at your Google Earth map in the morning and decide which subgroup you wish to visit and select them in order from your TomTom POI file, our you CAN build one or more itineraries on your TomTom using the facilities in your POI file.
To summarize:
First Time:
Get your list into a good human readable form. Excel might be a good choice.
Use batchgeocode to create a Google Earth KML of your list.
Review the results in Google Earth, and group things as you like.
Use POIEDIT to create the OV2 Point of Interest file for your Tomtom
Edits to the Original:
Edit directly in Google Earth
Use POIEDIT to create a new OV2 Point of Interest file for your TomTom
Using the OV2:
Either pick them as you go, or create itineraries beforehand
