Google Maps to .itn files on a Mac

[PhilipAlfa]

I've just bought my first satnav - a tomtom Go730. I'm struggling to find a program that will take a route from google maps and convert it to a Tomtom .itn file - I've looked at Tyre but that only works on PC's and I have an iMac.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks, Philip

[plenty]

I've spent a fair bit of time looking into this and my advice would be to use TYRE - there are workarounds possible but far too convoluted to be worthwhile.

Assuming you have an Intel iMac, TYRE in itself is worth installing Windows.

[mmm-five]

Spent ages looking for a Mac app, but now I use Tyre on a Windows 7 install running on VMWare Fusion.

[PhilipAlfa]

Thanks guys - at least you've saved me spending fruitless hours searching on the internet....

[TonyHetherington]

Search for ITNConv.zip (or .exe) - it's a cracking bit of kit and I've been using it for years to go between google earth / tomtom to garmin, back to google earth (to track where you've been) - it's great!

[selwonk]

You're welcome to try my little web based ITN toy:

http://www.mike-knowles.com/itngen/#

It's still in development, but might prove useful.

[size13]

selwonk said:

You're welcome to try my little web based ITN toy:

http://www.mike-knowles.com/itngen/#

It's still in development, but might prove useful.

Not bad Mike

[selwonk]

Ta! I've let some of my forum users loose on it and have a list of stuff to sort out:

a) Change the layout to better accommodate l-o-n-g itineraries.
b) Allow users to login and save itineraries.
c) Export itineraries in various formats.

I've just started to use it plan my next trip to Normandy, so I'll need the ability to edit an existing itinerary quite quickly. I'll let you know once that's complete.

Cheers.

[PhilipAlfa]

Thanks Mike - I will try to have a play tonight and plan my route into LOndon for tomorrow.

[waremark]

selwonk said:

You're welcome to try my little web based ITN toy:

http://www.mike-knowles.com/itngen/#

It's still in development, but might prove useful.

Are you aiming to do something better than TYRE, or is it a matter of making something which works from a Mac?

[selwonk]

I find TYRE a bit slow and cumbersome to be honest. I don't need half of the features it has. I also don't think the map searching is very reliable, and adding a new destination and moving it up the list in the map view is really slow. All I need is the ability to quickly create and edit an itinerary, and doing it on the web is much easier.

[waremark]

selwonk said:

I find TYRE a bit slow and cumbersome to be honest. I don't need half of the features it has. I also don't think the map searching is very reliable, and adding a new destination and moving it up the list in the map view is really slow.

I like TYRE. As to the specific point you make, there are two ways to deal with it in TYRE. If you double-click the route between two existing waypoints, it inserts a new waypoint between those points. You can then drag it wherever you want. Alternatively, if you have inserted a new waypoint at the end of the route, in newer versions you can move waypoints up and down all the way to where you want them in a single action. And if you don't like TYRE searching you can create your route in the full online Google Maps, and then import it to TYRE for translation into an itn file and transfer to your unit. But congratulations on having the ability to create your own alternative software, which will then do things exactly the way you want.

[PhilipAlfa]

Mike, sorry for the delayed feedback, but I like this! Would it be easy to add a feature that lets you pick a destination from the map? The only way I can find to add a destination is to type in the post code or address etc?

[selwonk]

It's been some time since I last looked at this project, but with another trip coming up it was time to dust it off. The main requirement for me was the ability to be able to create an itinerary, save it to the desktop and then be able to edit it later.

So - I rewrote it last night. v1.2 is now available if anybody wants to play with it:

http://www.mike-knowles.com/itngen/



The main changes are:

• Ability to load existing .itn files from your desktop
• Better on-screen hints and instructions
• Clearer drag and drop interface
• Improved layout and new colour scheme
• Integrated Google route directions
• Better cross-browser support
• Clicking a map in the marker will show the zoom window

It's still under testing but should work correctly in:

• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Safari
• Chrome
• Opera

I've tested a wide variety of .itn files without any problems, but if you spot a bug, please copy/paste the contents of your .itn here for me to look at.

Regarding the points above, now it's possible to continually edit files, I want to improve the ability to find and add markers plus work out how to allow the users to move markers for further adjustment.

Cheers.

Edited by selwonk on Friday 1st October 17:56

[selwonk]

Oh - other planned enhancements include:

• The ability to switch destinations on and off - allows you to look at the effect of including them in your route.
• The ability to rename the destinations you've added. This will be useful if you've searched for the destination by it's address.

[Kieran]

selwonk said:

ISo - I rewrote it last night. v1.2 is now available if anybody wants to play with it:

http://www.mike-knowles.com/itngen/

This sounds interesting but the link did not seem to work this evening, thanks

[selwonk]

Sorry about that. It should be Ok now.

Please note this is most definitely still in it's embryonic state and I've not had a chance to fully test it. For example, I plotted a route around Germany and reloaded it and it tried to plot stuff over the UK.

However, I've just got back from a 3 day tour of France and I used itineraries created using this system without any problems.

One thing that I definitely need to sort once I've tested and bug fixed it is the ability to add a location as a waypoint.