Difference between revisions of "GSAK"

Latest revision as of 13:50, 16 June 2007

GSAK stands for Geocaching Swiss Army Knife and is a very popular piece of waypoint management software. Major features include:

• Ability to store waypoints on your computer and upload them to your GPS
• Multiple databases
• Conversion to many mapping formats
• HTML output
• extensive searching
• macro support
• backup and restore
• distance/direction from other waypoints (including caches, locations, post codes) and much more.

GSAK loads GPX and LOC Waypoint files. These can be loaded directly from an email account, from a single file and by importing a whole folder of files. GPX files are available from two main sources.

1. Pocket queries on Geocaching.com. This is a Premium member service on that website. A Pocket Query is only going to provide geocaches that are initially listed on that site. It will give you a large part, but not necessarily the whole picture of geocaching in your area.
2. Geocaching Australia GPX files which are free and available by selecting "Find > Available Caches", and then choosing a state. Presently, there is a small link on the bottom right of the page with the GPX file.
3. They may also be downloaded from within the wiki at Geocaching Australia GPX Files.

GSAK can also be used to plan for a Caching trip. If you were driving from say Adelaide to Melbourne, how would you plan your caching?

GSAK Macros

GSAK has the ability to create and run custom macros.

ClydeE has provided many for use at GSAK Macros.

These include:

• CacheRaid.txt

Generate a route of caches that are the closest distance from each other for a "cache raid". Basically, the macro allows you to build a "cache chain". You select a cache then the macro will build a database of a direct route of the caches that are the shortest distance from last one. (requires V6.0 or higher)

• Distance.txt

Select caches x miles/kms from your current waypoint (requires V6.0 or higher)

• CacheMateLog.txt

Macro to get the latest copy of Cachemate's backup database, extract the finds, update the local copy, then sequentially (by found date and distance from home) open the GC.com logging page with the user notes from the local record copied into the clipboard. Once logging is complete, finds are moved to another database if the user has defined that.

• 2Filters.txt

Combine the results of two filters into one sub set.

• First2Code.txt

This macro will allow you to select all cache codes starting with the same first two letters.

• LimitFilter.txt

Limit a filter to the first nn caches in your current sort sequence.

• LogCache.txt

Log your current cache at geocaching.com

• LoadExport.txt

Macro to give you an idea how you can automatically load a GPX file then export to various formats.

• USAPhotomaps.txt

Output multiple waypoints to USAPhotmaps then start the program showing them all.

• PQ500.txt

Check if a Pocket Query has reached or is near the 500 waypoint limit.

• ExpertGPS.txt

Load the current GSAK waypoint into ExpertGPS.

• GetMail.txt

Get PQs from pop3 server, load into default database, then move/copy as required

• Explorist.txt

Create several POI files for the eXplorist GPSr

• SpoilerSync.txt

Automatically update SpoilerSync photos into GSAK user notes (requires V6.0 or higher)

• Summary.txt

Sample code to generate and display an HTML summary of a database (requires V6.0 or higher)

• GoogleEarth.txt

Show your current filter of waypoints in Google Earth (requires V6.0 or higher)

• Firstnn.txt

Select the first nn waypoints in your current sort sequence (requires V6.0 or higher)

GSAK Custom URLs

Add GCA extra functionality to GSAK by adding the following to your Custom URLs in GSAK (>Tools>Options>HTML):

GCA Google Map=http://geocaching.com.au/cache/%code.gmap

GCA Google Earth KML=http://geocaching.com.au/cache/%code.kml

Claim First To Find=http://geocaching.com.au/my/hotlist/firsttofind?add=%code

Add to GCA Watchlist=http://geocaching.com.au/my/hotlist/watchlist?add=%code

Add to GCA Plan list=http://geocaching.com.au/my/hotlist/planned?add=%code

Add to GCA Ignore list=http://geocaching.com.au/my/hotlist/ignorelist?add=%code

Add GCA Tags=http://geocaching.com.au/my/tags/add/cache/%code

Add GCA Rating=http://geocaching.com.au/my/rating/add/%code

See Also

• Using GSAK