The Points of Interest Mega File

The POI Mega File is a free map template containing hundreds of pushpin collections for truckers, RVers and other travelers.

Points of Interest Mega File

  • updated monthly. Last updated: April 2012
  • contains 220 pushpin collections in a single Streets & Trips file
  • put together by the S&T team but credits go to DiscoveryOwners, SteveJonesMO, SpadesFlush (Phil), iRV2DriVer, Tiff Miller, Tom Bernardi and many other who willingly contribute to this huge collection.

Here is a video about using the POI Mega file:

Download the POI Megafile

Also available – the POI Megafile for our European sister product AutoRoute.

Note:  The latest update is applicable for S&T 2011 only.

28 Responses to The Points of Interest Mega File

  1. Todd Rypka says:

    I just updated to the October version. It is a much better and neater package. BUT I am so dissapointed that Flying J and Pilot have been lumped into one! Although the are now owned by the same company, they are still separate and totally different truck stops. I plan each and every trip around Flying J truck stopsand avoid Pilot like the plague. Petro now ownes TA truckstops and the fuel cards are combined into one, yet they are still separate in this file.
    Is there an older version I can change to so I can again separate the two?

    • Hi Todd,

      Thanks for your feedback. My source for this POI collection has it combined. I’ll see how much work it would be to separate the data for Nov. BTW – what is wrong with Pilot and what makes Flying J superior?

      • Dennis Miller says:

        Pilot forces you into the truck lanes and they are normally covered with grease and fuel. There is a reason the truck drivers wear old boots and gloves to fill up. Flying J has RV lanes at most locations and they are normally clean.

      • Good point. Those new to RVing will gain from knowing that tidbit. Thanks for sharing!

  2. Lylah McAfee says:

    We have downloaded the file. Thanks for the hard work getting these categories together. Is there a way to show just the push pins along your route and not all over the USA?

  3. Hi Lylah,

    Great question! Yes. Here is how you do it:

    1. After you have a route created on the map, ‘show’ the categories you are interested in. They will show up all over the map.
    2. Click on the ‘find nearby places’ toolbar button.
    3. At the bottom of the Find nearby places pane you’ll see the search radius. Change it to 1 mile.
    4. Change the “Around” to “Entire route”
    5. Click Refresh and wait
    (depending on the length of your route it can take a few moments.

    The pushpin icons are still all over the map but the ones listed in the find nearby places to be the ones that are located within 1 mile of the calculated route.

    hope that helps,
    Larry

  4. Frank Hansen says:

    I purchased S&T at the Good Sam Rally in Redmond, OR. I can’t open S&T. I get an error message that says Your registry settings for this application were not copied correctly. Run Setup again from the same place it was originally installed. An S&T person at the Rally said it would work if I ran it as an administrator. How do I do this, I haven’t had any luck.

    • To attempt to start Streets & Trips, do the following:

      1. Right-click the Streets & Trips icon on your desktop (or on the Start menu);
      2. On the menu that opens, select “Run as Administrator”

      If the above works, you can set Streets & Trips to always run with admin privileges, by doing the following:

      1. Right-click the S&T desktop icon (or the S&T icon on the Start menu);
      2. Select “Properties”
      3. Click the “Compatibility” tab
      4. Place a check-mark on front of “Run this program as Administrator”
      5. Click “OK”
      • Frank Hansen says:

        I’m running Windows Vista. When I right click on the icon and hit properties, there is no compatibility tab. I can’t find any thing that will allow me to run as administrator. It’s the same if I right click on the item in the start menu.

  5. Frank Hansen says:

    When I right click on the icon, the drop down menu doesn’t include “Run as administrator”.
    Under properties, the options are general, shortcut, security and details.

    • What OS are you running?
      Try clicking on the start menu then click on ‘Programs’ or ‘All Programs’ then right click on Microsoft Streets & Trips icon from there. You should get a ‘properties’ option.

      • Frank Hansen says:

        I can get a properties option, but there is no Compatibility Tab, and no Run as Administrator Tab.

  6. Richard Mack says:

    Can I use S&T on a HP netbook running Win7 Starter?
    It has enough memory & hard disk space, BUT

    Display is 1024 x 600 (not 768); can I scroll to the bottom?

  7. Hi Richard,
    S&T will install and likely run OK on your netbook. The lack of height on the screen resolution may cause some clipping of some of the buttons at the bottom. Install the free 60-day trial and see how it looks.

  8. Todd N. says:

    Hi,

    Just downloaded and looked through your giant POI file. Wow is all I can say!

    I did find one poi you will want to remove. Cabela’s will NOT be building a new store in Denver. That poi needs to be pulled so no one actually goes looking for a Cabela’s here. The closest one remains in Sidney, NE.

    Thanks for all your hard work, I know I appreciate it!

    Todd N.

    • Hi Todd,

      Thanks for your kind words. It is comments like yours that keep me motivated to do further updates and improvements. Please tell all your friends about it and help spread the word.

      Can you send a mail to movinsue@yahoo.com regarding the Cabellas update. She is source of this collection (as well as many others).

      Thanks,
      Larry

  9. Dennis Miller says:

    Howdy from a full-timer,
    Love S&T! Thanks for the POI work.
    I need help with what I think is a small problem. We downloaded the Mega file but it does not automatically open with the S&T application. We have to open it as a separate executable file for it to be displayed. How do we link it if that is the right term?

  10. Hi Dennis -
    Once you have downloaded it – you just need to double-click on the file. It will open up in S&T with all the POI goodness. If you launch S&T from the start menu then you’ll get the default template without the POI megafile. Many people like to have the choice. If you want to make the POI megafile your default template (so it loads each time you launch S&T from the start menu) then follow the instructions on this post: http://msstreets.com/2009/11/06/5-reasons-to-change-your-default-map-template/

  11. Angela Pettit says:

    I already have a BU-353 GPS receiver. If I buy the (cheaper) S&T without the GPS receiver, will this combination work?

    Thanks
    Angela Pettit

  12. Roadpilot says:

    Hey, guys…does anyone have any idea when the megafile will be updated? i’m working on a massive review of truckstops i’ve personally been to, and i’m using the info in S&T so I can include exit numbers, with the info..so if there’s any updates, i’d like to be able to have that info handy, for my next trip around the country. thanks.

    • Hi Roadpilot,
      The POI Megafile was just updated last week. If you have something to contribute to the next version of the POI megafile I would love to work with you on that. Shoot me an email at streetsandtrips [at] hotmail {dot}com.

  13. Rex says:

    Perhaps I am just blind, but where is the Cummins listing in the newest version of the Mega POI file? Can’t find it. Looked through all the listings and thought it would be in the ‘Cs’ but not there.

    • The Cummins collection was becoming very stale. I purged it from the POI megafile in September. If you still want it just copy it over from an older POI megafile or grab the text file collection from discoveryowners.com/cginfo.htm

  14. John says:

    I am trying to open saved trips and I get an error message:

    an unnamed file contains an incorrect schema

    What can be done to correct or open the file.

    • Hi John – this type of crazy error message would suggest that you are trying to open a map file that was created in a newer S&T version in an older version of S&T. For example, the latest POI megafile is for S&T 2011. It cannot open in S&T 2010. You can download a 60day free trial of S&T2011 and see how you like it.

  15. Tom says:

    Do you know if or when Streets and Trips 2012 will be available for purchase?

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