User-defined waypoints (or userpoints) allow for adding, editing, searching, exporting, and importing bookmarks, points of interest, waypoints and more. You can pick freely which types you want to see as icons on the map.
Picture above: An overview of userpoint functionality showing information on the left dock window, highlighted userpoints on the map, userpoints selected in the search window on the right, and the drop down menu opened by clicking the userpoint icon in the dock window.
The functionality of the search filters and the result table is similar to the airport and navaid search. See Search Dock Window for information about search filters and buttons.
Additional context menu items and buttons allow adding, editing, and deleting of userpoints.
See Search Result Table View Context Menu for a description of common context menu items across all search dialogs.
Add a user-defined waypoint to the userdata.
Some fields of the new userpoint dialog are populated automatically depending on a selected userpoint or, if nothing is selected in the search result table, based on previous additions. This allows to quickly add similar userpoints to the database without the need to re-enter all the information.
Note that you have to add the coordinates manually if the dialogs starts empty i.e. nothing was selected in the result table. Add userpoints with the map context menu Add Userpoint to avoid this and have the coordinates set automatically.
See below for more information about the add dialog.
Open the edit dialog for one or more userpoints.
The edit dialog shows a column of checkboxes on the right side if more than one userpoint is selected. These allow to choose the fields to edit.
See below for more information about the add dialog.
Remove the selected userpoints after a confirmation dialog.
Clear search filters and revert to showing all entries in the search result table view.
Deselect all selected entries in the table and remove any highlight circles from the map.
Display a quick help in the tooltip. Click to open this chapter of the manual in the default browser.
Drop down menu button that allows to hide or show search options.
The drop down menu prefixes menu items with a change indicator * to show that the related filter row has modifications.
The dialog is shown when selecting Add Userpoint 
in the map context menu, using the top button in the userpoint search tab, or selecting Add Userpoint from the context menu in the search result table.
The dialog will be populated automatically depending on the selected map context, the selection in the search result table or previous additions.
Type can be selected from a drop down list or entered freely.
The field Description allows multi line text and special characters. Formatting like italic or bold is not supported.
The field Visible from allows to define visibility on the map depending on zoom distance. The zoom distance (viewpoint distance to earth surface) for the current map view is shown in the Statusbar. The user point will be visible for all zoom distances smaller than the value in Visible from. Maximum value is 3000 nm and minimum value is 1 nm.
Valid coordinates are required to confirm the dialog. See Coordinate Formats for a detailed description of the recognized coordinate formats. A label below the coordinates displays the parsed coordinates or an error message in case the coordinates could not be parsed.
All other text fields are optional and can be left blank.
The userpoint is removed on next startup of Little Navmap when Temporary userpoint. Delete on next startup. is checked.
The button Reset clears all fields with exception of the coordinates and sets the type of the userpoint to Bookmark.
Picture above: Add dialog that has been populated automatically by context. The user right-clicked on an airport and selected Add Userpoint Airport Frankfurt am Main (EDDF).
The edit dialog shows the same edit fields as the dialog used to add userpoints above.
Additional metadata shown at the bottom:
- Last Change: Date and time of import, creation or change.
- Imported from file: File and path of source file from CSV, X-Plane or Garmin import. You can filter the userpoint search for this name.
- Temporary userpoint - will be deleted on next startup. This indicates that the userpoint is temporary.
The button Reset undoes all manual changes and reverts all fields to their original state.
Picture above: Edit dialog for a single userpoint.
If more than one userpoint was selected for editing, the edit dialog shows a column of checkboxes on the right side.
If checked, the field to the left is unlocked and any text entered will be assigned to the respective field in all selected userpoints. Unchecked fields will not be altered for any of the userpoints.
In combination with the powerful search function, this allows for bulk changes like fixing an invalid region and simultaneously changing the visibility range for the affected userpoints:
- Search for all userpoints with the invalid region.
- Select all the resulting userpoints, e.g. by clicking on one of the userpoints among the search results and pressing
Ctrl+Aor by clicking on the top left corner of the column header. - Right-click one of the highlighted userpoints and select
Edit Userpointsfrom the context menu. - Click the checkbox to the right of the
Region:field and change the region. - Click the checkbox to the right of the
Visible from:field and adjust the value. - Click
OK.
Picture above: Edit dialog for more than one userpoint. The fields Region and Visible from will be changed for all selected points. All other fields remain unchanged.
The userpoint type can be any text string. If the text matches an entry from the list below, the appropriate icon is used. Otherwise, the icon for Unknown 
is used.
Types and icons can be customized and new types can be added. See Userpoint Category Icons for information on how to do this.
Some types are used as defaults when adding new userpoints. This depends on the context, i.e. what was below the cursor when right-clicking on the map.
Note that the userpoint types cannot be translated to other languages for now.
Airport: Default when creating a userpoint on top of an airport.
Airstrip
Bookmark: Default type for new userpoints.
Cabin
Closed airport
Error
Flag
Helipad
Location
Logbook: Type of automatically added logbook entries for takeoff and landing. See menu item Create Logbook entries.
Marker
Mountain
Obstacle
Pin
POI
Seaport
Unknown: Type named Unknownand all types which do not match the default types in this list.
VRP: Visual reporting point.
Waypoint: Default when creating a userpoint on top of a navaid.
The CSV data format is aligned to the format already used around the flight simulator community and other applications.
Each row in the file represents a user-defined waypoint.
The minimum fields for import are Type, Name, Ident, Latitude and Longitude. Only Latitude and Longitude need to be filled, the rest can be empty.
All twelve fields are saved when exporting userpoints as CSV. Also, the multi line field Description is enclosed in quotes if needed and preserves line breaks.
English number format (dot . as decimal separator) is used in import and export to allow exchange of files on computers with different language and locale settings.
Little Navmap uses UTF-8 encoding when reading and writing files. This is only relevant if you use special characters like umlauts, accents or others. Otherwise encoding does not matter.
If an application fails to load a CSV file exported by Little Navmap, use LibreOffice Calc, Microsoft Excel or any other spreadsheet software capable of reading and writing CSV files to adapt the exported file to the format expected by that application.
See Comma-separated values in the Wikipedia for detailed information on the format.
Example for an absolute minimal userpoint consisting of coordinates only:
,,,49.0219993591,7.8840069771
Visible from will be set to the default of 250 nm and the userpoint will be shown using the Unknown icon after import.
Example for a minimal userpoint record with type Mountain, ident and name for import:
Mountain,My Point of Interest,MYPOI,49.0219993591,7.8840069771
Visible from will be set to the default of 250 nm after import.
Example for an exported userpoint with type Mountain and all fields set:
Mountain,My Point of Interest,MYPOI,49.0219993591,7.8840069771,1200,2.0085027218,"View,Interesting,Point","Interesting point ""Eselsberg"" - nice view",ED,250,2018-05-17T17:44:26.864
Take note of the following challenges when parsing CSV files: In the field Tags, the list "View,Interesting,Point" is enclosed in double quotes since it contains commas. The field description "Interesting point ""Eselsberg"" - nice view" is enclosed in double quotes since the text itself contains a pair of double quotes ("Eselsberg") which are, in turn, escaped by another double quote each.
| Position | Name | Required | Empty Allowed | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Type | Yes | Yes | One of the predefined or user-defined types. The icon for Unknown is used if the type does not match one of the known types. |
| 2 | Name | Yes | Yes | Free to use field. Used for Garmin export. |
| 3 | Ident | Yes | Yes | Required only for Garmin and X-Plane export. Has to be a unique valid identifier with maximum of five characters for these exports. |
| 4 | Latitude | Yes | No | Range from -90 to 90 degrees using dot . as decimal separator |
| 5 | Longitude | Yes | No | Range from -180 to 180 degrees using dot . as decimal separator. |
| 6 | Altitude | No | Yes | Must be a valid number if used. Unit is always feet. |
| 7 | Magnetic variance | No | Yes | Ignored on import and set to a valid calculated value on export. |
| 8 | Tags | No | Yes | Free to use field. GUI has no special tag search. |
| 9 | Description | No | Yes | Free to use field which allows line breaks. |
| 10 | Region | No | Yes | Two letter ICAO region of a userpoint or waypoint. Used for X-Plane export. Replaced with default value ZZ on X-Plane export if empty. |
| 11 | Visible from | No | Yes | Defines from what zoom distance in nautical miles (shown on Status Bar) the userpoint is visible. Set to 250 nm if empty on import. |
| 12 | Last update timestamp | No | Yes | ISO date and time of last change. Format is independent of system date format settings. Format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss. Example: 2018-03-28T22:06:16.763. Not editable in GUI. |
This allows to read and write the X-Plane user_fix.dat file for user-defined waypoints. The file does not exist by default and has to be saved to XPLANE/Custom Data/user_fix.dat.
The format is described by Laminar Research in a PDF file which can be downloaded here: XP-FIX1101-Spec.pdf.
The file consists of a header and a number of rows for the user fixes. Each row has five columns which are separated by space or tab characters.
There are five columns of data in the file:
- Latitude
- Longitude
- Ident
- Airport ident
- Region
Example for user_fix.dat:
I
1101 Version - data cycle 1704, build 20170325, metadata FixXP1101. NoCopyright (c) 2017 achwodu
50.88166700 12.58666700 PACEC ENRT ZZ
-36.29987335 174.71089172 N0008 NZNI ZZ
99
Note that, while the user-defined waypoints are not displayed on the X-Plane map, they can be selected and used to build flight plans in the X-Plane stock GPS and FMS.
Example line from user_fix.dat above:
50.88166700 12.58666700 PACEC ENRT ZZ
- The coordinates are read into the Little Navmap userpoint coordinates.
- The fix ident
PACECis read into the Ident field in Little Navmap. - The fix airport
ENRT(enroute: no airport here) is read into the Tags field in Little Navmap. - The region
ZZ(invalid or no region) is read into the Region field in Little Navmap. - Type will be set to
Waypoint for all imported fixes.
The mapping is the same as for the import.
- Ident to fix ident.
- Tags to fix airport.
- Region to fix region.
All other fields are ignored.
The ident is adjusted to match a up to five digit and letter combination. A generated ident is used if that is not possible or the ident is empty.
Fix airport is always ENRT when exporting.
The region is adjusted for a two letter digit and letter combination. ZZ is used if that is not possible or the region is empty.
The ident has to be unique in the user_fix.dat. Therefore it is recommended to set a unique ident for each waypoint manually or leave the field empty so Little Navmap can generate an ident during export.
The Garmin user waypoint file is a CSV file. Each row in the file represents a unique user waypoint.
There must be four columns of data in the file:
- Waypoint ident
- Waypoint name or description
- Latitude
- Longitude
Example of a user.wpt file:
MTHOOD,MT HOOD PEAK,45.3723,-121.69783
CRTRLK,CRATER LAKE,42.94683,-122.11083
2WTER,2NM WEST TERRACINA,41.28140000,13.20110000
1NSAL,1NM NORTH SALERNO TOWN,40.69640000,14.78500000
The waypoint ident can be up to 10 numbers or capital letters but the GTN will shorten the name to the first 6 characters. No special characters or symbols can be used. Little Navmap adjusts the ident accordingly.
The waypoint name can be up to 25 numbers, capital letters, spaces, or forward slash / characters. The name is displayed when selecting waypoints to provide additional context to the pilot. Little Navmap adjusts the name according to limitations.
Example line from user.wpt above:
MTHOOD,MT HOOD PEAK,45.3723,-121.69783
- The ident
MTHOODis read into the Ident field in Little Navmap. - The name
MT HOOD PEAKis read into the Name field in Little Navmap. - The coordinates are read into the Little Navmap userpoint coordinates.
- Type will be set to
Waypoint for all imported waypoints.
Mapping of fields is same as import but all fields are adjusted to limitations.
Note: If an imported waypoint ends up being within 0.001° latitude and longitude of an existing user waypoint in the GTN, the existing waypoint and name will be reused.
This export option creates an XML file which can be compiled into an BGL file containing waypoints.
The region and ident fields are required for this export option. If region is empty or otherwise invalid ZZ is used. All waypoints are of type NAMED.
See Prepar3D SDK documentation for information on how to compile and add the BGL to the simulator.
Example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<FSData version="9.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">
<!--Created by Little Navmap Version 2.0.1.beta (revision 2b14e14) on 2018 05 17T12:24:36-->
<Waypoint lat="47.40833282" lon="15.21500015" waypointType="NAMED" waypointRegion="ZZ" magvar="4.02111530" waypointIdent="WHISK"/>
<Waypoint lat="47.39666748" lon="15.29833317" waypointType="NAMED" waypointRegion="ZZ" magvar="4.01835251" waypointIdent="SIERR"/>
</FSData>Little Navmap creates a full database backup on every start since undo functionality is not available for userpoints.
You can also use the CSV export to create backups manually since CSV allows to export the full dataset.
See Userdata for information about database backup files.