Script to Automatically press F3 when off course - Streets and Trips 2006

breaker021 · 06-01-2006, 11:01 AM

Hey,
Streets and Trips only reroutes your course when you press the f3 key. I have been working on a script that will:

1) launch streets and trips
2) wait 45 seconds until you've already entered your starting + end points and have already started driving
3) when the 40 seconds have expired, the script will automatically reroute every 40 seconds by sending the F3 keys.

just note - if you are running streets and trips 2006 with my script, then are using another front end or mp3 player or watching a movie, my script automatically brings streets and trips back up and presses the reroute button!

This is the script so far. THE SCRIPT IS NOT COMPLETE YET! I will tweak it this weekend when I have access to my car + gps reciever.

At least you guys can see what i've been working on:

Streets and Trips 2006.vbs
-------------------------

:: Script by sh00k for mp3car.com
:: May 31, 2006

:: This script fixes the annoying problem with microsoft streets and trips 2006
:: When you go offroute, you have to manually press the F3 key to have it recalculate the route.

:: This script does the following: 1) Launches Streets and trips, 2) Waits 45 seconds for you to
:: set your start and destination addresses and then once you are on your way, it presses the F3
:: (reroute) button every 40 seconds.

:: Problems with the script: no way to exit the script (without going to task manager), script is set to a finite (5,000) loop so hopefully this covers the legnth of your trip! ;]

:: Launch Streets and Trips 2006
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "c:\program files\microsoft streets & trips\streets.exe", 9

:: Waits 40 seconds until you have set your starting (optional) and destination addresses.
WScript.Sleep 5000

:: This is what will press the F3 key every 40 seconds.
for x = 1 to 5000
WScript.Sleep 10000
wshShell.AppActivate("Microsoft Streets & Trips")
wshShell.SendKeys "{F3}"
next x
__________________________________________________ ___________

If anyone can add to it or has comments before the weekend, great. it's a simple script that is very functional. you may even say it rocks your socks.

I am using a tablet laptop and it's annoying as **** to keep opening the onscreen keyboard and pressing the F3 button when i go off course. this way, it automatically reroutes itself. It aint the perfect solution but it's a solution regardless.
- sh00k

Sonicxtacy02 · 06-01-2006, 11:18 AM

wow you must REALLY like streets and trips lol

breaker021 · 06-01-2006, 11:44 AM

l0l - It's just the only navigation software I have on hand right now. I've used it on a couple of trips and really had no problem with it so I've been using it... Someone told me to try iguidance. I'll do that when I get some time 8-)
- sh00k

Sonicxtacy02 · 06-01-2006, 11:53 AM

i understand. i started off with streets and there gps receiver. But yes i'd recommend tryin iguidance. You'll never go back

I did test ya script and it seems to be working just fine with streets 06

jhart · 06-01-2006, 06:46 PM

I use Autoroute 2006 (same but for Europe) I use the program AutoHotKeys, to automatically start tracking GPS and Acknowledge the warning and to center the view after the program starts. The best part is the program is free. You can have it record keystrokes and then play them back as an .exe file. Works flawlessly, once you understand how it works

Marvin Hlavac · 06-01-2006, 07:08 PM

breaker021, the "automated-F3" script is a nice idea in theory, but I suspect once you try it in real life you will abandon it. I think the first annoyance will likely be the voice direction prompts you may be getting each 40 seconds. But even that aside, I think even bigger obstacle in implementing properly functional automatic recalculation in S&T, or AutoRoute, or MapPoint, is that these applications don't take into consideration the direction of your travel when doing route recalculation (F3). Other, more advanced applications (iGuidance for example), do consider which direction you are going when calculating a route.

We may need to leave this one to the good guys at Microsoft. Hopefully they will work on this feature for version 2007.

breaker021 · 06-02-2006, 10:20 AM

Thanks for the insight, Marvin. I'm actually on my way to obtaining iGuidance right now... I hope I can have it by this weekend so I can test it out!
- sh00k