08/23/2008
Click Here To Download The Program

This free utility counts the number of finds and tabulates the
finders for the caches in a GPX file. 

Use it to keep track of how many cachers have found your caches, or to compare the activity of your caches with your geocaching neighbors and which of your neighbors have found the most of your caches.  The program provides results in simple text files and in CSV files suitable for direct opening in your spreadsheet program (simply double-click on the .csv file).  After you run the program you will find these files in your "My Documents" folder.
 

This is an example of the results for total finds (cache activity)

This is an example of results for finders -- cachers who found the above caches.

How To Use This Utility

It will work for any GPX file, but is expected to be used primarily for cachers to analyze the caches they own.  You can create a GPX file containing your caches by using pocket queries (if you're a paying member), or by using the search feature on this page (click here) of the geocaching.com website.  If you use the second method the caches will have to be downloaded in sets of 20.  If you have more than 20 caches you will have to combine them into one file.  You can combine them using my EZCompanion utility (click here), or a program such as GSAK.  If you save them as LOC files and use EasyGPS to convert them to GPX do not save them out of EasyGPS as LOC files because EasyGPS uses a nonstandard .loc format which can only be used by EasyGPS.

After installing the program, XP will have a shortcut icon on your desktop.  I'm not certain about Vista.   You can give the program a GPX file in any of these four ways:

You can drag and drop the GPX file on the shortcut icon. 

OR

You can drop it on the open program after starting it. 

OR

You can put your GPX file(s) in this folder:

XP users:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thots Utilities\Finds & Finders

Vista users:
C:\users\[username]\AppData\Thots Utilities\Finds & Finders

{thank Vista for this clumsy arrangement}

When the program starts you can choose from a list of the GPX files in the above folder. 

OR

If you click the Button-Bar of the first screen without selecting a file you will be given an opportunity to enter the full path and file name of the GPX file you want to use. 

Click Continue and the program will begin counting finds.  In order to minimize the load on geocaching.com the program has a limit/maximum of 49 caches.

The files containing the results are:
caches.txt
caches.csv
cachernames.txt
cachernames.csv

They are in your "My Documents" folder.