Question

I found the tool to find out which degree sector is missing. How can I query for caches in that specific direction?

Answer 1

Actually you do NOT have to be a PGC paying member to use the 360 tool.  The difference is that paying members do not have imposed limitations whereas non paying do.  I have used the tool as both a non-paying and a paying member. When I learned this, I had a Premium membership with geocaching.com.

After clicking on this link, https://project-gc.com/w/360_from_home the manual explains the functionality in easy to understand detail.  Here are the steps:

1. Click on the link from the Tools drop down, you will be presented with an Overview.  

2 Click on the Map tab to give you the interactive part of the tool.  

3. Click on a beam/ray and it will turn blue.  Give it a few seconds and it will display the caches needed to turn it from red to green.  If you see no caches then zoom out and pan.  There is no limit on how far away from center it will map.

4. Hover and click on a cache icon to display key details and open it in the geocaching.com website.

Keep in mind, you may not see something show.  What I do is to toggle a beam/ray off then back on again by clicking in order to see the caches display.  I have found this happen occasionally to me but I was not put off by it.  It takes a little practice but, once you get the hang of it, the tool is powerful and really awesome to use.

Comments

I cannot, unfortunately, confirm this assessment.
In the manual linked by you it says:

In development

The tool is still in development. As for now the preview is only available to paying members. The final tool is likely to be available to free users as well, though the functionality will most likely be quite limited. Virtual GPS is a paid feature for example, but there most likely will be other limitations as well.

And, indeed, if I open the link (as a normal member) all I get is an explanation what the limitations for normal members are (which are fine), some ads (which is also fine) and another box saying that you also need to be a paying member of geocaching.com (which, as already mentioned in another thread, does not really seem to make sense, as there does not seem to be any more PMO-related stuff involved in the tool than in other functionalities on PGC).

And that’s where it stops for normal members. Thus, for the time being, no functionality at all. Therefore, all we can hope for at this moment, is that indeed at some stage the development of the tool will progress and the limited functionality for normal members announced in the above cited text will be implemented.

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I have confirmed it.  I used the tool as a non-paying member and I got it to work fine for me.

Still in development means they will expand it to provide further functionality such as for Virtual GPS which is only available to paying members.

I would not have posted disinformation or misleading information.  I always test things out before I post here.

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This is very strange, indeed, because I have tried it quite a number of times during the last months including twice today logging into the tool via different ways (to exclude problems which might arise as a function of from where you enter the tool) but the result is consistently the same and as described above.
Apparently this is a bug which seems to hit only certain members (or only me; which is not excluded as sometimes the "+" in my nickname causes problems).
In order to test this, maybe you could do me a favour? Is there a possibility to run the tool for a different user (as you can do for challenge checkers, map compare and all the statistics tools)? If that is the case would you be kind enough to run it with my nickname (k+gw+a), please, and see whether you, indeed, get a different result, i.e. a result at all.
Thanks!

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Thanks for the speedy responses.  I was just not patient enough using the tool.  Turns out the closest non-puzzle cache to fill in my "360" is around 120 miles away.

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@k+gw+a unfortunately I would need your login to run it under your name and that would not be a good idea.

OK, I looked up your profile and ZenGuru on geocaching.com you are not a premium member but ZenGuru and I are.  So, it is possible that could be the reason that it's not working for you.  I can't test that hypothesis because I do not have a static account on geocaching.com or even PGC like an admin would have.

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Indeed, it would not help logging in under my account as then the result would inevitably be the same as if I do it myself. I conclude, therefore, that there is no possibility on the tool to run it for somebody else (as said above, this is possible for practically all the other features of PGC; e.g. while still being logged in to my account I could run a challenge checker and see whether you qualify for a certain challenge).
And yes, as already stated a couple of messages above – maybe not explicitly enough–, I am not a paying member on either PGC or geocaching.com. And therefore we are back at square one, i.e. that at the moment the tool does not work for normal members (of PGC and geocaching.com).
Although I still think this is a bug as I cannot see what PMO functionality would be used in the 360° tool compared to e.g. the hidden month tool or the D/T matrix tool, which all work perfectly fine for normal members, too, with the exception, of course, that you don’t see the co-ordinates of any PMO caches and they don’t appear on the map.

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I have given some thought to your latest comment.  It is purely speculation, but I believe that the 360 tool probably does not have the programming to distinguish between geocaching.com basic and PMO caches so PGC has it turned off to those with only basic on geocaching.com.  It is the all or none principle.  Since there are other features that require both the PMO and the PGC paid member to be active, it makes sense this one could also be in this category.  I don't believe it is a bug but simply a requirement that could very well come directly from geocaching.com.

Remember, all of the above is purely speculation based only on inference with no tangible evidence since I do not work for either organization.

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This might be an explanation although I do not think it is very likely. As said above, all the other tools do not have this problem.
What happens on geocaching.com as on PGC when it comes to PMO-caches is normally the following: they appear in lists of results but are not shown on the maps and if you click on them in the list you just get some basic information like D/T and CO, which is publicly available and also included in the list, but no co-ordinates. Again, as said, PGC does not seem to have any problem dealing with PMO caches in this way, whether tools like "map compare" are concerned or "hidden date" or "D/T matrix".
Of course, I do not know how these tools are programmed, but intuitively I would assume that there is just one handler to deal with PMO caches to which those tools refer when it comes to mapping results. Any other way would be much too difficult to maintain. Therefore, it does at first sight not seem logical why the 360° tool should be the only one which does not handle PMO caches in this way (and I am not aware of any other PGC tool which would not work at all because it cannot deal with PMO caches).
But, me too, I am not working for PGC or geocaching.com either, so also in my case this is pure assumption based on logical reasoning, not knowledge.

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It is a bit difficult to get a list of caches not found by clicking on each sector. It would be great if it can be automated.

Answer 2

In principle here: https://project-gc.com/Tools/360home

However, the tool is still under development. I understand that at some stage limited functionality will be available for all users of PGC. At the moment you have to be a paying member to use the tool.