Routes versus tracks

As you know if you use our mapping software there is a distinction, which comes from the GPX standard, between:

• a route - somewhere you intend to do and will probably intend to load onto your GPS

• a track - somewhere where you've been and recorded using your GPS

Sometimes you may not have recorded your track² during your walk (perhaps you don't even have a GPS) but you would still like to have a record of where you've walked. You can do this with our software in two ways:

1. If you are going to write a walk report here on the forum then you can create a route¹, save it, and then upload it as an attachment to your report and put it "in-line". Our forum software treats a route just like a track in this situation and displays it as if it were a track, including the start point, with a little WalkLakes signpost. Here's an example, my very own post A gentle walk up Latrigg (see also our walk The old Keswick Railway Line and Latrigg which more or less goes the same way). I had no gear with me at the time and especially not at GPS, so the map there is created using a route. And here's that route GPX again which I just added as an attachment to this post:

1. You can edit the route GPX file and turn it into a track. This is very easy to do if you have a text editor. By this I don't mean word processing software like MS/Word but something like Notepad for Windows or vi or emacs for Linux. I'm sure there's equivalent editors for Mac.

So, taking that GPX route above as an example, the GPX file will look like this (skipping some of the route points in the middle ):

<?xml version="1.0"?> <gpx version="1.1" creator="The Hug - http://maps.the-hug.net/" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlnssi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd"> <rte> <name>New Route</name> <rtept lat="54.603634351175" lon="-3.1308835784975"> <name>1:</name> </rtept> <rtept lat="54.603392666151" lon="-3.1230590189807"> <name>2:</name> </rtept> <rtept lat="54.603887059688" lon="-3.118196087238"> <name>3:</name> </rtept> [...] <rtept lat="54.604455819326" lon="-3.1309760173813"> <name>26:</name> </rtept> <rtept lat="54.60350806391" lon="-3.1314141708089"> <name>27:</name> </rtept> </rte> </gpx>

Now all you need to do is a global search and replace finding the characters "rte" and replacing them with "trk".

So your file will then look like this (I've also changed its name to "New Track"):

<?xml version="1.0"?> <gpx version="1.1" creator="The Hug - http://maps.the-hug.net/" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlnssi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd"> <trk> <name>New Track</name> <trkpt lat="54.603634351175" lon="-3.1308835784975"> <name>1:</name> </trkpt> <trkpt lat="54.603392666151" lon="-3.1230590189807"> <name>2:</name> </trkpt> <trkpt lat="54.603887059688" lon="-3.118196087238"> <name>3:</name> </trkpt> [...] <trkpt lat="54.604455819326" lon="-3.1309760173813"> <name>26:</name> </trkpt> <trkpt lat="54.60350806391" lon="-3.1314141708089"> <name>27:</name> </trkpt> </trk> </gpx>

Save that file and you've now got a track GPX only without elevation data, but that's allowed in the standard.

Hope this helps people.

1. A route describes where you are intending to go, point by point. For more information click here.
2. A track records where you have been and when you were there. For more information click here.

Hi,

I have just been up the Fairfield Horseshoe today having created the original route in your mapping software. When I finished the walk I converted the route into a track but when I tried to reload the track back onto your mapping software tonight I received the following error message:

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /var/www/hosts/www.walklakes.co.uk/www/maps/html_parser.inc on line 1

Notwithstanding the information in your post above, is there anything else I can do to make the File load up? I use a Satmap Active 10 Plus GPS if that's any help.

Many thanks.

Dave

Sorry that didn't work for you. If you would like to mail me at a copy of the GPX file which failed to load I can take a look at it for you and see if I can work out what went wrong.