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.gpx in Google Earth?

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dhattman

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Aug 4, 2008, 3:26:44 AM8/4/08
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I have track logging turned on in my 60CSx and have 6 months of tracks
saved. What would be the easiest way to get all those tracks in a
single file for viewing in Google Earth? Is there any utility
application out there for working with .gpx files?

Thanks,
David Hattman

Jan Wielemaker

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Aug 4, 2008, 6:37:57 AM8/4/08
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You can use gpsbabel to create a KML file.

--- Jan

Thomas

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Aug 4, 2008, 6:42:29 AM8/4/08
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Just open it in Google...

Thomas


"dhattman" <dhat...@gmail.com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:fe7b3501-cf1e-47bf...@j7g2000prm.googlegroups.com...

Jack Erbes

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Aug 4, 2008, 9:06:56 AM8/4/08
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Put the GPS in the Mass Storage Mode and copy the one for each day *.gpx
files from the microSD card to your PC. You can use MapSource to edit
and merge the tracks, but I'd prefer almost any other good GPS utility.
Go to the Third Party Software link from here:

http://gpsinformation.net/

And you'll find a bunch of choices. My preference is for GPS Utility,
I've had that and used it from some years and the author does a great
job of keeping it up to date with new hardware.

http://www.gpsu.co.uk/

Here is how I would do it from MapSource.

First open two instances of MapSource. Then open one of the downloaded
gpx files. You'll find separate track segments in each *.gpx file for
the on/off and fix lost/regained cycles that occurred during the day.

You'll probably want to delete the numerous short (one or two points)
tracks that represent brief on and off cycles.

After you clean up a track segment (they can be renamed as you do that
too) save the edited track to the MapSource window you are working in
and then copy it and paste it into the second MapSource window.

Repeat the process for the second day. Then you can go to the window
with the cleaned up tracks, select them all on the Tracks user data tab
(you'll have to target one track and then use Select All from the Edit
menu, it is not offered from the right click menu).

With multiple tracks selected, right click one the selected tracks and
you'll be offered a choice to join the tracks.

The setting on your GPS receiver the way track points are collected. If
you have the setting based on distance, you'll get fewer points
collected when stationary and cleaner tracks. If you're collecting on
time you'll get a track point at that interval regardless of movements.

If you're collecting a very short intervals, some points may
occasionally be missed. I think that happens when the GPS receiver
software is busy doing other things like searches or redraws.

MapSource, in comparison to any other GPS utility I've ever used, is
very slow on opening *.gpx files. A large track file may take as long
as 15 seconds or more to open in MapSource and appears much like a "not
responding" application until you get used to it.

Jack

..
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Jack Erbes

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Aug 4, 2008, 9:08:59 AM8/4/08
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I forgot the rest of the process. The edited tracks can be saved to a
*.gpx file and that, I think, can be processed for viewing in Google
Earth. I've not done that and don't know how to do it.

Jack

--

Kristian M Zoerhoff

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Aug 4, 2008, 9:45:47 AM8/4/08
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On 2008-08-04, Jack Erbes <jack...@roadrunner.com> wrote:
> dhattman wrote:
>> I have track logging turned on in my 60CSx and have 6 months of tracks
>> saved. What would be the easiest way to get all those tracks in a
>> single file for viewing in Google Earth? Is there any utility
>> application out there for working with .gpx files?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David Hattman
>
>
> I forgot the rest of the process. The edited tracks can be saved to a
> *.gpx file and that, I think, can be processed for viewing in Google
> Earth. I've not done that and don't know how to do it.

Mapsource actually has a menu option to directly launch the tracks into Google
Earth for you. View//View in Google Earth.

--

Kristian Zoerhoff
kristian...@gmail.com

Dan Anderson

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Aug 4, 2008, 11:57:09 AM8/4/08
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Jack Erbes wrote:
[snip]

> MapSource, in comparison to any other GPS utility I've ever used, is
> very slow on opening *.gpx files. A large track file may take as long
> as 15 seconds or more to open in MapSource and appears much like a "not
> responding" application until you get used to it.

You must have a very fast computer. ;-) Try opening a .GPX file
containing about 50,000 trackpoints with MapSource. If it's
close to a minute or less, I'd be curious as to which version
of MapSource you are using and the speed of your computer.

I find MapSource to be so incredibly slow that I use GPS Babel
to convert the GPX file to a GDB file and open the GDB file with
MapSource. That process is much faster than with MapSource alone
although very inconvenient. The GPX files I'm working with
usually have more than 20,000 trackpoints.

I also use GPS Utility and ExpertGPS with GPX files. Like
GPS Babel, they open GPX files much, much faster.

--
Dan

Personal: www.gpsmap.net
Business:
Western Maps LLC
www.westernmaps.us

Nick

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Aug 4, 2008, 11:20:54 AM8/4/08
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I'm sure any of the methods suggested above would be fine, but I'd
recommend that you also look at DNR GARMIN, which is free, see:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/DNRGarmin/DNRGarmin.html

I use it all the time, it will load .gpx files and save them in
several useful formats, including .kml for Google Earth. It can be
used as an add-on for ArcView but also works stand-alone. It's good
for logging GPS data too.

Regards,
Nick H.

Jack Erbes

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Aug 4, 2008, 3:32:02 PM8/4/08
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Dan Anderson wrote:
> Jack Erbes wrote:
> [snip]
>> MapSource, in comparison to any other GPS utility I've ever used, is
>> very slow on opening *.gpx files. A large track file may take as long
>> as 15 seconds or more to open in MapSource and appears much like a "not
>> responding" application until you get used to it.
>
> You must have a very fast computer. ;-) Try opening a .GPX file
> containing about 50,000 trackpoints with MapSource. If it's
> close to a minute or less, I'd be curious as to which version
> of MapSource you are using and the speed of your computer.

Yeah, you're right, I was a little generous with that estimate. Of
course "..or more..." keeps me in the ballpark on the estimate. :>)

> I find MapSource to be so incredibly slow that I use GPS Babel
> to convert the GPX file to a GDB file and open the GDB file with
> MapSource. That process is much faster than with MapSource alone
> although very inconvenient. The GPX files I'm working with
> usually have more than 20,000 trackpoints.

I'll have to remember that. I think I have gone from downloaded tracks
to GPSU to *.gdb in the past but it was for other reasons. I did know
that was a lot faster.

> I also use GPS Utility and ExpertGPS with GPX files. Like
> GPS Babel, they open GPX files much, much faster.

Those are two essential softwares to me. I don't use them often any
more but they are seldom if ever stumped on getting something I want to
do done.

Jack

--

dhattman

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Aug 5, 2008, 12:23:30 PM8/5/08
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Thanks for all the help guys. I couldn't find any utility to collapse
multiple GPX files into one. I should have mentioned that I'm on a
Mac ;) Anyway, I was able to drag about 100 .gpx files at once into
Google Earth. Aside from the time consuming process having to press
'return' for every file (and GE spazzing around flying to the latest
file import location) it worked fine.

Message has been deleted

Nick

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Aug 7, 2008, 5:18:08 AM8/7/08
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On 7 Aug, 03:34, Pegleg <Peg...@usnavyret.mil> wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 08:20:54 -0700 (PDT), Nick <nhop...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/DNRGarmin...
> >rmin.html
>
> Page Not Found Error

Sorry, a long URL that probably got broken by wrapping. Try this:

http://tinyurl.com/5e4y7

Regards,
Nick H.

Simon Slavin

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Aug 7, 2008, 5:31:12 PM8/7/08
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On 05/08/2008, dhattman wrote in message <eaa3146a-dd10-4fb4-ba6f-
c8e84b...@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com>:


> Thanks for all the help guys. I couldn't find any utility to collapse
> multiple GPX files into one.

GPX files are just text files: they have a set beginning, a set ending,
and lots of points in between. You can open them in TextEdit and use copy-
and-paste to make one big file with all the points in. I probably would
write a script if I had a hundred of them, though.

Simon.
--
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk

Gordon Hamm

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Oct 4, 2008, 11:02:41 AM10/4/08
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OziExplorer(www.oziexplorer.com) will convert your tracks to .gpx and
upload them to
Google Earth.

Tom H.

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Oct 16, 2008, 8:31:18 PM10/16/08
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Mapsource has the option to save tracks in .gpx format. Then open those
files with Google Earth.

--
Tom
http://home.att.net/~tbharvey/
"Gordon Hamm" <gch...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:2008100408024116807-gchamm@gmailcom...

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