track reduction to 500 points

[dusty sweep]

I am using roadtrip with a garmin 60scx.

Once I have downloaded my track to roadtrip (currently using oz topo in roadtrip) how do I reduce the track points to 500 points so when I upload it to the garmin the track is not truncated.

I used to be able to do it on the pc by clicking track properties and altering it to 500 points but with roadtrip it does not have that facility.

What does it mean if the track is truncated on the gps

[mlenser]

Never used RoadTrip so I can't really help there. If your 60CSx has a microSD card installed you can set it up to save all its track data directly to the card then download them to MapSource to reduce to 500 points to be uploaded as a saved track file for navigation use.
Truncated means that the track file is shortened. As I understand it because the gps can only hold 10,000 points in normal memory, once the file gets longer the first points are deleted from memory. Basically you'll only ever have the last 10,000 (could be 3,000 by default in the gps's settings) in the gps's memory. By setting the gps up as above with the microSD card even though it still only displays the last 10,000 points they are ALL saved to the card in gpx format. I've had track files recorded at 1/sec that were in excess of 18,000 points. By the way if you do set up the gps to record to microSD card it will split the file when ever the date changes (e.g. midnight). Go over to the OpenStreetMaps section of the forum for a post on recording track points if you want.

[Michael]

Why do you want to upload a track to the GPS from the Mac?
If it is to re-trace somewhere you have been before, why not use waypoints & a route?

[dusty sweep]

I mainly use the gps for offroad riding.

We have many different loops that we do.

Sometimes I will make a new loop or take part of one loop and join it with another etc.

I also only like to have 1 or 2 tracks saved to the gps for the area that I am riding in.

Just keeps the gps tidy

[dusty sweep]

then download them to MapSource to reduce to 500 points to be uploaded as a saved track file for navigation use.

Thanks for your help I have been using a pc with mapsource and am aware of all this.

My problem is that Roadtrip does not seem to have the function to reduce it to 500 points.

Trying to find out if roadtrip has the function or am I just missing something

[dusty sweep]

How do you set gamin 60csx to record to sd card.

Will it make the gps any slower while navigating etc

[Michael]

Press 'PAGE' untill you get to the Tracks page.
Use arrows to highlight 'Setup'
Press 'ENTER'
Use arrows to highlight 'Data Card Setup'
Press 'ENTER'
Again press 'ENTER' to put a tick beside 'Log Track To Data Card'
Press 'QUIT' to return to the page you want to be on.

No difference to navigation time, response/refresh of info.

[jcd]

I had a quick play with RoadTrip and the only way I could find to do something like this was to create a new route (Edit Menu), then drag the track you are wanting to reduce to the new route window. This automagically reduces the number of points, but you don't seem to have any control over how they are reduced. The new route then pretty closely follows the track it was created from, so you can then upload the new route to your GPS.

Bye Jeff.

[dusty sweep]

Thanks for the replies boys.

Time to play with gps and road trip.

Will let you know if I have any further questions

[dusty sweep]

Ok so I tried the route thing and that was just terrible.

It really did not give me enough detail on the map.

When I ride I like to have the track on the gps and I then use it as a reference point if I am not sure where to turn etc. I am only look at it a few times on a ride.

The reason I download the tracks off the gps is i need to edit them on the computer and make different loops and then I upload the different loops back to the gps. That way I can say
"we are going to ride Loop A today" and its easy just to pull that loop A up on my track list and view it on the map.

I set the gps to log tracks to the sd card.

I have a few tracks that are over 500 points but there seems no way to reduce them when uploading them from road trip to the 60 csx

This is not a problem if I do it on the pc using mapsource but I prefer using the mac and road trip

[jcd]

I was just having a look at a program called myTracks on my mac (its meant to link photos with gps data) and it has a Simplify tracks option which allows you to specify the number of points to reduce the track to. It reads and writes .gpx files so you should be able to get your date into it (it also is supposed to read straight off the gps but I haven't tried that) and out of it.

Here is link to it on versionttacker :-

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/34090

Bye Jeff.

[dusty sweep]

Thanks jeff

Will look into it

[Treadly]

If you put your tracks onto OSM maps and then download the map onto your garmin you don't need to worry about tracks as they're part of the map.

For the record, in Gartrip you can reduce the number of points in a track, it does it by removing every second point. You can do it multiple times.

[dusty sweep]

Jeff

Ok just played around with it and it works

It is a tedious way of getting the original track to 500 points but it works.(to much importing and exporting for my liking)

Is there not a way of saving a track to the garmin 60csx that is more than 500 points without it being truncated. (bearing in mind that I load the original tack to roadtrip, edit it, and then send it back to the 60csx)

I can see my tracklog on the sd card but I cant seem to access any of the maps.

I can only delete the track log

Cheers

Mark

[dusty sweep]

If you put your tracks onto OSM maps and then download the map onto your garmin you don't need to worry about tracks as they're part of the map.

For the record, in Gartrip you can reduce the number of points in a track, it does it by removing every second point. You can do it multiple times.


What is OSM maps (pardon my ignorance)

I am assuming Gartrip is pc based.(if so it does not help me)

Thanks for your help

[Treadly]

OSM stands for Open Street Map.
It's a website where you can upload your tracks to, and edit them on a map. Anybody can contribute. The maps are processed and made into a form used by Garmin GPSs. The process requires a bit of learning but is not that difficult.
The maps are free. The only drawback is that only areas that people have mapped will appear on the map. There's about 25000 km of tracks added per day to OSM.

Go to http://www.openstreetmap.org/index.html


Yes Gartrip is a PC based program.

Have you thought of saving the track in sections? The GPS60CS allows you to save sections of a track, you could save it as two or more tracks.

[dusty sweep]

I can't believe it can be that hard

There has got to be a easier way

The way I would like to do it is the the way mapsource on the pc does it.

You simply open the map double click on it, reduce track points to 500 and hey presto, its done.

Why cant we do that on the mac or am I missing something :soapbox

[jcd]

I can't believe it can be that hard

There has got to be a easier way

The way I would like to do it is the the way mapsource on the pc does it.

You simply open the map double click on it, reduce track points to 500 and hey presto, its done.

Why cant we do that on the mac or am I missing something :soapbox

It is not so much a mac vs pc thing as Garmin haven't included all the features of Mapsource in Roadtrip. Garmin's MacOSX web page is here :- http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/
It might be worth trying to contact Garmin support to request this feature be added to Roadtrip some time in the future. However, it is probably something you will only do once per track that you want to keep, i.e. download from gps to roadtrip, save as .gpx, read into myTracks, simplify and save as new .gpx, import back into roadtrip and keep it there until you want to upload to your GPS.

I have found Roadtrip pretty good for managing the small number of tracks and waypoints I use with my Etrex Legend HCx and I've never tried to upload a track back to the GPS from the computer, I've only uploaded waypoints and routes. I predominantly use the tracks on my mac to geotag my photos and to see where I've been (using Shonky maps within Roadtrip).

I'll try and have a play with uploading tracks to my GPS on the weekend and see how it goes.

Bye Jeff.

[dusty sweep]

Thanks Jeff

I agree with everything you said.

I am happy to put this topic to bed as I know what has to be done.

Like you said if garmin would just put the feature into roadtrip it would make life so much easier.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers

Mark :hatoff