Creating a Virtual Map

[Find-me]

I am looking for some help...

 

There are a large number of walking trails around here and they do not all show on a TOPO map. I was thinking about walking the trails with "track log" turned on so I could create a virtual map for myself and anyone else who had a similar GPS. This would, however, take a lot of time and I could miss some of the trails/branches.

 

I managed to find a map of one particular area as a jpeg file. I found that I could import this into Google Earth. With a little re-sizing and rotation, I was able to accurately superimpose this map image (set to semi-transparent) onto Google Earth. Using some features visible on GE and present on the map, I was able to get a pretty accurate overlay.

 

With the map in GE, I can use "add path" and go point-to-point around the trails; tracing the trails on the map. The path file can be parsed to create a series of waypoints that describe the trail. A separate "path" has to be created for each loop and branch in the trail system. The path can be saved as a .kml file which contains the desired information. From my experience, coordinate positions from GE are extremely close to what my Explorist reads.

 

I would like to take these waypoints and create a file that can be imported into my Explorist. Ideally, I would like to be able to "connect the dots" to create a virtual map or trail on the handheld unit. This would be terrific for hiking or geocaching. Although I haven't been at this long, I have often found myself hiking through the bush to a cache only to find another trail segment within 10' of the cache on the other side!

 

Does anyone know of a utility that can take a large series of waypoints (likely a couple of hundred) and create a "map" that can be brought into the GPS? I think I might be able to mimic the file format for a Magellan "track log" or "route file" but I'm not sure. Again, I would like to have this show as separate tracks visible at the same time rather than just a big series of points (as you would get with a large series of POI's). The "track log" may be the way to go but it includes information (time, altitude) that is not required for my purposes. I haven't played with route files very much.

 

I'm sure that this has been done before but I was quite surprised and pleased to see that Google Earth could interact with an electronic image of a map. The "path" utility is an easy way to mark a large number of waypoints without naming them and having a big bunch of waypoint icons on the screen. If I can get this to work for me, I plan to create virtual maps for a number of trails in my area. It could potentially be done with a scanned image of any map as long as it is scaled accurately.

 

Thanks

 

Find-me

[Find-me]

I have had some luck with this. I created a "path" in Google Earth and saved it as a KML file. I opened the KML file in MS Word and used "copy/paste" into a new document and "replace" to get rid of the stuff I didn't need and to add a line break between each data point pair. I copied the data and pasted into Excel where I could "parse" the comma delimited number pairs. I also copied a dummy track log from my Explorist into "Notepad", copied and pasted into Excel and pulled it apart using "text to columns" and "comma delimited". I had to change the format for the Lat/Long coordinates from decimal degrees to a format that matched what came from the Explorist. I recombined the data into a single column with commas in the appropriate places, changed from formulas to values, copied and pasted into Notepad where I could save back to the GPS. I paid no attention to the date, time or altitude portions of the file - just used whatever was already in the dummy file I started with. I suspect that you would need to at least make sure that the times were consecutive. The Explorist opened it as a track without any problem!!

 

With a little knowledge of MS Word and a lot more knowledge of how to do text string manipulations in Excel, this wasn't as complicated as it might sound. It took me around 30 minutes to do the first one but I think I could get it down to a few minutes per track. It doesn't matter how many points are included - it will still take essentially the same amount of time since I used formulas and "find and replace"

 

Now for the downside. It still isn't a map. It is just an apparent track log that I was able to create from Google Earth. Despite the fact that the track log includes information that isn't relevant (altitude, time, date), it displays better than a route file which has big POI icons (that I think I can change) and a bunch of messy text that can't (as far as I know) be suppressed on the GPS display. It is useful as a means of knowing where I am relative to any individual trail and where a particular geocache might be in relation to a trail as well.

 

I can only display one track log at a time so I will need to have virtual backtracks if I wish to see all of the trails at once in a given area. It also becomes a little messy if I want to record a track log for a particular hike. It will add to the "created" track log and although I can edit the track log after the fact, it is not ideal.

 

I haven't even begun to look at maps. I (so far) have not examined their data structure but I suspect it is a lot more complicated than the GPS Tracklog, POI, or Route files.

 

If anyone has any suggestions how I might be able to convert this data into a real map format that can be displayed on the GPS, I would be grateful. In the meantime, I'll plod along with my tracklogs created from the "Path" command in Google Earth and overlaid jpeg images of trail systems. I'll come back to this post if I carry the process any further.

 

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[+embra]

If anyone has any suggestions how I might be able to convert this data into a real map format that can be displayed on the GPS, I would be grateful. In the meantime, I'll plod along with my tracklogs created from the "Path" command in Google Earth and overlaid jpeg images of trail systems. I'll come back to this post if I carry the process any further.

You can import a Magellan track into AddMagMap, a shareware program, that will embed the track into a MapSend map. It's a little kludgey, but it works.

[+geomapper]

I have used a program called Sportsim, sportsim.com. The program will upload a track log from a gps and creates a route. You can then click a button and the program will import the route into Google Earth. Sportsim also has features that will show a profile of the route elevation. avg. speed, etc. It's a pretty cool application.

geomapper

[Find-me]

I haven't had any problem importing a route or track log into Google Earth - there seem to be a number of ways of doing this. What I have been trying to do is to import a "Path" from Google Earth to display as a map on the Explorist.

 

My first step was to overlay a jpeg map onto GE and use the Google "Path" to trace the trails. I was able to save the path file and parse out the lat/long information and create a tracklog file that the Explorist could recognize. I managed to do it but a visible tracklog is a poor substitute for a map.

 

The best solution is, of course, to be able to embed the track into a map that is compatable with the Explorist. I am going to try the program proposed by embra to see if this will work for me.

 

Find-me

[Find-me]

 

The best solution is, of course, to be able to embed the track into a map that is compatable with the Explorist. I am going to try the program proposed by embra to see if this will work for me.

 

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I tried "AddMagMap" <http://www.msh-tools.com/addmagmap/index.html> and had some difficulties. The program seems to be quite capable and should do EXACTLY as I wish but I could not get it to work with TOPO USA 3D (v1.5). TOPO crashes when I try to open it after adding detail. Thank goodness the AddMagMap program has an effective "undo"! I emailed the author and he has had reports that the program doesn't work with the DVD version but hasn't confirmed it himself.

 

I was trying to add detail to an area in Canada and although it isn't in the detailed map area, it is apparently supposed to work (at least for previous versions).

 

I'll update this thread if I get anywhere with the program.

 

Find-me