+Muggs Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Hello All, I want to start to map out some of my local parks walking and mtb trails and I would like to know what is the best software to use to "clean-up" and separate the tracks into individual trails that I will be uploading from my GPSr. MapSource doesn't seem to be very "friendly" in that area, but maybe I'm just not that bright. Muggs Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 I use Mapsource. I find the current track editing tools are really quite good. In addition to the trimming, joining type of tools, there are quite nice filtering tools. Quote Link to comment
GeoBobC Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Ditto Red90. Mapsource, and manually draw a line through the multiple tracks. I'm not aware of any software that can more intelligently find the best fit. Quote Link to comment
+Muggs Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 Thanks Red90, I'll go back and give it another go. Is this the appropriate place for me to ask these type of questions? Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Is this the appropriate place for me to ask these type of questions? Most certainly. Quote Link to comment
+Muggs Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 OK, After some messin' round I find it fairly accommodating. So... Here's my plan: 1. Ride around on my Mtn bike collecting data. 2. This will save as a track on my microSD card. 3. Maybe I'll make waypoints at the intersections and such. 4. I get home and get the track(s) off of the GPSr and upload them into MapSource. 5. In MapSource I'll make new tracks and draw over top of the uploaded track and call it "trail-1" etc. Does this sound like how most people do this kind of thing, or am I misssing something? Any help is welcome, Muggs Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 You don't need to draw over the tracks. Just trim and/or join the section(s) you want, name it and filter it (if desired). Quote Link to comment
+vwaldoguy Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 If you don't like the Mapsource editing tools, ExpertGPS offers some pretty user-friendly editing tools also. But, you have to pay for that software, but would be up to you to determine if the cost is justified. I think it's $50, and they offer a free trial period too to try before you buy. One thing that seems to be lacking in Mapsource (at least I couldn't find a way) was to add new points to your existing track. Maybe your GPS cut out, and you missed some data, or you want to jog the trail a little more to the right or left, etc. Adding new points in the middle of a track seemed hard to do IIRC, but again, I may just not have the right technique down for Mapsource. Quote Link to comment
+PDOP's Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 GPSTrackmaker (link) has a nice GUI for editing tracks. Quote Link to comment
+Muggs Posted January 22, 2009 Author Share Posted January 22, 2009 vwaldoguy, I own ExpertGPS, LOL. I completely forgot about it. I'll load it tomorrow and give it a try. It's probably three years since I last installed, and used it at all. Thanks for the thought, Muggs Quote Link to comment
GeoBobC Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 I think it depends what you're looking for. I use Mapsource, and recognize that no single track will be perfect. If I want a very accurate representation of a trail, for example, I will travel the trail at least four times to record four separate tracks. I then look at the tracks in Mapsource. If there is vast variation in the tracks, I will continue gathering more tracks until they begin to cluster. I will then use the freehand drawing tool in Mapsource to create what I believe is the best fit trail. If you don't need precision, you can use your actual track. It can be cut, spliced, and so far. You can easily add points, either by extending the track, or by using the Track Draw Tool to click a single point and then insert/append it to your master track. Quote Link to comment
+myotis Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 OK, After some messin' round I find it fairly accommodating. So... Here's my plan: 1. Ride around on my Mtn bike collecting data. 2. This will save as a track on my microSD card. 3. Maybe I'll make waypoints at the intersections and such. 4. I get home and get the track(s) off of the GPSr and upload them into MapSource. 5. In MapSource I'll make new tracks and draw over top of the uploaded track and call it "trail-1" etc. Does this sound like how most people do this kind of thing, or am I misssing something? Any help is welcome, Muggs Best thing is to make it into a custom map Quote Link to comment
Bob Morphew Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 ... One thing that seems to be lacking in Mapsource (at least I couldn't find a way) was to add new points to your existing track. .... It can be done with the Track Edit Tools. Split the track into sections with the Track Divide Tool and delete the part you want to modify. Use the Track Draw Tool to make the new track. Use the Track Join Tool to reconnect the new part to the existing parts. Bob Quote Link to comment
+vwaldoguy Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Aha, split track, add points, adjust, recombine. Many more steps than just a right-click, insert point, etc. but that will work. Quote Link to comment
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