Makin Trail Maps

[+skippysan]

Hello everybody...

 

I use a Garmin 60CS and MapSource Topo and am in the process of making a map of a local trail system. Does anyone know of any software or methods for averaging/consolidating multi tracks down the same trail into one track? Also, I can't seem to find anyway to export my new map into something like an Adobe product for output or scalability.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

jake

[+briansnat]

I don't know of any, but I'm also not sure is necessary. The line for a trail on a 1:50000 scale topo map will show a trail to be approximately 100 feet wide, which is well within the EPE of most GPSes.

 

Of course this will vary greatly with the thickness of the line and scale of the map, but that fact makes pinpoint accuracy unecessary, if not impossible.

[+Hard Oiler]

I've done this using Fugawi which will let you calibrate basemaps from various sources (I have use scanned paper topos and aerial photos) and import tracks and waypoints. Have never found the need to average but what you will find is that the GPS is, in some cases, more reliable than the map your using. Not unusual in topos for rivers, streams and trails to be off by more than your GPS error for example.

 

I use Photoshop Elements to finalize with the map, track, waypoints and added text on different layers so you can easily make changes later. The end result is quite effective. Aerial or satellite photos make great bases for maps in trail brochures.

[+Timpat]

...I use a Garmin 60CS and MapSource Topo and am in the process of making a map of a local trail system. Does anyone know of any software or methods for averaging/consolidating multi tracks down the same trail into one track? Also, I can't seem to find anyway to export my new map into something like an Adobe product for output or scalability...

There is no way to average or consolidate multiple tracks, but there IS a way you can accomplish what you are describing.

 

There is a free 3rd party software program called USAPhotoMaps that you can download your Garmin Map60CS track data (and waypoints) with and display it over either USGS topo or TerraServer.com aerial photography.

 

I use it all the time with my 60C for precisely this purpose. It works with Garmin USB also. This program is awesome to view and edit your data, and you can save the maps (and photos) as a screen .jpg image. You can convert this .jpg to a .pdf document in Adobe if you want, or work with the .jpg image with any program.

 

Once you have your track data downloaded and displayed, you can edit the tracks by holding the right-click mouse over track points and manually pull them to make a best fit track out of your multi-tracks, and save the best one for your purpose.

 

It is a bit more involved, but you can also create a GIS world file for each map or image to georeference them in UTM NAD83 datum. I work in the GIS field and use them often to work with my GIS projects.

 

Hope this helps,

Timpat

[+skippysan]

Wow thanks for the tips! I started playing around with a trial version of ExpertGPS last night and it seemed to do the king of things I wanted it to do... except for being able to drag track points around.

 

I get the point about a 20ft error on a map, but I was hoping to make a scalable pdf that someone could use to zoom in to one particular trail and see the curves and turns.

 

I will try your suggestions out and let you guys know how it went!

 

jake

[+hardwire]

Topofusions has a feature to average trails, that works pretty good. TheirHomePage They call it creating a Network. MergeTrails

 

I usually go out on trails, then average (make network) them for documenting on a TopMap....

Edited May 1, 2005 by hardwire

[+GOT GPS?]

The best software I ever used for drawing tracks over a bunch of downloaded tracklogs, is Street Atlas 6, and I did this for a very long trail system that is 34 miles long, and many hikes. There is no elevations in the drawn tracklog though.

[Vlad]

i haven't tried this and since my mapsource install has crashed along with my D drive i can't even look at this right now...

 

i'm thinking there must be some way to export track data to some application (easygps, fugawi, ozi, memory map etc) that would give you the ability to export to excel. once you had mulitple track data loaded into excel you could use the averaging function there to give you a single track line.

 

you could probably get the data back into your gps the same way.

 

again, just a thought - after i've rebuilt my system over the next week i'll give this some research.

[peter]

Exporting the data to Excel is easy, e.g. G7toWIN lets you save the data as a .csv text file which can be read directly by Excel. But getting a properly averaged tracklog is trickier since the points differ in both their x and y values.

 

One approach would be to use a spline function to define a smooth curve through each of the tracklogs which would then let you average multiple values at specific intervals. But unless you've got a huge amount of data to process, I'm not sure you'd gain anything over just eyeballing the multiple tracklogs and using your mouse to click on your best judgement of the average path. That also has the advantage that you can spot obvious outlier points and ignore their contribution. You may also have specific knowledge about the trail that can improve the accuracy of key points - for example, if you know that a certain turn happened at a trail junction then you can show it as a very sharp corner even if most of the tracklogs cut the corner and don't actually show the exact junction spot.

 

I second Timpat's recommendation of USPhotoMaps for this application. You can upload and display all the tracklogs, see them over either USGS topo maps or aerial photos, and then manually create a cleaned-up tracklog. The program lets you create this either by just clicking with your mouse at appropriate points or by taking the trackpoints in one of the existing logs and moving them slightly to improve the accuracy.

[+gnbrotz]

Wow thanks for the tips! I started playing around with a trial version of ExpertGPS last night and it seemed to do the king of things I wanted it to do... except for being able to drag track points around.

ExpertGPS does allow you to drag track points. The first click on a track makes it the "active track" and dots appear at the beginning of each leg. Another click on any give dot (trackpoint), makes it active and you can drag it where you want it. One small trick: you need to use the white arrow ("Select Tool") to select the track and point, then switch to black arrow with the four-way pointer next to it ("Move Selected Tool") to drag it where you want it.

[+skippysan]

I did find that I could move tracks in ExpertGPS... I "averaged" my tracks visually and just snipped out the spikes and abberations. It worked fairly well, but it is a little expensive for how much I will use it.

 

My problem with USAPhotoMaps is that it crashes everytime I try to import the tracks from my 60CS. I even tried exporting it as .csv and importing it into USAPhotoMaps, but the same thing happened...

 

jake

[JDMC]

I just fixed that bug in USAPhotoMaps. Sorry about that...

[+skippysan]

So should I just download it again and everything will be hunky dory?

[+JeepCachr]

I did find that I could move tracks in ExpertGPS... I "averaged" my tracks visually and just snipped out the spikes and abberations. It worked fairly well, but it is a little expensive for how much I will use it.

You've got a 60cs and mapsource topo and you think expertGPS costs to much? Spend the money and register it, you'll find it can do a lot more than this one specialized thing your asking for right now.