Author Topic: Uploading Combined Tracks (Read 9138 times)

Troy Hartman · « **on:** May 30, 2005, 08:53:12 AM »

I had several tracks that I downloaded from my Garmin etrex GPS. I edited stray legs and combined the tracks and uploaded the single saved track to the Active Log. The problem is that the Garmin now shows long straight lines between points that were not showing in Topofusion.

I'm assuming it is redrawing the "missing" data but is there a Â way to keep this from happening?

Krein · « **Reply #1 on:** May 30, 2005, 02:10:23 PM »

When you combined the tracks they went into a single track, which means they are connected. After you save the merged tracks into a file, just go back through and use the scissors to cut the merge points, then you'll they shouldn't be linked anymore.

Or, just upload each tracklog seperately.

Good luck.

Troy Hartman · « **Reply #2 on:** May 30, 2005, 03:14:35 PM »

I did use the scissors to cut them out but when I loaded it back into the GPS the long straight lines were there again (I did delete all of the original tracks so I'm not looking at multiple tracks - the edited track is the only one in the GPS). The GPS is acting like it has to make the track one contiguous track so it reconnects the missing lines.

Krein · « **Reply #3 on:** May 30, 2005, 05:05:31 PM »

Ok, I'm not sure how the different units behave when you upload to the active log. As far as I can remember my 60CS can handle multiple tracks in an upload by using the 'new track' flag, as TopoFusion does.

Maybe I'm not understanding what you're doing. Do you have multiple tracks or just a single track? If a single track (as you wrote here) then it should all be connected -- it's a single track.

I don't know what you mean by missing data. Maybe if you explain a bit more about what you're doing.

My other thought, though, is to try uploading to saved tracks. Each track (there can be multiple per file) will go to a different saved tracks and they will not be connected.

Troy Hartman · « **Reply #4 on:** May 30, 2005, 08:54:53 PM »

Let me take a step back. I started at camp and followed a trail along a river and made a track with the GPS. There were parts of the track where the GPS lost signal and didn't track anything. When I went back through that same trail I made a new track to fill in the missing parts.

Next, I transferred these multiple tracks to Topo and then combined them. When I transferred them back to the GPS the track shows a straight line from camp to the first point where I started tracking the missing spots on my 2nd trip out. The combined track on the GPS also shows the original track along the river. So, I have this correct track along the river and this other straight line that shoots through the forest that is incorrect.

I loaded it back into Topo and used the scissors to remove that straight line and it looked correct in Topo. But, when I saved it back to the GPS the straight line came back again.

Thanks for your input. By the way, I have spent 3 years looking for good mapping software and this is the best out there.

Krein · « **Reply #5 on:** May 30, 2005, 09:15:03 PM »

Troy,

Glad you like the program.

Did you run the trail in the same direction the second time? It might be that some sections are backwards.

Send the files to smorris@topofusion.com and I can take a look. Also, what GPS unit are you using?

Krein · « **Reply #6 on:** June 01, 2005, 07:30:21 PM »

Ok, in the two files you sent me it looks like you had cut some of the extra lines, but not all of them. So if you uploaded that file (the 6-01-05 file) you should definitely get lines between your tracks.

Maybe you sent the wrong file?

Troy Hartman · « **Reply #7 on:** June 09, 2005, 06:31:35 PM »

Just got back from camping. Sorry for the delay in posting. The 2 files I sent happened as such:

The 5-31-05 file was the one I edited and removed the straight lines. I then uploaded it to my GPS and the lines came back. I then downloaded that back to TP and named the track 6-1-05. I did not edit 6-1-05....again, that was the result after uploading the edited file to my GPS. The only difference between the 2 files was that it was sent to my GPS and then back with no editing.

Hope that helps.

Krein · « **Reply #8 on:** June 09, 2005, 06:54:13 PM »

OK, that makes a little more sense, but I still see that the first file has most, if not all, of the lines still there.

In fact there's only two tracks in the 5-31 file, which means you only cut one of the lines?

Troy Hartman · « **Reply #9 on:** June 09, 2005, 07:38:47 PM »

I have another great example I'll email you that might make more sense. It's from my recent horse riding trip. I tracked everything the entire time. I cleaned up the track then made a network. The final result looks great on TF but when I upload it to the GPS all of these straight lines show up. I downloaded that back to TF and will email that to you as well.

By the way, I haven't reported this yet but each time I start TF version 2.6 I get the following error:

Exception: Access Violation, in AddLayer, loading file

I press OK and the program continues to load and seems to run fine.

Troy Hartman · « **Reply #10 on:** June 10, 2005, 08:31:13 PM »

Scott, I noticed that the tracks in the files I sent you were broken into separate segments so I used the Profile Tool to merge the tracks. Those same straight lines appeared in TP when I selected multiple segments. Ultimately what I'm trying to accomplish is when I map an entire forest over many different days I want to merge all of those tracks into one contiguous track. I can't seem to get this to happen without these straight lines cutting across the entire map to a different track point.

Krein · « **Reply #11 on:** June 11, 2005, 05:46:39 PM »

Quote (Troy Hartman @ June 10 2005,9:31)

Scott, I noticed that the tracks in the files I sent you were broken into separate segments so I used the Profile Tool to merge the tracks. Those same straight lines appeared in TP when I selected multiple segments. Ultimately what I'm trying to accomplish is when I map an entire forest over many different days I want to merge all of those tracks into one contiguous track. I can't seem to get this to happen without these straight lines cutting across the entire map to a different track point.

OK. So if you're merging a contiguous track from multiple tracks the order that the track is stored in becomes important. You get those lines if the segment you just added is stored in the reverse order.

So, hit the 'v' key if you get a line from the end of your merged track to the last segment. Or, right click and choose 'reverse last segment.'

I guess when you uplaod to the active log it was merging them for you and the same problem was happening -- since some sections are reversed you get lines. Let me know if this helps you or not.

Troy Hartman · « **Reply #12 on:** June 13, 2005, 09:10:01 PM »

You may be on to something here that might be a "nature of the beast" thing that goes along with GPS tracking. I tried the reverse segment and it gave me a straight line in a different spot. Let me distill it down to a simple example that would be similar to how I might track. Maybe there's a different way for me to track it or maybe there's a different way for the software to merge it.

Let's say there's a square trail that I'm tracking. The bottom leg we'll call "A" and going clockwise the left side is "B", top is "C", and right is "D". Camp is at the bottom right corner of "A" and "D".

On day one I leave camp and go left to track leg "A"...the bottom leg and go back to camp.

On day two I start at camp and go up and track leg "D" and "C" and then go back the same trail to camp.

On day three I go back out leg "A" and continue to segment "B" and follow a trail that shot out from the side of leg "B" that went out for a mile and stopped so I had to come back the same trail to join back up to leg "B" and to finish leg "B". I go back leg "B" and leg "A" to camp. Now the entire square is tracked from these 3 days along with the offshoot from leg "B".

I download these tracks to TF and want to join them in one contiguous track. Is that possible?

This is essentially what I have been trying to do. When I use the Profile Tool and/or Make Network I end up with straight lines from that offshoot back to some other point on the square or straight lines from a point from Day One to a point from Day Two etc.

Should I only be using the Profile Tool in this case instead of the Make Network? Or, is there some better way to track this. In short, I'm trying to use these 3 different days to effectively create one trail map/track of the forest I'm tracking.

Krein · « **Reply #13 on:** June 13, 2005, 09:17:31 PM »

Yes, you should be able to do what you describe using first Make Network to eliminate the duplicates (where you walked out and back) and second, the profile/merge tool to merge up your completed track.

Make Network should leave any lines crossing segments. If there are lines to begin with (from your GPS) cut them first with the scissors.