Elevation Change on Track Profile?

[backtrack9]

I must say, this program is very powerful and useful to all that enjoy the outdoors.  I am greatly impressed.  There is one small feature I think could be added which would be worthwhile.  The elevation change (given in say -  meter of rise/2 meters of run) represented on the track profile.  I know the absolute elevation is given and where the colors change rapidly there is a large elevation change, but it would be nice to see this directly.  I also am aware there will be a lot of noise in this information.  You might be able to do something similar with a selectable menu similar to the Climbing Analysis page where you can determine the level of elevation gradient to choose from (mm rise/mm run, m rise/m run, m rise/5 m run, km rise/km run, etc…).  This should be easy since you have the elevation profile of the track.  Say the gradient is chosen as m rise/5 m run, then take the elevation at the starting point and then at 5 m down the track and subtract them and divide the difference by 5.  From the start to 5m down the track that segment will have the calculated gradient.  Just continue to do this all the way down the track until the end.  Give low gradients a light color and the high gradients a red color.  I hope this feature could be added easily.  I think it could add a valuable visual aid to this already great program.

[Krein]

Hi.

Thanks for the idea and interest.  I am in the process of revamping the profile tool, so this comes at a good time.

I will look at some different ways of showing the gradient and see if I can come up with something useful/cool.

Thanks.

[alizhan]

A "gradient" mode would be quite nice, yes. I would point out the obvious, though, that gradients can be both positive and negative when the track is viewed directionally. This can be handled nicely by having two coloring modes: one where positive and negative are colored differently, and one where they are colored the same. The same track can then be viewed in terms of directional grade, or in terms of absolute grade.

As for colors used, I would like to be able to change them. Most of the colors used right now in the elevation coloring show up pretty well, but the white used at the highest elevations often fades into the background on my monitor. It'd be nice to define my own rainbow, to match my usage better. Of course, with my recent record on asking for features already present, this is probably already possible. :roll:

Smoothing in raw elevation mode could be useful to eliminate bogus points. Maybe the algorithm used in your Climbing Analysis could be adapted. So long as we can turn it off...

Finally, it would be nice to be able to specify elevation limits and defaults. All recorded elevations get clipped to the low and high limits. All unknown elevations get defaulted to either a fixed value, or to the elevation as pulled from available DEM data (IIRC, you can insert the DEM elevations into the track already, so this is just a non-destructive version of the same idea). Similarly, an option to ignore the recorded elevation, and use only the DEM data could be useful.

   -- Mark