Author Topic: Entering elapsed time (Read 4373 times)

Annie · « **on:** July 30, 2007, 06:43:06 AM »

Hello, Im new. Just got the basic version. LOVE it. I ride horses in competitive endurance events. I understand that not all the features will apply to the horse, but I cant find how to enter the elapsed time. I dont have a GPS. I use the air photo maps, Im very good at finding my favorite ride trails on them, I have figured out how to do the distance, elevations, grade, all but the elapsed time. I cant find where to enter than so I can end up knowing what my average pace/speed was. I hope I dont have to have a GPS to do this with. Thanks, Annie

Krein · « **Reply #1 on:** July 30, 2007, 07:56:05 AM »

Hi Annie,

Glad you're enjoying the program.

To your question, I don't think there's any way to do what you're envisioning. All of the time related computations operate on the timestamps that are associated with each point on a track. If you just draw a track, and add elevation, you won't have any timestamps. So, yes, you pretty much need a GPS to look at average speed, etc.

I could give some thought to giving an option to *add* time data to a GPX file. It probably wouldn't be that hard. Something that might be useful, as well, is a time *predictor* function. Give a route, with elevation, and using mode of transportation (or based on a set of tracks that do have time data) predict the amount of time it would take to cover the terrain.

I'll jot something down in the ideas list to this effect. Thanks for commenting and don't hesitate to ask further questions.

Annie · « **Reply #2 on:** July 30, 2007, 08:29:07 AM »

Well I dont need to know the time it would take, I need to know the average speed for covering the trail that I have already done. I need to know how fast I have ridden the trail. . Thats why I bought the program. And now it is virtualy useless to me . So Do I now have to go buy a GPS and learn that? GPS is probably way over my 'smart' level,

Krein · « **Reply #3 on:** July 30, 2007, 08:49:30 AM »

Hi,

Right, I was just thinking out loud about the 'prediction time' - I didn't say you needed it. It was an idea, that's all!

I doubt that a GPS would be over your head -- they are pretty easy to use these days.

Once you have the distance (from TopoFusion) just divide that distance by your elapsed time (in hours) and you'll have your average speed. All it takes is inputing two numbers into a calculator.

I agree that it would be nice if TF did this, but for various reasons, the design of the program would need to be seriously altered in order to accomodate this easy calculation. One reason is there is no standard way to store "elapsed time" in a GPX file -- except by the timestamps with each point. So we'd either need to extend the GPX format (no thanks) or fabricate time stamps for each point on the track.

The latter is the only one that makes sense, and I was just thinking about what else could be done if we want to take this step.