Improved Track <-> Route Conversion and Enhanced, Stable, Sharable Routes

[smfollen]

Many of us are familiar with the pros and cons of tracks and of routes. We sometimes use both while riding to take advantage of what each does best.

Tracks are stable but inflexible because they are made up of very large numbers of points.
Routes are flexible, but unstable on recalculation, because they are made up of a small number of points.
They are at the two extreme ends on a spectrum, which leaves lots of room for improvement in between.

Trk2Rt can easily generate enhanced routes throughout that spectrum while converting among waypoints, tracks and routes. It turns out that a small number of properly placed additional shaping points can significantly improve route stability while minimizing a reduction in flexibility.

Trk2Rt offers several additional features. It is entirely free.

There are four modes of operation: simple, intermediate, advanced and command line.

A windows pc build and simple installer can be downloaded from here https://github.com/SteveFollen/Trk2Rt/t ... r/Download

@FrankB deserves credit for an excellent exchange of ideas, and for some testing.
If any errors or shortcomings remain, they are entirely mine.

The download includes a user’s manual. For anything that doesn’t answer, reach out here.
Improvement ideas, problem reports, constructive feedback, etc. is encouraged.

[Peobody]

Wow Steve. Trk2Rt looks impressive based my initial read of it Users Guide. Surprisingly (indicates very well written and detailed), only one question came to mind during that read. It pertains to the "Remove Previous Numbering" function. When I create routes in Basecamp I number the route points with number followed by hyphen (eg: 01-ShapingPoint01, 02-ViaPoint01, 03-ShapingPoint02). If the route is part of a multi-day trip then I will also add a day number reference (eg: D1-01-ShapingPoint01, D1-02-ViaPoint01, D1-03-ShapingPoint02). This is important to me in BC for the purpose of displaying the route points sequentially in the lower left pane. If I replaced the hyphen following the route point number with a colon (eg: D1-01:ShapingPoint01, D1-02:ViaPoint01, D1-03:ShapingPoint02), would the "Remove Previous Numbering" function replace the manual numbering with Trk2Rt numbering? If so, the day number reference would be lost, right?

There is a section in Users Guide about route point numbering style that contained images showing a day number prefix but I could not tell how Trk2Rt would determine the appropriate day number. Your thoughts on how I could best achieve sequential listing in BC while taking advantage of Trk2Rt reliability enhancements would be appreciated.

[smfollen]

@Peobody I'm glad to hear that you like it so far.
Trk2Rt can optionally add a prefix and numbering to the route points. The prefix is user specified text - e.g. "Day 1 ". The numbering is sequential with a couple of optional forms. All of that, if any is followed by a colon and a space, that is ": ".

The remove previous numbering button is designed to remove that. If clicked, it removes anything at the beginning of route point names up to, and including the ": ". For example

Code: Select all

prefix  123: point name

would become

Code: Select all

point name

A new prefix and number could be added from there if desired.

if your "D1-03:ShapingPoint02" had a space after the colon - that is "D1-03: ShapingPoint02" - then the remove previous button would strip that to "ShapingPoint02".
You could then use the numbering feature to renumber your points as desired.

To add the day prefix:
Trk2Rt has the ability to split a route into two or more. You could split the route at each day and then add the day prefix.
Here's an example.

On import of your initial route would look something like this (note that I set numbering style to none for clarity here)

NumA.png (30.32 KiB) Viewed 623 times

After removing previous numbering

NumB.png (28.3 KiB) Viewed 623 times

And after setting numbering style, splitting the route, and adding prefixes for each day. Note that I also set starting number values for each route.

NumC.png (32.62 KiB) Viewed 623 times

EDIT: I should also note that you do not have to do any of this. The remove previous, the prefix and numbering are all optional. You can keep your original manual prefix and numbering if you would like.

[Peobody]

Thanks @smfollen . That is helpful. Unfortunately I create one route per day in Basecamp so would not be splitting any routes with Trk2Rt. As I understand it, this would mean the loss of my Day number reference if I removed previous numbers then allowed Trk2Rt to add its own number prefixes. I need to give this some thought and do some testing.

A question that came to mind while you were replying is whether an export from Trk2Rt needs to be 'RUT fixed' either by using Frank's Trip Manager to transfer it to the device, or by modifying the import-created trip file with one of the other tools at our disposal.

Edit Regarding leaving the numbering as created in BC, what about the route points added by Trk2Rt? I assume they are un-prefixed.

[smfollen]

@Peobody

...I create one route per day in Basecamp so would not be splitting any routes with Trk2Rt. As I understand it, this would mean the loss of my Day number reference if I removed previous numbers...

The prefix is available at the start of each route, even if there is only one route. Just import the route for each day and enter that day's prefix.

...whether an export from Trk2Rt needs to be 'RUT fixed' either by using Frank's Trip Manager...

Trk2Rt has no effect on RUT. I continue to use Trip Manager with great success.

Regarding leaving the numbering as created in BC, what about the route points added by Trk2Rt? I assume they are un-prefixed.

If you use Trk2Rt's prefixing and or numbering feature, then all points, including the additional points are numbered accordingly.
If you set the numbering style to none and leave the prefix blank, then yes, in that case, the additional points added by Trk2Rt would not be prefixed, nor numbered. (They do get a post-fix number to keep each name unique. That number is increasing but not sequential, and unrelated to any other numbering.)

[Peobody]

I have tested. Maybe should have done that first but having feedback allowed my to target my testing to my concerns. The image below will explain where I'm at. Something that surprised me is that the .gpx resulting from a Trk2Rt export containing only the route could not be imported into Basecamp. Is this normal?

BTW, I love the Blue Ridge Parkway route used as an example route in the Users Guide. I've ridden that route a time or ten.

CnP_03012026_121253.png (203.92 KiB) Viewed 609 times

[smfollen]

@Peobody

the .gpx resulting from a Trk2Rt export containing only the route could not be imported into Basecamp. Is this normal?

Definitely not normal. I do it regularly. I suspect that the & character in your route name is the issue. See Avoid special characters on page 22 of the user's manual.

Good to hear that the prefix and numbering will work for you.

I'll add the export file naming option to the V3.1 candidate list. It's a reasonable idea. Thanks for that.
Right now the export file name is based on the import file name. Page 6 of the user's guide provides details.
The Track / Route Name field only edits the name given to an exported track or route within the file.

[gwilki]

Clearly, I am doing something wrong. When I get to the github site and click on the .zip file to download, nothing happens.

Help, please.

[smfollen]

@gwilki After clicking on the zip file, click the small down arrow toward the upper right to download.

Untitled.png (8.4 KiB) Viewed 562 times

[gwilki]

@gwilki After clicking on the zip file, click the small down arrow toward the upper right to download.
Untitled.png

Thank you. Got it. For me, it wasn't th down arrow. It was the "download raw file" icon that I completely missed.