Making maps from assembled tracks

[korey99]

Hey all, first of all, thanks for the great resource.  I use a number of the maps made available here, and hope to able to contribute some day.

I've been working on a project to map out the trails in a local park for a club.  I took a bunch of recorded tracks and cleaned them up in ExpertGPS.  I also traced some trails from satellite imagery.  In the end, I have a GPX file with about 60 different tracks.  I thought this would work out, until I loaded this GPX onto my Oregon and discovered I'd have to enable showing each individual track on the map. 

Is there a solution?  Is using tracks for map data like this a bad idea?  I've downloaded a few of the trail map packages here in GPX format, and man, it's a hassle enabling individual tracks.

Thanks,
Korey

[banest]

Check out the program "gpx2img". It will turn your many tracks into one gpx track.

[Seldom]

Check out the program "gpx2img". It will turn your many tracks into one gpx track.

The website says it converts to an IMG file, not a track.  An IMG file is a map.

[banest]

Seldom, I belive it makes a transparent map, like "My Trails". I have used it, and it works good, although all the tracks are the same color, which may be fine, depending on what is desired.

[BobT]

I do exactly what you want to do.  Look on this site, I have three maps made from tracks.  They are Taylor Park, CO, Moab, UT, and WV ATV Trails 3.0.  Download one of these maps and if it is what you are looking to do you can go to the link below and download a very good tutorial on how to make one.  Don't be intimidated it is really not that hard, just follow the directions.  If you have any questions you can PM me on this site and I will give you my email address.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/b7mfd8rkabwzdd9/Garmin%20Map%20Making%20Tutorial.zip

I have also attempted to attach it.

[Boyd]

I just noticed this program which might also do what you want, from the same author who wrote GMTK: http://translate.google.nl/translate?hl=nl&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.javawa.nl%2Fgpskaart.html

[korey99]

Thank you all for your help.  Just to report back, here's what I did.  One thing I had neglected in my initial requirements is that of the people in my club use smartphones.

I found a pretty good source of data in the form of a JPG, which I calibrated and traced using ExpertGPS (which I had from years ago).   

The problem I ran in to was many of the viewing apps (mostly for smartphones) I used didn't care for tracks that consisted of multiple trksegs, in other words, resulting from tracks that branch or are not contiguous.  Expert GPS also doesn't provide a way to create a single track with multiple disconnected segments.  So, the original problem remained unsolved.

What I did was write a short XSLT (which is a way of transforming an XML file into a different format) to combine all segments with the same name into a single (possibly disconnected track).  That way I end up with a GPX with I think 4 tracks, one for each trail type and for creeks. 

So now, I've got two GPXs, one with simple tracks and another with combined tracks.  GPS units like the combined ones, but I use the simple one for editing and importing into other apps.

Also, for those users with modern Garmin GPS units I used ExpertGPS to export Custom Maps with the trails traced onto aerial photos.

So, in the end, I have files that can be used by old devices (like my eTrex Legend), smart phones, and modern units.  Sorry if it feels like I ignored your advice.  I looked into each of them, and I enjoyed the experimentation. 

After all that, I decided to look into uploading my traces to OSM after they've been validated in the real world.

[Seldom]

After all that, I decided to look into uploading my traces to OSM after they've been validated in the real world.

Thanks for sharing (your tracks with OSM).