Reducing number of points in a GPX route

[jhob]

I've created as a route the little local loop I do on winter evenings.  Download here.

I'm going to take the GPS out and follow the route next time I'm out to test out how I find it.  I've put waypoints on the junctions and have named each sequentially with the navigation instruction. 

Does this file look like it follows 'best practice'?

[Ningishzidda]

I've created as a route the little local loop I do on winter evenings.  Download here.

I'm going to take the GPS out and follow the route next time I'm out to test out how I find it.  I've put waypoints on the junctions and have named each sequentially with the navigation instruction. 

Does this file look like it follows 'best practice'?

Do not be surprised if when the position cursor coincides with the Waypoint, the screen blanks for two seconds.
You look down and see a blank screen which doesn't show you which road you should be on.

Placing Waypoints 25 - 30 m after the junction gives you the warning bleep. You look down and see the cursor and the Waypoint, so can decide which is the road to take.
Auto zoom helps, but if you don't like it like I didn't, 50 yds scale is a good view.

[fhills]

OK the maybe odd system I've evolved - works for me and though it sounds involved it can be quite quick as I don't bother with naming the "points" to give me turning instructions.

Sorry Frankie - it didn't work for me - I found it an uneccessary hassle. Also, as you know the Etrex 20 and others in the same series have an issue in that however short you make the point names they refuse to increase in size to fit the apparently available box. And so I find them hard to see.

I also use routes/tracks or whatever they are backwards a bit and of course the abbreviated turn instructions wouldn't be valid on the way back.

So I just use straight-lines point-to-point navigation from junction/turn to junction/turn, as I think you recommend. And as I said I also sometimes use an extra point soon after a junction if the line won't make it sufficiently clear which way I should go - often not necessary as the line from junction to junction very often makes it clear. I stress that these are not exactly shaping points (there usually won't be any more until the next junction) and don't interfere with the "distance to next" info. They are so soon after the junction that I ignore "distance to next" until I have passed them.

So to the dodgy meat of my system.

er, I think this is what I can remember of it

1:Create route in CycleStreets (fine for UK routes)

2: Export gpx from that to Basecamp.

This gives a route, probably with a long name.

3: Rename route name to some abbreviation of 2 letters/3 at most (I can identify it in Basecamp as I put it in a list with a more descriptive name)

4: In Basecamp convert it to a track.

5: Delete original route and convert the track it created back to a route  (! - yes really). The act of doing this pops up a Basecamp Box asking you to suggest a number of points which allows you to instantly strip a lot out. Cyclestreets and other online planners tend to create a lot.

The separate points in this whatever it is (help me Frankie is this now a route or a track? will now be numerically ordered as in <TWO LETTER NAME> 1, <TWO LETTER NAME> 2 etc since they take their name from the file name. So I don't have to manually name them - but see below for tinkering.

6: Delete the track left behind in Basecamp so that there's no chance of confusing it with the route created from it.

7: Fiddle with the route in Basecamp, deleting any points which may seem unnecessary and putting other points in where the route seems complicated.

8: Export to Notepad or a simple text editor and search F3 for <name> so that I can find all the points and ensure that the numbers all follow on, since the work in Basecamp, hacking some points out and putting others in, will have interfered with this. Since I use a point to point straight line system this doesn't take as long as you might think.

9: Once it's all clean bring it back into Basecamp, open it up and ensure tha all the points ALERT.

10: Save and dump to Etrex as needed.

er, I think that's it

Doesn't take as long as you might think.

I started doing this because (maybe there was something I never figured out) my routes using waypoints seemed to litter the small screen of my Etrex with waypoints for routes I wasn't cycling, even when I hadn't specifically actioned those routes for a particular cycle ride. This system just gives me small black dots whuich aren't even seen when I'm not using that route. When cycling the Etrex takes me from XX1 to XX2 to XX3 etc. If I take a diversion off route I can still hack into it on the Etrex and get it to auto-navigate to a numbered point I know is ahead of me, before then getting back onto the route.

Phew!

OK Frankie tell me I'm mad

Thanks again for your work on those guidance sheets - I wouldn't have got anywhere without them.

[Ningishzidda]

IIRC, the Waypoint banner can be disabled.

[jhob]

I've created as a route the little local loop I do on winter evenings.  Download here.

I'm going to take the GPS out and follow the route next time I'm out to test out how I find it.  I've put waypoints on the junctions and have named each sequentially with the navigation instruction. 

Does this file look like it follows 'best practice'?

Do not be surprised if when the position cursor coincides with the Waypoint, the screen blanks for two seconds.
You look down and see a blank screen which doesn't show you which road you should be on.

Placing Waypoints 25 - 30 m after the junction gives you the warning bleep. You look down and see the cursor and the Waypoint, so can decide which is the road to take.
Auto zoom helps, but if you don't like it like I didn't, 50 yds scale is a good view.

I went out for a ride this afternoon, in part to test out my method of navigation and for me it worked fine having points on junctions. No screen blanking, no warning bleeps.

Only issue I had was that the waypoint name was pretty tricky to read, but not impossible.

[jhob]

@Fhills that does sound complicated when written down!

I can appreciate why your process is as it is though as I've already noticed that a lot GPS software packages cab really mangle gpx files in a manner that you never desired not intended.

I can definitely see a market for a software package that makes manipulating gpx files straight forward and effective. None that I have so far used have struck the right balance imho.

[fhills]

IIRC, the Waypoint banner can be disabled.

On a global basis per route? ie: one-step rather than going into each waypoint to edit the symbol?

Do tell.

[Ningishzidda]

On the 'ease of use' vs Human Error chart, for processes that require 'Manual input'.

Very easy to use, lots of errors and mistakes. ( Complacency ) Immedieate application of supplied GPX.
Moderately easy to use, some errors and mistakes. ( Over confidence ) A quick looksie of supplied GPX.
Getting difficult to use, a few errors and mistakes. ( Caution applied ) Re-aranging Points on supplied GPX
Difficult to use, some errors or mistakes. ( Process not perfected ). Completely re-writing a supplied GPX
Very difficult to use, so many errors and mistakes, the process is rejected. ( Dispair )

Totally nailed down system of own design, very few errors or mistakes. ( Perfected process ) Writing own GPX from the Routesheet.

 

[Ningishzidda]

IIRC, the Waypoint banner can be disabled.

On a global basis per route? ie: one-step rather than going into each waypoint to edit the symbol?

Do tell.

I might be wrong.
I used an eTrex Legend with Topo GB. I discovered a way to rid the screen of the Waypoint banners.
IIRC again, it may have been by using a Waypoint at start and finish, and Viapoints between them.

[fhills]

@Fhills that does sound complicated when written down!

Yes I know.

It isn't in practice - it's just because I tried to write all of the steps out clearly - some of them (initial route creation in wonderful Cyclestreets, import/export/conversions take a matter of seconds each as they are essentially "automated".

It also frees me from the bother of giving each point an individual name with directions - the sequential point numbering is automatic.

The longest stage is the notepad editing to ensure that the numbers stay sequential (important so that I can see that all is going to plan as I ride) but since I can do an F3 "find next" for each relevant bit to check that doesn't take so long.

The process is also hastened by the fact that, as Frankie suggests, I use a pretty minimal number of points for each route - as he says it's remarkable how few points you can get away with, especially in the countryside.

[frankly frankie]

(help me Frankie is this now a route or a track?

One way to tell is to see which menu it turns up in, on the GPS. 

IIRC, the Waypoint banner can be disabled.

On a global basis per route? ie: one-step rather than going into each waypoint to edit the symbol?

I've never found a straightforward way to do it in the GPS.

You can of course do a global search-and-replace in the GPX file IF the file already specifies something like
<sym>Flag (Blue)</sym>
for each point you can replace that with
<sym>City (Medium)</sym>
which is just a small dot on the screen.

But often there is no symbol specified at all, and then the GPS defaults to its blue flag or pin.
I think you could still search on
</rtept>
and replace with
<sym>City (Medium)</sym></rtept>

[Ningishzidda]

Aha,

Do I remember on Mapsource ( and maybe the unit ) the menu to choose a symbol to display the Waypoint?
Specifying the symbol as a dot ( small city ) rids the screen of the Waypoint name banners.

In those days, I exclusively built Routes on Mapsource and loaded them onto the unit along with the Waypoint list.

Oh happy days.

[Kim]

On the 'ease of use' vs Human Error chart, for processes that require 'Manual input'.

[...]

Totally nailed down system of own design, very few errors or mistakes. ( Perfected process ) Writing own GPX from the Routesheet.

+1  (Unless it's one of those annoying routesheets that doesn't make sense when followed on a map.)

[Ningishzidda]

On the 'ease of use' vs Human Error chart, for processes that require 'Manual input'.

[...]

Totally nailed down system of own design, very few errors or mistakes. ( Perfected process ) Writing own GPX from the Routesheet.

+1  (Unless it's one of those annoying routesheets that doesn't make sense when followed on a map.)

This is why I am sending the riders along well established roads and NOT along the Arrow Valley Cycle Path through Redditch.