New Basecamp User Migrating from Windows and Other Applications - help please

Former Member over 9 years ago

I am migrating from using Windows and other GPS file mapping applications to an iMac and working with Basecamp. I have reviewed documentation on Basecamp, but it doesn't seem to address users who have existing data spanning years that I would like to bring into and manage / use in Basecamp. I have years worth of .GPX files where in most cases, one trip equals one .GPX file. Sometimes I have 2 - 3 .GPX files per trip. To make sure I organize everything correctly, I am working with a select set of files first, rather than transferring everything into Basecamp at once.

In my initial file management in Basecamp, I have created "list folders" for categories of trips, for instance "hikes and climbs", "biking", "paddling and float trips", etc. Within these "list folders", I have created blank lists, and dragged over the .GPX file which is usually named something like "2009-MtRainier-Hike" or something like that. I don't have any real need for the database functionality that BAsecamp provides, I just want to organize my previous data by trip and chronological order. It seems like this should be pretty simple.

When I drag the .GPX file over to the newly created list, my data appears, but it shows up in Basecamp as "created" at the time of this transfer, not at the time that the data was recorded. This isn't much use. Does anyone have any advice on how to retain the date and time, and how to sort your data within Basecamp based on actual recording? Has anyone else performed a first time large scale migration of existing data and can provide advice?

Thank you very much.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Sorry, I'm a little confused as to your question.

Am I correct in assuming that you are bringing in GPX files from a Windows version of BaseCamp containing Waypoints, Routes, and tracks? Or, are they just GPX files living on your Windows machine that have never seen BaseCamp?
Once you have placed them in your Mac BaseCamp where are you seeing the creation date?

OR

Are you looking at the GPX file creation date in the OS X finder?

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

This is data that is new to Basecamp for the first time

Am I correct in assuming that you are bringing in GPX files from a Windows version of BaseCamp containing Waypoints, Routes, and tracks? Or, are they just GPX files living on your Windows machine that have never seen BaseCamp?

These are mostly files that have never been used with Basecamp. I must have used Mapsource or Basecamp for a few since I do have some data with .gdb, but most of these are .gpx files that have been saved using Topofusion and they contain waypoints and tracks. These files are organized by date and name of trip.

Once you have placed them in your Mac BaseCamp where are you seeing the creation date?

OR

Are you looking at the GPX file creation date in the OS X finder?

It is the creation date in BaseCamp, not in the finder. When I "drag" a .gpx file over into a blank "list" in BaseCamp, I notice that within BaseCamp itself, it considers this data to have been created on the date of migration into BaseCamp, not the date the data was actually recorded. BaseCamp seems to offer a limited number of attributes that you may choose to order your "lists" by and date is one of them. I need to be able to order my lists or list folders by date of gps recording. I must be overlooking something as I can't imagine gps users caring more about the date their data was imported into an application vs the actual date the data was recorded.

At the end of the day, I need to be able to use this program for selecting and viewing datasets for an individual trip of 1 or more days. I don't require the categorization features that BaseCamp is designed to enable. My waypoints are for things like trailhead, boat launch, summit, camp, water source, lunch stop, etc. I have no need to query and display several years worth of lunch stops at the same time. I just want to go back to a date or collection of dates comprising one trip, and be able to work from that. Similarly, I create projects for upcoming trips of waypoints that I need to have pre-loaded onto my GPS, and I need to be able to organize these by the name of some forthcoming trip.

I have a lot of this data, and I want to experiment with ways to organize this within the limits of BaseCamp in advance. The first thing I tried was to drag all the data into "My Collection" at once, but this just resulted in a completely jumbled mess, so now I need to slow down and take it one step at a time.

Thanks in advance for your help in what must seem like quite basic concepts if you already understand how to use this program.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Problem is limited to the .gpx files that have never been associated with BaseCamp

So I've been bringing in other files and have more specifics.

Data I have imported from a GPS into my current iMac computer using Basecamp shows the correct "Created On" and "Last Modified" properties.

Data I have imported that was in a .gdb file from previous BaseCamp or Mapsource on my old Windows installation also shows the correct "Created On" and "Last Modified" properties.

However data that I bring into a BaseCamp "list" from a .gpx file that had never been associated with BaseCamp before shows a "Created On" value of October 7th or 8th. This is my problem. I need BaseCamp to recognize the actual date that the data was created on. Something that is inherent in any gps file. Is there a way to import historic .gpx files and have BaseCamp correctly reflect the date of the file? This is of no use if it is limited to the date it was brought into the application and not the date of the data.

Thanks in advance for anyone's patience and help as I try to understand how this program works.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Typically, in the gpx files created by BaseCamp, at least on my machine, the metadata includes a datetime section at the head of the xml data. Here is an example:

" <metadata>
<link href="www.garmin.com">
<text>Garmin International</text>
</link>
<time>2015-10-10T14:33:05Z</time>
<bounds maxlat="41.359483972191811" maxlon="-72.177788028493524" minlat="41.359470980241895" minlon="-72.177820969372988"/>
</metadata>"

BaseCamp MAY be using this data for its internal "created date"

You might want to take a look at the contents of the files you are using which were in fact created on an earlier date but which BaseCamp shows as being created on the date they are imported.

On a Mac the best free program for looking at xml and other text based files is called TextWrangler from Barebones Software. Here is a link:

http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/

or

http://goo.gl/J0tY