Mac/Windows Software

Basecamp Windows Converting track points to way points

Converting track points to way points

Former Member over 9 years ago

Hi all,

I have garmin base camp version 4.6.

I am trying to convert trackpoints to waypoints but can't seem to find a way to do this.

To give people some context this is what I am trying to achieve:

I have a series of tracks taken by a gps device. At certain times during the devices deployment there were some events of interest which I would like to create a waypoint for retrospectively. i know what time the events took place, so I am able to find the specific track points which correspond to that event. Now i want to select that trackpoint on the list and convert it into a way point. Importantly, I want it to maintain all time stamps and latitude and longitudes. I also want to be able to name the waypoints individually. Ideally I want to be able to name several of the waypoints the same thing. Once I have worked through all the tracks and pooled every event into a list of waypoints I want to download the way points and the entire tack file as one CSV file.

I know i ask a lot... but this could potentially save me days of having to manually scroll through tracks and pull out the trackpoints I need.

Any help will be appreciated.

0 SUSSAMB over 9 years ago

You could try this.

Open track properties and click on the required point. That will highlight it on the map. Now use the waypoint tool to click on that point to create a waypoint. It won't have timestamps but it should do everything else.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Hi SUSSAMB,

Thanks for your suggestion, and it does provide a potetntial solution, but it is really not ideal. It means I would manually have to write the time and date stamps into every way point. And sometimes I have up to 100 waypoints per track.

Thanks

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

...I am trying to convert trackpoints to waypoints but can't seem to find a way to do this....Ideally I want to be able to name several of the waypoints the same thing. Once I have worked through all the tracks and pooled every event into a list of waypoints I want to download the way points and the entire tack file as one CSV file...

Simply put, there is no way to convert track-points to way-points in BaseCamp. Nor can one name them identically since BaseCamp uses the name as its index; same name, same waypoint. You can certainly store both way-points and track-points in the same GPX file but I do not recall being able to export CSV files from BaseCamp. It may be possible, but, if not, GPSBABEL (a free program available from www.gpsbabel.org) should be able to convert it easily.

If you are at all adept at manipulating file contents it would be fruitful to look at a small GPX file exported from BaseCamp containing both tracks and way-points in a text editor able to properly display XML files. This would allow some insight into the data structural difference between a track-point and a way-point.

Thinking about it, it may be simpler to just work with the CSV file in a spreadsheet program if you know the event times. Just find the target time, insert a row with the same data, add or remove data unique to the data type, e.g., symbol name, and change the data type entry to way-point for the new line.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Thinking about it, it may be simpler to just work with the CSV file in a spreadsheet program if you know the event times. Just find the target time, insert a row with the same data, add or remove data unique to the data type, e.g., symbol name, and change the data type entry to way-point for the new line.

Brilliant idea, Jack. It probably sounds complicated for anyone who has not looked at a GPX file (a minor variant of XML that can be viewed in any text editor) or its related CSV conversion.

@Don, please take Jack's suggestion to export a small GPX file with both a track and some waypoints to educate yourself. I think you'll find it much easier to work with the raw data than to try using Basecamp. Specifically, take a look at the GPX file to get familiar with the data types you want to work with and then convert to CSV and use a spreadsheet to manipulate the data. To make this most educational you should use one of your existing tracks and manually create a couple of new waypoints that contain exactly what you want, as best you can make them.

This will also allow you to understand that there may be limitations in the underlying data structure of waypoints that have nothing to do with Basecamp. That will save a lot of frustration trying to figure out how to make Basecamp do something it will never do because the waypoint data structure does not accommodate it.

...ken...

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

You can do it with GPSBabel and the transform command. Exact coordinates, time and elevation are preserved.

http://www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-development/filter_transform.html

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Aw, that would just be way too simple... ;)

...ken...

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

You can do it with GPSBabel and the transform command. Exact coordinates, time and elevation are preserved.

http://www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-development/filter_transform.html

Good find! Yep, that will do it, but it converts all the track points to waypoints. I thought the OP only wanted to convert certain trackpoints to waypoints while maintaining the rest of the track. If that wasn't his intention then his problem is solved.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

So a mixture, then. Edit the GPX file to contain only the trackpoints he wants, then transform them. Or, if its easier, convert to CSV, delete the ones he doesn't want using a spreadsheet, then transform them.

...ken...