Unknown error opening import file - one solution

Former Member over 11 years ago

I was recently importing some gpx files that were created on by Blackberry with an app for creating tracklogs, at the moment I forget which app it was since I have changed phones since.

However when I tried to import the gpx tracklog into Basecamp it gave me the error "Unknown error opening import file", after some trials I found that the app would record the Magnetic Variation in the gpx file up to 360, and it seems that Basecamp is ok with 359 but throws up the error if it finds 360.

So if you load the gpx into notepad or similar txt editor, look for magvar<360>

as soon as I modified it to 359 it loaded without issue

I hope this may help someone in the future (maybe even me when I forget it again!)

0 BTLAAKE over 11 years ago

I would suggest that you change 360 to 0. Magnetic variation sounds too much like magnetic declination to me, so you may have set a user magnetic declination to -1° by entering 359°.

0 Former Member over 11 years ago

GPX files follow a set of rules (the schema). If the schema says the magvar has to be below 360, it better be below 360.

And this is what the schema says for degreesType (magvar is of type degreesType): http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/#type_degreesType.

So the Blackberry app wrote an invalid file. BaseCamp isn't particular about gpx, it just requires the files to adhere to the specifications.

I'd have to look at the other file that "HOLUX ezTour for Logger" wrote, but my guess is that that software also writes out invalid gpx.

It is unfortunate that a lot of GPS software writes (and reads) bad GPX. You might have some luck with GPSBabel (http://www.gpsbabel.org/) to import and re-export the GPX file so BaseCamp can read it.

0 JaVaWa over 11 years ago

but my guess is that that software also writes out invalid gpx

Indeed it does. It uses the element <speed> in the trackpoint data. That element is part of the GPX v1.0 specification, but not of the v1.1 spec.

0 JaVaWa over 11 years ago

and 2 types of GPX;
GPX (1.0)
GPX (Mapsource compatible)

Funny; a valid GPX file is always MapSource compatible... This means that the first type simply isn't valid.
Can you attach the gpl file (or e-mail it to info at javawa dot nl)? I'll see what I can do with it.

0 JaVaWa over 11 years ago

but I looked at the timestamp of the one from GPSLogger Converter and it is correct and the gpsvisualizer.com is 7 hours earlier.

Note that the timestamp in GPX files is always in UTC; that means that unless you live in a country that uses UTC+0 (and no DST) the timestamp is always different from your local time. So maybe GPSvisualizer is correct and GPSlogger isn't...

Edit: GPSLogger Converter contains source code of the GPSLogger II program, and I can see that it takes time zone info into account. So the result of this program should be correct I guess...