Mac/Windows Software

Basecamp Windows Color of Routes Viewed With Google Earth

Color of Routes Viewed With Google Earth

Former Member over 10 years ago

Select a large number of routes (all of the same color, say magenta) in BC and then View -> Google Earth -> Selected Items.

For some reason, GE will show some of the routes as magenta some white. Sometimes GE will show them all magenta except for one or two yellow. :confused:

This never happens if the routes are sent to GE one at a time, or when exported as kml. In those cases they are all magenta.

Is this a GE thing?

Is there a way to check exactly what data BC sends to GE?

0 SUSSAMB over 10 years ago

I can't reproduce that, maybe I'm not sending a large enough number (I sent 14) :confused:

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I can't reproduce that, maybe I'm not sending a large enough number (I sent 14) :confused:

I have tried with 17, 50, and 100+ and happens with all, consistently. Will try again and see if there's a threshold but the really weird thing is that when sendig 100+ the first 50 or so are magenta, so I doubt there's an exact point. If I could examine the data set sent to GE we would know at least if it is a GE or BC thing.

Update: With 14 I get 12 magenta 2 white.

0 SUSSAMB over 10 years ago

OK, I've just sent 130 and I'm getting various colours also that aren't the ones set in Basecamp. Seems like a bug somewhere.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Thank you! at least we know it is not due to color blindness. :)

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Found it!

Before sending the data to GE BaseCamp creates a temp.kml file in the "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp\BaseCamp" folder. If you examine this file you will see lines like these:

<Style id='path0Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path1Style'><LineStyle><color>ff00ff00</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path2Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path3Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path4Style'><LineStyle><color>ff00ff00</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path5Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path6Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path7Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path8Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='path9Style'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='pathaStyle'><LineStyle><color>fffe01fe</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
<Style id='pathbStyle'><LineStyle><color>ff00ff00</color><width>4</width></LineStyle></Style>
...snip

which to me indicates BC is the guilty party. :)

Garmin?

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Try opening a BaseCamp gpx file export in a searchable text editor to see if all desired color labels (text) make it into the file. It may be that GE defines colors by hex coding and has trouble transposing multiple Garmin colors from English text. I am totally unfamiliar with GE, but did peek into an kml file once.

Edit: Wow. Several posts were created while I was mousing around. It does look like kml uses hex coding of colors.

0 SUSSAMB over 10 years ago

Guilty as charged :)

The BC developers pass by quite frequently so hopefully they'll pick this up ...

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Actually, there are two bugs. The first is as above.

The second bug is that the styles are declared in hex at the top of the kml file but in the code are referenced in decimal. (If I had a $ for each time I did just that in another life, I'd be rich :))

Declaration:

...<Style id='pathb2Style'>...

Reference:

...<styleUrl>#path178Style</styleUrl>...

so, when GE finds a reference to an undeclared style it uses what it pleases.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Thanks for bringing this up. I will open a case and link to this forum post.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I need to rectify part of my earlier posts. I have done a lot of further testing and now I can say that there is only one bug: the hex/decimal issue. This one is clearly a bug.

However, what I thought was a bug as reported on post #6 was actually a consequence of the hex/decimal bug, not a bug per se.

My apologies for the red herring.