Waypoints and Courses - Manual

'Edit activity' Actions

Apply GPS Track from - Activity

Apply GPS Track from - Course

Apply GPS Track from - Route

Add/Fix Elevation

1. they were recorded with a GPS device that does not have an inbuilt barometric altimeter and hence creates an elevation track from GPS elevation data - which are inherently unreliable and "noisy";
2. they were recorded with a GPS device that has a barometric altimeter, but due to changes in atmospheric pressure this barometric altimeter shows incorrect values and is only gradually corrected by the GPS device.

Create course(s)

• control the speed of the created course - there are several choices:
• use the original speed or pace
• set the speed as a percentage of the original speed or pace
• adjust the speed/pace so that to a given average speed/pace of the course
• create the course with a constant speed/pace
• automatically remove timer pauses from the created course
• reduce the number of track points in the course to save space on your disk and - more important - your GPS device when uploading a course

'Export' Actions

Map - Send custom map to Garmin

Mapping Extensions

Views

View "Courses"

What is a course

• a Name - GPS devices can restrict length and/or character set
• a Color - for the track line
• a Rating according to Landscape, Fun Factor, Technique and Fitness
  
• a GPS and Speed Track
  while these two attributes are mandatory, all following attributes are optional:
• a Category and a Location - both are hierarchically structured texts ("A:B:C ...") used to categorize waypoints
• a Hyperlink - "http://...", "mailto:...", ...
• a Comment
• an Elevation Track
• several Course Points
  while the GPS track points make up the "bread crumb trace", Course Points mark turns, summits, food supply, ...
  every Course Point has:
  - a Type - which is represented as an icon that is placed on the map at the course point's position
  - a Name - GPS devices can restrict length and/or character set
  - an arbitrary Comment
  - a Pause - e.g. for a course point at your favourite beer garden, where you usually spend 1 hour readjusting your body's hydration
  - a flag, if the plugin shall create a turn warning when uploading this course to your GPS device; see here for an explanation
  - a position and elevation which is derived from the course points time
  

1. the Course List in the upper part: lists all courses in your logbook
   - you can sort the list by clicking on the column header of every column
   - right click on the list to open a context menu (see below)
2. the Course Track Chart at the bottom: shows the tracks of this course: elevation, grade, speed/pace:
    
3. the Course Editor on the right side: used to display and edit the properties of the course that is selected in the Course List

Creating Course Points

1. automatically: let the plugin add course point for turn, summits and valleys. See here for details.
2. from waypoints: let the plugin add course points for nearby waypoints. See here for details.
3. in the Course Track Chart: click on the x axis at the desired distance
   
4. on the SportTracks map: click on the course track line on the map and select "Add course point"
   

Editing Course Points

1. Autoroute from No ... To No ...
   You've created this course once but think that there MUST be a better way to come from course point A to B?
   Simply use this action to replace the existing GPS track by one created by a smart auto router.
   This uses the Autorouting action described below.
2. Delete course between these points
   Deletes the GPS track between the two points and replaces it by a straight line.
   Note: this action has two siblings that show up, when you've selected a single course point:
   "Delete course up to this point" and "Delete course after this point"
3. Save as new waypoint
   Creates a new waypoint for every of the selected course points.
4. Toggle turn warning
   Use this to toggle the turn warning flag for multiple course points.
5. List Settings and Copy
   the usual suspects.

"Create Course(s)" Actions

1. Create Course(s) ... manually
   Manual creation of a course means drawing its GPS track point by point - which is not the method of choice, if you can avoid it.
   SportTracks already provides a GPS track editor in the "Routes" view. So the plugin doesn't reinvent the wheel but asks you to use the Route editor.
   It switches to the "Routes" view, creates a new route and then shows this message to hand over control to you:
   
2. Create Course(s) ... from activities
   Takes you to the "Daily Activity" view and shows this message to hand over control to you. Read on here.
   
   
3. Create Course(s) ... from routes
   Takes you to the "Routes" view and shows a similar message like the previous action to hand over control to you. Read on here.
   
   
4. Create Course(s) ... Autoroute
   This is the most elegant and powerful way to create a new route: by using a Google web service to create a route between a sequence of positions.
   The action opens the "Autoroute" window:
   
   You can enter either addresses or lat/lon coordinates as routing points.
   You can as weel:
   - change order of routing points (up and down arrows)
   - delete a via point
   - add new via points
   - set the type of routing: for cars or for pedestrians and a flag to avoid highways
   A click on starts calculation of a route. The route is then displayed on the map, accompanied by driving instructions.
   Click on to create a course for this route.
   You can as well save the map and driving instructions to a HTML file or print  it.
   Autorouting is based on a service provided by Google.
   
   

"Edit" Actions

1. Add course points
   Automatically adds course points at turn, summits and valleys. This action can be fine tuned on the plugin settings page.
2. Add waypoints to course
   This action searches for waypoints that are on or near the course's GPS track. It adds a course point to the course for every of these waypoints.
   So you can e.g. have waypoints for your shops, bars, ... where you can "refuel" and add them to all your courses, so that your GPS device can tell you the distance to your next drink.
   
3. Add/Fix Elevation
   This is the equivalent of the same action for activities.
4. Change speed/pace
   You typically use courses on your GPS device to race against a "Virtual Partner". So your course should have appropriate speed/pace.
   This action lets you adjust the speed/pace of your course very much like the "Create Course(s)" action.
   
5. Create route(s)
   This lets you create a SportTracks route from a course.
6. Delete
   Deletes the selected course(s). The plugin will ask you, if you're sure before actually deleting the courses.
7. Duplicate
   Duplicates the selected course(s). You can use this to create a "backup copy" before modifying a course.
8. Edit
   Opens an editor for the course properties. When you've selected more than one course the window is in turn opened for every selected course.
9. Reduce track points
   When you create a course from an activity it will typically have a track that consists of much more points then necessary to guide you; especially when your recording interval is set to 1 second.
   This costs storage space on your disk and GPS device and slows down handling of courses on your GPS device considerably.
   Use this action to thin out the GPS track to a reasonable number of track points.
10. Reverse
    Want to change your habits and ride/run the opposite direction? Here you go.
    
    

"Import" Actions

1. Import from File
   The plugin can import courses in several different file formats:
   
   1. TCX files - Garmin Training Center Database files
   2. CRS files - identical to 1. but with a different file name extension
   3. Garmin FIT files - from the "X:\Garmin\Courses" folder of current Garmin GPS devices like the edge500 or edge800
   4. GPX files - only provide a GPS track, no course points or other properties
   5. Bryton GPX files - a special flavour of GPX file for courses recorded with Bryton GPS devices;
      you can find these courses on  Bryton's Sports Portal
   The plugin reads the file(s), checks if courses in the file already exist in SportTracks, adds the new courses and selects them in the waypoint list.
   Note: there's a short cut, you can simply drag a file with the appropriate extension onto the Waypoints view to import this file.
2. Import from Garmin
   This action is similar to the previous one, but it directly imports courses from an attached GPS device.
   It tests for attached GPS devices and lets you select the device that you want to import from.
   The plugin supports both "mass storage devices" and USB devices that are accessed via Garmin Communicator Plugin.
   

"Export" Actions

1. Export to File
   This is the counterpart of the "Import to File" action. However it supports only file formats "CRS" and "TCX".
   When no course is selected, all courses are exported. Otherwise just the selected courses are exported.
   
2. Export to Garmin
   Similar to the previous action, but directly exports to an attached GPS device.

Miscellaneous Actions

1. Show on Garmin
   Checks the attached Garmin GPS devices, lets you select a device and show all courses on this device.
   Select a course to show details, click on to close the window.
   
2. Install Garmin Map
   This action lets you install Garmin compatible maps to Garmin devices that support mapping.
   It gives you access to maps provided by  maps.cloudmade.com - a map server based on maps of the OpenStreetMap project.
   Cloudmade maps typically even support routing on your GPS device.
   
   Select your Garmin device first,
   then navigate Cloudmade's catalog of maps to your desired map file "*.img.zip" and click on the link.
   The plugin then starts downloading the map file:
   
   Map files can be rather big, so this might take a while.
   The plugin then unzips the map and copies it to the selected Garmin device.
   
   When you remove your Garmin device from the USB connection and restart it, the new map should be available.

View "Waypoints"

What is a waypoint

• a Type - which is represented as an icon that is placed on the map at the waypoint's position
• a Name - GPS devices can restrict length and/or character set
• a Geographic Position - i.e. Latitude, Longitude and possibly Elevation
  while these attributes are mandatory, all following attributes are optional:
• a Proximity Range - many GPS devices can sound an alarm, when you come within this distance of a waypoint;
  it is shown as a red circle around the waypoint on the SportTracks map
  
• an associated Image - whatever you can think of
• a Category and a Location - both are hierarchically structured texts ("A:B:C ...") used to categorize waypoints
• a Hyperlink - "http://...", "mailto:...", ...
• a Comment
• a flag if this waypoint shall be shown on the map

1. the Group Control in the upper part
   
2. the Waypoint List: lists all waypoints in your logbook, grouped according to the setting of the Group Control
   - you can sort the list by clicking on the column header of every column
   - right click on the list to open a context menu (see below)
3. the Waypoint Editor on the right side: used to display and edit the waypoint that is selected in the Waypoint List

"Create Waypoint" Actions

1. Create Waypoint ... on the Map
   Switches to the "Daily Activity" view and creates a selected Waypoint symbol that follows your mouse cursor.
   Move the mouse to the point where you want to create the waypoint and click.
   
2. Create Waypoint ... from Address
   Asks you for an address and creates a waypoint at the geographics position of this address:
   
   This action is based on a service provided by Google.

"Edit" Actions

1. Add/Fix Elevation
   Sets the elevation of the waypoint from from data sources that can be configured on the plugin settings page.
2. Autoroute
   This action is only available, when at least 2 waypoints have been selected.
   Creates a course from the first to the second waypoint. If more then 2 waypoints are selected, they are taken as via points.
   The action opens the "Autoroute" window:
   
   Before starting the route calculation, you can:
   - change order of routing waypoints (up and down arrows)
   - delete a routing waypoint
   - add new via points
   - set the type of routing: for cars or for pedestrians and a flag to avoid highways
   A click on starts calculation of a route. The route then displayed on the map, accompanied by driving instructions.
   Click on to create a course for this route.
   You can as well save the map and driving instructions to a HTML file or print  it.
   
3. Delete
   Deletes the selected waypoints. The plugin will ask you, if you're sure before actually deleting the waypoints.
4. Edit
   Opens an editor for the waypoint properties. When you've selected more than one waypoint, the window is in turn opened for every selected waypoint.
5. Mass Edit
   In contrast to the previous action, "Mass Edit" lets you simultaneously set properties of many waypoints with just a few mouse clicks.
   Before actually modifying the waypoints, the plugin displays this window:
   
6. Move
   Switches to the Daily Activity view and displays  icons for every moving waypoint. These icons follow the "hand" cursor.
   Click to reposition the waypoints at their current positions.
   

"Import" Actions

1. Import from File
   The plugin can import waypoints in two different file formats:
   
   • GPX files - the standard interchange format for waypoint files supported by most applications
   • FIT files - the data file format of current Garmin sports GPS devices
   The plugin reads the file, checks if waypoints in the file already exist in SportTracks, adds the new waypoints and selects them in the waypoint list.
   Note: there's a short cut, you can simply drag a .gpx file of .fit file onto the Waypoints view to import this file.
2. Import from Garmin
   This action is similar to the previous one, but it directly imports waypoints from an attached GPS device.
   It tests for attached GPS devices and lets you select the device that you want to import from.
   The plugin supports both "mass storage devices" and USB devices that are accessed via Garmin Communicator Plugin.
   
3. Find geocaches nearby
   There's a special type of waypoints, so-called "Geocaches". Please see below.
   This action retrieves geocaches in the vicinity of the selected waypoint from an Internet data base of geocaches.

"Export" Actions

1. Export to File
   This is the counterpart of the "Import to File" action. It supports the two file formats "GPX" and "FIT" as well.
   When no waypoint is selected, all waypoints are exported. Otherwise just the selected waypoints are exported.
   Note: Current Garmin GPS devices support so-called elevation points in order to automatically set GPS elevation to a fix value, when you start a workout near one of those positions. In order to upload elevation points, select the desired waypoints and export them to "X:\Garmin\NewFiles\Elevations.fit".
2. Export to Garmin
   Similar to the previous action, but directly exports to an attached GPS device.

Miscellaneous Actions

1. Show on Garmin
   Checks the attached Garmin GPS devices, lets you select a device and show all waypoints on this device.
   Select a waypoint to show details, click on to close the window.
   
2. Install Garmin Map
   See above.

Geocaching Support

What is geocaching? Please see  here. For now there's an action to search for geocaches in the vicinity of another waypoint. Please see here. When you select a waypoint that has been created by this action, the waypoint editor will show geocache specific properties - see screen shot to the right. You can export these geocache waypoints to your GPS device. When your GPS device has geocaching support, these geocache properties are visible on your GPS as well.

Settings Pages

Waypoints and Courses

"Add Course Points" Settings

1. switch course point creations for turns and summits/valleys on and off
2. configure the thresholds for detecting a turn, a summit or a valley

"Add/Fix Elevation" Settings

1. switch automatic adding of elevation information to waypoints on and off
2. same for courses
3. configure the elevation data sources that the plugin uses:
• switch a source on and off by checking/unchecking the corresponding row
• change priority of elevation data sources by changing the order of rows (up and down buttons);
  the plugin uses the first data source in the list that covers the geographic location that needs elevation data
• learn which area of the earth is covered by this elevation data source
• learn how much disk space is occupied by a data source's disk cache (from column "Cache")
• clear the disk cache of a data source in order to save space and/or let the plugin re-load current elevation data

"Export to Garmin" Settings

1. a Garmin GPS device can beep in order to wake you up when a course point (turn, summit, valley, ...) is reached. Unfortunately many (if not all) Garmin devices beep at the very instant, when you are spot on the course point. Slightly too late to let your react.
   So the plugin can create so-called turn warnings, i.e. a 2nd course point that is placed several seconds before the real turn.
2. a seconds weakness affects courses with sparse track points. When a course has a lengthy straight segment without any track point inbetween, the Garmin GPS will signal "Course lost" although you're spot on the course line.
   The plugin can ensure that track points are created at least every n meters in order to avoid this problem.

Plugin Information