New Feature: Creating Course / Routes for Turn-by-Turn directions.

[fulmar2]

The other day, a user asked me if GOTOES could merge files containing POIs (waypoints). The GOTOES engine has long been based on linear time stamps - but waypoints generally don't have time associated with the POIs. The request was a valid one:

How can you merge a COURSE track with WAYPOINTS (POIs) and selectively insert the waypoints
if they are x distance from the track (excluding POIs that are further away)?

I decided to tackle this problem, and have created a nascent version of the program. Your feedback is welcome and encouraged. I want this tool to work for YOU and help you save time and get the results you want. The tool tries to be as flexible as possible with inputs. Right now, it can accept TCX and GPX input files with waypoints, course points, POIs, etc. The only supported output format is TCX at this time. I may add GPX Course output in the future. I probably won't add FIT. There is already a really good tool for making courses called Ride With GPS. I don't plan to duplicate any of their features. This feature of being able to flexibly merge POI files with Course files - and selectively insert waypoints is a niche need that I wanted to address.

Here is how it works:

• Upload any combination of GPX / TCX files that contains a track, just waypoints/coursepoints, or both. The tool tries to flexibly handle any of these conditions.
• Once the files are uploaded, you should see the normal graphic representation of your track/courses and a new representation of your POIs (a checkbox in the streams area saying "POIs" with the count of the number of POIs detected).
• Check the streams you want to include - maybe a position stream from one file, and a POI stream from another.
• Make sure you have selected "TCX" as the export type - otherwise, you won't be able to select any POI streams.
• Process the files with the big blue button at the bottom. This file should be able to be imported into a GPS to give you turn-by-turn directions.

An example of combining one file that contains just a route (course)... and another file that contains only POIs (waypoints).

Next, you will want to load this course file into your device. For a Garmin, you do that by connecting your device to a computer, and then drag the file into the "NewFiles" folder. When you unplug the GPS, you will get a map of the ride with your POIs shown like the image below:

What a POI course looks like in a Garmin. Many modern GPS devices support this type of file, but I only own a Garmin for this type of testing.

course.png (29.34 KiB) Viewed 43207 times

When you navigate this course, you should receive turn-by-turn directions where a notification pops up on your screen before the next course point. Course points can notify you about things to see, stores, turns, and road hazards... they don't just have to be direction-related.

I hope this feature helps you out, and if it does, let me know by donating or sending a message. If you have a problem with how it works, don't be shy and let me know how it can be improved.

[momeunier]

Thanks for implementing this!
It's a bit rough around the edges for now. Looks like it's removing actually important waypoints in the process.
I used the attached two files.
I've tried a variation of options, but it looks like it's a bit too aggressive at removing waypoints.
I know you're leaving for your long trip! No hurry

[fulmar2]

You’re going to have to tell me how far you want a valid point to be from the track. Since you’re the one who asked for the feature, you get to determine the threshold.

[momeunier]

how about 200m ?

[fulmar2]

OK, please give it another try. In the files you provided, 145 and 38 POIs were detected respectively. I ran the merger with the new settings, and found a result of 126 POIs in the final file, hopefully meaning that the unwanted points were removed, but the desired ones are stored...

[fulmar2]

Just a heads up, I re-worked it again. I discovered that some characters are "illegal" in these TCX files. I haven't had to deal with that in the past for track files because they just have numeric values (speed, elevation, lat/lon, etc)... but with waypoint files, users can supply their own names for the waypoints as well as the description and comments - which was causing some issues for the parser. I don't claim to have written a filter that recognizes all of the illegal characters, but I've now found all of the ones that are in your sample files and filtered them out. This is still a work-in-progress! Now you're filtered to 178 points down from 183. As a bonus feature, I added the ability to view the points on the "Edit Points" tool so you can see them on a map right away.