GPS Visualizer - get an overview of your route and share it with others

[Gary France]

Here is a tip MRA users might find useful...

Sometimes, you want to share a route that you have planned with other riders, but not as gpx files, but as a simple map so you can show the others where you will be going. You sometimes need this just as as an image of your route, because if you share a gpx file with others, that assumes they know how to import that files and it assumes they have the software to be able to do that. Not everyone does.

I have found a website that allows you to import a gpx file and convert it into a map that you can then share it as an image which you can email to your friends if they cannot open gpx files. This works perfectly alongside MRA.

Many of us plan longer rides one day at a time and the website also allows you to import up to 8 different gpx files to give an overview of the entire route.

I must stress that you can only create an image of your route, which cannot be adjusted.

The website is free to use and it is called GPS Visualizer https://www.gpsvisualizer.com

Over the years, I have found it extremely useful.

Gary, Tour1, Harley-Davidson motorcycle tours.

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@Gary-France

You can do this also in MRA

[Gary France]

@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master Well yes, you can, but first you need to join together all of the various day routes (which takes time) and are limited in the number of waypoints you can use. Then I don't think you can export it as a jpg, nor can you hide the waypoints if you want to. I would agree you can do it in MRA, but I think it is more work to achieve that in MRA. I did try to do this in MRA, but it didn't quite give me the results I needed. What would be great is if MRA in the future could automatically produce a map by combining together all of the routes in a folder, and be able to show / not show the waypoints. This would save a lot of time.

[Nick Carthew]

@Gary-France What would be great is if MRA in the future could automatically produce a map by combining together all of the routes in a folder, and be able to show / not show the waypoints.
If you convert a route to a track, you won't see route points as in Hans' second photo. I don't think it takes long to construct an overview of a tour using the 'Add route' function.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@Nick-Carthew Yes, MRA does this very well... but there is a big but: after you've closed the route, the route 'imports' in the route though the 'Add route' options are gone! The routes you've added through the show route menu are not being saved into the route. I found that to be very very very annoying, while sharing the overviews with my comrads during the still planning phase of the trips.

[Nick Carthew]

@StefanHummelink Once you have added the route you can use the + symbol to join the routes permanently.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@Nick-Carthew Yes, offcourse, but then the route is simply copied over into the current route and no link between the imported routed exists. So let's say I import Route1 into AllRoutes and click +, any changes afterwards in Route1 are not reflected in AllRoutes. It would be much more usable if the link remains. You understand what I mean?

[Drabslab]

@StefanHummelink I have also been thinking about such "collection routes" which are not routes on their own but could show on-screen in a single route the combination of a few existing routes.

I think this is feasible if it is seen as an additional documentation tool only, without permitting changes on the collection that also impact the the individual routes.

It would not be too high on my priority list though.

[Nick Carthew]

@StefanHummelink Yes I do understand, and I understand that it could be useful for a few people. I’m not sure how difficult or easy it would be to implement but to be honest, I can’t see much demand for it. But who knows what the future brings.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@Drabslab @Nick-Carthew , don't get me wrong, I don't see this as high priority either haha. I just gave my 2 cents on the discussion that started haha!

[Gary France]

Thanks all, that is very useful and I have certainly learnt something new today. There obviously is a technical solution within MRA to what I want to do, but to be honest, as a relatively new user, I didn't really understand some of what you much more experienced guys are saying. I could probably work it our (and will) but isn't this a bit self-defeating? I mean having a solution that is quite a challenge to understand is okay for the real techies, but I think most users would want a much simpler way of doing this. Something like where you see the folder containing all your days routes, there could be a button you click on that pulls together all the routes and presents it as one map for you automatically. I think that would be much better. I agree that wouldn't be high on any priority list, but it would be nice to have.

[Drabslab]

@Gary-France That is exactly what I meant having a "collection route" (which needs to be developed). It would not be a route (with waypoints and so on) but a list of references to other routes stored as collection in a route folder. When opening this collection it would fetch all the data from the individual routes in that collection and bring them on the screen.

I tested doing something like that manually and made a long route combining 10 existing routes (10day holiday) into one. Main disadvantage is that it becomes very slow and that is partly beating the purpose.

And about prioritys: MRA has a long development list, let's see what becomes priority once this list has been processed

But I do love these little discusions, if MRA continues to follow its users bearing in mind Henry Ford (if I would asked them they would have asked for faster horses) then all will be fine.