Track tools
The track tools need GPX Explore Pro. Select a track in edit mode and its panel shows its name, its point count and length, and the tools:
- Mac and iPad: the name, Type (hiking, cycling…) and Description fields, then a grid of tools.
- iPhone: the name, and every tool behind Track Tools.
- Mac menu bar: the same tools in the Track menu, for the selected track.
Some names differ between the panel and the Track menu; both are given below.
| Panel | Track menu | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Reverse | Reverse Track | Runs the track the other way. Times are mirrored, so the pace is kept. |
| Close Loop | Close Loop | Adds a leg from the last point back to the first: straight, or along paths and roads when a routing mode is chosen. |
| Out and Back | Out and Back | Adds the way back: the same points in reverse, ending at the start. The way back has no times. |
| Simplify… | Simplify Track… | Removes points that lie close to the line. A slider sets the tolerance (0.5 to 50 m) and shows the point count before and after. Times, elevation and sensor data stay on the points that remain. |
| Add Points… | Add Points… | Adds points along long straight legs, at most every 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 or 200 m, and looks up their elevation. |
| Remove Spikes | Remove Spikes | Deletes single points that jump away and come straight back (more than 40 m off the line and, on timed tracks, faster than the track ever goes). It says how many it removed, or that it found none. |
Elevation
Section titled “Elevation”Replace Elevation (Add Elevation on a track without any; Look Up Elevation for Track in the Track menu) gives every point of the track the height of the 30 m terrain model, in one undoable step. Use it for a noisy barometer or GPS altitude, or a file with no elevation at all. The edit bar shows the progress and then how many points were filled. See Accuracy.
A track without times shows Plan Times…; a timed track shows Shift Times… and Remove Times.
- Plan Times… gives every point a time, for devices, Xcode’s location simulation and apps that need timed tracks. Set Start, the Activity (Walking, Hiking, Running, Cycling or Custom, which sets a speed you can change), Speed on the flat, and Slower uphill, faster downhill, which uses Tobler’s hiking function. The sheet says how long it will take and when it finishes; Add Times writes them.
- Shift Times… moves every time in the track by the same amount, for a device whose clock or time zone was wrong. Set New start and choose Shift.
- Remove Times takes the times off every point.
Tracks and segments
Section titled “Tracks and segments”| Panel | Track menu | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Merge Segments | Merge Segments | Joins all the track’s segments into one (shown when there are two or more). |
| Join With | (in the tracks list) | Appends another track’s segments to this one; the other track goes. Shown when the file has two or more tracks. |
| Make Route / Make Track | Convert to Route / Convert to Track | A route is one list of points with no times, which is what many devices import as a course; converting a timed track to a route drops its times. |
| Duplicate | Duplicate Track | Adds a copy of the track. |
| Delete Track | Delete Track | Deletes the track. The panel asks first; either way you can undo it. |
Every tool is one step: ⌘Z, or the undo arrow, puts it back.