How does one go bout removing a track/trail that has become obsolete?

I have downloaded the all tracks.org KML file and opened it up in Google earth. I have two questions.

Is there any meaning to the color coding of the trails?

Is there an easy way of getting rid of the place mark bubbles?

Cheers

S

trailtroll wrote:How does one go bout removing a track/trail that has become obsolete?

There's no automated way currently. An email to Jonny at info@tracks.org.nz would be the way to go - though perhaps consider keeping the track for posterity and changing the access to "Closed" (with a note explaining why).

slimdog wrote:I have downloaded the all tracks.org KML file and opened it up in Google earth. I have two questions.

Is there any meaning to the color coding of the trails?

Is there an easy way of getting rid of the place mark bubbles?

Cheers

S

Colours relate to grade:
Beginner = yellow
Easy = green
Intermediate = red
Advanced = blue
Expert = black
Extreme = white

I don't think there's an easy way to hide the bubbles in Google Earth, at least the way the file is currently structured. If the file was re-structured so that the place marks were in one folder and the tracks were in another folder, then everything in a folder could be hidden with a single click. Might be worth suggesting to the creator of the file: groklem.

Cool thanks for the reply.

I have found a line of code to get rid of each bubble but I have to do it to each one, one at a time.

Yeah sorry not no easy way of getting rid of the placemark bubbles without getting nerdy about it. Looks like the last time that script ran was May so needs updating anyways. I'll post a note here when its all working again...

slimdog wrote:I have downloaded the all tracks.org KML file and opened it up in Google earth. I have two questions.

Is there any meaning to the color coding of the trails?

Is there an easy way of getting rid of the place mark bubbles?

Cheers

S

Yep its easy
On the left hand side bar, in places, there will be a tick on the track you have selected. expanding this will show waypoints and tracks. Uncheck the waypoints as this is what causes the bubbles
See picture

groklem wrote:Yeah sorry not no easy way of getting rid of the placemark bubbles without getting nerdy about it. Looks like the last time that script ran was May so needs updating anyways. I'll post a note here when its all working again...

See my last post, its easy dude

Yeah the issue slimdog is having is that the tracks.org.nz.kml is not laid out like in your example. (See image below for how its laid out in the tracks.org.nz.kml).



In the tracks.org.nz.kml you can turn off the markers but you have to do it one at a time, because they are not all in the same folder, like they are in your example.

slimdog wrote:
I have downloaded the all tracks.org KML file and opened it up in Google earth. I have two questions.

Are you sure - he is saying that he is opening the KML files in Google Earth?

Question.

Have edited data on Google Earth Pro, saved it as KML files, reviewed to ensure it opens again in GE, then downloaded it to tracks however the files are showing but not the tracks on the maps.

http://tracks.org.nz/track/show/1080 for example

You can download the GPS Path so tracks has stored the data?

Any ideas

The problem is that the kml file is not using the standard format. Instead, it is using a bunch of "extensions" (see the kml reference). The Tracks site uses a utility to encode the kml's track data, so that it can be displayed more efficiently, however the encoding utility does not understand the kml extensions so it fails to display the track.

In Google Earth Pro is there an option is save the kml file in standard format (ie. without using the extensions)? Alternatively, install the standard Google Earth then try opening the original GPS file and save a kml file from there. If that doesn't work, covert the original GPS file to a kml file using GPS Babel.

The tracks site reads the KML file looking for a "<Linestring>" element that contains a string of points. That looks like this:

Code: Select all

<Placemark>
         <name>Boulder Hill</name>
         <styleUrl>#TrackLineStyle</styleUrl>
         <LineString>
            <tessellate>1</tessellate>
            <coordinates>
174.96978,-41.159287,0 174.969756,-41.159359


The KML uploaded for that woodhill track contains tracks that look like this (ie. no LineString):

Code: Select all

         <name>Tracks</name>
         <Placemark>
            <styleUrl>#multiTrack6</styleUrl>
            <gx:Track>
               <when>2010-11-13T00:50:10Z</when>
                                        ...
               <gx:coord>174.409183 -36.731016 56</gx:coord>
               <gx:coord>174.409333 -36.731383 52.4</gx:coord>

So as iodi said, because the utility doesn't understand the format, it fails to display the track.

Most of the tracks on the tracks.org.nz site have been created by tracing over GPS logs using the "add path" feature in google earth to create a line. You could try that and see if tracing produces a line that is understood by the tracks site.

I tried opening your track in regular google earth and then saving it out again to see if that produced the desired format but it didn't

ok cheers

tried gps babel and that didn't work so will try tracing

groklem wrote:The tracks site reads the KML file looking for a "<Linestring>" element that contains a string of points. That looks like this:

Code: Select all

<Placemark>
         <name>Boulder Hill</name>
         <styleUrl>#TrackLineStyle</styleUrl>
         <LineString>
            <tessellate>1</tessellate>
            <coordinates>
174.96978,-41.159287,0 174.969756,-41.159359


The KML uploaded for that woodhill track contains tracks that look like this (ie. no LineString):

Code: Select all

         <name>Tracks</name>
         <Placemark>
            <styleUrl>#multiTrack6</styleUrl>
            <gx:Track>
               <when>2010-11-13T00:50:10Z</when>
                                        ...
               <gx:coord>174.409183 -36.731016 56</gx:coord>
               <gx:coord>174.409333 -36.731383 52.4</gx:coord>

So as iodi said, because the utility doesn't understand the format, it fails to display the track.

Most of the tracks on the tracks.org.nz site have been created by tracing over GPS logs using the "add path" feature in google earth to create a line. You could try that and see if tracing produces a line that is understood by the tracks site.

I tried opening your track in regular google earth and then saving it out again to see if that produced the desired format but it didn't

Got it sorted,

Wasn't checking the create linestring box when importing the GPX file into Google Earth
Check out http://tracks.org.nz/track/show/1081