Comments on: Software for .gpx files on a Mac

Question: Software for .gpx files on a Mac

jcdill — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:50:32 -0800

Software to process and display (map, etc.) .gpx files on a Mac

I don't have a GPS yet, although a friend is sending me her old unit. Today I went on a mountain bike ride with a group, and someone else had a GPS with him and recorded our ride. After the ride, I downloaded the .gpx file from his GPS to my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.5.5). I uploaded the file to a site (mapmyride.com) to map the ride, which was cool. I'd like to map the ride on my Mac, and also map the altitude changes, etc. It would be super to find software that was open source or freeware.

By: kcm

kcm — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:18:22 -0800

Ascent is geared more for activity tracking but does what you'd like. It's not free but it's usable without paying.

By: larsks

larsks — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:27:36 -0800

There's always Google Earth, which can import gpx files. Google Earth is free. The commercial software MacGPS Pro is good for managing your gpx files, and can plot your course on a variety of maps -- but is sadly missing the ability to utilize maps from any of the online mapping services.

The command line program "gpsbabel" is an incredibly useful tool for transforming you GPX files. You can use it to convert between GPX and other formats (e.g., KML, used by many of Google's services), or to make your routes more management (e.g., reducing the number of points) through various simplification techniques.

There's an application out there targeted at fitness use of your gps -- for runners/bikes/etc -- but I can't remember it off the top of my head. Most can be found through some permutation of a google search for "os x gps" or the like.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:18:14 -0800

Sign up for Garmin Connect (it's free). Here's one of my rides, you can see lots of the data in different views (this is from a Garmin edge 705 bike computer).

By: devbrain

devbrain — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:22:03 -0800

I use TOPO! (it's about $100 per region) and runs Natively on mac, though has somewhat of a cumbersome interface.

For the rest of my GPX mapping I load a windows vm (parallels) and use Garmin Mapsource. It's not great, but I've used it long enough that I can be in and out and take the screen shots I want. For example, I really like these altitude graphs (direct screen shot, except for me adding the date afterwards): img link

Garmin continues to release newer versions of their software for mac, so that's something to keep an eye on if the unit you're getting is a garmin....

By: Confess, Fletch

Confess, Fletch — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:22:10 -0800

GPS Visualizer does the same sort of things as Map My Ride but with the ability to download the results.

By: hades

hades — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:22:36 -0800

There's also the web service GPS Visualizer. Google Earth is pretty much the best I've found, though.

By: scruss

scruss — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:51:28 -0800

Prune is quite fun (more so if there is good Open Streetmap coverage of your area), free and cross-platform. It's really good for geotagging photos, too.

By: Alex Parker

Alex Parker — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:48:47 -0800

I would like to do kind of the opposite of what's being discussed - instead of converting my garmin track to a gpx for display, I want to pre-define a route on my computer and then load it to the Garmin (I have an oregon 400) as a route I can follow. Anyone have suggestions on this?

Thanks

By: hades

hades — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:27:30 -0800

Check out these instructions --they tell you how to use Google Maps to plot a route and get it exported to GPX (using a free tool I wrote). There should be a way to upload GPX files to your device, possibly using Mapsource.