OSX Route Planning with MacGPS Pro and Memory Map

[OffTrack]

I'm just dipping my toes into the muddy waters of GPS devices in preparation for a trip up to the Northern Flinders Ranges.

I'm currently running Memory Map (Free) on my iPhone, and have had a copy of MacGPS Pro (http://www.macgpspro.com/?id=143) sitting unused in my application folder for a year or so.

Memory Map seems like it's a fairly capable and the availability of 1:25000 VICMAP's, and HEMA touring maps via their online map store seems to give me the coverage I'll need.

MacGPS Pro is a bit of an odd beast. The user interface looks like it hasn't been updated since the glory days of OS9 :eek: and doesn't conform to the modern OSX UI design guide-lines in any way shape or form. On the other hand it appears to a very useful mapping tool, and is regarded by many as the best mapping app for OSX. There are other mapping applications available like Route Buddy (http://www.routebuddy.com/) which is billed as "modern digital mapping", possibly in contrast with MacGPS Pro? From what I can see Route Buddy uses the increasingly popular paradigm of "Buy Our App, Buy Our Maps", and the coverage appears to be limited to USA and UK at present which makes it pretty useless for AULORians. That may change at some point in the future.

One of the nice things about MacGPS Pro is that it supports the ECW formatted Geoscience Australia 1:250000 series maps (http://www.ga.gov.au/mapconnect/). These maps load without requiring calibration in the app. If you place the individual .ecw files directly into the MacGPS Pro's auto-load folder (Applications > MacGPS Pro > Auto-Open Maps) and select File > Auto-Open Map Choices... > 1:250000 GA Topo the application will auto-open the appropriate map when running a moving map display with GPS unit connected or by clicking the UI with the load map tool. This works really well if you are manually entering a track which runs off the currently loaded map. You simply switch to the load map tool and click in the area you want to continue drawing the track and the correct map sheet loads - providing the relevant files is in the auto load folder of course!

MacGPS Pro will read and write .gpx and .kml files so this makes importing and exporting tracks pretty easy. As a test I used the directions function in google earth to generate a track between Brunswick West and Hattah-Kulkyne. Pretty straight forward but saves having to do it manually ;). Once you have the correct route you select the route:
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Select "Save place as" from contextual menu:
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and save the file in .kml format:
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In MacGPS Pro you can then go to File > Open and select the KML file:
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which results in the track being loaded:
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[OffTrack]

As you can see the application has a distinct OS9 look and feel. The other thing to note is the imported route has been split into two for some reason. This is fairly easy to fix:
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The portion of the route selected in the list is highlighted with green markers, while the inactive section is in black. By using the Zoom and Centre tool you zoom in until you can see the markers on each side of the split:
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Pick the "Select Track Points" tool and click on one of the points on either side of the spilt. This is a bit easier said than done, as changing tools changes all the points to green, so you need to remember roughly where the split is. If you get the wrong mark you are presented with a "Split" dialogue rather than "Join":
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This leaves you with a single track, which can be renamed by double clicking on the name in the "List" window. :cool:

Assuming you have the correct .ecw format GA 1:250000 sheet installed in the "Auto-Open Maps" folder you can pick the "Select/Open Maps" tool and click beside the track to load the map:
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[OffTrack]

Having got a track into MacGPS Pro it's pretty straight forward to load into Memory Map. Select "File > Save Track Logs As ..." and save the file in .gpx format. This will save every track shown under Track Logs in the "List" window.

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At this point you can hook up your iPhone/iPad via usb and open up iTunes. Under the Apps tab you should see Memory-Map (Free in my case) listed under "File Sharing". Select Memory-Map from the list and click "Add" to open the .gpx file you've created. The file will immediately upload to the iPhone/iPad, so there is no need to sync.

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If you've followed the steps above you now have a .gpx file sitting on your iPhone/iPad but the data isn't visible in Memory-Map.

The step is to fire up Memory-Map - this works just as well with the free version - and load the data.

Navigate to the Tracks Folder and click menu (at the top right). This will open up a list of options:
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Click "Load saved data" and you'll be presented with a list of .gpx available on the iPhone/iPad:
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Select the file you want to load, in my case BrunswickWest-Hattah. Memory map will load the .gpx file and then display a list of the tracks that can be displayed:
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Click on the Track name and Memory-Map gives you the option to edit the name, add comments, email, display or delete the track:
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Clicking "View Track" will display the track on the currently loaded base map, in this case HEMA - VIC_State:
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So there you have it - a very basic guide to importing .kml and exporting .gpx files using MacGPS and loading file into Memory-Map.

MacGPS Pro is far more capable than simply importing tracks from Google Earth. It's very easy to create tracks by hand using the GA maps, as is creating and exporting waypoints for possible camp sites and other points of interest.