[CA] [CA11] Voyage Planner

[viben]

I'm importing GPX routes created elsewhere into VP to convert them to FSH routes. These WPs of these routes are displayed in correct order in Google Earth. Lately I have experienced that VP screws up the order of the waypoints when I import the GPX file. Therefore, the route created in VP ends up like the one in the attached screenshot.

I have not been able to find away to sort the WPs in logical order, ie. WP 1 to WP 50. Using the name sort function only sorts the folders, not the content of the WPs in the folders. The only workaround I can see seems to be to drag one WP at the time and in order from the WP window to the Routes window. That’s quite a lot of work.

Please let me know if there is a better way.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome back to the Raymarine Forum Viben,

Please attach the GPX file which you had imported into Voyage Planner. Please additionally identify the name of the route which you were having an issue with.

[viben]

Please see the attached GPX file that ends up being zig-zagged by Voyage tePlanner.

I follow the standard importation procedure. However, because Voyage Planner only populates the Waypoints and the Tracks database, while the Routes database remains empty, I add New Route to the Route Database add drag and drop the waypoints from the waypoints database folder to the new route folder.

The GPX file was created as route, not a set of disconnected waypoints, so why is it not recognized as a route by Voyage Planner and not added to the Routes database upon import?

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Viben,

I was seeking a GPX file which featured a route which failed to properly import. The GPX file which you included with your last post included only waypoints and a track. If you could provide your KML / KMZ file containing the route which was input into GPSBabel, that would be helpful as well.

[viben]

The GPX I sent you does indeed fail to import correctly.

Please see the attached 2 screenshots:

1) After importation, with only the Waypoints and Tracks databases populated, despite that fact that this file is supposed to contain a route.

2) After creating a new route and dragging and dropping the waypoints into it, showing the zig-zagging.

Also, as requested, please find attached the Navionics created route KML file that was converted to GPX with GPSBabel. Sorry, your site does not allow it, giving me the following error :

Please correct the following errors before continuing:
The type of file that you attached is not allowed. Please remove the attachment or choose a different type.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

viben,

I have added support for .kml attachments within this Forum for files up to 8MB. As indicated during our conversation, the previously submitted GPX file contained only waypoints and a track. Apparently, there was either something wrong with the program used to create the .kml file or with the program used to produce a GPX file from the .kml file. Please additionally note that I used Google Earth Pro to produce a simple path (route) and a 58 waypoint path and found that Voyage Planner was then capable of importing the routes and waypoints from the .kmz file. Note that if the route contains more than 50 waypoints, it may be edited within Voyage Planner to reduce the number of waypoints to 50. As Google Maps / Google Earth were not intended maritime navigational planning and you are experiencing problems with VP and downloaded NOAA ENC charts, you may want to consider using the Navionics Boating app as you had indicated for navigational planning. The routes may be exported by the Navionics Boating app to a .kml file. As indicated, I would recommend working with Navionics to determine whether they would consider additionally supporting the ability to export waypoint/route data to a GPX file. I did find an alternative web application which claims to convert .kml to .kmz and it may be found here. The resulting .kmz or GPX file may in turn be imported into Voyage Planner for the purpose of producing an Archive.fsh file.

[viben]

Please find the original KML file created by the Navionics app, the the route in question.

[viben]

Hi Chuck,

One additional, quick follow up question:

Once the file/route issue has been resolved, and I have been able to successfully import a number of routes into Voyage Planner, would it be possible to export them all together as one combined archive.fsh file?

In the past, I gone through the process of exporting each route separately, which is a lot of work, including renaming each one manually once installed on the plotter.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Viben,

Please note that I was able to use Google Earth Pro to import your .kml file and then export the route (e-mail) to a .kmz file. The .kmz file (attached) was then able to be successfully imported into Voyage Planner (see the successfully imported route below.

[viben]

Hi Chuck,

In fact, I did the same thing last night and found that KML to KMZ in Google Earth does the trick.

However, it also confirmed what I believe may be the main reason for Voyage Planner's zig-zagging, namely that the waypoint database is unable to sort the waypoints according to logical numbering, ie. from WP 1 to WP 50.

Instead, it sorts the waypoints by character/digit, ie. WP 1, WP 10, WP 11, WP 12, ..., WP 19, WP 2, WP 20, WP 21 on so on.

Therefore, when using the Select Folder Items function to drag and drop the waypoints to create a new route, the new route follows that irrational sorting and end up zig-zagging from WP 1 to 10, from WP 19 via WP 2 to WP 20 and so on.