[Feature Request] Draw Lines and Points

[kidorion]

I use GpsPrune to crop mobile phone GPS tracks of my sailing dinghy after a racing. Typically I'll crop the ends (before and after the race) and I'll add Waypoints at every minute. I may also try and separate different laps of the course (since tracks overlap a lot) [but this is messy to do and a separate issue].

After cleaning, I use GpsPrune to check speed around the course and the speed/quality of my tacks (manoeuvers). Altitude is of no interest :-)

It's the best software I've found for this task. But I'd like to be able to draw lines (and points) on the map to help analyse what happened with wind shifts during the race. [I can't find other software to do this the way I need... see below]

Some great functionlity to add would be:

1. Draw Point: Add an arbitrary point with a mouse click. [This can be a separate/special ' track segment'.] This can be used to indicate a likely buoy position. It would be nice to have this point larger than a regular GPS track point.
2. View Point: Click on point to show co-ordinates and label (if any).
3. Draw Line: Create a starting point with the mouse OR select an existing point, then create line of a given length at a particular compass heading [important] OR select an existing point for the end point. [This can be a separate segment.] This can be used to indicate a start or finish line. More, importantly it can be used to 'scribble' on the map various reference directions, e.g. estimate approximate headings of sections of track and to sketch in likely wind directions at different times and locations.
4. View Line: Click on line to show, start and end point co-ordinates, length and heading [really important].

many thanks!

[activityworkshop]

Hi kidorion,
racing sailing dinghies, that's an application of GpsPrune I've never heard of before!

So, some of what you're asking for is already possible with GpsPrune, just maybe not quite in the way you're expecting.

Adding marker points for buoys

Very simple, just right-click where you want your marker and select "Create new point". This gives you a new track point, which will however appear identical to all the other "regular" track points from your GPS. To make it appear bigger, give it a name (Point -> Edit waypoint name) and then choose the appearance (Settings -> Set waypoint options).

If you also want your "timing waypoints" to appear differently to your "buoy waypoints" then you can assign different point types to each and then use the "Colour by type" option to give them different colours.

If you want to add additional information you can do this for example in the description field of the buoy point (Point -> Edit point or Ctrl-E)

Adding arbitrary lines (without an exact heading)

It sounds like you don't need this, but it might be useful anyway - if you know where the start line is, right-click the map, select "Create series of points", click one end of the start line, click the other end of the start line, (click further points if you want) and then press "Escape" to stop drawing.

Adding a line at a specific heading

Use right-click and "Create new point" to create one end of your line. Project this line at the required heading (Point -> Project point) to create the end point (don't enter a waypoint name). Then join the two together with Point -> Toggle segment flag.

If you want to do this projection from an existing point instead of a newly-drawn one, just select the point first, then duplicate it (Point -> Duplicate point), and continue from there.

Showing the heading of existing lines

This isn't currently possible. You can of course see the start and end point coordinates by clicking on them, you can select a range from point 1 to point 2 and see the distance, but the heading isn't currently shown.

Speeds not altitudes

You say that speeds are interesting but altitudes are not, so hopefully you already know about right-clicking on the altitude panel at the bottom of the window to configure it?