Questions on Tracks
Hello,
As a newer user, I have been playing with tracking hikes on my mobile device and had a couple of questions.
1. I realize that tracks from my mobile device end up in the "Tracks" folder and optionally also associated with a map. My question is: After I add a track to a map, is there any reason for me to keep the separate track in the "Tracks" folder? It seems redundant to me to have it both as a line on a map and a separate track because they contain the same information. I've been deleting the tracks and was wondering what others do or if there is any use case to keep the separate tracks.
2. Once added to a map, I see the "track" in the Lines and Polygons folder, and can "Convert/Copy to Track". What is the difference between converting/copying to a track versus leaving it as a line on the map? I tried this functionality and don't see a difference except that it calls it a FieldTrack but contains the same information. I did not see this documented anywhere, so I'm asking here if anyone can help.
Thank you in advance for the assistance!
Comments
4 comments
Hello Sierrajmk:
I initially wondered the same thing. What I found is that tracks saved to account can easily be incorporated in different maps. Once a track is converted to a line on a particular map and then deleted as a track in the account it seems harder (at least to me) to add that line (representing a track) to a different map. In fact I can't figure out how to move lines among maps without exporting them from one map and importing them to the other. I suspect I'm missing something obvious, but it's been frustrating me for a while now.
Howard
Hi Howard,
That makes sense to me as a use case, that you can easily add a track to multiple maps if it is separated out from the start. I hadn't considered that as being an advantage, especially since it is harder to export it from another map once you don't have the track separate. Thanks for replying!
I had the same questions. After talking to the CalTopo support folks, I think I have a better understanding of how Tracks work. Let me explain what I know now, as I think it will help others who run into the same misunderstandings and questions as we had here.
First, the documentation on Tracks is here - now that I know how it works, these docs are more clear to me.
The important thing to grasp is that when you have a map open, and you track yourself, and then you finish/save that track, it actually gets saved into TWO different places - first, it goes into the "Tracks" folder within your account (which is not associated with any one map), AND, second, it goes into your map as a line in the Lines&Polygons folder on the map. Not only that (and here is where I was really confused), they are independent of each other. So if I rename (or even delete) one, the corresponding one remains as-is, unchanged. So you could delete the Track entry in your account if you know you'll never want to add that track to any other map, leaving the track in the original map intact. Or you could delete the track saved in your map, and leave the track in your account so you can later copy it into another map (or multiple maps, as Howard points out above).
But, even if you delete the track from the account, you can still copy that track to another map if, in the future, you realize you do want to do that. It is just a few extra steps more to do it. You would go to the map that has your track, export the track, switch to the map where you want to add the track, and then import it. When I tried that, even the track details remained (like the elevation, slope, timestamps, etc).
Keeping tracks in your account seems to only be useful if you plan on copying that track to multiple maps since it is easier to do that than doing the import/export dance. The way you do it without the import/export dance is (assuming the track exists in your account), go to the map where you want the track and turn on the YourData>YourTracks overlay. You'll see all the tracks in your account show up in the map. Find the track you want to copy to that map, and select it - from there you will see the "Add to Map" option.
Wow, John, thanks for supplying all the details. That really clears it up for me! I like that it maintains all your track data even when doing the import/export dance between maps, but even better trick is to do the YourTracks overlay. I will have to do that from now on.
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