Programs:

Programs:

GPSMan

In order to run GPSMan, Tcl/Tk (preferably version 8.4) must be previously installed. It can be got from the Active State site.

To use GPSMan under MacOS X have a look here.

Current distribution : version 6.4

Please check the list of pending bugs, last changed on 8 November 2008.

Use of Shapefiles only possible if the version 1.2 of the gpsmanshp library is available. It can be downloaded from its home page.

The exif Tcl/Tk package that is part of the standard Tcl/Tk distribution will be used for trying to know the time-stamp of picture files when geo-referencing them.

The following external utilities might be used if available:

• which or whereis, to check whether a program is available;
• exif and/or metacam, to get the time-stamp of picture files when geo-referencing them.

Utilities

The following utilities can be found in the GPSMan distribution:

Conversion of MapBlast waypoints

A separate program to convert the waypoints listed in HTML pages of the MapBlast site into GPSMan files is also available under the name of mb2gmn.tcl. At its core is code contributed by Martin Ostermann (Aachen University of Technology). The reason why this code was not integrated into GPSMan is that the format of those HTML pages does not follow any known specification and may change at any time.

In order to run mb2gmn.tcl GPSMan must be installed as they share some source files. After downloading, the file mb2gmn.tcl, which can be found in the util directory, should be edited for configuration.

To use this program HTML pages produced at the MapBlast site in answer to queries under the Directions section should be saved locally and then opened from the program.

Conversion of MapsOnUS routes

A separate program to convert the routes listed in HTML pages of the MapsOnUS site into GPSMan files is also available under the name of mou2gmn.tcl. At its core is code contributed by Frank Kujawski (Frank_at_Kujawski.org). The reason why this code was not integrated into GPSMan is that the format of those HTML pages does not follow any known specification and may change at any time.

In order to run mou2gmn.tcl GPSMan must be installed as they share some source files. After downloading, the file mou2gmn.tcl, which can be found in the util directory, should be edited for configuration.

This program works on HTML files created at the MapsOnUS site as follows: go to the "General Options" (under the "Tools" menu), select "Show Latitude & Longitude", plan a route, "jump to turn-by-turn directions", hit the "non-tabular format" link and save locally the HTML page. These files are then opened from the program and the resulting files will contain the routes and their waypoints. The remark fields of the waypoints will have the directions in the HTML pages.

Conversion of BGA (DOS) files

A separate script dos2gpsman.tcl that converts BGA (British Gliding Association) DOS turnpoints files to GPSMan. It was contributed by Paul Scorer (p.scorer_at_leedsmet.ac.uk). It reads from and writes to the standard input and standard output unless otherwise specified by the arguments which are:

[-p feature] [-f findability] [-a air_activity] \
         [-i in_file] [-o out_file] [-h] [--help]

Splitting a Shapefile into Quadrants

The shape2quadr.tcl script reads a Shapefile and from a list of quadrangles (defined by extreme latitude and longitude) produces GPSMan files one for the set of items in the file that belong to each quadrangle. Quadrangles may overlap. Items may belong to more than one quadrangle. This utility may prove helpful for dealing with large Shapefiles. It can be called in two ways:

• giving a name and the extreme coordinates of each quadrangle, the arguments in call being

  FILE PREFIX [NAME LONGMIN LONGMAX LATMIN LATMAX]+
  

  where NAME is the name of each quadrangle
• defining a grid of quadrangles, the arguments being

  FILE PREFIX -d QPREFIX LONG LONGRANGE STEPLONG MAXLONG \
                         LAT LATRANGE STEPLAT MAXLAT
  

  where QPREFIX is used in generating names for the quadrangles, each quadrangle having an extent of LONGRANGE by LATRANGE, the first has the southwest corner at LONG,LAT, and the southwest corners of the others follow at steps of LONGSTEP and LATSTEP and will not be greater than MAXLONG and MAXLAT

Shapefiles with points are not supported and altitudes are not kept. The coordinates in the Shapefile are assumed to be in decimal degrees (DDD) in the "WGS 84" datum (it can easily be changed in the utility source).

All items read are saved as GPSMan polylines (LNs) in DDD format. Each quadrangle file will also have a group (GR) with all its polylines, so that it will be easy to display/hide all of them at once; the file starts with a comment giving the boundaries of the quadrangle. The file name is of the form PREFIX_QUAD where QUAD is the quadrangle name; each file is created in the current directory destroying any file under the same name.

Some screenshots are available showing the results of applying this program to a large Shapefile.

Conversion of GreenFlag routes

A separate program to convert the routes listed in HTML pages of the GreenFlag site into GPSMan files is also available under the name of gf2gmn.tcl. At its core is code contributed by Nigel Orr (gps_at_river-view.freeserve.co.uk). The reason why this code was not integrated into GPSMan is that the format of those HTML pages does not follow any known specification and may change at any time.

In order to run gf2gmn.tcl GPSMan must be installed as they share some source files. After downloading, the file gf2gmn.tcl, which can be found in the util directory, should be edited for configuration.

To use this program HTML pages produced at the GreenFlag site [link not working on June 2007] as follows:

• enter the route details,
• select Step by step maps under directions style (down on the page),
• select Get Directions,
• save the page you get (HTML only; the maps are not needed).

The saved pages are then opened from gf2gmn.tcl.

GPSMan WWW pages
©Miguel Filgueiras, mig_at_ncc.up.pt, LIACC & DCC Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 1998-2008

Programs: