{"id":2727,"date":"2016-08-31T11:25:38","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T02:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2016-08-31\/2727"},"modified":"2016-08-31T11:25:38","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T02:25:38","slug":"getting-garmin-software-virb-edit-etc-to-work-with-your-gpx-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2016-08-31\/2727","title":{"rendered":"Getting Garmin Software (VIRB Edit, etc.) to Work with Your GPX Files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 38mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 1800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n
“ <\/span><\/td>\n \n If the intercom doesn't seem to be working\n please push the bell<\/i>\n <\/td>\n  ”<\/span><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
— detail of the front wall of this house<\/a> in Kyoto, Japan—<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

I've recently started futzing with video on my bike rides, having posted a few<\/span> on “<\/span>Lovely Bicycle Ride Revisiting Uji\nCountryside Photographed Five Years Ago<\/a>”<\/span> the other day, including this fast descent<\/a> down some twisty mountains and into the flats.<\/p>\n\n

I had some trouble getting Garmin software (VIRB Edit<\/a>, Garmin BaseCamp<\/a>, and Garmin Connect<\/a>) to work with my GPX files, or as Garmin has lately taken to re-brand\nin their own silly name, “<\/span>G-Metrix”<\/span> data files.<\/p>\n\n

When trying to import GPX files, I'd get a<\/span> terse, frustrating “<\/span>Failed to read file<\/i>”<\/span> or “<\/span>... is not\na valid<\/span> GPX file and could not be opened<\/i>”<\/span> message. After much\nexperimenting I found<\/span> that in each <trkpt><\/tt> element, Garmin requires the\n<ele><\/tt> to come before the <time><\/tt>. Get anything<\/span> out of order and it\nbails.<\/p>\n\n

I ran a little script to ensure <ele><\/tt> came first, and they were imported without complaint.<\/p>\n\n

What's most shocking to me about this is that Garmin isn't wrong<\/i>. I've been working with GPX files for more than a decade,<\/span> and it never even occurred to me that the various order-can't-possibly-matter sup-parts of a\n<trkpt><\/tt> might actually be required in a specific<\/span> order, but inexplicably, that's how the GPX standard<\/a> was written:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n<xsd:sequence<\/span>>\n  <-- elements must appear in this order<\/i> -->\n  <xsd:element name=\"ele<\/b>\" type=\"xsd:decimal\" minOccurs=\"0\"\/>\n  <xsd:element name=\"time<\/b>\" type=\"xsd:dateTime\" minOccurs=\"0\"\/>\n<\/xsd:sequence<\/span>>\n<\/pre>\n\n
This restriction on ordering seems utterly nonsensical... I'd guess<\/span> it's because whoever created the standard\nwas simply lazy as a software<\/span> engineer. In any case<\/span>, the standard is the standard.<\/p>\n\n
It turns out that other artificial orders are mandated, such as the metadata summary requiring<\/i> the author<\/tt>\n(if there is one) before the copyright<\/tt> (if there is one). I always<\/span> thought that the GPX standard was a bit<\/span> wonky\nas far as XML standards go, but this puts it into the decidedly “<\/span>bizarre”<\/span> category.<\/p>\n\n
Anyway, as much as Garmin continues to deserve the world's ire for design in both hardware and software that pushes new limits\nin just how poor a user<\/span> experience one can endure, in this issue they are technically not “<\/span>wrong”<\/span>. Yes, it'd be nice if they were generous in what they read, but I'm\nsure their own “<\/span>G-Matrix”<\/span> files are standard conforming, and\nconsidering that their software is free, working with their own stuff seems to be a reasonable<\/span> lower\nbar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I've recently started futzing with video on my bike rides, having posted a few on \"Lovely Bicycle Ride Revisiting Uji Countryside Photographed Five Years Ago\" the other day, including this fast descent down some twisty mountains and into the flats.<\/p> 
I had some trouble getting Garmin software (VIRB Edit, Garmin BaseCamp, and Garmin Connect) to work with my GPX files, or as Garmin has lately taken to re-brand in their own silly name, \"G-Metrix\" data files.<\/p> 
When trying to import GPX files, I'd get a terse, frustrating \"Failed to read file\" or \"... is not a valid GPX file and [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}