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Route Riter
Using Google Maps Route Planner to make MKR files |
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Route Riter
Using Google Maps Route Planner to make MKR files |
Introduction
I have found a useful tool for creating a MKR file to define track alignments for creating routes using the Google Maps Route Planner available at the Google Maps Route Planning Page
Getting Started
Click on the link above. This is the opening screen:
Left-click and drag the map to get to the country you want.
Drag the area of interest to the centre of the window (arrow #1), then click on th [+] button (arrow #2) to zoom in. You probably will need to click-drag the map as you zoom in to keep the area of interest centred.
The Process
Now you're ready to go - notice that track alignments are shown on the map.
Satellite and Hybrid views are also available (buttons top right of screen).
Make sure that the Follow Road box is unchecked: in the left corner, click the drop-down box at Settings and select "Don't Follow Road":
Double click on the where you want to place your first Marker. A red pointer appears (arrow #4). (Ignore arrow #3 - it's for an older version of Google Maps).
Click on location for second marker - a blue line appears linking to the previous marker. Continue this process until you have marked out your track alignment. Markers can be placed closer together to get around curves.
Once you have marked out the route, Now it is time to create the data needed for the Marker file.
Tress the GPX button at the top left of the screen (arrow #5).
The message box appears - press OK (arrow #6).
The following message then appears: Save the file.
Open up the GPX file in your favourite text editor and it will look something like this:
Notice that there is Latitude and Longitude data for each marker location that we placed in the route. The tricky bit is to put this into the right format for a MSTS Marker file.
We need to keep the paired Latitude/Longitude figures and place them into a marker file. Start with getting rid of the stuff we don't want - delete everything before the first Latitude figure.
Now it is time to separate each paired set of lat and Lon figures by starting a new line for each. Place the cursor between each "/trkpt> and //
and press "Enter".
Notice that the first two lines are the repeats of the first and last markers. Delete these lines along with the "/trkseg", "/trk" and "/gpx sections.
Now it's a matter of getting rid of everything else but the lat and Lon figures and reversing the order of the figures as an MSTS marker file requires the Lon to be first.
They then must be placed into a MKR File
This is a tedious process and I am sure that someone out there will be able to write some code to perform the routine of converting a GPX file into a MKR file as has been done for Google Earth KML files.
I find this process much easier to use than using Google Earth and there is no need to download the Google Earth software.
I hope this will be useful.
I hope you've found this tutorial of benefit.
Enjoy.