GPS Visualizer

GPS Visualizer: Do-It-Yourself Mapping

GPS Visualizer is a free, easy-to-use online utility that creates maps and profiles from GPS data (tracks and waypoints, including GPX files), street addresses, or simple coordinates. Use it to see where you've been, plan where you're going, or visualize geographic data (business locations, scientific observations, events, customers, real estate, geotagged photos, etc.).

To set more options, use the detailed input pages:

Google Maps

Google Earth KML

JPEG/PNG/SVG maps

Plot data points

Profiles (elevation, etc.)

Convert to GPX

Convert to plain text

Geocoding

GPS Visualizer can read data files from many different sources, including but not limited to: GPX (a standard format from many devices and programs, including Garmin's eTrex and GPSMAP series), OziExplorer, Geocaching.com (.loc), IGC sailplane logs, Garmin Forerunner (.xml/.hst/.tcx), Timex Trainer (v1.3+), Cetus GPS, PathAway, cotoGPS, CompeGPS, TomTom (.pgl), IGN Rando (.rdn), Emtac Trine, Suunto X9/X9i (.sdf), NetStumbler, Excel, Google Spreadsheets, XML feeds, and of course tab-delimited or comma-separated text.

GPS Visualizer is based in Portland, Oregon, and has been on the Web since October 2002.

Help keep GPS Visualizer free

At the moment, I'm not charging anything for the use of GPS Visualizer; however, if you find it interesting, time-saving, or just plain fun, you can say "thanks" -- and encourage further development -- by clicking the button above and making a contribution via PayPal. Or, you could send something on my Amazon wish list.

NEWS & UPDATES

DYNAMIC GPX EXAMPLE	[09/26/08] A side effect of GPS Visualizer's new-found ability to read data dynamically (e.g., from Google Spreadsheets) is the ability to read KML and GPX files on the fly; I've posted an example map that reads tracks and waypoints from one of my GPX files.

NONIGPSPLOT TRACK LOGS	[08/27/08] Track logs (.ngt files) from the PocketPC program NoniGPSPlot are now supported by GPS Visualizer.

SERVER OVERLOAD	[08/18/08] I'm aware that in the middle of the day, GPS Visualizer tends to get very slow and sometimes even inaccessible, apparently a victim of its own success. I'm doing what I can to alleviate the problem, but the only long-term solution is a move to a faster dedicated server... and that's certainly an option, but new servers don't come cheap. If you'd like to see GPS Visualizer move to better hardware, please consider donating today!

MYTOPO.COM TOPO MAPS OF CANADA	[07/29/08] GPS Visualizer Google maps can now access topographic data from MyTopo.com. This is especially good news for Canadians: the MyTopo layer has complete, high-quality NRCan topo maps for all of Canada. MyTopo's coverage also includes USGS maps for the U.S., and in many areas, the maps are higher-quality than the ones previously available through terraserver-usa.com. (By the way, MyTopo's business is selling waterproof or poster-size maps, optionally with your data overlaid on them.)

GOOGLE DOCS SPREADSHEETS	[07/01/08] You can now supply the URL of a "Google Docs" spreadsheet as input for a Google Map. When the spreadsheet is updated, the map will be updated! See an example here; to try it with your data, paste its location into the "URL that will be loaded into the map dynamically" box in the Google Maps input form. (And make sure your spreadsheet is "published," preferably using the "auto-publish" feature.) Note that if you want to use data from a Google Spreadsheet but DON'T want the map to be dynamically updated, you can supply its URL in the "static data" box.

GOOGLE MAPS MARKER FOLDERS	[06/17/08] When you enable a "marker list" in a Google Map (look for "Generate list of waypoints" in the form), you can now group the markers into "folders" in the list by simply providing a "folder" field in your input data. An example map is here.

SYNTHESIZED "DESC" FIELDS	[06/06/08] A new input widget for "power users": Using the "synthesize descriptions" box under the map form's Advanced Waypoint Options, you can build a description field for points that don't have one! For example, if your data has columns labeled "x", "y", and "z", you could enter this into the description synthesis box: `coordinates = {latitude},{longitude}<br>x = {x}<br> y = {y}<br> z = {z}` -- this would cause each bit of info to go on its own line, thanks to the HTML <br> (line break) tags. There's no limit to how much stuff you can load into a description; just insert existing field names by surrounding them in {curly brackets}, and include any HTML tags you want. (Note that any existing "desc" field you may have supplied will be overwritten, although you can use it in the new description by including `{desc}`; this might be useful to, for example, quickly apply a style or color to all descriptions.) This new feature should be easier than having to dump your data into Excel and building text formulas.

GOOGLE MAPS MARKER FILTERS	[05/28/08] This is sort of an advanced feature, as it involves editing the HTML of your maps after GPS Visualizer creates them, but it's potentially very useful: you can use the new `GV_Filter_Waypoints_With_Text` JavaScript function to filter markers on a map based on their name, description, or color. To see how it works, look in the source of this example page, and feel free to drop me a note if you have questions.

TRACKS IN CUSTOM FOLDERS	[04/24/08] A small update to last month's "custom folders" feature: you can now use a "folder" field put both tracks AND waypoints into custom folders in a Google Earth file.

GOOGLE EARTH CUSTOM FOLDERS	[03/07/08] It's a small thing, but it may come in handy for some people: you can now supply a "folder" column in your raw waypoint data, and GPS Visualizer will use that field to group your points into folders in Google Earth (but only in Google Earth; maybe some day I'll come up with something similar in Google Maps?).

3-DIGIT ZIP CODES	[02/26/08] You can now plot ZIP codes (and Canadian postal codes) using only the first three characters, which could be very helpful for plotting information using the data form. Note that GPS Visualizer will not automatically truncate and compile 5-digit ZIPs; you must reduce them before uploading. (It's easy to do it in Excel.)

GOOGLE MAPS TICKMARKS	[12/06/07] Distance- or time-based tickmarks in Google Maps now show the direction you were traveling at that point, indicated by a small triangular icon. Look for "tickmark interval" in the advanced track options.

FREEHAND DRAWING TOOL	[12/04/07] This is an interesting new utility, still in the experimental stage: the Freehand Drawing Utility (a.k.a., "The Sandbox") lets you click on a map to create tracks and waypoints, which can then be saved as GPX or KML files. It's also handy for exploring alternate background imagery (e.g., USGS topo maps) using a Google Maps interface.

EASILY EDITABLE GOOGLE MAPS	[11/29/07] You've always been able to edit the HTML source of Google Maps created by GPS Visualizer to make them meet your specifications, but it's much easier now. Most of the parameters you'd want to change are in an easy-to-edit list in the guts of the page.

GOOGLE MAPS BG OPACITY	[10/05/07] You can now alter the background opacity in Google Maps; this could be very helpful for creating maps that are intended for printing. And despite the fact that this is the first "news" item in almost 4 months, smaller updates are happening all the time...

DIRECTIONAL KML ICONS	[06/15/07] It was recently brought to my attention that icons in KML files can be rotated, so distance/time tickmarks in Google Earth are now much more useful. (Instead of a circle, they are now represented by arrows pointing the appropriate direction.) You can also manually rotate any waypoint's icon by including a "rotation" field in your plain-text data.

AUTOMATIC GEOTAGGING	[04/12/07] GPS Visualizer can now assign coordinates to time-stamped waypoints that have no latitude and longitude, as long as you provide other valid time-stamped data (such as a tracklog) from which the waypoints' locations can be interpolated/extrapolated. This may be very helpful for things like mapping digital photos.

ADDRESS DISTANCES	[03/21/07] New on the Geographic Calculators page: the ability to find the great-circle distance between two addresses. (Before, you needed to enter a latitude and longitude for each point.)

ELEVATION LOOKUPS	[03/13/07] I've slapped together a new, experimental Elevation Lookup Utility, which takes pairs of coordinates and adds elevation data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission via a remote Web service.

EASY BATCH GEOCODER	[03/01/07] GPS Visualizer is now home to a JavaScript-based Batch Geocoder, which lets you geocode a whole pile of addresses -- using either Yahoo or Google's geocoding API -- without the intervention of my server.

CANADIAN POSTAL CODES	[02/26/07] I finally broke down and spent $100 on a database of Canadian postcodes, so looking up codes in Canada should be quite a bit faster now. (Before, you could do it, but it was slow because they had to be fetched from a remote site.) Donations to offset the cost of the new data would, of course, be much appreciated!

GLOBALSAT & iBLUE SUPPORT	[02/26/07] GPS receivers by both Globalsat (DG-100) and Transystem (iBlue 727, 737, 747, 757) come with software that produces strange output files, but I've found a way to sensibly read the .csv track files that each produces. Please let me know if it doesn't work for you.

EXCEL FILES	[02/07/07] GPS Visualizer can now read .xls spreadsheet files from Microsoft Excel. Of course, a header row is still required.

GARMIN ICONS	[01/28/07] If you draw a Google Map using a file that came from Garmin MapSource or a Garmin receiver, GPS Visualizer will now attempt to display the Garmin icons that you applied to your waypoints. To turn this feature off, say "No" to "Preserve waypoint colors and symbols" in the advanced waypoint options.

FORERUNNER .TCX FILES	[01/25/07] GPS Visualizer now supports the latest XML format generated by Garmin's "Training Center" software: .tcx files. (I wish they'd stop changing the export format every few months!) The Forerunner splitter can read them too.

GOOGLE MAPS CONTROLS	[12/04/06] I made some behind-the-scenes changes to the way GPS Visualizer's widgets (track legend, coordinates, marker list, etc.) are added to Google Maps; specifically, I'm now using the GMap GControlPosition command, which should make it much easier if you need to customize the position of these things in the HTML source.

NEW INPUT FORMATS	[12/04/06] I added a couple of new formats to the list of file types that GPS Visualizer recognizes: plain-text track logs from Jeppeson Flightdeck, and "course files" (.crs) from Garmin's Training Center software.

CUSTOMIZED SPECTRUMS	[11/05/06] You can now specify the starting and ending hues of the colorization spectrum on your maps and profiles. This means, for example, that you could set minimum values to green and maximums to red, instead of always going from red to magenta (which is still the default, of course). Enable "advanced track options" to see the new hue controls.

TUTORIALS	[09/20/06] I've finally started working on a set of tutorials that will show you the best way to organize your data for upload to GPS Visualizer. They're not complete yet, but I may as well make them available while I chip away at them.

GOOGLE MAPS IMPROVEMENTS	[09/15/06] Two notable updates: (1) When you draw a track on a Google Map, GPS Visualizer can automatically reduce the number of points in a way that won't seriously alter the shape of the track. (2) Tracks are now hidden when "off-screen." Both of these improvements should result in slightly faster performance with Google Maps.

GOOGLE MARKER LISTS	[09/07/06] When you create a Google Map that includes waypoints ("markers"), GPS Visualizer can now automatically generate a list of markers; mouseover or click on the list items to identify the markers on the map.

ZIP INPUT	[08/22/06] You can now transmit zipped (.zip) or gzipped (.gz) files to the map forms.

NEW SERVER	[06/02/06] GPS Visualizer now has its own server. Of course, having a dedicated server isn't cheap, so keep those donations coming!

TOPOGRAPHIC GOOGLE MAPS	[05/06/06] This is huge: you can now use USGS topographic maps with Google Maps. The USGS 1m black-and-white aerial photos are also available, as are NRCan/Toporama maps for Canada.

EASY GEOCODER	[05/01/06] The address converter page now has a Quick Geocoder for finding the coordinates of a single location (street address, city, ZIP code, airport) without having to worry about the formatting.

GOOGLE MAPS POINT LABELS	[04/26/06] Thanks to the "ELabel" function at Mike Williams' very helpful Google Maps API Tutorial, you now have the option to display permanent waypoint labels on Google Maps.

GOOGLE EARTH OVERLAY PLUGIN	[03/13/06] There is now a GPS Visualizer Network Link for Google Earth that allows you to download static KML overlays (aerial photos, topo maps, etc.) of your current position.

YAHOO! MAPS	[03/03/06] I've started experimenting with creating Yahoo! Maps; unfortunately, tracks are not supported yet, but waypoints are, and they work pretty well. Suggestions are welcome.

KML OVERLAYS	[02/23/06] There's a new utility that creates alternate overlays for use with Google Earth. That means USGS aerial photography and topo maps for the entire U.S., as well as NRCan maps for Canada and daily satellite views of the whole world.

UPDATED THE HELP FILE	[02/14/06] I've finally written up some documentation about all the newest options available in GPS Visualizer's map forms, including the Google Maps and Google Earth parameters; the help file pops up when you click on the little help icons next to the map form input widgets. One of these days I'll write a tutorial on building useful CSV data files by hand.

LEGENDS IN GOOGLE MAPS	[01/29/06] Now, when you choose colorization in a Google Map, you can also get a legend showing what the colors mean; the legend can be moved around, plus you can click on the track names to hide or show them.

GOOGLE COLORIZATION	[01/20/06] Tracks drawn in Google Maps and Google Earth can now be colorized by altitude/elevation, speed, heading, etc. It actually works very well with Google Earth KML files (even though each track must be broken into innumerable individual placemarks to allow for different colors), but it's quite slow in Google Maps, so be careful.

AIRPORT DATABASE	[12/14/05] You can enter waypoints as 3- or 4-character airport codes. Also, the geographic calculators page supports airport codes in the Great Circle Route and Range Rings forms.

GOOGLE EARTH	[11/13/05] GPS Visualizer can create Google Earth KML files from your data. Please let me know how it works.

GOOGLE MAPS	[11/07/05] GPS Visualizer can now plot your data using Google Maps.

GPS BABEL	[11/03/05] I've created an on-line interface to the freeware program GPSBabel. It'll come in handy if you have data that's in a format that GPS Visualizer's map form doesn't support (e.g., Garmin Mapsource binary files).

JPEG OUTPUT	[05/19/05] GPS Visualizer can now draw maps in JPEG and PNG format in addition to SVG. These bitmapped graphics aren't nearly as versatile, but they don't require a plug-in. Just choose "JPEG" or "PNG" from the "Output format" menu on any map input form. See the FAQ for the pros and cons of SVG vs. JPEG.

CALCULATORS	[04/15/05] I've put together a page with some useful geographic calculators on it. For now, you can convert between decimal degrees and degrees/minutes/seconds and draw the great circle route between two points. More to come later, if I think of other things I could add.

WEATHER MAPS	Try out my Interactive Weather Mapper.

Create, save and share your tracks & waypoints: sign up for a free account at EveryTrail.com.

GPS Visualizer: Do-It-Yourself Mapping

Get started now:

To set more options, use the detailed input pages: