Improved support for GPS data export

Condes introduces support for national reference coordinate systems

Orienteers use GPS watches and GPS enabled smart phones for tracking their routes.  Data is uploaded to tracking applications, for real-time positioning and for post event analysis.

To present the track on a map, these applications need data – geo-referenced maps and geo-referenced courses – which is generated and exported from Condes.

The pre-requisite for this is a geo-referenced map.  The mapper has to ensure that the map is drawn accurately to geo-positioning, and that the map file
is geo-referenced. The mapping software helps the mapper with this.

When exporting data from Condes, there is quite a bit of calculation work needed to produce the geo-referenced data to be used in GPS applications.

Luckily, the course planner needs not bother about the details.  This is all done by Condes when the exported file is generated.

Geo-referencing support was originally introduced in Condes 9 in 2016. It is obvious that this is a very popular feature, simply have a look at the number of events created every week at www.o-track.dk and other route choice/tracking sites.

Previously only the World Geodetic System (WGS84)

Until now, support for GPS data (latitude and longitude) required the map to use the World Geodetic System (UTM/WGS84) as the reference coordinate system.  However, in many countries, map data is based on national reference coordinate systems, different from UTM/WGS84. This has made it difficult for some users to produce GPS data.

Version 10.1.0 introduces support for national reference coordinate systems, such as the British National Grid (OSGB).

This support removes the limitation and enables Condes to help many more users produce data for GPS applications.