Best GPX apps/programs

[BillMiddlebrook]

I used to use Gaia, but after Outside bought it the developers of Gaia left and started working on a clone called Goat Maps. Not sure what the story is there, but Goat Maps is close to parity with Gaia and being improved quickly.

https://www.goatmaps.com/

They acquired a software company without making the GAIA developers sign a Non-Compete? Duh

[justiner]

We're going to look back at the Great Outside Acquisition as a mass grave of once-loved products and publications in the attempt to monopolize "Outside"-ness for the pursuit of profit.

[dwoodward13]

We're going to look back at the Great Outside Acquisition as a mass grave of once-loved products and publications in the attempt to monopolize "Outside"-ness for the pursuit of profit.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-f ... ntain-west

Nice requiem for all the brands now bought out under the Outside Umbrella

[seano]

I use Organic Maps for low-res maps and routing (OpenStreetMap), and Peakbagger for high-res topos (USGS, USFS, others). Those two together are good enough anywhere in the world. I want to like CalTopo, since it has a ton of useful features like slope-angle shading, but the offline mode on iOS is too buggy to count on, frequently refusing to paint tiles I have downloaded or glitching out and painting random junk.

Speaking of buyouts and software going to s**t... Organic Maps is a fork of MapsWithMe, which became Maps.Me, then got sold on to a series of increasingly greedy scum and holding companies. The original developers took the last decent version of Maps.Me and have been steadily improving it.

[rmcpherson]

I want to like CalTopo, since it has a ton of useful features like slope-angle shading, but the offline mode on iOS is too buggy to count on, frequently refusing to paint tiles I have downloaded or glitching out and painting random junk.

I've also seen these issues in CalTopo. I can usually get it to reload offline maps correctly by killing the app and then restarting it, selecting the layer that I have saved offline, and only then loading a route. I agree they need to work on the reliability of offline maps though. Since I've too often had this issue with offline maps not loading correctly in various apps I always ensure I have at least two apps with offline maps saved for redundancy.

A couple other things I wish CalTopo would improve:
- having the app close while tracking in the background, leading to incomplete gpx data
- power usage while tracking. It uses far more battery per time than competitive apps.

[rmcpherson]

CalTopo was just updated with an offline mode (on iOS at least) to force using downloaded layers. Hopefully this will resolve the issues with map tiles not always loading correctly when offline.

[morth2]

Can any CalTopo + iOS users chime in if their offline mode has improved or declined in the last year? Since GoatMaps is already shutting down (guess the good really do die young) I'm back on the hunt for a new app.

[BillMiddlebrook]

Developing a mapping app is hard.

[Boggy B]

hot topic..

I don't know if CalTopo is the best, but works great for me, and have dealt with some of the aforementioned:
- Issues keeping GPS tracking are usually caused by Android/iOS or OEM specific battery optimization settings, not the tracking app
- With CalTopo on Android, I don't have an "offline mode" in the app, but I do have to turn on airplane mode to get it to quickly and reliably render downloaded tiles and slope shading, which is fine because airplane mode is necessary to save battery life anyway
- Assuming continuous GPS tracking in airplane mode, battery consumption is dictated by the Record Track Detail setting in CalTopo. Highest/High kill my battery, but it goes all day on Medium, which is a more than sufficient level of detail. YMMV