GPS Tracking

Available with PRO upgrade.

RECORDING A TRACK

If this is the first track to record in the app, then the “start tracking” button is readily available here:

If this is not your first track to record, then the app shows track duration and distance at this place and you start a new track via the MENU button:

And NEW TRACK in the menu:

To stop track recording, please use MENU > STOP TRACK.

VIEWING SINGLE TRACK

MENU > TRACKS will show you the list of tracks:

“Last 10” is a filter button — it gives you the ability to filter tracks by start or end date or just show the last X tracks. Tap on a track row to see the detailed track view:

Functions common to all track view types:

(#1) Settings button on top of the screen allows you to switch between different track views.
(#2) Action button on top allows you to share the track in many different ways. We encourage you to try sharing as a “track image” — we tried to create a “postcard” sharing experience for this. It should look lovely when sharing via email, Facebook, etc.
(#3) Grid button top-right allows you to either move the track to a different trip or pin it to the main map so you can retrace it.

Trim track at the end.

From version 3.5, button #3 also allows you to trim the track’s end at the point of the blue cursor. Use the bottom chart section to set the blue cursor to the required point and tap on button #3 > Trim. Useful when you forgot to pause or turn off recording and then have very long sections of non-driving data.

Edit track name/note, start/end address.

Tap on the orange button with the track name and note to open the track fields editor and edit track name, note, start and end address, if needed: Track fields editor

Functions specific to a Map + Chart type of view:

Use the +/- button in the time span area to zoom in and out the area around the light blue point line.
Move the light blue point line to focus on any point in time; the light blue arrow on the map also moves to show you the corresponding location on the map.
Pan and drag on the chart black area to zoom in and out and focus on the part of the track you are interested in.
When the chart is zoomed, you can either tap on it to move the light blue point line to the place of your tap, or you can use the grey area at the chart bottom to control the light blue point line.

Trim track at the end

From version 3.5

Can be useful when you forgot to turn off recording and then have long sections of non-activity data at the end.

MENU > Tracks > Tap on the track row. Scroll your finger through the bottom chart section to set the blue cursor on the map to the required point (or time/distance) and tap on button #3 in the top toolbar:

Pick “Trim at …” - this menu button will show at what time/distance the truncation will happen.

REVIEWING ALL TRACKS UNDER THE TRIP

MENU > TRIPS.

When in the “Trips” list:

Tap on the “list” button (arrow 1) to see all the tracks in this trip (sorry, we are using different trip tracks in the following image — the “Parndorf” trip had only one track):

We can see the complete list of tracks for this trip here, and by default only the last track is shown on the map.

You can show all trip tracks on the map at once by tapping on the “Show all” button (arrow 1):

Trip and tracks list sharing options are available by tapping on the action button (arrow 2).

By tapping on a specific track row, you’ll get it isolated and highlighted on the map:

This is it for the viewing options.

To back up or share the whole trip data to continue with it on a different device.

MENU > TRIPS and then there is a “list” button on the left of each trip row:

In the screen that opens, use the bottom-right action button:

“Save file” will offer to pick the sharing format (whole “Trip archive” or Google KMZ) and will offer to save to iCloud, Dropbox, etc. “Email file” only offers the email option.

When saving a file, pick “Trip archive” and save it to iCloud or Dropbox. Then on any iPhone or iPad you can open this trip archive (with the .trk extension) in the Compass 55 app. The trip with all its tracks will be imported as they were on the original iPhone/iPad.

To share a whole trip with all its tracks as a single KMZ (Google Earth) file.

Same as above, but pick “Google Earth KMZ” when using “Save file” or “Email file” options.

Exporting list of trips.

Use the filter to only show trips started or finished in a certain month if you need to create a list only for that month.

Then use the action button to open the preview with the list of filtered trips. The preview window has its own action button to do “whatever” with the list, open in Numbers/Excel, send by email, save to iCloud/Dropbox, unlimited options here.

Exporting tracks in GPX, Google Earth KML (gx:Track or gx:Geometry) formats

Use the action button on top of the single track view to open the export and sharing options:

Pick either “Save file”, “Email file” or “Share track image”.

Options “Save file” and “Email file” will ask for the target format. You can pick from GPX, Google Earth gx:Track or Google Earth gx:Geometry.

From version 1.8, “Share track image” is a very nice-looking option for sharing via Facebook, email, or even attaching the track to the Notes app. Try it!

In version 1.9 (currently in beta) a new option is added — “Photo GPX”. This option guarantees that you’ll have a timestamp with a location for every second in the exported file. This is needed to match a GPX track to photos in Adobe Lightroom.

Replay tracks and show elevation/speed profile in Google Earth on PC/Mac

Exporting list of tracks.

Use the filter to only show tracks started or ended in a certain month if you need to create a list only for that month.

Then use the action button to open the preview with the list of filtered tracks. The preview window has its own action button to do “whatever” with the list, open in Numbers/Excel, send by email, save to iCloud/Dropbox, unlimited options here.

MOVING TRACK BETWEEN TRIPS

In the track list, swipe on a track row from right to left to reveal the Move option:

TRACKS IMPORT

When you share the whole trip archive/backup as described in the “Sharing trips” section, you just open the .trk file with Compass 55 and it automatically recreates all of the data in the trip backup/archive.

Another option is to open a GPX file with Compass 55. The app supports importing tracks, waypoints, and routes from GPX. More information here:

Importing tracks, waypoints and routes.

For a complete guide covering all export formats, backup strategies, and moving data to a new device, see:

Complete backup and data transfer guide