NAME

GPS::Lowrance::Trail - Convert between Lowrance GDM16 Trail Files

REQUIREMENTS

GPS::Lowrance::Trail was written and tested on Perl 5.6.1, though it should work with v5.005.

It uses only standard modules.

Installation

Installation is pretty standard:

  perl Makefile.PL
  make
  make test
  make install

There is no test suite to speak of. One will be added in a later version.

SYNOPSIS

  use GPS::Lowrance::Trail;

  my $trail = new GPS::Lowrance::Trail;

  my $fh1 = new FileHandle '<lowrance.txt';
  my $fh2 = new FileHandle '>lonlat.txt';

  $trail->read_gdm16( $fh1 );      # read GDM16 Trail Exports

  $trail->write_lonlat( $fh2 );    # write as Longitude/Latitude file

DESCRIPTION

This module allows one to convert between Lowrance GPS trail files (handled by the GDM16 application) and Longitude/Lattitude files which may be used by mapping applications.

Methods

The following methods are implemented.

new

  my $trail = new GPS::Lowrance::Trail;

Generates a new instance of the object.

trail_num

  $trail->trail_num(1);

  if ($trail->trail_num() > 4) { ... }

Sets or gets the "Plot Trail" number indicated in the GDM16 trail export. GDM16 does not seem to care about this number when importing a trail.

The number should be between 1 and 4 (corresponding to what GDM16 allows) although the GPS::Lowrance::Trail module does not care.

add_point

  $trail->add_point( $longitude, $latitude );

Add a point to the trail. $longitude and $latitude are in decimal form.

size

  $trail->size();

Returns the number of points on the trail.

read_gdm16

  my $fh = FileHandle "mytrail.txt";

  $trail->read_gdm16( $fh );

Read a trail file in GDM16 format. Points are appended to the last point.

read_lonlat

Read a trail file in Longitude/Latitude file format. Points are appended to the last point.

write_gdm16

Write a trail file in GDM16 format.

write_lonlat

Write a trail file in Longitude/Latitude format.

errors

Returns a value if there were errors when reading a file.

Export

None by default.

Exporting Trail Files from GDM16

Trail data can be extracted from the GDM16 utility (which is distributed by Lowrance at http://www.lowrance.com). To do so, choose the "Trails" tab, select "Edit" and then "Copy", then open your favorite text editor and paste from the clipboard.

What you have is the file format which this Perl module processes.

Likewise, to import a trail file, open one of these files, "Select All" and "Copy" the file, load GDM16, select the "Trails" tab and choose "Edit" and "Paste".

CAVEATS

This module comes from a quick and dirty hack adapted from a one-off script written for this purpose. It appears to work, but has not been fully tested.

More features and file formats may be added in the future.

AUTHOR

Robert Rothenberg <rrwo@cpan.org>

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2002 Robert Rothenberg. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.