Adding tracks to gps with QGIS feature attributes as name

Question

I am attempting to send a vector layer to a garmin gps in QGIS. I am using the GPS Tools extension and have created a new GPX layer. I can add waypoints without any issues, but when I copy features from a line layer onto the track gpx layer, it will not save.

I can save this layer in a gpx format and open it with MapSource, but I'd like to set one of the attribute as the track name automatically as I have over a thousand.

Any help would be helpful. Also, if anyone could explain why the gpx layer won't save when I paste features into it that would be great.

Answer 1

The GPS tool is a bit tricky, and would not allow all saving operations as other formats like shapefile do.

The GPX file usually contains waypoints, routes and tracks, and has to be written in that order. These are divided into three layers inside QGIS. As a consequence, the driver is partly read-only.

Furthermore, routes may only contain a single line, while tracks can consist of several segments.

To get GPX data, I usually select features in the layers, Rightclick on the layer and use Save Selection As...

The CRS of the output file must be WGS84.

In the layer options, I set FORCE_GPX_TRACK to Yes, and activate Skip attribute creation.

If you want an attribute field as track name, it is recommended to use a virtual driver for that: http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_gpx.html and http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_vrt.html.

To my mind, doubling the layer, and renaming the field to name is much easier.