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Love the ease of use of creating routes in Strava vs Gaia. 

According to GPX specs, routes are plans and tracks are actuals. For whatever reason, Strava’s GPX files are using the <trkpt> instead of <rtept> tags.  Is there a reason that when you create a Route in Strava it exports them as a Track in the GPX file?  Thank you!

@BStefanski - pretty much all route exporters use <trkpt> in exported course files e.g. Garmin Connect, RideWithGPS, etc. Would you mind giving us some context as why you would like to see opposite? Thank you!


Lola-

I hear you on all route exporters using tracks. Most people export routes to use them as a guide on the same route.  For example when I want to run the Teton Crest Trail I foundthe person who has the FKT and then use their Strava route to plan my run.  I then need to by hand go in and create the route because if I use the exported track it loses the functionality that you get when you make a route from scratch.  

Thanks

Ben


@BStefanski thanks for clarifying this further. May I ask why are you exporting the route? The reason I am asking is if you are using another athlete’s Strava route, you should be able to star that athlete’s route which will add it to your Saved routes list.

Or if you are hoping to save the FKT activity as a route, you will see a bookmark icon in the upper right corner of the activity detail page allowing you to save the activity as a route. Hope this helps but let me know if you have any further questions! 


I love this discussion and want to provide a use case.  I like the way Pocket Earth (a fabulous mapping and GPS app) handles routes and guides me via voice commands.  However, since Strava does not export waypoints, Pocket Earth only sees these as tracks and cannot support navigation.  I love the way Strava makes nice routes, a much superior feature to Pocket Earth’s route creation mechanism.  Of course, I want the best of both apps and to use them in tandem. 

The counter question is why not export waypoints, i.e., actual routes, from Strava?  Would that break other importers and if so, why not add the option when exporting to use route or track formats?

Thanks,
Rob


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