Trails

Trails are a made up of a series of data points containing geographic position and, sometimes, other attributes, such as time or depth.

Trails are typically recorded on Lowrance devices every time the unit is used on the water, and record the movement of the vessel over the time that the head unit is running. Other sources of trails can include sonar log files, Google Earth lines or GPX files.

Editing Trail Attributes

One or more trails can edited by first selecting the trail(s), and then either opening the trail(s) for editing via the Edit command (in the EDIT menu bar, or right-click menu), or using the trail quick edit box in the EDIT menu bar:

The only attributes of a trail that can be edited are; Name, Colour, Visibility and Description.

Converting a Trail to Route

See Creating a New Route from a Trail.

Trail Segments

Lowrance units will usually record a data points for every trip that they are used. Instead of creating a new trail for every trip, a new trail segment is added to the currently recording trail. Trail segments look like separate trails within the map view; they are not joined together with other segments that belong to the trail, but all of the segments within a trail share the same attributes (colour  and  display status) of the parent trail.

If a trail has multiple segments, these segments can be displayed by holding the mouse pointer over the trail, either in the map view or the trail list, which displays the trail information panel (above).

Splitting a Trail

Whilst it can be convenient to keep a number of segments as part of a single trail, it can also be useful to split trails into their component segments, so that each segment becomes a new trail. Splitting a trail allows each segment to be edited individually; e.g. have a different colour assigned, to be hidden from view, or to be deleted if it is no longer required.

If a trail has more than one segment, then the Split Trail function will be enabled for that trail. The Split Trail function can be found in the Quick Edit box for the trail (in the EDIT menu, if a trail has been selected), and in the right-button menu of the map and list views. When a trail is split, the original trail is deleted and replaced by a new trail for each segment, with a name of the form <Original_Trail_Name>NN, where NN is the number of the trail segment.