GPX is the file format that lets a boat route travel between tools: plan on a laptop, navigate on the chartplotter, archive on your phone. It is plain XML, every serious marine app reads it, and once you know the difference between a route, a track, and a waypoint file, moving routes anywhere takes two minutes. Here is the complete workflow, including the failure cases that cost people an afternoon.
- GPX stores three things: waypoints (points), routes (planned sequences), and tracks (recorded breadcrumbs).
- Almost every marine app and chartplotter imports GPX: OpenCPN, Navionics, Aqua Map, Garmin, and browser planners.
- Transfer paths: SD card for plotters, file share or app sync on phones, plain file upload in browser tools.
- The classic failure: exporting a track when the plotter expects a route, or vice versa.
- Keep a GPX archive of your routes so no app subscription ever holds your plans hostage.
#Routes vs tracks vs waypoints
A waypoint is a named point. A route is a planned, ordered list of waypoints you intend to follow, which is what navigation devices guide you along. A track is a recorded trail of where a boat actually went, hundreds of dense points with timestamps. The distinction matters because devices treat them differently: plotters navigate routes, display tracks, and store waypoints. When an import "works but does nothing," you usually imported a track while looking in the routes menu.
#Exporting a route from a planning tool
Every planning tool worth using has a GPX export. In the Marine OS route planner, the GPX button downloads your waypoint route ready for any device; OpenCPN exports from its route manager; phone chart apps export from the route or share menu. Export after the route is final: re-exporting after edits and re-importing beats trying to edit on the plotter's small screen.
#Importing to a chartplotter
The universal path is an SD card: copy the GPX file on, insert into the plotter, and use its import or user-data menu. Garmin plotters also sync through the ActiveCaptain phone app, which spares the card shuffle; other brands have similar companion apps. Two practical notes: keep file names short and plain, and check the plotter's waypoint-per-route limit, older units cap routes at a few dozen points, so simplify a dense route before export.
#The workflow that never loses a route
- 1Plan the route in the tool with the best planning features (weather, ETAs, fuel).
- 2Export GPX and keep a copy in a folder that outlives any single app.
- 3Import to the chartplotter via SD card or companion app; confirm it appears under routes, not tracks.
- 4After the trip, export the recorded track too: your actual line through a tricky inlet is chart data money cannot buy.
Apps come and go and subscriptions lapse, but a folder of GPX files is forever. Export anything you would mind losing. The best planning tools also import GPX back, so your archive stays live rather than becoming a museum.
Marine OS is marina management software, and the Marine OS route planner both exports and imports GPX: plan with weather, ETAs and fuel in the browser, send the GPX to your plotter, and bring old routes back in to reuse them. Underway mode also records your track for the archive.
Build the route in the browser, navigate it anywhere
Waypoints, ETAs, weather and fuel in the planner, then one click to GPX for your chartplotter.
#Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Plan anywhere, navigate anywhere, archive everything: that is GPX. The planning half lives in how to plan a boat route and the route planner app comparison.
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