Cutting and joining tracks

When planning an excursion, we may have different tracks from the area.

Maybe one of them works well for us directly, but it’s also possible that we want to create a mix of several.

There are several ways to achieve this, but perhaps the most practical is to use the tools 'Split Track in this point' and 'Unify tracks'.

Let’s go through the steps:

1- We will load the 2 tracks we want to mix:

2- We will decide which parts of the tracks we want to keep and which we don’t:

3- We will cut the tracks to separate the "undesired" parts. To cut a track, just right-click on the cut point and select 'Tools > Split Track in this point'. So, we will have to 'Split Track in this point' at the start and end of the sections we don’t want to keep in each track:

Each cut technically creates a new track, so we will see new tracks in the data tree.

Note: If you want to reuse a part of another track, you can also use the FastTrack tool to copy complete sections from another track without having to manually redraw the route. To learn more about this feature, see the other article Copy parts of an existing track to create a new route.

4- We will close the "undesired" track sections. The easiest way is to close them on the map, that is, right-click on the track section on the map and select 'Close track'. This will leave us loaded only with the track sections we want to be part of our final track:

5- Go to the main menu and select 'Tools > Unify tracks'. We will be asked if we want to join by proximity or time. In this case, it is recommended to join by proximity. This way, our unified track will be ready:

Note: We can also decide whether to keep both parts of the track marked as 'section' in the final track. For simplicity, we will say no.

6- It’s possible that the unified track has a starting point that is not the one we want. Selecting a new starting point is very simple: just right-click on the new starting point and select 'Tools > Start point here':

7- Don’t forget to save the final track!

Important: As always, before starting to edit files, it is recommended to make a backup, since it’s easy to make mistakes when modifying them.