Note: This page describes an obsolete version of GPSBabel that may substantially differ from the current or development version.

Motorrad Routenplaner (Map&Guide) .bcr files (bcr)

This format can...

  • read and write routes

This format has the following options: index, name, radius, prefer_shortnames .

This file format (extension .bcr) is used in Map&Guide Motorrad Routenplaner 2002™ and later versions. BCR is a route-only format. If you own a newer release (2005 or later) you may also use the XML export with GPSBabel's tef input format.

There may be other products from Map&Guide that use this format as well.

Coordinates are stored in a BCR file in a Mercator projection. The conversion from the Mercator projection to polar (latitude/longitude) coordinates and back again may result in visible differences. Experience reports are welcome.

Example 3.32. Sample BCR command with all options

gpsbabel -r -i gpx -f in.gpx -o bcr,index=1,name="From A to B",radius=6371012 -F a_to_b.bcr


index option

Index of route to write (if more than one in source).

Because the format supports only one route, this option may be used on output to select a single route from a collection of routes read from a more expressive format. If you have, say, a gpx file that contains two routes, you may use this option to write them one at a time to individual files.

gpsbabel -i gpx -f routes.gpx -o bcr,index=1 -F route1.bcr -o bcr,index=2 -F route2.bcr

name option

New name for the route.

This route specifies the name of the route. This is particularly useful if the route came from an input format that did not support named routes, but it may also be used to rename a route.

radius option

Radius of our big earth (default 6371000 meters).

This option instructs GPSBabel to use a different value for the radius of the earth when converting between the Mercator projection and geographic coordinates. The default value is 6371000.0 meters.

Careful experimentation with this value may help to reduce conversion errors.

prefer_shortnames option

Use shortname instead of description.

This option causes GPSBabel to use the short name of the waypoint instead of the description.