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

DeLorme .an1 (drawing) file (an1)

This format can...

  • read and write waypoints

  • write tracks

  • read and write routes

This format has the following options: type, road, nogc, nourl, deficon, color, zoom, wpt_type, radius .

This format supports the DeLorme ".an1" drawing file format used by their desktop software like Topo USA. It can currently be used to either read or write drawing files. If you use this format to create drawing files with routes or waypoints from another source, by default it will create "Red Flag" symbols for waypoints, and thick red lines for routes or tracks. It is possible to merge two drawing layers by doing something like this:

gpsbabel -i an1 -f one.an1 -f two.an1 -o an1 -F merged.an1

In this case, the merged data will contain all of the properties of the original data.

GPSBabel has a page describing creating routable onramps in Street Atlas with GPSBabel.

type option

Type of .an1 file.

This option specifies the type of the drawing layer to be created. The supported values are "drawing", "road", "trail", "waypoint", or "track". If you do not specify a type, the default will be either the type of the previous an1 file or "drawing" if there is no previous file. This lets you merge, for example, two road layers without having to specify "type=road" for the output.

road option

Road type changes.

If you are creating a road layer, you may use the "road" option, which allows you to change the types of roads based on their names. You can change multiple roads at the same time. Currently supported types are

TypeMeaning
limitedLimited-access freeways
tollLimited-access toll highways
rampAccess ramps for limited-access highways
usNational highways (e.g. US routes)
primaryPrimary State/Provincial routes
stateState/Provincial routes
majorMajor Connectors
ferryFerry Routes
localLocal Roads
editableUser-drawn Roads

GPSBabel defaults to creating editable roads. These are routed just like local roads, but may be edited with the drawing tools in Street Atlas.

This option has a special format that is best demonstrated by example:

 "road=I-599!limited!Beecher St.!major" 

This option will cause any road named "I-599" to become a limited-access highway and any road named "Beecher St." to become a major connector. Note that roads that have had their types changed in this way are not editable in Street Atlas, so make sure they are where you want them before you change them, and make sure to keep a backup of your original road layer. Note that the ! is a shell metacharacter in bash and possibly other shells, so you may have to use single quotes or some other escape mechanism.

There is a tutorial on how to create an onramp for a limited access highway in Street Atlas USA using GPSBabel.

nogc option

Do not add geocache data to description.

If your original data contains geocaching-specific information such as difficulty and terrain, GPSBabel will automatically include that information in the waypoint descriptions in the generated drawing file. If you do not want that, specify the "nogc" option on the command line:

gpsbabel -i gpx -f 12345.gpx -o an1,nogc -F 12345.an1

nourl option

Do not add URLs to description.

If your original waypoint data contains URLs, GPSBabel will include them as links in the generated drawing file. This causes the waypoint symbol to have a blue border, and it causes the waypoint text to be drawn in blue with an underline.

If you do not want this behavior, specify the "nourl" option on the command line:

gpsbabel -i gpx -f 12345.gpx -o an1,nourl -F 12345.an1

deficon option

Symbol to use for point data.

This option allows you to specify which symbol to use for points that don't have a symbol already. It defaults to "Red Flag" but it accepts any symbol name you can put in a DeLorme export file. To find the name of a specific symbol in Street Atlas, let the mouse pointer hover over it for a few seconds and the name will be displayed.

color option

Color for lines or mapnotes.

This option allows you to specify the color for line or mapnote data. It accepts color names of the form "#FF0000" (red) or any of the color names from the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) specification.

zoom option

Zoom level to reduce points.

This option specifies at what zoom level Street Atlas will begin showing reduced versions of your symbols. The default is 10. Setting zoom to 0 will disable this feature. Setting it to anything but the default will override the zoom level specified on any waypoints that were read from an existing an1 file; this is by design.

wpt_type option

Waypoint type.

This option specifies how to represent point data in the draw file. Valid waypoint types are "symbol", "text", "mapnote", "circle", and "image". The default is "symbol".

If you specify a waypoint type of "image", you should make sure that the icon descriptions of your waypoints are the full names, including drive letters and full path, of image files in a format that works with your DeLorme product. Note that this means that the .an1 file you generate will not work on any computer that does not have those images in the same place; this is part of the design of the an1 format and cannot be avoided.

radius option

Radius for circles.

If the waypoint type is "circle", the "radius" option specifies the radius of the circles. By default, this is in miles, but it may be specified in kilometers by adding a 'k'. The default radius is 1/10 mile.