Formats and packaging

INVIA imports GPX, KML and FIT files. There are three ways to bring one in, so you can use whichever suits where the file already sits.

1. Press Import on the Home page or on the Collections page.
2. Drag and drop the file anywhere on the map.
3. Import from a connected Garmin.

The file picker lets you choose a TCX file, and the import then rejects it, because TCX is not supported yet.

• A TCX file is not added to your library. No route and no ride is created from it, so nothing new appears when the import finishes.
• The routes, rides and waypoints you already have are untouched, since a rejected file never reaches your library.
• Convert the file to GPX or FIT, then import it again.

Routes and rides#

A route is a plan, an editable line you built or imported so that you can ride it later.

A ride is a record, a track your GPS wrote while you rode it, with a timestamp on every point.

INVIA keeps routes and rides apart because they mean different things to you, and it works out which is which by reading the file rather than asking you to sort your library by hand.

How INVIA tells them apart#

The import dialog shows what it detected for each file. Change it there when the detection is wrong, because the setting you leave in the dialog decides where the file lands.

A Recorded Ride is read-only, since a record of a trip you already made is not something to redraw. To edit the line, convert the ride to a route.

What each looks like#

Routes and rides use the same card in your library, so the badge on the card is what tells them apart.

A ride holds what happened on the day, which is why it also gives you these.

• Elevation gain and duration on the card, so you can judge a past ride without opening it.
• Moving time and speeds on the ride page, which is where the timestamps get used.
• Sorting by the date the ride was ridden, so your history stays in order.

A route holds a plan you can still change, which is why it also gives you these.

• Your surface rating, so you can record what the ground was like for next time.
• A description, for the notes you want to keep with the plan.
• The builder. Open the route in the builder to edit it.

What happens to a file#

INVIA reads every track, route and waypoint in the file and classifies each one as a route or a ride, so one file can produce both.

A file with no name gets one from where it starts, which is the nearest town and the date, so it arrives findable instead of untitled.

A file holding several tracks is kept together as one collection named after the file, which means a twelve-stage route pack stays one item rather than twelve loose items in your library.

Every waypoint in the file goes into your waypoint library. Each one is attached to the nearest track from that same file when it falls within a kilometer, so a fuel stop stays with the leg it belongs to. Waypoints that no track claims stay with the collection, so they are still on the map when you open the pack.

Visibility for the batch follows your account default, and a collection the import creates inherits it, so you do not have to set the same thing again file by file.

A waypoint you already have is skipped#

INVIA skips any waypoint that sits within 15 meters of one you already have, because the same trailhead arriving in three files would otherwise leave three pins stacked on one spot.

• The skipped waypoint is not added a second time. One waypoint sits at that spot, not two.
• The waypoint you already had is still in your waypoint library with its name and notes, so nothing you wrote is overwritten by the file.
• The rest of the file still imports, since only the duplicate waypoint is skipped.
• Nothing is required of you.

Keeping a multi-track file together#

The option reads Keep each file together as one item, and turning it off so the tracks arrive separately is Pro.

• On a Free account the option stays on, so the file arrives as one collection named after the file.
• Every track in the file is listed inside that collection. No track is dropped, which means the tracks are grouped rather than missing.
• To have the tracks arrive as separate items instead, upgrade to Pro.

Open in Builder#

A single file also offers Open in Builder, which loads the track for editing and saves nothing.

• The track is not added to your library. No route and no ride is created, so leaving the builder leaves you with nothing kept.
• The track is on screen in the builder, so you can edit it and see it against the map.
• To keep the track, import the file instead of opening it in the builder.

Turning a ride into a route#

There are two ways, and they move different things, so choose by what you want to bring across.

Reclassify routes#

Reclassify routes is on the legacy Rides page, and it appears when INVIA can see built routes sitting among your rides.

INVIA finds them from three signals in the file: bare coordinates, no timestamps, and a route-pack name. A track your GPS recorded carries timestamps, so it is not picked up.

The candidate list gives the reason for each ride, whether file, data, name, or your override, so you can see why each one was chosen before you agree to it. INVIA downloads a JSON backup of the rides first, then converts them.

After the conversion:

• The old rides are removed. The Rides page no longer lists them.
• The new routes are in your library, and each one opens in the builder, so you can edit the line.
• Waypoints, ratings, description and collection memberships moved to the new routes, so nothing you added to a ride is left behind.
• The JSON backup holds the rides as they were, so keep that file if you want a way back.

Convert to Route#

Convert to Route is on the ride card, and it makes a route copy of one ride, named with (route) so you can tell the copy from the original.

• The ride stays in place and is still listed as a ride, because this makes a copy rather than changing what you rode.
• The copy does not carry the ride's waypoints. No waypoint from the ride is on the new route.
• The ride still carries its waypoints. No waypoint was deleted, so they are where they were before.
• To move the waypoints across as well, use Reclassify routes instead.

There is no conversion the other way#

A route never becomes a ride. A ride is the record of a trip you made, so INVIA will not build one from a plan you drew.

• INVIA offers no action that turns a route into a ride, so there is no button to look for.
• The route stays a route, still in your library and still editable.
• To get a ride, record the ride on your GPS and import the track.

Limits#

A Free account holds 25 items brought in from outside, and Pro removes the limit.

The count covers both the files you import yourself and the routes and rides you save from other riders, so a community route you keep counts against the same limit.

• A multi-track file kept together as one collection counts as one item, not one per track, so a twelve-stage route pack uses one of those items rather than twelve.
• Importing your own files is never gated by anything else, so the item count is the only thing that stops an import.
• 25 is the limit as it stands now, because INVIA sets the Free numbers and can change them.
• To import more items than a Free account allows, upgrade to Pro.

Duplicates and bulk import.