Appendix: what's inside a PitStopper GPX file

A GPX file from PitStopper is not "plain GPX". It is a valid GPX 1.1 file that any app can open, but it carries extra information that the GPX standard has no place for: the route's line colour and width, turn-by-turn instructions, POI icons and colours, and estimated times. This page lists the additions, which export option controls each, and exactly where in the XML it goes - useful if you write your own tools, compare files, or wonder why another app shows more (or less) than you expected.

GPX in brief

A GPX file is XML: elements nested inside each other, in an order the GPX 1.1 standard fixes. These are the ones that matter here.

Because the standard leaves <sym>, <type> and <cmt> open, much of what makes a PitStopper file useful is values other apps agree on, not new elements. Everything else goes in <extensions>.

Which app reads what

✓ the app documents it, in its own docs, source code or a developer's post (see From the apps themselves). ✓† from our own testing or users' reports. Blank: not supported, or not documented. Strava, Komoot and most other apps read the route and waypoints as plain GPX and ignore the extras; Ride with GPS may read the type in the waypoint comment (unconfirmed). Apps change - if one reads our file differently, please tell us.

Where each addition lives

The options are in Export → Export a file, with GPX selected (see Export GPX). "Always" means it is written without an option.

Read by: Ga Garmin devices and Garmin Connect, Lo Locus Map, Cr Cruiser, Os OsmAnd, OM Organic Maps and CoMaps, GS gpx.studio, GV GPX Viewer, RW Ride with GPS. "all" means a standard element every GPX app shows. † = from our own testing or users' reports, not the app's documentation.

Namespaces

An annotated example

A shortened export with most options turned on: one distance marker, one starred café, and a track with a turn, a roundabout and a change of surface.

<gpx version="1.1" creator="PitStopper.net"
  xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:gpxx="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/GpxExtensions/v3"
  xmlns:gpx_style="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/gpx_style/0/2"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 https://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd">
  <metadata>...</metadata>

  <wpt lat="51.041" lon="3.99">                     <!-- a distance marker -->
    <time>2026-10-05T08:04:00Z</time>               <!-- estimated times -->
    <name>1 km</name><desc>1 km</desc><sym>Dot</sym><type>km_marker</type>
  </wpt>

  <wpt lat="51.0455" lon="3.9902">                  <!-- a starred cafe -->
    <time>2026-10-05T08:02:00Z</time>
    <name>Cafe Centr L20m</name>                    <!-- short name + "on your left, 20 m" -->
    <cmt>coffee. Closes early Sunday</cmt>          <!-- type + your note -->
    <desc>Full name: Cafe Centraal. Cafes. Hours: Mo-Sa 08:00-18:00</desc>
    <src>OpenStreetMap</src>
    <link href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/11">...</link>
    <sym>Restaurant</sym>                           <!-- Garmin symbol -->
    <type>FOOD</type>                               <!-- course-point type -->
    <extensions>
      <xsi:gpx>
        <color>#FFFF00</color>                      <!-- starred colour (else the category colour) -->
        <background>square</background>             <!-- starred shape -->
        <icon>amenity_cafe</icon>                   <!-- OsmAnd icon -->
      </xsi:gpx>
    </extensions>
  </wpt>

  <trk>
    <name>My ride</name>
    <extensions>                                    <!-- line colour and width -->
      <gpxx:TrackExtension><gpxx:DisplayColor>DarkBlue</gpxx:DisplayColor></gpxx:TrackExtension>
      <gpx_style:line><gpx_style:color>1976D2</gpx_style:color><gpx_style:width>5</gpx_style:width></gpx_style:line>
      <xsi:gpx><color>#1976D2</color><width>5</width></xsi:gpx>
    </extensions>
    <trkseg>
      <trkpt lat="51.05" lon="3.99"><ele>3</ele>
        <extensions><xsi:gpx><route_information>paved</route_information></xsi:gpx></extensions>
      </trkpt>
      <trkpt lat="51.0455" lon="3.99"><ele>4</ele>
        <cmt>High Street</cmt><sym>left</sym>       <!-- turn left onto High Street -->
      </trkpt>
      <trkpt lat="51.041" lon="3.99"><ele>5</ele>
        <sym>roundabout_e3</sym>                    <!-- roundabout, third exit -->
        <extensions><xsi:gpx><route_information>unpaved</route_information></xsi:gpx></extensions>
      </trkpt>
    </trkseg>
  </trk>
</gpx>

From the apps themselves

Where the apps describe their own support:

• OsmAnd - OsmAnd GPX format: waypoint <icon>, <background> (circle, square, octagon - the octagon is drawn as a circle) and <color>
• Cruiser - turn-by-turn in the trackpoint <sym>, with colour, width and route_information (paved, unpaved); waypoint colours; Garmin icon names; opening .gpz files
• Locus Map - icons matching Garmin symbol names; turn-by-turn in the BRouter "Locus style" (BRouter profile guide, turnInstructionMode)
• Organic Maps and CoMaps - their GPX reader (Organic Maps, CoMaps) takes <color> and Garmin's DisplayColor for tracks and waypoints, with a fixed track width
• gpx.studio - its GPX reader handles gpx_style colour and width
• GPX Viewer - "Color from file" for tracks; symbol icons from a .gpz
• Garmin - the GpxExtensions v3 schema: DisplayColor on tracks and routes (there is none for waypoints)
• The colour order - a Locus and Cruiser user's report on writing Garmin, then gpx_style, then xsi:gpx

Good to know

• Colours come in as well as go out. When you load a GPX file, a track keeps the colour, width and transparency it was given, read from gpx_style first, then xsi:gpx, then Garmin's colour name; a KML line style is read too. On export the same look is written in all three forms, so a route coloured in one app arrives coloured in the others. Garmin can only take the nearest of its 16 colours, with no width. Locus Map's own line settings inside gpx_style:line (such as a line pattern) are kept and written back, with Locus's copy of the colour and width brought in step with yours.
• Transparency is set per route in Route Settings or the route manager: solid, 25%, 50% or 75% transparent, or fully transparent. Fully transparent means "hidden in other apps" - it is exported as Garmin's Transparent and an opacity of 0 - while PitStopper still draws the route, dashed, so you can see it.
• The track colour is written three ways because each app family reads a different one: Garmin's gpxx first, then gpx_style, then xsi:gpx - the order a Locus and Cruiser user reported some readers need (see the sources above).
• Several routes in one file ("Combined", the default) give one <trk> per route, each in its own colour. "Separate files" gives a zip of single-route GPX files.
• Icons come in as well as go out. A .gpz from another app brings the PNG for each <sym> its stops use (pictures no stop uses are left out); PitStopper offers to draw the stops with them, and writes the same symbol name and original picture back when a stop wearing one is exported in a .gpz with icons. The file's own anchor (hscc in Cruiser's reference file) is kept when its stops agree on one.
• A stop you imported keeps its own <extensions> from the original file, in place of the icon, colour and shape PitStopper would add. From another app's file it also keeps its own <desc>, <cmt> and <link> entries.
• Export POIs only writes no colours, but still adds the OsmAnd icon and marker shape.
• Times are never invented: estimated times need a start time, and a track that came with recorded times keeps them whatever the option says.
• FIT and KML carry the same information their own way: FIT as course points, KML as styles and folders. See Export FIT and Export KML.