myCamino GPS Track Show User Guide

Quick Start and guided demo

Choose Help > Quick Start for the short basic workflow. Packaged builds also offer a guided demo on first launch. Choose Start Demo to build a disposable St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles Adventure from supplied inputs, Not Now to defer it, or Never Show Again to suppress the startup offer. The demo can always be started later with Help > Start Guided Demo.

The demo opens numbered Finder folders and asks you to drag the GPX track first, then all photographs onto the Adventure Map. It deliberately uses the normal drop, metadata, and control-file workflow. It does not open the Track Table; the instructions only explain that tracks can be edited both on the map and in the Track and Waypoint tables. Weather and place-name network enrichment are disabled so the demo remains quick and private. Its temporary Adventure is not added to Recent Adventures or crash recovery and is removed when myCamino exits.

The bundled photographs are reduced-quality copies licensed under CC BY 4.0; the demo directory contains the attribution and exact asset manifest.

Photo-Derived GPX Tracks

Use Create Tracks from Photos to open GPX Editor's Add Media Points workflow. For a new media-only journey, the editor supplies an empty destination track. With an existing GPX, select the destination track before adding media. Only selected photos and videos are processed, current sidecars are reused, and each accepted medium remains a raw linked waypoint. Save the edited GPX before making it the Adventure's journey source.

License and source code

myCamino is free and open-source software licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Choose Help, then License, Third-Party Notices, or Source Code to read the documents installed with the application. Release DMGs also contain the exact source archive used for that build. Donations may be invited in the future, but are voluntary and do not change available features or GPL rights.

The myCamino application menu provides the complete GPL, the limited Apple App Store distribution exception, the draft App Store EULA, the Contributor Agreement, and the third-party notices. Direct beta and DMG releases remain governed by GPL-3.0-or-later. The App Store EULA is not active while it is marked as a draft.

myCamino GPS Track Show helps you assemble one adventure from GPX tracks, photos, videos, map images, geolocation metadata, and a final slide-show control file.

An adventure is one project directory. The project directory contains all files created or imported by the workflow.

Adventure Map

The normal starting screen is the Adventure Map. Drop an .adv file or an Adventure directory to load it. Existing tracks appear as a lightweight overview and media are grouped into numbered location markers. Click a track to select it and double-click it to open the Track Table. From there, double-click its row to open the Waypoint Table; the map context menu can open either table directly. Nearby tracks remain visible but subdued. Double-click empty map space or press Cmd-0 to return to the complete overview. The map preserves geographic proportions while resizing; black margins are used instead of stretching map tiles when the window and map have different shapes.

Click a numbered media group to select all media in it. Command-click adds or removes another group. Command-drag from empty map space to draw a black selection rectangle and add the enclosed groups or thumbnails; a simple empty-map click clears the selection. Selected media have a red outline. Right-click a media group to fit all selected media to the map or create a new track from their GPS positions. Ordinary dragging and two-finger scrolling pan the map.

You may also drop GPX tracks, photos, videos, audio, a control file, or a media folder. Fast media metadata preparation runs in the background and never regenerates map images. The small activity indicator shows the current phase; click it for the complete processing journal. Work that has not yet been saved is regularly placed in temporary crash-recovery snapshots.

myCamino also checks the active Adventure at startup and while it remains open. After a newly copied photo or video has stopped changing, metadata is prepared once. An existing edited control file is never changed silently: new media is shown in Review Control File Updates first. If there is no control file, myCamino creates an initial one from the available media and opens the editor. Previously excluded media is remembered and is not proposed repeatedly.

Choose myCamino > Settings or press Cmd-, at any time, including before creating an Adventure. Pre-Adventure changes remain in memory and are written as the initial Adventure settings when it is created. The first genuinely new medium that needs metadata also asks once whether historical weather should be included. Free non-commercial retrieval needs no Open-Meteo account or API key. Customer access requires an Open-Meteo account, a suitable paid plan, and an API key, which myCamino stores in macOS Keychain. The answer is remembered and can be changed later in Settings.

The native Track, Media, Maps, Control File, Audio, and Slide Show menus expose the normal workflow directly, without showing the Advanced Interface. Adventure > Adventure Properties edits the protected name, project directory, description, and Intro title image. Contextual Settings entries open the one shared Settings window at the appropriate section; the canonical command remains myCamino > Settings (Cmd-,). The Window menu lists visible, hidden, minimized, processing, and unsaved windows and restores a selected one. Adventure > Advanced Interface remains available for detailed status and uncommon operations.

myCamino checks its project website at most once per day for published news and update notices. A newly received item is announced once; unread items remain visible as a count under myCamino > News and Updates and on the application Dock icon. Opening the News window marks the downloaded items as read. The request sends the application version but no installation identifier, Adventure name, media, location, or usage information. Use Automatically Check for News in the myCamino menu to disable or re-enable background checks; manual checking remains available. Checks run in the background with a short connection timeout. If there is no Internet connection or the project website is unavailable, startup and all other functions continue without an alert. The News window retains downloaded items and shows a small line with the last successful server connection; a temporary unavailable indication appears there after a failed manual check.

The map itself has no permanent button strip. Its transparent startup message also reminds you that h opens help. Keyboard shortcuts are Cmd-G, Cmd-E, Cmd-L, Cmd-S, Space, and h; Cmd-Q quits. Two-finger scrolling moves the map in the same direction as your fingers, while dragging continues to grab and move the map directly. Experts who prefer the former control-first startup can pass --full-gui.

After installation, start the application by clicking the myCamino GPS Track Show icon in Applications. Because the beta is unsigned, macOS may say that Apple cannot check it for malicious software. Dismiss that warning without moving the app to the Bin. Within about one hour, open Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, click Open Anyway, authenticate, and confirm Open. After this one-time approval, a normal click opens it. Only approve a DMG obtained from the official myCamino website whose SHA-256 checksum matches the value published there. See Apple's Gatekeeper instructions.

Experts working directly from the source code can instead use the command-line interface (CLI):

./.venv/bin/python GPSTrackShowGUI.py

Experts can also preload a project:

./.venv/bin/python GPSTrackShowGUI.py --project-directory /path/to/project
./.venv/bin/python GPSTrackShowGUI.py /path/to/project
./.venv/bin/python GPSTrackShowGUI.py /path/to/project/adventure.adv
./.venv/bin/python GPSTrackShowGUI.py --full-gui /path/to/project

When a project directory is supplied, the GUI loads its most recently modified valid Adventure file. If the directory has no Adventure yet, it opens the directory as a new project.

Basic Workflow

The normal order is:

Choose or create the adventure directory.
Enter the adventure title and optional description.
Confirm a detected GPX file, choose other GPX files, or select no GPX file - use only photos. One detected file is used directly; several detected files can be joined in the GPX Editor.
Confirm media already in the folder or import photos and videos.
The retained Adventure Processing window prepares metadata, optionally adds place names, generates both map variants, and then creates or reviews the control file. It keeps the output from every phase; Skip appears only during the slower place-name phase.
Existing edited control files are never replaced automatically. After maps are ready, choose whether to review an Update Control File operation.
Review and edit the control file.
Export a PDF track summary if desired.
Start the slide show.

Audio is optional. New Adventures start with No Audio selected, which disables both music and narration and hides both playlist rows. Every project has fixed audio and narration folders, recreated automatically if removed. Clear No Audio, open either folder, and add supported recordings or folder groups. Both selected playlists are saved with the Adventure.

In the GPX Files section, select No GPX file - use only photos when the Adventure has no recorded GPX track. The GPX filename controls are then hidden and the program builds journey stages from GPS positions stored with the photos and videos. This choice is saved with the Adventure. If several GPX files are selected instead, the GPX Editor joins them into one Adventure file and allows individual tracks to be rearranged, split, joined, inspected, plotted, and edited.

When exactly one GPX file is already present in a new project folder, the Assistant offers that filename as the default. Continue accepts it immediately without opening another chooser. Cancelling Choose or the GPX Editor leaves the journey source unconfirmed.

Green check marks beside sections show that the minimum required step for that section is complete. Red marks show what is still missing.

New Adventures also start with the Assistant enabled. Its yellow speech bubble now contains recommended actions as well as an explanation. It guides project directory and name, a GPX choice or the GPX section's explicit No GPX file - use only photos option, explicit use or import of media, smart metadata preparation, combined control/map creation, and the first slide-show start. When existing media is found, three radio-style rows offer Use Existing Media, Import More, or Not Yet, followed by one Continue button. Return activates the recommended choice. Click its x, or clear Assistant in the header, to disable it for the active Adventure. Choices and completed steps are saved automatically.

Adventure Section

Use this section to choose the project directory and describe the adventure.

Controls:

Project directory field: type or choose the adventure folder.
Folder icon: opens a directory chooser. A missing selected directory is created when selected.
Adventure name: a menu of the Adventures in the selected folder. A new name is editable until it is first committed. Existing names are protected; click Edit before deliberately renaming or copying an Adventure. Selecting one loads it immediately. The most recently modified Adventure is loaded automatically when a folder is chosen. Adventures copied from another project directory are marked Needs adaptation until a valid copy is created for the new folder.
Description: optional two-line description.

Files created:

<projectname>.adv: adventure settings file. This is JSON content with a .adv extension.

The .adv file explicitly stores its project directory, GPX filename, active .lst file, generated map family, settings, description, import directory, and last stopped slide-show position. After creation or loading, every relevant change is saved automatically.

If you duplicate a complete project folder in Finder, its .adv files still record the previous absolute project directory. The GUI recognizes these as copied Adventure templates instead of reporting them as damaged. If the new folder contains no valid Adventure, select one of the templates and use Create from Selected. The proposed new name is the folder name. This creates a new .adv for the copied folder, clears old Continue positions, and shares the GPX, control file, generated maps, media, music, and narration files already present there. The selected template remains unchanged. Use Create Blank Adventure only when none of the copied settings and project-file references should be retained.

In an empty folder, confirm the suggested Adventure name to create the first .adv. Committing a changed name for an existing Adventure offers Rename, Copy, or Cancel. The related-files checkbox is enabled by default and renames/copies GPX, control list, overview, summaries, and all Standard and Time-Lapse maps consistently. Photos and videos remain shared. Turning the checkbox off intentionally shares GPX, list, and maps; the GUI warns before an operation modifies data used by another Adventure. A related-data Rename is refused while another Adventure shares those files; use Copy or turn off the related-data option instead.

Adventure Settings

Press the gear immediately left of the myCamino logo to open Adventure Settings. Choose a section in the left sidebar. The right side shows each setting together with a short explanation.

Common settings are visible initially. Enable Show Advanced Settings for technical GPX, PDF, request, cache, and custom map-server controls.
The reset arrow beside one row restores only that setting. Reset All restores all parameter defaults without changing project files or names.
Apply validates, applies, and auto-saves the draft to this adventure. Cancel discards the draft.
When Settings was opened with s from a running dual-screen show, Apply returns focus to the player and restores the same windows and fullscreen arrangement that were active before Settings opened.
Invalid entries are explained at the bottom and disable Apply.

Settings cover Standard and Time-Lapse playback, Track Map appearance and ordering, GPX processing, PDF output resolution, place-name lookup, and map providers. Interactive GPX Editor maps and generated PNG/PDF maps have separate provider choices. Public OpenStreetMap remains the interactive default and may also generate one manually selected map plan, but it is never used for an automatic whole-project download. Geoapify is the recommended production provider; Thunderforest, Stadia, Esri, and Custom XYZ are also available. Before the first automatic Map Generation, myCamino offers these services in a guided setup. For Geoapify, Thunderforest, and Stadia it opens the provider's official account page, validates the pasted API key with one small map request, and stores the key in macOS Keychain. Esri and Custom XYZ transfer to Map Service Settings for manual configuration. Manage Map Provider... reopens this setup later. The chosen provider becomes this Mac's default for new Adventures, while each Adventure can override it. API keys are never stored in an Adventure and must be entered again on another Mac when they are not available in that Mac's Keychain. A custom provider requires an HTTPS tile address containing {z}, {x}, and {y}, plus attribution. Numerical settings can be typed or adjusted with the adjacent up/down stepper. All providers share a persistent tile cache; public OSM tiles are retained for at least seven days.

GPX Processing separates horizontal smoothing (default 10 m), retained-point spacing (10 m), and elevation smoothing (50 m). Horizontal/vertical uncertainty limits default to 10/20 m, and HDOP/VDOP limits to 20/20. Missing quality data is accepted. Setting any individual smoothing, spacing, or quality limit to zero disables it. The same processed geometry drives statistics, generated maps, PDFs, timing, and Time-Lapse motion; the original GPX points are not rewritten.

The Time-Lapse Moving marker setting offers the animated walking pilgrim, bicycle, car, airplane, and traditional arrow. The pilgrim is the default. It uses a standing pose while the GPS marker remains within the screen-scaled motion tolerance, then resumes its walking cycle from frame 3. At the start of each stage it adopts the fixed arrow angle and is mirrored when necessary so that it faces from the stage start toward its end. The overview keeps an arrow when the pilgrim is selected; transport symbols appear on both stage and overview maps.

Show elevation profile is enabled by default. With one window, every GPX-backed stage retains the existing introductory profile phase. With a separate map window, the profile instead remains visible throughout the stage on the map that does not display photos or videos. It is placed in the largest route-free area. A solid red dot follows the Time-Lapse pilgrim and a red ring marks the currently displayed photo or video. Its vertical axis follows the track minimum and maximum with five percent headroom rather than starting at zero. The first use creates a PNG under trackimages/elevation-profiles; later shows reuse it until the track or its GPX processing settings change. Press e during a show to toggle all elevation-profile displays for the session.

GPS route tracking is also enabled by default. During Standard playback with a separate map window, photos and videos retain the selected Blend, Fade, Switch, or other transition while the second display uses the roomier Time-Lapse map and moves the route marker according to recorded track times. Photos have the configured minimum duration; videos hold the route until they finish. Press g to toggle GPS route tracking for the running show. It has no effect when only one slideshow window is available.

The Locations radius groups nearby GPS positions under an already determined place name. A larger radius reduces the number of lookups and can speed up place-name extraction, while a smaller radius gives more locally specific names.

Changing a map-rendering or GPX-filtering setting marks affected maps or the track summary as needing generation/update. Slide-show and place-name settings do not force map recreation. Keyboard changes made while a slide show is running are temporary and do not overwrite the saved project settings.

Main controls:

Assistant, beside Help: show or hide the guided next-step bubble for the active Adventure.
Help, beside Settings in the header: show the workflow and files used by the program.
Quit: flush any pending auto-save and quit. If writing fails, the program offers Retry, Quit Without Saving, or Cancel.

GPX Files Section

Use this section to select, edit, summarize, and plot the GPX tracks.

Controls:

GPX file field: editable menu of .gpx files in the project directory, or selected input files before editing.
Choose: select one or more .gpx files.
Folder icon: open Finder for GPX files in the project directory.
Add & Edit Tracks: opens myCamino GPX Editor.

Behavior:

In a new project containing GPX files, Choose first offers all detected files as the default selection. One file is used directly; several files are opened together in the GPX Editor.
If one existing GPX file in the project directory is selected, the GUI uses it directly.
If a GPX file outside the project directory is selected, the GUI asks whether to copy it into the project directory.
If multiple GPX files are selected, the GUI opens the GPX Editor so you can produce one combined GPX file.
If the selected GPX file does not exist, the GPX Editor opens with the default output file.
If the GPX file directory does not exist, the GUI shows an error.
When the GPX Editor saves, the GUI immediately returns control and updates compact summary plus per-track derived geometry/timing data once in the background. It never downloads maps as part of Save.

The summary line shows the number of tracks, track/date range information, how many track plot images exist, and whether an overview plot exists.

Maps Section

Map Generation normally runs automatically after media have been accepted or imported and their metadata has been prepared. It maintains one shared overview plus Standard and Time-Lapse variants for every required GPX or media stage. Only missing or outdated maps are rendered.

Automatic project generation requires a configured production provider. With Public OpenStreetMap selected, missing maps remain pending and the GUI directs you to choose a production provider or manually generate one selected overview or stage (both Standard and Time-Lapse variants are produced together). Provider setup may be deferred; this retains policy-limited OSM access but does not enable automatic whole-project downloads. Every installation uses the user's own hosted-provider account and quota; myCamino does not distribute a shared API key. Before a manual OSM request, a confirmation reports estimated required, cached, and downloadable tiles. HTTP 403 blocks stop the provider job without retry; HTTP 429 responses report the provider's delay. Existing map images remain usable while changed tracks are clearly marked outdated.

Newly created maps separate the downloaded basemap from the route and header. The PNG stores the basemap pixels; Standard maps include their normal title margin while Time-Lapse basemaps fill the frame. The slideshow, map viewer, and PDF export draw routes, location dots, endpoints, and titles from the matching map information. Therefore changing route colors, line widths, point styles, or header visibility in Settings no longer requires downloading the basemap again.

GPX-stage maps reserve a 25% taller black header. By default their title uses the reverse-geocoded start and destination of the track (PLACE1 - PLACE2); Settings > Slide Show > Header > Track title can instead select the GPX track name. If either endpoint name is unavailable, the GPX track name is used as a safe fallback. The subtitle shows DATE · NN.N km - HH:MM h. During Time-Lapse, an active clock removes the repeated date and leaves NN.N km - HH:MM h, with the current place on the third line in the same subtitle size.

Under Settings > Map Generation, Journey source controls how stages are formed:

Automatic uses the selected GPX when one is available and otherwise uses media locations.
GPX tracks requires a GPX file and retains the traditional workflow.
Media locations groups media by local calendar date even if a GPX file is present.

For media stages, Media route display offers Photo dots, Interpolated line, and Hidden. Photo dots are the default because they represent measured locations. An interpolated line only connects successive photo locations and must not be interpreted as a measured walking route.

Adventures Without a GPX Track

In the Assistant choose no GPX file - use only photos.
Accept media already in the project folder or import more.
Metadata preparation starts automatically. Keep Add place names selected unless you only want metadata; current sidecars are reused and only missing, invalid, or changed metadata is extracted.
Map Generation starts automatically. Media are grouped by date and the program creates one overview plus Standard and Time-Lapse variants for every located stage.
Choose Continue to create the control file.
Start the slide show or choose Later. The initial style defaults to Time-Lapse and can be changed in Settings or during playback.

Media without GPS remain in their date section but do not create a dot. A media-derived Time-Lapse stage is static: it shows media positions and the current media marker but does not pretend that a measured GPX route exists. Media position dots are vivid blue with a white edge and use the same visible radius as the moving slide-show marker. If cached free-corner information is missing, all media coordinates in the map sidecar are used as placement obstacles so framed media avoids the known locations.

Controls:

Generate and Update Maps: open a selection window with missing or outdated stages preselected. Selecting a current stage deliberately regenerates it. Standard and Time-Lapse variants are always generated together and directly after one another.
View Maps: view the overview followed by Standard and Time-Lapse maps paired per stage. This reads the existing control-file and compact-summary references; it does not reprocess the GPX file.
Folder icon: open the trackimages folder in Finder.
Track ordering is configured under Settings > Map Generation. Choose date or track number for generated map order and control-file insertion.
Cancel: shown only while map generation is running.

Files created:

trackimages/: subdirectory in the project directory.
<projectname>.png: overview map image.
<projectname>.json: overview map metadata sidecar.
<projectname>-summary.json: track summary used later by the control-file section.
0001_...png, 0002_...png, etc.: centered Standard per-track maps.
0001_...-timelapse.png, etc.: Time-Lapse maps shifted to leave a large practical route-free area for photos and videos.
Matching .json files: timing, map coordinates, track identity, and cached route-free placement rectangles. The player compares the four corners with center-left, center, center-right, top-center, and bottom-center, then uses the position that displays each photo or video largest without covering the route. It recalculates the rectangles only when cached data is missing or invalid.

The summary and map sidecar files store separate versioned identities for route geometry and for timing/elevation data. Map images depend only on processed route geometry. Renaming, renumbering, copying a project, or harmless GPX XML normalization therefore does not redraw an unchanged map. The map-selection window opens immediately, then myCamino verifies old sidecars against current geometry in the background and repairs unique matches without downloading tiles. The window remains movable and can cancel this analysis. The overview is still updated when the complete route set or its extent changed.

Media sidecars use the file's full SHA-256 content identity in addition to the quick size and modification-time signature. A Finder copy with an altered file date is hashed once; matching content reuses the existing date, GPS, place name, and provenance. Existing current sidecars are indexed incrementally in the Indexing media identity phase. This phase reads files but does not extract EXIF data or repeat place-name lookups.

When maps are created or updated, obsolete numbered track-map files in trackimages/ are removed if they no longer match any current GPX track. The same check removes obsolete media-stage maps from the active Adventure's map family. The overview, summary, other Adventures, and unrelated files are not removed.

Generate and Update Maps window:

Opens when you press Generate and Update Maps.
Initially shows Analyzing track N of M; selection and Generate become available when this background check finishes.
Shows overview as number 0 and all tracks as numbered rows.
Rows marked with * need update.
Missing or outdated maps are preselected and listed in the Range field.
You can regenerate all maps, select rows manually, or type a range such as 1,2,3-6,8.
Manual row selection automatically disables the all-images checkbox.
Mark Selected Up to Date accepts existing selected maps without redrawing them. It is useful after changing providers when older maps should retain their original appearance. Only maps whose geometry, media positions, and required sidecar structure still match are accepted; missing or genuinely changed maps remain marked for generation. Original provider attribution is preserved.
For more than one map with Public OpenStreetMap selected, choose a configured production provider or Use Cached OSM Tiles Only. Cache-only mode sends no network requests and stops safely if a required tile is missing. GPX Editor map views remain available as interactive, explicitly requested plots.

Plot viewer window:

Opens while plots are created and updates after each new image.
Also opens from Track images View.
Arrow keys move through images.
h toggles help.
q hides/closes the viewer.
The window keeps the image aspect ratio while resizing.

Media Section

Use this section to import and inspect the media files for the adventure.

Controls:

Import: choose images and videos to import into the project directory.
View: open the project media browser.
Folder icon: open project media in Finder.
Update Metadata: refresh only missing, invalid, or changed companion metadata. The button is separated at the right of the section because it is a maintenance action rather than an import/view action.
If current Track Map sidecars are missing start or destination place names, the Photos and Map Generation status lines report the number missing and Update Metadata receives an *. Run it again to continue the place-name pass. Completed endpoints are retained and each completed track is saved immediately.
Add place names: selected by default; after metadata preparation, obtain readable names for stored GPS positions. For GPX Adventures this resolves each track's start and end first and stores those names with both map variants, then processes the media. These endpoint names provide the default stage titles.

Existing valid place names are retained. If GPS changes sufficiently, its old place name is invalidated automatically and can be looked up again. For a deliberate complete metadata rebuild, remove that media file's companion metadata file in Finder and run Update Metadata.

Files created:

Imported image/video files are copied directly into the project directory.
A file already present under the destination name is reported as Skipping existing and is not copied or counted as newly imported.
Existing files are skipped so duplicates are not imported.
Companion metadata files are prepared when media is added and can be refreshed with Update Metadata, Create, or Update Control File. Opening the media browser never scans the media or creates metadata.
When companion metadata is created, the embedded exposure timestamp is preferred: the original photo time first, then the camera-supplied creation time, followed by a GPS timestamp when available. Generic video-track dates, Spotlight, and filesystem dates are used only as fallbacks.

Media browser window:

Shows media files in the project directory.
Columns include included status, type, metadata status, name, time, GPS, and place.
Metadata status is Available, Missing, or Invalid. Every media file remains visible; date, GPS, and place stay blank when its metadata is not usable.
Missing dates are sorted after valid dates. The browser never substitutes a file creation or modification time.
Sort rows by clicking a column header.
Double-click a row or press View to open the media viewer.
The normal Update Control File workflow analyzes clear changes automatically. Use Choose Other Media... only when you deliberately want to re-read an otherwise unchanged file.

Media viewer window:

Displays one image or video.
Shows filename, creation/taken date, GPS coordinates, and place name when available.
Arrow keys move backward and forward.
i toggles the information overlay.
h toggles help.
s toggles sorting between filename and creation date.
q closes the viewer.

The status line below the buttons shows how many photos and videos are present.

Control File Section

This section creates and edits the file that tells the slide show what to show and in what order.

Controls:

Control file: editable menu of .lst files in the project folder. Select an existing list, or enter the name that Create should produce.
Create: run geolocation/metadata processing and create the sorted control file.
Edit: open the editable control-file table.
Update Control File: check Track Map references and media together. It adds, replaces, or removes map references that no longer agree with the current generated maps, inventories newly discovered media, finds missing, invalid, legacy, or changed metadata, and shows one review before writing. Add, Update Metadata, and Move are independent choices. It does not render maps; use Generate and Update Maps for that.

During Create and Update Control File, a photo or video without embedded GPS can receive a position from its exposure time. The program first compares that time only with the start and end of each stage. If it falls inside exactly one stage, the two surrounding timed track points are loaded from the current map information and the position is interpolated. Media outside a stage, inside overlapping stages, or associated with missing/outdated maps is left without GPS rather than guessed. Generate and Update Maps makes its timing information available again.

The inferred position is saved in the media's companion metadata together with the source stage. A real camera GPS position is never replaced. If the source track later changes, Create or Update Control File refreshes only positions that were previously inferred. Place-name extraction from Update Metadata Extraction does not scan tracks; it uses the position already stored with each medium and obtains a readable place name from it. It also never re-reads the media through Spotlight or ExifTool.

During Create and Update Control File, media from a date without its own track can be associated with a stage on the next or previous day. With GPS data, the location must be within half the stage length of the appropriate start or end point. Without GPS data, the date alone is used. The list labels these sections as Day before or Day after. Media that does not qualify remains in a date-sorted section for manual placement.

After this assignment, the program makes a location map for every remaining date group that contains at least one usable photo or video position. The map shows the date rather than a track name and is inserted at the date's proper place in the show. Day-before and Day-after groups always stay attached to their track. Media without any usable position remains in a mapless date section. These generated maps are stored in the trackimages folder with names ending in -media-YYYY-MM-DD.png.

Like track maps, location maps have Standard and Time-Lapse versions. Map Generation always maintains both variants together. Time-Lapse versions shift the mapped positions at the same scale to maximize useful free space for framed media. They appear as Media locations in the Generate and Update Maps list and receive an * when either required version is missing or out of date.

In the editor, a location map has type LOC. During Time-Lapse playback it is a static stage: there is no walking pilgrim, but every displayed image or video is marked on the location map and, when visible, on the overview. The marker uses a fixed arrow so it is easy to find. The framed image or video is drawn above map markers and may cover one when the selected corner overlaps it.

While the control-file table is edited, the program regularly writes recovery copies in a private backup folder. If the application or computer stops before Save is pressed, reopening the list offers to restore the latest edits. Save updates the real control file and clears the active recovery copy. Closing the editor with unsaved changes offers Save, Don't Save, and Cancel. This check also runs when quitting the main application.

The search field at the top right finds text or numbers anywhere in the saved control-file rows, including filenames, times, GPS coordinates, place names, and map directives. Use its up/down arrows to move through the matches. Command-F focuses the search and advances to the next match; Shift-Command-F moves to the previous match. Search wraps at both ends.

Right-click a table row to Delete, Cut, Copy, Paste, Preview, or Open in Finder. Finder opens the containing folder with the selected image, video, or map file already highlighted. The Previews popup at the top left offers Off, Small, Medium, and Large. Off keeps every row compact and is the default on first use. The other choices enlarge only rows that can show a preview; directive and date rows remain compact. The choice is remembered for the current macOS user.

Music control uses separate MUS rows rather than an extra column. Slide-show flow and timing use CTL rows. Press Insert Row or Command-I, choose the desired Type, and enter the comma-separated commands in File / Date / Map. A nonmodal command reference opens for a MUS or CTL row. The music reference is also available from the small Help link beside No Audio in the main window. The filter popup offers All Rows, No Media, Media, Maps, MUS - Music control, CTL - Slide-show control, each individual image/video/map type, and Date. Reset Filter returns to All Rows. The selected row remains visible where possible; otherwise the nearest preceding matching row is selected. Filtering never changes the saved row order, and search uses only visible rows.

Press Choose in the main window's Start Slide Show section to open the control-file editor. Start Slide Show Here is available both at the bottom and in the row context menu. Jump to Show immediately selects the latest row reported by the running player and then follows playback. In a filtered view it follows the nearest preceding matching row, such as the current Track Map or Music command. While following, selecting one different row jumps the running slide show to that exact control-file location and following continues from there. Editing a cell or selecting multiple rows stops following; press Jump to Show again to return to the live position.

The compact Type column shows only its short code. Its dropdown menu shows both the short type and its meaning, for example TRK - Track map and MUS - Music control. The short code also remains the type used in saved directives.

While a table cell is being edited, both Command-C/X/V and Control-C/X/V act on the text inside that cell. With no active cell editor, the same shortcuts copy, cut, or paste complete selected rows.

When the media viewer moves with the arrow keys, the corresponding control-file row is selected and scrolled into view. Videos open at their first frame in an embedded player with native playback controls. Space or Return toggles Play/Pause.

Files created:

The selected .lst name: final slide-show control file.
<mediafile>.json: metadata sidecar for each photo or video, including the original extension, for example IMG_4104.mov.json or IMG_4104.jpeg.json.

The status line below the buttons says either No control file available yet or shows statistics such as number of images, videos, track maps, date rows, whether an overview map is present, how many images have place names, and the last modification date.

Adventure Processing window:

Is reused for metadata, place names, map generation, and control-file work.
Keeps phase headings and prior output so the whole operation can be followed.
Shows the active phase, progress, and current filename in its title.
Reports extracted dates/GPS values, skipped files, map work, warnings, and control-file actions.
Always scrolls to the latest line.
Cancel remains available throughout processing and preserves completed metadata and maps.
Skip appears during place-name extraction and omits only that phase for the current run without changing the selected Add place names option.
Close becomes available after completion.
The progress bar in the main window is shown only while useful.

If the track summary JSON does not exist, the GUI asks whether to run plot creation first or continue without tracks.

Control-File Editor Window

The Edit button opens the slide-show control-file table.

Rows can be:

IMG: image.
VID: video clip.
MAP: overview map.
TRK: track map.
BEF: map for media assigned to the day before a stage.
AFT: map for media assigned to the day after a stage.
DAT: date section row.

Table features:

Scrollable vertically and horizontally.
Off, Small, Medium, and Large thumbnail previews.
Previews appear progressively without blocking scrolling. Compact cached thumbnails are reused when the editor is opened again.
File date column from media or track sidecars.
DAT rows are bold.
MAP and TRK rows are italic.
Rows are selectable.
Drag rows to reorder them.
Edit cells directly.
Copy and Cut buttons duplicate or move selected rows through the clipboard.
Backspace/Delete removes selected rows.
Cmd-C, Cmd-X, Cmd-V copy, cut, and paste rows.
Undo and redo buttons use standard arrow icons.
Save writes the edited table back to <projectname>-sorted.lst.
Revert reloads the file from disk and discards unsaved table edits.
Close closes the editor window.
Double-click media rows to open the media viewer.
Sort by clicking table headers.

Editing this table is how you fine-tune the final slide-show order.

Updating The Control File

Update Control File:

Reads the active control file and current Track Map summary once.
Reports overview/stage-map references to add, replace, or remove. It preserves Day before/Day after section types and does not duplicate maps.
A map recreated under the same filename needs no reference update.
If maps or their summary are outdated, it asks you to run Generate and Update Maps first. Metadata can still be refreshed, but track-dependent media placement waits for current map information.
Compares project media with a companion <control-file>.mycamino-state.json inventory. GUI imports and files first discovered after an established inventory are recommended additions. On the first legacy scan, media already in the control file is included; other files are unclassified and remain unchecked unless they match an otherwise empty stage unambiguously.
Keeps Add, Update Metadata, and Move independent. Repairing a sidecar never inserts an intentionally excluded medium into the show.
Provides Recommended, New, Unclassified, Excluded, Included Updates, and All filters with visible-row selection controls and a count beside every filter. Unchecked absent media is remembered as excluded after Apply and is hidden from the normal review, but remains available through the Excluded filter; select Add there to restore it to the control file.
Treats disabled photo/video rows as included. If the control file was edited outside myCamino, removed media is shown as unclassified for confirmation rather than silently treated as a deliberate exclusion.
Shows the exact myCamino import/discovery time when known. A legacy filesystem creation/copy date is marked as estimated rather than presented as exposure metadata.
Use Choose Other Media... and Recheck Selected to inspect a Current file again when you nevertheless suspect its embedded metadata changed.
Shows filename/type, membership reason, added-to-project time, exposure date, GPS, place, and proposed control section before writing; recommended updates are checked and can be disabled per row.
Inserts new media and proposes repositioning changed rows through the same classifier used by Create. Repositioning can be rejected per file.
Preserves an existing place when GPS remains within the configured Place-name search radius (150 m by default). A larger GPS change proposes a targeted place lookup; if declined, stale place fields are cleared so Update Metadata can fill them later.
Applies required Track Map corrections and selected media changes to one staged model. It writes sidecars and affected media maps first, backs up the active control file, and replaces that file last.
Creates Day before/Day after sections when the adjacent-date and distance rules qualify.
Avoids duplicate media entries.
Cancel or failure leaves the active project unchanged.

Audio, Music, and Narration

The Slide Show control file can contain directives of the form #MUSIC: Parameters. They can jump to a playlist location, play a particular piece, select loop behavior, change the internal volume, or switch music off and on at that point in the show. Playlists are editable text files and contain $LABEL entries for songs and albums. You can add your own labels for useful jump locations. Music is stored in the project's audio subdirectory as individual files or album folders. No Audio disables both music and narration. Click Help beside it for the complete command reference and the labels currently available in the selected playlist.

#PLAY: accepts a comma-separated mixture of labels, pathnames, and inclusive label ranges such as $A - $D. It plays that finite music selection and then resumes the interrupted title at its saved position. #NARRATOR: uses the same syntax with the separate playlist in the project's narration folder. It plays the selected recordings once while the visuals continue, then waits for the next narrator row. Quote or backslash-escape pathnames containing separators or blanks.

#JUMP $LABEL and #GOTO $LABEL are equivalent music commands.

Slide-Show Control Commands

The control-file editor also supports CTL – Slide-show control rows, saved as #CONTROL: Parameters. Editing a CTL row opens a command reference. Commands and $LABEL names are case-insensitive, and multiple commands are separated by commas.

#LABEL $NAME defines a destination in the slide-show list.
#GOTO $NAME or #JUMP $NAME continues from that destination.
#DURATION NN changes how long following slides and map insets remain visible.
#TRANSITION STYLE selects TIME_LAPSE, BLEND, FADE, SWITCH, EXPAND, COLLAGE, QUAD, or RANDOM, like pressing t or Shift-t.
#PAUSE NN holds the current picture for the requested seconds while music continues.
#SET_TIME HH:MM[:SS] replaces the next medium's time for walker motion only.
#SET_DATE YYYY-MM-DD replaces its date for walker motion only.
#IGNORE_TIME shows the next medium without advancing the walker.
#END applies the Adventure's configured black, loop-once, or loop-forever ending.

Duration and transition settings remain active until another command changes them or the show restarts from its title page. Use the editor's CTL filter to find these rows quickly.

Time-Lapse always retains control-file media order. A future timestamp advances the walker; a missing or earlier timestamp shows the medium at the current walker position. Times outside the track are clamped to its beginning or end. SET_TIME, SET_DATE, and IGNORE_TIME never change the media clock or metadata.

Append #REPEAT_UNTIL $LABEL as the final comma-separated item to repeat a CONTROL, MUSIC, PLAY, NARRATOR, CAPTION, or FONT directive at every following visible display before that forward label. Repeated audio selections restart. CAPTION repeats only on photos and videos. Flow transfers such as LABEL, GOTO/JUMP, and END cannot be repeated.

Hidden Media, Captions, and Fonts

Choose Hide Media from an image or video row's context menu to retain that row while excluding it from playback. Hidden rows are gray and are saved with # before the original line. Choose Unhide Media to restore them. The prefix can also disable any other control-file line when entered manually.

CAP – Photo/video caption rows are saved as #CAPTION: and label only the immediately following enabled photo or video. Captions default to bottom center. Add #TOP, #MIDDLE, or #BOTTOM and #LEFT, #CENTER, or #RIGHT to position and align them. Use \\n for line breaks and double quotes around text containing commas. Video captions remain visible for the complete clip.

FNT – Label font rows are saved as #FONT:. Use #SIZE, #STYLE, and #FAMILY independently; #DEFAULT restores the Adventure's Header settings. These settings also control following automatic stage headers. Captions use the configured text color and shadow without covering the image with a box.

The Audio section contains separate Music and Narration playlist rows:

Use the +/− button beside Audio to expand or collapse those rows. The choice is remembered for each Adventure. No Audio disables both music and narration independently; Normalize Video Audio remains available in the compact header row.

Audio folder icon: open the project's fixed audio folder in Finder. Copy MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, AIFF, CAF, or FLAC files into it. Subdirectories that contain audio files are treated as albums.
Playlist field and Choose: show and select an existing .playlist file directly inside the audio folder. Without a selected playlist, all audio files play in case-insensitive relative-path order.
Create Playlist: choose a new playlist filename in the audio folder and write an editable playlist. Each album folder and filename receives a unique short $LABEL.
Update Playlist: keep existing text and append newly discovered files, grouped by folder, with new unique album and file labels.
Edit Playlist: open the active playlist in TextEdit. If no playlist exists yet, it is first created from the supported audio files in the directory.
Normalize Video Audio: explicitly prepare reusable copies of project videos with a consistent sound level. Originals are never modified. Current copies are skipped, stale copies are rebuilt, and cancellation retains every completed result. Generated copies live in normalized-videos and are excluded from media import and control files.
Settings > Audio controls music and video playback percentages, whether prepared copies are preferred at startup, the -16 LUFS target, maximum boost, true-peak ceiling, and music crossfade duration.
The Adventure stores audio as its fixed music source and the explicit selected playlist path.
Narration uses the fixed narration folder and the same recursive Create, Update, Edit, album-label, and file-label implementation as music.
Settings > Audio chooses whether music remains parallel, is reduced to 25% by default, or is faded out and paused while narration speaks. Video sound is reduced to 25% by default during narration. Renaming or copying an Adventure with related files enabled also renames or copies its playlist; the audio recordings themselves remain unchanged.

Start Slide Show

The Start Slide Show section contains:

Start: launches from the beginning using the initial style saved in Settings.
Continue: opens a table of up to twenty automatically saved checkpoints, newest first. The table shows the last playback time, image or map, place, media date, and availability. Select a valid entry and press Return, double-click it, or choose Play. Abort and Escape leave the GUI unchanged. If a slide show is already running, Continue does not launch a second process; it rebuilds the running show at its current control-file row.
The initial style defaults to Time-Lapse. During playback, t cycles forward and Shift-t backward through Time-Lapse, Blend, Fade, Switch, Expand, Collage, Quad, and Random.
Settings > Slide Show > At end controls completion. Black final slide ends on black, Loop once replays the complete show once and then ends on black, and Loop forever continuously replays it. Loop forever is the default. Every replay starts again with the title slide.
A fresh Start first shows the Adventure title, date/place/distance summary, description, and title image directly over the Tour Overview without a background panel. The text is black with a light readability shadow, and the title image has a soft drop shadow. Choose the title image below Description in the Adventure section; Use First uses the first still image in the control file. The title image is limited to 35% of the screen width and height. Descriptions shorter than five displayed lines are centered. At show startup, the temporary h help hint is placed at the bottom and disappears after five seconds. The title information disappears without fading the unchanged background map through black, followed by the first Stage Map. Press Space or Right/Down to advance from the title immediately. Without a key press, it advances automatically after 30 seconds. Continue does not replay the introduction, while end-of-show loops do.
In one-window mode each Standard stage is Stage Map, marked Tour Overview, then media. Cursor navigation crosses stage boundaries in both directions; Command-cursor jumps directly between Stage Maps.
Time-Lapse plays each track map as a moving GPS time-lapse. The track map becomes the main background, the overview map remains visible on the other display when a separate overview window is active, and photos or videos appear over the moving map. The standard display-swap key still swaps these two display roles. For every stage, the player calculates track-free width and height choices in all four corners. Each photo or video uses the corner where its own shape can be shown largest. The saved 50% value is a preferred minimum, not a maximum; media can grow substantially larger wherever the route-free area permits it. Where map metadata is available, placement remains below the map header and keeps a 5% margin inside the actual map area. The moving arrow keeps one fixed orientation, perpendicular to the line from the stage start to its end. While media is visible, a red dot with a white edge marks the route position where it first appeared. Its reverse- geocoded place can appear as one of the three centered title lines. When the clock option is enabled, the analog clock in the upper-left follows the moving GPX marker time and the optional speedometer beside it follows the 500 m running mean. It is shown only when recorded GPX timestamps support a meaningful speed. Changing its window or stationary threshold updates small sidecar metadata files and does not regenerate or download maps. throughout the stage rather than showing a fixed media time; the separate date subtitle is then omitted. The upper-right map header shows Total, Stage, and Height values. Fade, Blend, Collage, Quad, and every other media style use this same clock, three-line title area, sizing, and track-statistics layout. Settings have separate controls for the initial Full, Simple, or Off presentation header, the persistent logical map header, clock, stage name, track length and duration, place name, and statistics. Press c to cycle the presentation header for the current session; the map header follows its content if the physical displays are swapped. Enabled title fields are packed from the top with no empty rows, and the first displayed line is larger. One Header layout setting controls photos, Time-Lapse maps, and overview maps. No box and Semi-transparent overlay leave pictures and maps full-frame, with the header aligned to the fitted picture or map edge. Header area is the default; it uses the selected slideshow background color and fits the display beneath it while maps remain full-width. Font color also controls the clock marks and hands, time, and date. Shadow color is configurable and defaults to black. Apply changes the active slide show immediately, and c toggles the complete configured header.
PDF Summary: opens the same PDF export panel used by myCamino GPX Editor. It exports the current GPX track table and can optionally include overview, track maps, elevation profiles, and page orientation choices.
Quit: auto-save pending Adventure changes and close the main GUI.

The control-file editor also offers Start Slide Show Here in the right-click menu. It starts at the selected map, media, date, or music row. If the table has unsaved edits, choose Save and Start first. This is a one-time start location; the existing Continue history is not changed until the running player later records where it actually stopped.

Window behavior is Automatic by default. A computer with one display starts with one slide-show window. At the beginning of every new Time-Lapse stage, the overview is shown by default as a framed medium over the stage map for the current media duration, including when a separate overview window is active. The current stage route is projected into that smaller overview and highlighted there, followed by the animated route. The separate overview map retains the elevation profile throughout the stage. Settings can disable the duplicate inset for a separate display or restore a full-screen overview instead. In a Standard show, the single-window sequence is Stage Map, marked Tour Overview, then media. The marked overview uses a runtime black title panel; the Intro uses the same full-tile overview without a duplicated baked-in title. A computer with two or more displays starts with a separate overview window. Settings can force either Single window or Separate overview window regardless of display count.

In Standard two-window playback, GPS route tracking is independent of t and Shift-t: changing the photo transition does not stop the moving map. The t/Shift-t cycle therefore remains Time-Lapse, Blend, Fade, Switch, Expand, Collage, Quad, and Random; GPS route tracking is controlled separately with g.

In single-window automatic Time-Lapse playback, the temporary overview advances to the elevation profile and then to the moving stage after the configured media duration for each static phase. In separate-window playback the persistent profile does not add another phase. Left/Right step through the visible phases; going left from the overview enters the previous stage rather than merely rewinding the moving marker. In Standard playback, the track map is shown once at the beginning of each stage. The Settings option Track map before each medium can show the marked track map before every photo or video; it is off by default.

On two screens, Time-Lapse uses the same single runtime header overlay for the Stage Map and marked Tour Overview. The Overview no longer retains a second embedded gray caption beneath that header.

Press w during playback to switch between one window and a separate overview window. Closing only the overview window has the same effect as switching to one window and does not stop the slide show.

The GUI passes these values to the slide-show player:

the project directory
the sorted control file as --inputlist
the full trackimages directory as --trackdir
the saved time-lapse media minimum size

The slide show reads the control file, media files, map images, and sidecar metadata.

When a slide show is stopped before reaching its end, the player returns its current control-file row, stage and phase, visible medium, Time-Lapse progress, exact background-music state, active display duration, and transition style. The main GUI adds this checkpoint to the Adventure's newest-first history and keeps at most twenty. Continue lets you choose any still-valid checkpoint; stale entries remain visible with a reason but cannot be played. Start begins at the beginning without deleting history. A show that reaches its natural end adds no checkpoint and leaves earlier history unchanged. Music restoration includes the current title and elapsed time, queue or loop, control-file audio gate, manual Audio Off state, and #VOLUME level. If songs or playlist entries changed, the slide show still resumes and reconstructs music from preceding #MUSIC: directives.

Common slide-show keys:

Space: pause or resume automatic playback.
m: switch between automatic and manual stepping.
a: fade background music out and pause it, or resume it at the same position with a fade-in. Space-pausing automatic playback also pauses music; videos pause it temporarily without changing the a setting.
Right or Down: advance to the next item; in manual time-lapse mode, advance to the next scheduled media pause or the end of the stage. Arrow-key navigation retains the current automatic or manual playback mode.
Left or Up: previous item. In Time-Lapse this first walks backward through media in the current stage, then to the previous stage. Previous items are reloaded from the control list instead of being retained as large images. At the beginning, backward navigation returns through the Tour Overview, Stage Map, and Intro title page. The startup help hint is not shown again during backward navigation.
Command-Left or Command-Right: jump to the previous or next map-backed stage, including media-only stages without a GPX track. Command-Left at the first stage returns to the Intro title page. Repeated presses browse lightweight stage previews immediately; full media, audio, profile, and timing setup runs only for the stage where you stop.
+ or -: change media duration. In Time-Lapse this is a minimum; the current image remains visible longer whenever no newer image is due.
Command-+ or Command--: change the active stage time-lapse duration by five seconds.
t: cycle forward through Time-Lapse and the Standard transition styles.
T (Shift-t): cycle backward through the same styles.
w: switch between one slide-show window and a separate overview window. Closing the overview window also returns to one-window playback without stopping the show.
i: show photo metadata overlay.
c: cycle the logical presentation header through Full, Off, and Simple. A separate logical map display keeps the configured map header.
f: toggle fullscreen.
d and D: move or swap the configured displays.
e: switch the Stage Map elevation-profile introduction on or off. The Adventure setting is on by default; the key changes only the running show.
n: switch subsequent videos between valid normalized copies and originals. If a video is active, playback resumes at the same time and in the same paused/playing state. If no current normalized copy exists, playback is left unchanged.
h: show help while held; it remains visible for five seconds after release.
s: open Adventure Settings directly at the combined Slide Show section in the main myCamino window. Header and Time-Lapse options are grouped in their own subsections, separated by thin lines. Apply updates the running show. It also restores the previous dual-screen/fullscreen display state.
q or Escape: quit slide show.

Because the slide show runs separately, quitting it should not close or crash the main GUI.

Music playlists and directives

A playlist is a plain text file. Blank lines are ignored, paths are relative to the project's audio directory, and a line such as $MORNING labels the next audio file. Several labels may precede one file. Labels are case-insensitive; ambiguous extensionless names are skipped with a warning. Subfolders that directly contain audio are albums and receive an $ALB_... label when a playlist is created.

Add a standalone line such as #MUSIC: #JUMP $MORNING to the control file. Entries are CSV-style comma-separated; quote a pathname containing commas. Available commands are:

#PLAY: $A, $B - $D, "Song.mp3": temporarily play a finite mixed selection, then resume the interrupted playlist title at its saved position.
#JUMP $LABEL: discard a queue or loop and continue from the label.
#ON / #OFF: open or close the control-file audio gate.
#CONTINUE: cancel the active queue or loop without a hard cut.
#LOOPLINE: repeat labels/files later on the same line.
#LOOPONE: repeat the current or most recently played title.
#LOOPRANGE $A $B: repeat the inclusive playlist range.
#LOOPALBUM, $LABEL: repeat the target's album; without a target it uses the next album after the current position.
#LOOPALL: repeat the complete playlist.
#VOLUME+, #VOLUME-, or #VOLUME N: change the internal level from 0–9.

Targets, jumps, continue, and loop commands replace the active transport mode; gate and volume commands do not. A valid target opens the control gate. A manual a toggle to Audio Off always has priority, so no control-file command can restart audio until a is pressed again. The crossfade duration is set in Settings > Audio. Missing labels or files warn and leave playback running.

The time-lapse uses recorded GPX point times where available. Gaps in a partly timed track are estimated along travelled distance. A completely untimed track uses a relative distance-based timeline and the configured fallback walking speed; no artificial calendar date is created. Its map, elevation profile, distance, PDF output, and moving marker remain available, but its clock and date are omitted. Photos cannot be assigned to that track by exposure time and missing photo GPS cannot be inferred until the user supplies and saves a track start time in the GPX Editor. Creating or playing a time-lapse does not change the GPX file.

The position marker normally continues moving while a photo or video is shown. If it reaches the scheduled position of another medium before the current one has received its full display time, the marker waits at that position. The next medium then starts there after the previous one has finished. If the marker has already reached the final track time but later-dated media remain in the stage, the marker stays at the endpoint while the analog clock advances to the capture time and date of each displayed medium.

Adjacent-day sections are static in Time-Lapse mode. The related stage map is shown first with Day before or Day after in the second header line, where the normal track length and duration would appear. If the clock is visible, media-only stage headers also omit their separate date line because the clock already shows it. Framed media then appears in the available map corners. No pilgrim, arrow, or travelled-distance figures are added to this special section. A media GPS position is still marked when available, and the overview window continues to highlight the associated route. These sections do not count as extra travelled stages.

Standalone GPX Editor App

The DMG also contains myCamino GPX Editor.app. Start it by clicking the myCamino GPX Editor icon in Applications. This is the same GPX editor that opens from Add & Edit Tracks, but it can also be launched directly for GPX work that is not part of a slide-show project. Its gear button edits GPX processing, PDF export, and map-service settings. Standalone settings are kept for future sessions; when opened from an Adventure, they are auto-saved in that Adventure instead.

In the main track table, right-click one selected track or a multiple selection to inspect, plot, sort, duplicate, move, show/hide, join, or delete it. A right-click on an unselected row first selects only that track. Sort Selected Tracks… lets you choose a metric and direction while leaving every unselected row in place. Duplicated tracks are inserted together after the last selected row and receive unique copy names. Every ordering, visibility, duplication, join, and deletion operation can be undone with the editor's Undo command.

Renumber Tracks stores the current row order as persistent track numbers. You can therefore arrange tracks manually, renumber them, temporarily sort by another column, and later sort by Track Number to restore the recorded order. Hidden tracks remain part of that order, but appear gray and are not included in the bold summary row's visible-track count. If existing generated maps match by track fingerprint, myCamino relinks their numbered filenames and metadata without downloading tiles or rendering the images again.

What Files Are in a Finished Project Directory

A typical finished adventure directory contains:

<projectname>.adv: saved adventure settings.
<projectname>.gpx: active combined GPX track file.
photos and videos copied into the project directory.
<mediafile>.json: media sidecar metadata; the full media filename remains part of the sidecar name, for example IMG_4104.mov.json.
<projectname>.lst: intermediate list.
<projectname>-sorted.lst: final slide-show control file.
trackimages/: map images and their metadata.

Inside trackimages/:

<projectname>.png: overview map.
<projectname>.json: overview sidecar.
<projectname>-summary.json: track summary.
0001_...png, 0002_...png, etc.: track maps.
matching .json sidecars for track maps.

Current map sidecars also identify whether the PNG is a background-only map and contain the route or ordered media positions used for dynamic drawing. For a media-only Adventure, the same folder contains one date map per #MediaMap: section; a GPX summary file is not required.

Historical weather

Select Add historical weather in Media to enrich valid media sidecars from Open-Meteo. This is optional because the request sends the media coordinate and exposure time to an external service. The free endpoint is limited to non-commercial use and needs no account or API key. Customer access requires an Open-Meteo account and suitable paid plan; its API key is stored in macOS Keychain rather than in the Adventure.

Weather retrieval is a separate Adventure Processing phase. Current weather is reused, nearby media are grouped, and missing weather does not cause EXIF metadata or place names to be recalculated. The slideshow can show a condition icon and up to two selected values beside the speedometer. During Time-Lapse, the latest reached weather remains visible for up to one hour of track/media time. Weather data is an historical model estimate, not a camera measurement.

Weather data: Open-Meteo, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Troubleshooting

If the GPX section says no GPX file is available, choose or create a GPX file first, or select Journey source: Media locations when the Adventure has no measured GPX track.
If maps are missing or outdated, use Generate and Update Maps. Missing or stale stages are preselected.
If the Slide Show Control File status says its references need updating, use Update Control File. If it instead says maps need regeneration, run Generate and Update Maps first and then Update Control File.
If the control file cannot be created with tracks, check that trackimages/<projectname>-summary.json exists.
If media have GPS metadata but no place names, use Update Metadata with Add place names selected.
If the media browser reports Missing or Invalid metadata, select the files in Update Control File or use Update Metadata; place-name extraction does not repair missing media metadata by itself.
If the slide show does not start, check that the control file and trackimages/ directory both exist.