August 13, 2026

The QGIS program - Garmin data

I have several GPS equipped Garmin devices. These devices can track my location as I hike and yield data files that I can download.

GPX files

These are easy. QGIS has native support for these, so it is as simmple as dragging one to the Layers panel. The data displays as points, and I would like to see it displayed as a path or polygon.

Go to Processing -- Toolbox -- Vector creation -- Points to path

You get a dialog with many options. I ignore all these and just type run -- and it works. You get a new layer named "Paths" which is nice because now you can turn off display of the layer with points and just see the path if you like.

FIT files

This is what my Garmin 66i saves. There is a plugin called FITloader to support these. I go to the Plugin installer and search for Fit and there it is. I select it and click "install". It has a dependency on python-fitparse, and it says I need to fix this manually.

It is always unclear to me whether I should run pip as root or as myself. I run it as root and get scolded for doing so, but it works. 

su
pip install fitparse
I repeat this as user "tom" and it tells me: 
Requirement already satisfied: fitparse in /usr/local/lib/python3.14/site-packages (1.2.0)
Now I see it in my installed plugins, but how do I use it? I go to "installed plugins" and click the checkbox next to fitloader. Now it appears in the plugin menu when I click on "Plugins". I now select that and it offers me one option, "load FIT activity". When I select that I get a file browser. I go to /Projects/Garmin/Files/Activities where I have a collection of almost all of my "fit" files thus far. At random, I select 2022-02-18 xxx.fit and get some weird error: 
Failed to load FIT file: unsupported operand type(s) for *: 'NoneType' and 'int'
I try another, namely 2021-06-03 and get a nice trail of points in a layer "FIT Activity Points". I drag in my geolocated topo map for this area and everything looks just right, this was a hike to Rogers Rock.
Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Geology Info / tom@mmto.org