Measure only edges that exist
Distance is the sum of mean-radius spherical distances between consecutive fixes within each segment. Separate segments contribute no bridging distance. That makes the calculation reproducible from the edited file, but it can differ from an ellipsoidal geodesic, a watch’s filtered total or an application’s road-matched estimate.
Time analysis requires timestamps with an explicit timezone. A local timestamp without an offset remains in GPX but is not assigned a guessed timezone. Positive adjacent time intervals contribute to timed distance and duration. Equal or reversed timestamps are reported separately, and unusually fast edges are review signals rather than automatic proof of GPS corruption.
Keep missing elevation visibly missing
The workbench does not query terrain data or fill empty altitude fields. Raw ascent and descent use differences between adjacent supplied elevation samples, and the profile line breaks where elevation is missing or a new segment starts. GPS or barometer noise can therefore produce larger raw totals than a smoothed fitness summary.
A simplification or point deletion can alter those totals because it removes measured samples. The retained coordinates and values remain original observations; the tool does not resample them. Compare the before/after point and distance counts in the change report and keep more detail when sensor analysis matters more than a smaller route file.
Choose an export with the right representation
GPX 1.1 output keeps supported names, coordinates, time, elevation and retained foreign-namespace extensions. KML writes each existing segment separately and uses longitude before latitude. If a segment has incomplete elevation, its KML geometry omits altitude rather than filling unknown heights with zero. Per-fix times and sensor extensions are not mapped into KML.
CSV provides one row per retained fix or waypoint, including original coordinate text and optional point extension JSON. Empty fields stay empty. Formula-like names receive spreadsheet protection while validated coordinate numbers remain unchanged. The report records these choices without embedding removed endpoint coordinates. A successful export is a file conversion result, not confirmation that every destination application will interpret all fields identically.