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Add custom markers, trails and boundaries

Mark a summit you climbed, a cabin, or the route you hiked. The Custom data view engraves your own points and paths, imported from a GPS file or entered by latitude and longitude.

What you need

Coordinates in decimal degrees, such as 42.9446, -122.1090. Latitudes south of the equator and longitudes west of Greenwich are negative. You can copy coordinates from most online maps, or from a GPS track exported by your hiking app.

Import a GPS track or map file

Select Import GPX, KML or GeoJSON under Import in the Custom data view and choose a file exported from your hiking app, GPS watch, Google Earth or a mapping tool (up to 20 MB). TopoStack adds everything it finds in one step, and Undo removes the whole import:

  • GPX tracks and routes, KML line strings and Google Earth tracks, and GeoJSON lines become Trails. Each GPX track segment becomes its own path.
  • KML and GeoJSON polygon outlines become boundaries. Holes inside a polygon are left out.
  • GPX waypoints and KML or GeoJSON points become Pin markers; change the symbol afterwards if you like.

Long recordings are simplified to fit the point limits below, keeping the corners and bends that define the route's shape. The status line says when a file was simplified, when features did not fit, and when any lie outside the framed area. KMZ archives are not read directly; open them in Google Earth and save as KML first.

1. Add a marker

  1. Open the Custom data view beside Map and 3D stack, then open Markers. The custom data overview explains how its sections fit together.
  2. Select Place on map and click where the marker belongs, or select Add marker and enter its Latitude and Longitude.
  3. Give it a name if you like, by typing over the number at the top of its card. Names are for finding a marker again in a long list; nothing is engraved from them.
  4. Choose a symbol: Pin, Circle, Triangle, Star or Cross, or one of your own icons.

Markers are engraved about 8 mm across. Lines beneath a marker are cleared for about 1.2 mm around it so the symbol stays readable. In layered output, a marker is engraved on the highest sheet that covers its location, so it appears on the visible surface after assembly.

Set each marker’s Size in your selected units (1–200 mm; default 8 mm). On a layered map, the symbol spans the exposed faces of the stack so upper sheets do not cover it.

Use your own icon

Select Use an SVG for this marker on a marker card and choose an SVG file (up to 1 MB). The icon joins the symbol choices for every marker in the project, and an icon set such as Lucide or a logo exported from a drawing app both work:

  • Filled shapes are engraved as they are drawn, holes included. Strokes are turned into outlines at their drawn width, so line icons engrave as solid lines.
  • White paint cuts through what lies beneath it, so a white detail on a dark shape becomes a gap. Other colours, gradients and patterns all engrave as solid.
  • Text, embedded images, clipping paths and masks are left out; the status line says when something was. Convert text to outlines before uploading.

An icon is sized by its longer side, like the built-in symbols. Under Icons, choose Base to rest the icon's lowest point on the marker's position, as a pin's tip does, or Center to centre it there. Removing an icon turns the markers that used it into pins. Keep detail coarser than your laser can draw: at an 8 mm marker, a gap narrower than a few tenths of a millimetre fills in.

To put a logo or artwork on the piece itself rather than at a place on the map, see custom graphics.

2. Add a trail or boundary

  1. Open Trails & boundaries and select Draw on map, then click along the route. The next stretch follows your cursor. Double-click or press Enter to finish it as a Trail, or click the first point again to close the shape into a Boundary.
  2. Or select Add path and type the Latitude and Longitude of each point along the route, in order. Select Add point for each further point; a path needs at least two.
  3. Switch any path between Trail and Boundary, and name it the same way you name a marker.

Trails use the trail width and Trail pattern set under Trails in the Features panel; boundaries use the boundary width and are dashed. Custom paths are engraved even when the built-in Trails or State / province boundaries are turned off, so you can show only your own route.

3. Check the result

Custom data updates the preview without regenerating terrain. Inspect it at your finished size:

  • Markers and path sections outside the framed area stay saved in the project but are not engraved.
  • Paths follow straight lines between points, so add more points where a route curves.
  • Markers close together, or near labels and the north arrow, can crowd each other.

Limits

  • Up to 250 markers and 250 paths per project.
  • Up to 2,000 points in one path, and 10,000 path points in total.
  • Up to 24 uploaded icons per project. Detailed icons are simplified to 800 points each.

Imported tracks are simplified automatically to stay within these limits.

Keeping your custom data

Markers, paths and uploaded icons are saved with the project in this browser and included in exported project settings and share links. Only the icon's shape is kept, never the SVG file itself. They are not included in usage events or in optional feedback diagnostics.

Next steps

Adjust line widths in map details and linework, then generate and export with the layered map guide or the engraving guide.

Create a topographic map