Transferring to NAV - Track to Route with options

It looks like a decision and a conclusion have been reached.

The best way to learn is to use all the Garmin software and the device together on real jaunts, as you’ll very quickly see whether the device is working as you expect it to. Above all, keep it simple. Once you have the simple things worked out and the device working reliably every time, then you can start to explore all its other capabilities, up to and including using imported tracks created in third party software. Why start with the simplest things first? Because you’ll then know how it should work. More importantly, if it’s not working as it should, you’ll probably be able to fix it and / or at least be able to work around the problem.

Above all, stop worrying about making mistakes when leading your mates. Of course you want it to go well; by keeping it simple it can and will. If it goes wrong, then at least you have tried whilst they just trogged along behind you. If you get really stuck:

1. Stop the route

2. Simply ask the device to take you to your destination, no matter if it is one mile or 200 miles away. In reality this is exactly what you requested the device to do in your short journeys in your opening post. The device will give you a route, creating it according to the preferences you have set. It might not be exactly along the roads you had hoped to use but it will get you to where you want to get to, no matter how many wrong turns you then take.

Get used to using the device without sound, not least as if your headset fails you’ll not be left floundering. The great thing is that you’ll then learn that the voice instructions are not given every 10 yards and that they are often miles apart. If you know that your next instruction is not for say five miles you don’t need to look at the screen again for at least four and a half miles. Once you have this cracked, you’ll find that you start to think for yourself. You’ll spot in advance where the route offered up cuts a corner by taking a stupid goat track for two hundred yards, when the sensible thing is to stay on the proper road you are on for three hundred yards, not cutting the corner, thereby avoiding the goats entirely. In short, you’ll be cleverer than the machine *.

Similarly, you'll very quickly get used to reading road signs again. If the GPS instruction is to take the third exit at a roundabout, look at the road sign as you approach the roundabout. It will show you where the third exit is. More importantly, it will probably show you the name of a town, very often the road number and whether it’s a narrow road, a much wider road or the same width of carriageway as you are on at the moment. If it’s going to be wide, you may well be able to hoon off the roundabout, murdering the lorry that’s delayed you. If it’s narrow you might need to be patient for bit longer. Much of that information will probably be repeated on the sign at the exit, which you’ll be able to see as you round the roundabout. Use that information again to know that it’s the correct exit and ride with confidence.... your sat nav is now all but redundant, maybe for another five or more miles.



* When you create a route or import a track into BaseCamp or Mapsource on your computer it’s a good idea to zoom in on it a bit. Then, very simply, drag the map along watching where the route goes. You can often spot where the software has taken you down a goat track or routed you through a town or village when the sensible thing is probably to miss it out. Drag your route and correct it. Then, when you are happy, send it to your device. When it’s in your device, fire it up and make sure it’s the same - or near enough - as the route you have created on your PC. If it’s not, work out why and correct it. Better to take five minutes now than 30 minutes in the rain or broiling sun, when you have no idea where you are.

Sometimes, especially when using tracks from websites, you can spot where the bod made a mistake and backtracked or obviously just went into a town to have a coffee or meet his mum. You can correct his little excursions and then not find yourself for some unexplicable reason outside his mum’s front door.
 
This is what I'm trying to do but as the next screenshot shows, If I'm going to get it wrong I can do a monumental job (purple plan, vs actual)

In that example, you could do two very simple things:

1. Ask BaseCamp to convert the track into a route. This is it will do. Then zoom in and make sure the magenta line follows the track. It sometimes helps to change the track colour from grey. If it does, job done. If it doesn’t drag the magenta line so that it does. But, take a little care. Sometimes the track might follow a road that isn’t on the Garmin map or that Garmin thinks is one way or some such. If Garmin does it won’t route you along it. You can sometimes force it to by dragging it in tiny increments (a useful trick to learn as you can force a route to go around some very sharp bends, that the software otherwise sees as impossible or a U-turn, which you may have set your preferences to avoid) or sometimes it’s better just to accept that the Garmin route just won’t follow the track for that little bit.

Or...

2. Just drag the magenta line so that it sits on top of the grey track. This requires no conversion at all.

There is a bit of a knack to dragging (sometimes linked to routing preferences set, which is why I turn all mine off) but you’ll get the hang of it, I promise. Not least, you’ll find a way that works reliably for YOU, giving YOU results that YOU understand and can work with reliably, miles from home. That’s the important thing, they are all personal computers.... what suits you, may well be madness to someone else but hey, who cares. That being said, always learn the ‘best practice’ basics first and then and only then, try something new. You can’t break it.
 
I would add to all the sage advice given above that I prefer to use car rather than motorcycle mode when planning routes in Basecamp and on the Nav V. I find the routes more understandable (i.e. they fit better with my thought processes, such as they are).
 
If you are using my-route app, then this does have a habbit of doing it as the crow flies.

This is the problem solved:



Straight lines in Garmin


It seems that Garmin sometimes has difficulties with calculating GPX routes in which only soft route points have been placed.
This problem does not only appear when using MyRoute-app connector, this can also happen if you want do copy a GPX file of your choice straight off the internet onto your Garmin.


Try the following:

Create the route using the Here map in MyRoute-app and make sure route points are properly placed on the streets.

Don’t put the beginning point and the ending point too close to each other.

In the connector, choose Garmin new (GPX 1.1).

Open the route in the 'Travel planner' as soon as you have GPS signal.

Check the settings to verify that the navigation mode is not set as 'Off-road'.

Still always straight lines? Then go to settings and change the route preference, for example, 'avoid motorways' and the Garmin will work out the route at once. Afterwards, you can then return to the desired route preference. When you are working out your own route, we recommend using the ‘fastest route' setting.

If your Garmin can navigate through a track, this should be the preference.

For the newer Garmins, this works as follows:

Check 'Settings' > 'Navigation' > to verify that recalculating is off.

Go to 'Apps'.

Choose 'Tracks'.

Select the 'track' of your choice.

Click on the 'wrench' on the top left.

Check 'Show on map'.

Now, check 'Convert to trip'.

Choose 'Beginning to end'.

You can now modify the name if you wish to.

Click on 'OK' below on the right side.

Garmin will calculate the route and save it in the 'Travel planner'.

Go to 'Apps' and then to 'Travel planner'.

Select the converted track and then click on 'Go!'.

Select 'Start' in the following screen.
Garmin will now calculate the route.


Still straight lines?
Then go to settings and change the route preference, for example, 'avoid motorways' and the Garmin will work out the route at once.
Afterwards, you can then return to the desired route preference.
When you are working out your own route, we recommend using the ‘fastest route' setting.
 
This is exactly how I had used MRA. It’s good to see the process listed again as it confirms that I am doing things correctly and acts as a datum point. From there it makes it much easier to evaluate where the gremlin is introduced rather than evaluating the entire process. I’m 100% sure that my problem is in the final stages when selecting and initiating the route on the NAV.

The videos posted were very helpful, particularly 5 and 6 where I might have been inclined to think I’d stuffed the route but the information gives me the confidence to take the right corrective action.

When I get chance I have a little route around home with a few alternative paths that I can use to test and break the process to have a better understanding of the route behaviour.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have copied post #24 into the ‘Other non-Garmin’ section, where I’ll make it a sticky.

Richard
 
For more complex routes created in Basecamp I tend not to let the Nav 5 do an auto recalcuate if I miss a turn. I just zoom out and work my own way back onto route. This seems to prevent any foul ups if the settings between Basecamp and the Nav 5 aren't identical. I appreciate it's only a workaround for my own stupidity but works for me :D

Also agree with not using the voice prompts, can't listen to two women giving directions at the same time, especially when the one tapping my shoulder starts arguing with the other one :blast
 
I loaded up a number of routes from MRA and BC. A few trips around the block I can report positively.

(Prerequisite - all settings in sync, auto recalc off on device and same map selected)

Some routes had a track, others didn’t. The tracks were useless as converting to trip on the NAV removed the shaping points. They would only have been of use if they had waypoints.

The First BC route simply took me from start to finish but followed shaping points. Start and finish were announced. All other points were followed but silent. Voice instructions were given at every turn and junction.

The second BC route had a disposable section with shaping points. I rode around it and it automatically picked up on the next point of the route giving me instructions and not complaining that I’d missed a section.

The MRA route was the same as the BC first route. It came with a track (which was useless as it only transferred as a start and finish) but the route had straight lines. As suggested I changed avoid preferences but it didn’t recalculate. I changed the route preference on the overview of the route from fastest to curvy (saving) and then changed it back. This forced a recalculation and the straight lines confirmed to the map.

I’m of the opinion now that one of the initial things that caused the confusion was that I had initially selected a track (which calculated on transfer to planner) with only A-B instructions but subsequently on the next part of my journey selected a trip from MRA that had yet to be calculated.

Going forward I’m going to plan my initial routes on MRA because of the ease of interface, ability to automatically add shaping points along the way and POI provided by Google then simply transfer to BC, adjusting the waypoints and shaping points as desired, then do a final recalculation in BC before transfer to device.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Going forward I’m going to plan my initial routes on MRA because of the ease of interface, ability to automatically add shaping points along the way and POI provided by Google then simply transfer to BC, adjusting the waypoints and shaping points as desired, then do a final recalculation in BC before transfer to device.

An excellent decision.

Enjoy your Nav V, creating and running routes / tracks and not least, your holiday.

:thumb2

I have moved this thread to the BaseCamp section (though it could just as easily have gone in the ‘Other software’ part) as it’s more to do with the use of mixed software / route and track creation, than anything peculiar to the Nav V itself. It’s all about learning, either way.

Richard
 


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