Guys, I've just read this whole thread over, right from the top of page 1, and after thinking about the difficulties that folks have reported (that I personally have not encountered), I am wondering if perhaps people are not attempting to use the MapSource application in the simplest possible manner?
Here's how I do my route planning. Typically, I ride about 20,000 miles a year. This is divided up about equally (mileage-wise) between 3 to 5 day jaunts that are 1,500 or so miles total, and one huge summer tour that takes 4 to 6 weeks to complete and runs about 8,000 miles.
I start with Michelin maps, and I do all my planning on these, long before I even turn on the computer. Once I have a good idea of where I want to go (final destination), and where I want to pass through (interesting places on the way), I turn on the computer and do the following:
1) I create one route for each day. If it will be an exceptionally complex day - for example, riding mountain passes - I might create two routes, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. But, typically, one day = one route.
2) I begin by defining the start and end waypoint for that day, and then letting MapSource calculate the route for me. I'll do a little tiny bit of tweaking of the 'Routing Preferences' (EDIT menu, then PREFERENCES, then the ROUTING tab, then press the DRIVING SPEED button) to encourage MapSource to generate a route that conforms with the riding style I want to follow that day. For example, if it is a transit day - just hauling ass to get from A to B as fast as possible - then I change my 'Interstate Highways' riding speed from the default value of about 65 MPH up to the ridiculous value of 100 MPH, and set 'fastest route' as my routing criteria. This will ensure that MapSource will very heavily bias towards the motorways and A class roads. On the other hand, if I want to ride twisties and I don't want to see a single dual carriageway under any conditions, I will set my riding speed on 'Interstate Highways' to a ridiculously low value (e.g. 30 MPH), and continue to say I want the fastest route. This means that divided highways and controlled access highways are heavily discriminated against, unless there is no other way to cross a pass or valley, and the secondary roads (twisties) get used preferentially.
3) Next, I look at the route that MapSource generates, and I tweak it a little bit by using the 'rubber band' feature to pull the route through towns that I want to pass through. I don't bother with precision accuracy - for example, If I want to go from Newquay to Taunton by way of Barnstaple (in other words, follow the coastal road), I just drag the route line to Barnstaple and drop it there. If it then calculates the first half of the route the way I want it (Newqay to Barnstaple), but it sends me down A369 to Taunton, instead of along A39 (the coast road), I'll just drag the second half of the route to some dinky town that is slightly past halfway to Taunton on the A39. I don't care if it routes me right downtown in front of the post office or cenotaph or whatever the exact center of that city is - hell, I'll bypass the city when I get there, and as soon as I pass abeam the middle of it, my GPSR will recalculate the route to get me to my final destination of Taunton. What I am trying to say is this: DON'T try to map your route out with millimeter precision, otherwise, you'll waste time and probably go blind at the computer.
4) Once I have the route laid out, looking more or less the way I want it, I save that file (that window), and I upload it to the GPSR. I then open a NEW window (a new .gdb file) for the next day's route. This is so that I don't screw up how one route got calculated if I tweak the routing preference around when I calculate the next day's route.
5) If there are certain places that I really, really want to see in or near a town (for example, let's say there is a pole dancer of international repute performing at some sleazy dive along the way), then I'll look it up on the GPSR the day I am riding, using the 'find POI' feature. Or, I might look the POI up in MapSource, and save it to my GPSR as a stand-alone waypoint, and when I start to get close to it (say, within 20 miles), I'll just ask my GPSR to take me directly to that place. After I leave, I'll just re-activate my planned route. I might not be on it, but the GPSR will automatically provide me with guidance to re-intercept that route once I start riding.
Everyone approaches tasks in a different way, and everyone strategizes and plans in a different way. MapSource is a very powerful application, but as all of us know, it can be quite complex, if we dive into it too deeply. I try to do the job as simply as I can, and not spend more than 5 minutes (at the most!) generating a route that I will spend a whole day riding. If it takes more than 5 minutes to lay out the route, then I know I am being too granular in terms of what I am trying to define with MapSource.
Hope this gives you some food for thought.
Michael
Illustration 1 - How MapSource proposed the route from origin to destination.
Illustration 2 - showing the first 'tweak' I made, rubber-banding the route up to Barnstaple.
Illustration 3 - with one more tweak - pulling the route line to somewhere just past halfway to Taunton - I think I will get the results I want...
Illustration 4 - yep, that worked, here's the final route.
If I decide later I want to pass through Ilfracombe (dead north of Barnstaple) - heck, I'll turn left at the sign that says Ilfracombe,
and my GPSR will eventually figure out that I have decided to improvise along the way.