Am I Doing It right?

[Simmo]

I’ve been planning a route up from Santander to Cherbourg on another thread on here.
I’ve been using BaseCamp for the first time as I’ve bought a Zumo 390LM.
The first thing I did was load the latest maps onto my Zumo & then onto my Macbook.
Then I went into routing preferences on both the Zumo & the Mac & put the calculation mode to curvy roads (not really sure if this does anything). Then the only road type avoidance I ticked was un paved road. Then I set the feature type avoidances to Toll roads & narrow trails.
I then set up a file for the trip in which I have saved each days route separately. I have then set up another file with all of the data (start point, finish point & way points) for each of the days in separate days lists.
Then I opened the first day & put my start point & end point in the bottom left window by clicking once on the map & searching & saving them as a waypoint. I then looked at the route that I had planned on paper maps & chose via points, I put these after towns that I wanted to go through (a tip I found on YouTube). I relabelled as I created them with a prefix of Waypoint 1, waypoint 2 etc, (by doing this I could select them all & drag them into the route at the same time & they’d be in the right order)
Then when I thought I’d got what I wanted I clicked on the first point (in the bottom left hand corner) & right clicked & picked create a route from the waypoint, this then opened a box which I could then drag my destination to. I then dragged the waypoints into the middle of the route.
The route then came up & looked something like I wanted.
Should I be silencing my waypoints so that they don’t alarm on arrival? Also if I miss a waypoint would the route make me go back to it?
I was going to use MotoGoLoco but it is very basic compared to BaseCamp & you have to change the features of the waypoints when you have uploaded the route onto your sat nav (I believe).
I then created each further days of my trip.
Am I doing it right?

 

[haditlowered]

I’ve been planning a route up from Santander to Cherbourg on another thread on here.
I’ve been using BaseCamp for the first time as I’ve bought a Zumo 390LM.
The first thing I did was load the latest maps onto my Zumo & then onto my Macbook.
I relabelled as I created them with a prefix of Waypoint 1, waypoint 2 etc, (by doing this I could select them all & drag them into the route at the same time & they’d be in the right order)
Then when I thought I’d got what I wanted I clicked on the first point (in the bottom left hand corner) & right clicked & picked create a route from the waypoint, this then opened a box which I could then drag my destination to. I then dragged the waypoints into the middle of the route.
The route then came up & looked something like I wanted.



I was going to use MotoGoLoco but it is very basic compared to BaseCamp & you have to change the features of the waypoints when you have uploaded the route onto your sat nav (I believe).
I then created each further days of my trip.
Am I doing it right?

You can change the waypoints in Motogoloco before you upload to the sat nav and save as Fuel, Hotel, POI, etc etc and you can drag and drop the route to include a road you want to travel on as a "via point" - i tried Basecamp for one route but changed to Motogoloco i find it so much easier to use - and uploading is one click and it's job done!!, i planned a route through the Alps and wanted to include all the petrol stations on the way (GS tank not holding a lot of fuel) and that was easy on Motogoloco... but that said if you have planned your route, and your happy with it, if you've transferred it to the sat nav and can access it then thats fine, each to his own, but i cant get on with basecamp.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?cli...HwZuVfDzDI-KOonlgOgM#rls=en&q=basecamp+ukgser

 

[Tomcat]

I’ve been planning a route up from Santander to Cherbourg on another thread on here.
I’ve been using BaseCamp for the first time as I’ve bought a Zumo 390LM.
The first thing I did was load the latest maps onto my Zumo & then onto my Macbook.
Then I went into routing preferences on both the Zumo & the Mac & put the calculation mode to curvy roads (not really sure if this does anything).
Strongly suggest you set this to Fastest in Basecamp and on the Zumo, otherwise you may find differences in your planned route on the PC and the route in the Zumo.

Then the only road type avoidance I ticked was un paved road. Then I set the feature type avoidances to Toll roads & narrow trails.
I then set up a file for the trip in which I have saved each days route separately. I have then set up another file with all of the data (start point, finish point & way points) for each of the days in separate days lists.
Then I opened the first day & put my start point & end point in the bottom left window by clicking once on the map & searching & saving them as a waypoint. I then looked at the route that I had planned on paper maps & chose via points, I put these after towns that I wanted to go through (a tip I found on YouTube). I relabelled as I created them with a prefix of Waypoint 1, waypoint 2 etc, (by doing this I could select them all & drag them into the route at the same time & they’d be in the right order)

Don't understand quite why you've created waypoints to use as viapoints/shaping points. Your Zumo will take you to every waypoint, including the times when you deliberately miss one. Shaping points are treated differently - you can choose not to go via a shaping point and the Zumo will not take you back to one you've passed by and missed. My way to create a route is to create start and end waypoints, highlight start and end point in the list (CTRL-L click), R-click on the highlight 'Create route from selected points'. Open the route properties, make sure the start point is the first one - use the icons to shift the order of waypoints. The route will be the fastest (you've set fastest in your preferences). To shape the route onto the roads you want, make the route active (click on its name in the LH panel), select the Hand icon to drag the map around, then move the hand over the active route. Hold down the ALT key and L-click on the route and you'll get a black 'rubber band'. Drag this onto the road you want - as you say, choose a road heading out of town. Do this until you're happy with the route. Use the keyboard + and - keys to zoom in and out, and use the hand to scroll the map around. Take care not to place viapoints on the wrong carriageway of m-ways and dual carriageways! Using this method there is no need to create a list of waypoints that you use only to shape the route - you create them automatically as you shape the route. Finally, check the route properties and make sure that all points in between your start and end are unannounced. To change, R-click on the point, select 'make into shaping point' from the menu.


Then when I thought I’d got what I wanted I clicked on the first point (in the bottom left hand corner) & right clicked & picked create a route from the waypoint, this then opened a box which I could then drag my destination to. I then dragged the waypoints into the middle of the route.
The route then came up & looked something like I wanted.
Should I be silencing my waypoints so that they don’t alarm on arrival? Also if I miss a waypoint would the route make me go back to it?
I was going to use MotoGoLoco but it is very basic compared to BaseCamp & you have to change the features of the waypoints when you have uploaded the route onto your sat nav (I believe).
I then created each further days of my trip.

Makes good sense to have separate routes for each day, and perhaps also a choice of routes if you find yourself running late. You can create multiple routes in one 'list'. I tend to create a single list per trip with multiple routes in it. I use folders for countries. Note that you can easily export Lists (routes) in GPX format by highlighting the list name, File, Export. Useful if you're sharing your routes.
Am I doing it right?

Hope this helps

 

[RedRick Esq.]

If you do this it will be fine

Open basecamp on your mac
click on basecamp on the top menu bar and open preferences
now click on the tool called transfer and tick the strip out shaping points

I always tick the next box as well so i have 2 routes one with points and one without (just in case )

Then click match the route to map on device and the job as they say is a good one !

 

[Simmo]

Thanks for your comments Tomcat, I did waypoints just because I didn’t know what else to do if I’m honest! So if I change the priorities of the waypoints to make them shaping points will it not make me have to go past them?
Hi redrick, thanks for your comments I will try this.

 

[Tomcat]

Thanks for your comments Tomcat, I did waypoints just because I didn’t know what else to do if I’m honest! So if I change the priorities of the waypoints to make them shaping points will it not make me have to go past them?

Waypoints should be the points you really do intend to stop at, and when you run the route it will show time and distance to the next waypoint. With lots of waypoints you'll jump from waypoint to waypoint. If you change you mind about passing (exactly through) a waypoint that Zumo will try to take you back to the missed point. 'Shaping points' (aka 'via points') are only there to shape the route - to pin it to specific roads you want to ride. If you happen to miss a shaping point (eg a road is closed and you make a diversion) then the Zumo won't try to take you back to the missed point once you have ridden beyond it in the direction of your end point. Shaping points don't get announced, unlike waypoints.

Shaping points are a brilliant concept, and probably came about from Garmin's nautical and aero GPS units, where you'd want to head in a specific direction but would not necessarily fly/sail over a specific lat/long point that is used to set the direction. For me, shaping points are the key feature that set Garmin's Zumo satnavs apart from all the others in the market.

 

[Simmo]

Thanks again Tomcat so if I right click the waypoints & change them to not alert on arrival will this make them in affect shaping points?

 

[Wapping]

Thanks again Tomcat so if I right click the waypoints & change them to not alert on arrival will this make them in affect shaping points?

That's exactly right.

Lots of good advice in this thread, nicely broken up and well presented. If nothing else, the whole thread proves that the software does work and that a fellow (forgive me if I'm wrong) can learn how to work it.... If they are prepared to make an effort. That they can also learn to plot and plan their own holidays (see OP's other thread) is of course a bonus, too.

I was never a big fan of waypoints (points you must pass through) always much preferring via points or shaping points, not least as I always create my own routes, rather than simply asking the software to take me from A to B along roads of its choosing. But, with the advances of the BaseCamp software and the latest Garmin devices, I can see how and why waypoints may have some value if used properly within a route.


PS This is still one of the best sources of day-to-day help with BaseCamp:

https://garminbasecamp.wikispaces.com

Often the answer to any question can be found by simply typing the enquiry into Google. For example: 'Join tracks in Basecamp Garmin' will turn up lots of sites dealing with the task of joining tracks together, going on into how to edit them and ultimately save them as a route. The answer, as they say, is always out there. The great thing is that you really cannot break it, so play around and learn.

PPS Tomcat is spot on with his summation of Garmin's shaping points and their creation in navigation in places where there are no roads. The same of course is true of waypoints. These are if you like, electronic beacons or marker buoys in a featureless landscape. They probably came to electronic life in ocean racing, giving sailors points they must pass through if they are to stay on course and / or not to cheat by cutting corners. As you cannot place beacons in the middle of the Pacific very easily and as one stretch of sandy desert looks much like another, having a set electronic marker really is very handy. In the last war, Master Bombers laid waypoints - fires of different colours burning on the ground or very bright parachute flares in the air - indicating turning or bombing points; all so much easier if you can do it electronically and without being shot at in the dark today.

The whole history of navigation, from the earliest days of using the sun, a piece of metal to point north, the stars, through the creation of maps, the cracking of the very difficult problem of finding longitude (and the need for very accurate clocks), radio waves and radar in the last war, right up to today's satellites communicating with a device - that you can now hold in the palm of your hand and becoming increasingly cheap - holding millions of miles of very detailed mapping for entire continents is one of man's greatest triumphs. Even so, you sometimes still need a pencil and a sheet of paper.... Never set off without them.

 

[Simmo]

Yes Wapping it has hopefully taught me the basics of BaseCamp & how to plan routes. The proof will be next week when it is used in anger! Thanks to everyone who has taken their time to help me in this & my other thread.

 

[Wapping]

Excellent.

Let us know how (and where) your endeavours take you, please.

 

[gerarddwatts]

'endevour'??

 

[Andy63]

What I find confusing with Garmin is waypoint and shaping point, To me you have a start point and a destination, and waypoints are points along the way (way point) It seems to me that its only recently the new Garmin devices 390 and 590 don't let you past a waypoint if you don't go over it exactly, my 550 used to do it but after a few attempts gave up and sent you to the next along the route. I cant understand why the new devices are different. To me its a software error and Garmin should fix

I also own a boat and my marine Garmin lets you plant waypoints, it will direct you to the waypoint and you don't have to pass directly over it, once it realises you are sufficiently past it directs to the next. This is the expected functionality.

I don't set a waypoint with the idea I will stop there its an easier method to build a route especially over some distance (50 - 100 miles) I understand with the software you have to change them to shaping nodes but that is a bind.
Also trying to build a route just using shaping nodes can be tricky especially over distance as without a waypoint put in as reference you can lose where you are intending to go.