City Nav/Map source question

[Gs Craig]

I'm going for mega stupid points with this question,

I have a Zumo 500 which has Euro maps on a disc.
If i load the western Europe maps on to a 4gb sd card will i be able just to plan a route on my sat nav from my home to say Austria or will i need to do it on my pc?

Thanks

 

[Allan Davies]

You will find it very time consuming trying to do a route on your Zumo 500 if not frustrating your best bet is to load the mapsource onto your computor and plan you route on that. When you have finished you route, high light your route then right click on the route and click 'select maps around route' this will give you all the roads etc around the route you are doing, allowing you to do a bit of exploring/route changes at will. You then load your route to the Zumo and enjoy.As a back up put the whole of Europe onto your SD card.

 

[Gs Craig]

You will find it very time consuming trying to do a route on your Zumo 500 if not frustrating

Thanks for the reply, So it can be done then?
Why would it be time consuming? would it not just be the same as planning a route to say Plymouth.

 

[Allan Davies]

More or less, but from Poole to Plymouth is only about 120 miles and only goes through one country and not a lot of options of different routes. Going from UK to Austria is a different ball game. The Zumo will take you the fastest route (as per the way you have set up your Zumo--avoidances etc-- via your options screen) So if you want to go via Germany B500 and then The Leche Valley in Austria taking in the best scenic roads (Warthe etc) then that will mean searching on your little Zumo screen the roads you want and that WILL BE ANNOYING and slow. Compare that to the mapsorce on your computor 15inch or so screen, no contest. More fun and alot less fiddley TA BOOT
Go on try it on the Zumo screen and then on the comp. (if your worried that the mapsource is a bit full on, well it is! Just have a play with all the icons etc and enjoy it, it takes time and the more you have a play the better it gets) Do a route you would normally do on a weekend ride on the Zumo and then see if you can do it better/faster/on B road and coastal roads instead, on the comp.

 

[Gs Craig]

Oh i see.
So for the trip down, load a nice route from the pc onto a SD card, will i be able to put a return route on to the same card or will it cancel the first route out?

 

[Andy_E]

Think you should be able to put the return journey as a separate route and select that when you come back.

Why not try it with a couple of UK routes? Admittedly they wouldn't be on the SD card but I can't see that making a difference.

 

[Allan Davies]

Oh i see.
So for the trip down, load a nice route from the pc onto a SD card, will i be able to put a return route on to the same card or will it cancel the first route out?

Sort of.... when you plan your route you can save it direct to your Zumo, once you have plugged the zumo into your comp that is! (tool bar ;send to device; looks like an old radio) do it that way and then on the side box to the right (see attached file), right click on your route then click copy route, once copied click on invert route (this will give you the excact same route back--but on the otherside of the road ) whilst right clicking the highlighted route, click on the option select maps around routes at the same time, then load it all on the zumo at the same time---takes ages-- BTW if you go into the 'Mapsource software and maps' on the GPS section there are really good guides and walkthroughs on thare. Me, I just played around with it as I don't do guides that well

 

[Gs Craig]

Thanks for the help.

I'll have a play, i think i'll load the route to and from the destination from my pc to a 2gb sd card.
Then load maps for western Europe onto the 4gb card so when i get to where ever i'm going i'll just swap cards over just to potter around.