Route planning, what's best to use ?

[cecilthecat]

Hi,

I stopped touring about 6 years ago and used to plan all my routes on Basecamp and then transfer them to the GPS I was using at the time a Navigator 4. I'm now looking to go on some trips again and was wondering what the current best Software to use for route planning people are using, as I see references to many i.e MyRoute, calimoto, etc... what I am looking to do is to plan a route using smaller roads and then transfer the GPX file to my Nav 6 and let it guide me hopefully without it recalculating and choosing its own options, I used to force this by using many waypoints but not sure if there is a better way now ?

Open to all suggestions and help

Simon

 

[Big-G]

I still find Basecamp the best option for use with my navigator 6. I’ve tried others but they don’t use the same mapping as the unit so get some reroutes.

 

[wessie]

if you were happy to use Basecamp in the past then carry on using it. For those that spend the time getting up to speed with its little ways then it is a powerful tool. It will have the advantage of using the same maps as your Nav 6 and be able to speak directly to it.
I am assuming you still have a computer that will still run Basecamp. A Windows PC works best.

 

[cecilthecat]

Yes still have Basecamp running on a Mac, is there a good software that can create routes using customisable routing options that are suitable for Motorcycles that I can have create for example a scenic route with some good curvy roads etc.. and then import that to Basecamp and I seem to remember the option in Basecamp were a little limited ?

 

[wessie]

https://kurviger.de/en lets you set the degree of curvature. Just be aware, in a town, it might take you through a series of 90 degree bends on an industrial estate rather than go around the bypass

 

[Redboots]

https://kurviger.de/en lets you set the degree of curvature.

They have just released a better import as well: New route import

 

[Wapping]

MyRoute.

If you are comfortable with BaseCamp, you can certainly use MyRoute.

One clear advantage over BaseCamp, is that it is Cloud based, making you much less reliant on your home computer.

Not least, the MyRoute forum is very good.

 

[theoneandonly]

maps ...and a pencil work well

 

[G&T]

Basecamp....when you get it...you get it

 

[Wapping]

maps ...and a pencil work well

I’ll watch as you cram them into a GPS device.

 

[Hatcho]

Having just spent two weeks in Norway and letting Calimoto decide my route between my defined start and finish points, I'm very impressed. It routed me onto some lovely back roads that I otherwise would have missed.

The algorithm is not perfect, sometimes I'd be diverted off a main street only to return to it three bends later. But I'd never rely exclusively on any navigation app, you always need to employ common sense.

In terms of pre planning your route, the Calimoto user interface is most excellent. The website is very intuitive and easy to use. Even the phone app allows you to tweak things along the way.

Nav 6 is a dinosaur in comparison. It has only one job and it does it spectacularly badly compared to current alternatives such as MRA, Calimoto etc. I just use mine for speed and temp display now.

 

[Wapping]

Nav 6 is a dinosaur in comparison. It has only one job and it does it spectacularly badly

The Nav 6 (and other Garmin models) will run and display a bespoke route, incredibly well. That it ghosts and needs to be lobbed into Garmin’s bin, is another matter entirely.

 

[Hatcho]

The Nav 6 (and other Garmin models) will run and display a bespoke route, incredibly well. That it ghosts and needs to be lobbed into Garmin’s bin, is another matter entirely.

They certainly will. But the sheer number of opportunities for it to make unwanted decisions if you deviate at all is daunting. I know once the various user settings are correctly configured it will mostly behave as expected. But in my opinion, the Zumo 550 was a far more user friendly device. Just my 0.02c.

 

[Wapping]

I still find Basecamp the best option for use with my navigator 6. I’ve tried others but they don’t use the same mapping as the unit so get some reroutes.

MyRoute’s ‘Gold’ subscription package uses Here maps, as used by Garmin devices. The route you create in MyRoute will be replicated exactly on the Garmin device. How the device then functions if you go ‘Off route’ is another matter entirely.

 

[Wapping]

Here (previously owned by Nokia and branded ‘Navtec’) was sold, for several billion dollars, to a consortium of car manufacturers, apparently.

 

[Stelvioni]

MyRoute’s ‘Gold’ subscription package uses Here maps, as used by Garmin devices. The route you create in MyRoute will be replicated exactly on the Garmin device. How the device then functions if you go ‘Off route’ is another matter entirely.

I recently created daily routes for a Spain trio on the MyRoute gold package and loaded them onto my Garmin xt2. I was running the MyRoute app on my phone, so was hoping they'd do identical routing, but the Zumo completely ignored it every time and made up it's own routes to the ultimate destinations skipping waypoints etc. I am v tech minded, and I tweaked settings every day for the ten day trip including advice from similar posts on the MyRoute forums and nothing worked. Was not impressed.

 

[John Armstrong]

I recently created daily routes for a Spain trio on the MyRoute gold package and loaded them onto my Garmin xt2. I was running the MyRoute app on my phone, so was hoping they'd do identical routing, but the Zumo completely ignored it every time and made up it's own routes to the ultimate destinations skipping waypoints etc. I am v tech minded, and I tweaked settings every day for the ten day trip including advice from similar posts on the MyRoute forums and nothing worked. Was not impressed.

The routing algorithms in the XT2 (and XT as well) are different to the Basecamp / 595 and older GPS's. Well known is the faster roads being preferred to the fastest, that is, shortest time. So I add in extra waypoints and then convert the basecamp route into a track and download both to the XT2. having the track showing then lets you see when the XT2 has a problem. This needs collections setting up in the XT2 to give the results you want to see, which is a whole new "fun" game. Hopefully your phone app can also make the route a track.

 

[Mzokk]

I don't have experience of the XT2 only the XT. But there are several threads on the Zumo Forums regard XT2 behaviour in relation to the Tread app and it changing routes. An example below.

Tread Changes Exisiting Routes - Shaping Point Issues

I first tried Tread some time ago. When it sync'd, it seemed to change the routes that already existed on my XT2 so I removed Tread from my phone and went ba…

www.zumouserforums.co.uk

 

[Wapping]

Open to all suggestions and help

Have you come to any meaningful conclusion?

 

[cecilthecat]

Have you come to any meaningful conclusion?

I found creating a route in Kurviger first then exporting this out and opening in basecamp worked pretty well as long as the number of waypoints was kept fairly low. I then recalculated the route in Basecamp and pushed it to the Nav VI. I did also find on the trip just setting the nav to calculate a route to a city roughly 50 miles away generally on the route I wanted to take and then ride that until about 10 miles away then do the same to the next town/city and this worked pretty well.

I made it there and back so must have done something right