Useful things I have learned today using BaseCamp on a Mac

Excellent, Paul W has got it to work..... And has plotted a route to Tesco. He is indeed a true biker! :D

Zoot, is well on the way, too.

Drag and drop, as I am learning, works really well.
 
I had thought about removing the Tesco waypoint (riding what I ride) but decided to balls it out and see who spotted it - haha.
In reality we do go there, it is an easy place to stop for cheap fuel before getting on the Eurotunnel and if you are a cheapskate, you can 'shop' for some sandwiches to eat on the train too.

Good observation Mr Wapping
 
I have been known to use it myself.

Some people say it's madness as ALL supermarket fuel is crap, watered down turps. These same bods will not hesitate to fill up in a supermarket in France, for fear of never seeing England again.
 
Wapping said:
I have been known to use it myself.

Some people say it's madness as ALL supermarket fuel is crap, watered down turps. These same bods will not hesitate to fill up in a supermarket in France, for fear of never seeing England again.
Click to expand...

Go on admit it you've got the same waypoint but renamed it Waitrose.
 
Being new to garmin I started by planning a trip we did round Europe last year using Mapsource.But seeing as i decided to update maps on my device recently as another trip this year is on the cards i thought it would be a good idea to start using Basecamp, as I assume this will be the only software available eventually,and I have to say im getting better the more i use it.Thanks to Wapping for his input ive now moved further on.:thumb2
 
I'm not using Basecamp with a Mac but a Windows Laptop.What are the reasons why a Mac is better for Basecamp,as i'm thinking of changing my Laptop and was thinking of going down the Mac route no pun intended.:blast
 
(C) Self-plotted routes displayed and run on a Nav V

I like to plot my own routes, using roads I want to ride down, rather than roads Garmin thinks I should take.

In BaseCamp this is made easy by asking the software to take me from A to B, then using the rubber band tool to pull the route to where I want it to go. All fine and dandy so far. Having got the route right, I can then send it to my Nav 5, where the route will display quite happily, with a series of yellow flags where each of the specific points I had asked BaseCamp to pass me through shown as well. This is very similar to Mapsource; no problem so far.

Now comes the interesting bit....

Each of the yellow flags is treated as a waypoint, as opposed to just a simple viapoint, each of which will display on the Nav V as a list in the route. You can choose which of the waypoints to start from, which is theoretically handy BUT only if you can remember which is which out of maybe the 10 or more points you created.

Now a more fundamental problem...

If you deviate from the route, thereby missing out a waypoint on purpose or by accident, the device will remember that that you have skipped one out. The route will continue to run BUT the instructions (Take the third exit at the roundabout, turn right in 1.5 miles etc) will stop. Similarly, the arrival time and distance to destination functions will stop, too. It's still running as a device, showing the route and where you are on it, just not as well as it should do.

If you now stop running the route and restart it, the bike's position will display on the magenta line quite happily. You then get prompted to GO, and choose where you want to start from. There is no 'Start from where I am now' option. You can only chose one of the the yellow flags.... Useless if you don't really know where they are!

The answer to this problem I have not worked out yet. I THINK it might lie in rubber banding the route slightly differently in the first place. I am in a France at the moment without my Mac, but I think I recall that there is an option not to display the yellow flags, instead making them just little tiny electronic dots (I have seen them displayed blue in routes) in other words, displayed as true 'viapoints' not 'Must do waypoints'. If I am right, this should solve the problem at a stroke.... If not, then either there is a software glitch, or it's user error or there is another answer.... We shall see.

Other than that, the Nav V and the 300 miles of route I plotted in BaseCamp are performing well.
 
(C) Self-plotted routes displayed and run on a Nav V - Part 2 - The answer!

By trial and error I THINK I have found the answer the hard way.

Here's how I think you do it:

  • Ask BaseCamp to create a route from A to B. It will create it exactly according to your pre-set preferences; nothing more, nothing less.

  • Drag the route around as you see fit, to take it down the roads YOU want it to go down. BaseCamp will recalculate the route each time, creating 'Way points' (or more correctly, 'Shaping points') at each point on the road(s) you have specifically asked the route to take you along.

  • Do this until the route is EXACTLY as you want it to be. Take a bit of care dragging the route around and where you drop your 'shaping points'.

  • Export the route to the Nav V as normal.

  • Go to Apps.

  • Go to Trip Planner.

  • Touch the Three Horizontal Lines, this will bring up a screen giving you three options: Delete, Import and Share.

  • Touch Import.

  • Select the route you wish to import. It will import into Trip Planner.

  • Return to Trip Planner.

  • Touch the route.

  • This will bring up a 'detail screen' showing amongst other things: The mode of transport, the total distance, the travel time, the start and end points AND the 'shaping points'. The start point has a green flag, the end point a chequered flag and each of the shaping points a yellow flag. Unless you really do want to go through these shaping points, it's these yellow flags that you need to deal with.

  • Touch the Map button, you will see the route displayed, with the flags. Do this only so that you know what it looks like. If you used lots of shaping points, the route will look like a flag shop with a sale on.

  • Touch the return button.

  • You are now back to the detail screen.

  • Touch the three Three Horizontal Lines.

  • Touch Edit Destinations. You will see all the flags shown.

  • Touch a yellow flag. This will bring up a fresh screen with several quite clever options: Duration (you can tell the device how long you intend to stop there). Change Location (you can insert some other location) Remove Location (we'll come back to this) and Rename Location (call it whatever you like).

  • Touch Remove Location. When prompted that doing so will remove the details and timing, click 'YES'.

  • You will now see that what was a yellow flag is now a Blue Dot. BINGO! You are nearly there.... I think.

  • Repeat as necessary, working down the list, 'Blue Dotting' as many of the yellow flags as you like. Remember, any you leave as yellow flags WILL stay as Waypoints.

  • Click 'Save'. The route will recalculate.

  • You will then be taken back to the 'detail screen'.

  • Touch map. You'll see that what were once yellow flags are now blue dots. They are no longer Waypoints, that you must go through, they are simply 'shaping points' and the the route itself has maintained its integrity.


I THINK that should work. All I need to do is to try it out!!!


====

Some may say it's a bit of a faff having to do it. On one hand I agree, not least as I hated Waypoints in Mapsource, hardly ever using them and I ALWAYS have recalculate turned off. On the other hand, it's useful to have the option of creating either 'shaping points' or real Waypoints. It's also nice to have the option to amend the Waypoints, too.

Give it a go.... You can't break it!
 
(D) Garmin Adventures

This is quite fun.

When you connect your GPS device, BaseCamp detects that you have tracks of your competed journeys available, asking you if you wish to upload them into BaseCamp.

I just tried one out, using this morning's track of our journey from Arras to St Vallery on the coast/

The track displays very nicely.

You can give it a name and add all sorts of other details, including geo-tagged pictures.

BaseCamp will also run off all on its own and find anything stored in your Favourites, that happens to be on the track, displaying them, too. For instance, it found a petrol station, several cafes and a pizza shop I have marked in the past. I saw several of them as we rode past today.
 
Wapping said:
(C) Self-plotted routes displayed and run on a Nav V - Part 2 - The answer!

By trial and error I THINK I have found the answer the hard way.

Here's how I think you do it:

  • Ask BaseCamp to create a route from A to B. It will create it exactly according to your pre-set preferences; nothing more, nothing less.

  • Drag the route around as you see fit, to take it down the roads YOU want it to go down. BaseCamp will recalculate the route each time, creating 'Way points' (or more correctly, 'Shaping points') at each point on the road(s) you have specifically asked the route to take you along.

  • Do this until the route is EXACTLY as you want it to be. Take a bit of care dragging the route around and where you drop your 'shaping points'.

  • Export the route to the Nav V as normal.

  • Go to Apps.

  • Go to Trip Planner.

  • Touch the Three Horizontal Lines, this will bring up a screen giving you three options: Delete, Import and Share.

  • Touch Import.

  • Select the route you wish to import. It will import into Trip Planner.

  • Return to Trip Planner.

  • Touch the route.

  • This will bring up a 'detail screen' showing amongst other things: The mode of transport, the total distance, the travel time, the start and end points AND the 'shaping points'. The start point has a green flag, the end point a chequered flag and each of the shaping points a yellow flag. Unless you really do want to go through these shaping points, it's these yellow flags that you need to deal with.

  • Touch the Map button, you will see the route displayed, with the flags. Do this only so that you know what it looks like. If you used lots of shaping points, the route will look like a flag shop with a sale on.

  • Touch the return button.

  • You are now back to the detail screen.

  • Touch the three Three Horizontal Lines.

  • Touch Edit Destinations. You will see all the flags shown.

  • Touch a yellow flag. This will bring up a fresh screen with several quite clever options: Duration (you can tell the device how long you intend to stop there). Change Location (you can insert some other location) Remove Location (we'll come back to this) and Rename Location (call it whatever you like).

  • Touch Remove Location. When prompted that doing so will remove the details and timing, click 'YES'.

  • You will now see that what was a yellow flag is now a Blue Dot. BINGO! You are nearly there.... I think.

  • Repeat as necessary, working down the list, 'Blue Dotting' as many of the yellow flags as you like. Remember, any you leave as yellow flags WILL stay as Waypoints.

  • Click 'Save'. The route will recalculate.

  • You will then be taken back to the 'detail screen'.

  • Touch map. You'll see that what were once yellow flags are now blue dots. They are no longer Waypoints, that you must go through, they are simply 'shaping points' and the the route itself has maintained its integrity.


I THINK that should work. All I need to do is to try it out!!!


====

Some may say it's a bit of a faff having to do it. On one hand I agree, not least as I hated Waypoints in Mapsource, hardly ever using them and I ALWAYS have recalculate turned off. On the other hand, it's useful to have the option of creating either 'shaping points' or real Waypoints. It's also nice to have the option to amend the Waypoints, too.

Give it a go.... You can't break it!
Click to expand...

Richard

I created a 300km circular route of the Eifel this evening, using the "Motorrad Tourguides - Road Concept Tours" that I think you posted up a while ago. Anyway, I ended up with a route filled with "Yellow Flag Waypoints". So I folowed your tip/advice and converted all bar the important ones (refreshment stops) to "Blue dot Shaping points". Dead easy.

Hopefully try out my route later this week. They are predicting 21 degC on Thursday.
 
Jolly good, let us know how you get on, please. It will be a real live test of the method over a decent distance.

When you come to the yellow flagged refreshment stop Waypoints, take care that you pass exactly through the point where the flag is put down. If you don't, the chances are you'll encounter the problem I described in post #49 . It would be quite easy to get very close to the cafe, then find that the only place to park is say 25 meters away, next to the church and walk back. You and your GPS will have avoided passing through the point, on purpose.

I found this out when we visited Tyne Cot cemetery near Yrpes on Saturday. I had marked the cemetery but we parked in a different spot, effectively missing out the Waypoint. It was shortly afterwards that I discovered what happens when you do miss out a yellow flag.

I have never liked Waypoints as they force you to do something. For example, let's say you feel like a coffee earlier or later in the day (making the planned refreshment stop redundant) or there is a diversion around the street the cafe is situated, meaning you can't get to it or it's shut. We had both situations on last weekend's Wander.

(1) I missed out one coffee stop I had anticipated making. Nobody noticed, but the device did.

(2) There was a diversion for about a mile on the road I had chosen to take leading to Tyne Cot. No great drama, I just followed the diversion signs, boxing around the hole in the road. The diversion took us around a yellow flag that was by curious chance exactly in the hole. I hadn't passed through it and wouldn't be doing so any time that day.

I see Waypoints as useful only for spots that you MUST pass through. I can see that that they are very helpful in a totally featureless enviroment, for instance navigating in the desert or on the oceans. For most other mortals a simple viapoint or shaping point should do. If you really must pass excsctly through Waypoint XYZ to meet a friend, simply end the route there and start a fresh one for your journey thereafter.
 
I may be wrong some where but when I create waypoints for start and end then drag them to the box, create route, let basecamp make its own way then drag the lines down my roads it makes "via points" dots on my chosen route but no flags. it seams to work but it may be a frig just to make it work and I may only be using part of its functionality hey ho.

hope you find your way home!
 
Aha, that's interesting. Thank you for the tip. I will give it a try.

I have never used the 'drag into the box method' of plotting an initial route from A to B. I will give it a go and start dragging the proposed route from there. It's odd that the software creates 'shaping points' not Waypoints under these conditions. It should work well when making ones own routes from scratch, maybe less well when using someone else's routes as Paul08 is doing.



Yup, I had seen the Waypoint info in the link. That operates in the same way as it does in Mapsource, where it's possible to edit Waypoints or Favourites and move them around.
 
I have spotted a possible route to mistakes and confusion in post #51.

I have also discovered something else quite handy, should you ever cock something up. It was present in the old 550 and 660's but it's useful to find it in the Nav V, too.

I will correct and amend it this evening.
 
When I created my latest route I was using a suggested route that was published as a map. it was a circular route around the Eifel starting in a town called Düren.

The only way to create a circular route that I could think of was to select a waypoint (a petrol station) as both the start and finish point. I then added a couple of waypoints on the route to force Basecamp to make/plot a roughly circular route. I then used the 'elastic band' facility to actually get the route to follow the roads suggested on the published route map. My understanding was that these elastic band points would be shaping points. When happy with the route, I then transferred it to my Nav V.

So, as I had only actually chosen maybe 4 Waypoints, why, when I opened up in the route on my Nav V, were all what I thought would be Shaping Points actually Yellow Flags and not Blue dots?

I fear I am missing something and need to better understand the way Basecamp operates and creates routes. Am I missing one last action on Basecamp before transferring the routes, so that it goes across with Blue Dots rather than Yellow Flags?

I am intending to store all routes within Basecamp and only transfer across to my Nav V when I want to use one, so I would prefer not to have to edit all the Yellow Flags out that the transfer seems to make. The more I think about it, the more I feel it must lie in a fundemental fault in how I am creating my routes.
 
It's odd that your shaping nodes are effectively being converted to waypoints on import. Hopefully Garmin will realise this and make a correction to the firmware at some stage as surely any point added using the insert tool should just be a shaping point. That's unless you've dropped it onto a POI.

Basecamp and my still 660 shows these as blue flags and there is, as I recall, no need to ride through them.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
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