Changing via points into shaping points and visa-versa

Someone has contacted me, asking how to change via points (points you must go through) into simple shaping points, from within the XT device itself.

I know how to do it from within a Navigator V or VI (see post #6 in https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showt...waypoints-Tyre-change-to-shaping-points-NAV-5 ) but I am told the process doesn’t work the same way in the XT.

As I do not own an XT, can someone please tell us how to do it, simply and clearly.

Thank you.

Richard.

PS I know that it can be done from within BaseCamp but that option is not open to us.

does anything below help, sourced from the manual, it looks like you can add a shaping point at a location point and then delete the location. Will that work, seems a bit of a heath robinson way to do it to me, but hey thats all i can see in the manual. there may(will) be a better way.

Editing and Reordering Locations in a Trip

Select Apps > Trip Planner > Saved Trips.
Select a saved trip.
Select a location.
Select an option:

To move the location up or down, select Reorder locations, and drag the location to a new position in the trip.

To add a new location after the selected location, select Add a shaping point.

To remove the location, select Delete.




You can manually shape your route to change its course. This allows you to direct the route to use a certain road or go through a certain area without adding a destination to the route.

Touch anywhere on the map.
Select Shape Route.
TIP: You can select Zoom in to zoom in on the map and select a more precise location.

The device enters route shaping mode and recalculates the route to travel through the selected location.
Select Go!.
If necessary, select an option:

To add more shaping points to the route, select additional locations on the map.

To remove a shaping point, select the shaping point and select Remov

The challenge comes to me from a fellow on UKGSer who creates his routes in MyRoute, where (by default) any shaping points are read by the XT device as an announced via point, meaning that the rider has to pass through it. Changing it to an unannounced shaping point would be good.

Of course the skip function could be used but changing them would be handy.

PS Thank you, Lee. That’s a possible solution but, as you say, it is a faff.

PPS It’s quite possible that it’s not possible to make the change from within the device, Garmin thinking that the skip function enables bods to miss the announced via point with ease.

it seems as this is what what i should have put, altering it a little to do the job, will it work, who knows, in your very own words try it you cant break it.

To add a new location very near or right next to the selected location, select Add a shaping point.

To remove the location, select Delete.

This is of course presuming that a shaping point that they refer to is not an announced via/way point, and you can actually remove the location point (announced via/way point.)

again very much a faff

No takers on whether the conversion (a la the Nav V and VI) is possible within the XT? Or are we limited to Lee’s suggestion?

Come on, Nutty, you know how the thing works.

Be aware that the Zumo XT has a glitch. The Zumo 595 has the same glitch, but not the 590.

If you try to change a shaping point to a Via Point on the XT, it works perfectly well.
If you try to change a Via Point to a Shaping Point on the XT screen, it will probably give the point a new name and shift it to a different location.

In my experiments, the original Via Point was placed in a location that forced the satnav to take a less direct route. On changing it to a shaping point, the point was relocated in such a way that the route was forced to take the more direct route to the next point on the route.

I have lodged the fault with Garmin. I have had it acknowledged as a fault, and it has been sent to the developers. But nothing in the last two software updates has fixed it. It might need more people to complain about it.

Note that this doesn't happen if the points have already been set up in Basecamp.

It does mean that if MyRouteApp creates all Via Points, and you rely on being able to change them to shaping points on the XT, your route will change. Check it out.

I don't know whether it affect shaping points created on the XT. I find the method for adding shaping points cumbersome - especially since the screen recognises a finger press before my finger ahs touched the screen.

More information on the above.

To answer the question, yes you can change Via to Shaping and vice versa on the XT itself. Subject to the error mentioned above.

If you know that you will need to do it, then better to start off with all shaping points, and then change some to Vias on the XT.

Creating a route on the XT creates via points by default. the route can be shaped afterwards by using the map, but i find precision is poor and my screen recognises my finger press before it touches the screen, which makes it unworkable for route creation.

MYRouteApp will create two versions of gpx file. I think these are v1.0 and v1.1. (I dont use it, but I did some testing with it a couple of years ago). One of these creates all Via Points. The other creates all shaping points.

Since the XT has issues changing a via to a shaping -( ie it moves the point), it is better to choose the version that creates all shaping points, and then use the XT to change them to Via Points - which works ok.

One of the MRA gpx formats produces a direct route - ie joins the dots with straight lines. I think this is the version that creates all via point, but I cannot remember. This is easily solved by forcing the XT to recalculate the route. Eg change the vehicle to car, then back to motorcycle.

Having the XT recalculate the route is not the issue it might have been on earlier Zumo versions. The XT seems to want to do this in a few situations and you have to plan your route with this in mind. eg If you use the skip feature, the entire route is always recalculated, using the same route points. if valid routing preferences or vehicles are not given in the route, it always defaults to using motorcycle/faster time.

If you miss a via point, navigation continues as soon as you join the magenta route after the missed point.
If you miss a Via Point, after ignoring the second spoken instruction to navigate you towards it, it will pop up a message asking if you want to skip the point - and tells you the name of the via point

nb current version of software is v2.90 at the time of writing.

Is the XT, despite assorted software updates, still moving the physical position of points when they are changed from a shaping point into a via point and visa-versa?

The ability to change a point from one to another, from within a device itself, is one of Garmin’s really useful features. To drop it or have it do something odd, is a backwards step for the XT. The more I read about it, the XT does seem to be aimed at bods who do not want to create their own routes. They’d rather the device did it for them, I guess? If true, then they’d not care if the device altered the route, as they played no part in choosing its direction in the first place.

Wapping said:

Is the XT, despite assorted software updates, still moving the physical position of points when they are changed from a shaping point into a via point and visa-versa?
The ability to change a point from one to another, from within a device itself, is one of Garmin’s really useful features. To drop it or have it do something odd, is a backwards step for the XT.

Click to expand...

A Via point seems to change location and gets renamed by the Zumo if it is chnaged to A Shaping Point. In doesn't do it if you change a shaping point into a Via Point.
I lodged the fault a good while back and they have been able to reproduce what I was describing, and it is one of the things that is on their list. I followed it up about a month ago. It is still on the lits, but the person I spoke to had no way of knowing where it was in the queue or what else was being done.

Whent the XT came out, I got one of the first ones after the initial batch had sold out. Just before easter last year. It had v 2.30 of the software loaded. There was a flurry of updates after that - I was checking out Closest Entry Point at the time, and that feature changed behaviour with every upgrade. Finally with v2.90 it worked exactly how I expected it to. I have tried all sorts of things, but have not been able to get this version to go wrong. Just to give a flavour - one of the early versions seemd to head for the nearest route point, rather than the nearest Via Point on the route. It would head for shaping points, but only if they had been created as Via Points first ! That gives some insight into how programmers' interpreation of the terms seem to differ from the users' and form the Garmin definitions. But all of that was fixed by v2.90.

But that distinction between points that had been created by drag and drop in Basecamp and points that had first been created as WayPoints, cropped up again. In Basecamp, you can change the name of any point on the route. When the Zumo gets the route, it seems to use the lat/long cooridnates, and look up the nearest place in its database, and uses that rather than the name that was sent in the file. Unless it was created as a Waypoint first. Waypoints on a Zumo route, whether they are used as Via Points or Shaping Points, keep the name that you give them in Basecamp.

The shifting route point after changing it from Via to Shaping also exists in the 595, but not in the 590. (For 595 - I am using a 590 with the 595 software, so there may be a reason there). But the 595 and XT both use a FourSquare database. I'm wondering if that is a significant observation).

I'll see if I can find the images that I sent to Garmin when they wanted some more detail. Don't go away.........

Ok - here is a simple 3 point route. Start at the green flag, end at the chequered flag. The Via Point in the middle is located halfway between Steeton and Eastburn - trying to avoid travelling on the fastest route along the A629 green road. The route was created on the XT - I used the Broswe Map feature when adding points, and it allocated the name B6265.
The top half of the image shows the screen on the zumo XT where you can add and delete points, change their order, or tap the flag /blue circle to switch them from Via Points to Shaping Points and vice versa.
The lower half shows the Zumo map with the orange flag in exactly the correct position.




In the picture below, I have changed the orange flag Via Point point on the B6265 rom the above display, to a shaping point.
Note the name of the Blue Circle shaping point is now A65. I haven't changed it. All I did was tap the flag in list of points. The Zumo changed it.
Look at the map . It has moved the position of the original Via Point, so that it sits at the beginning of the dual carriageway, forcing the route along that road.

I have done a few tests. Some movements are insignificant, but in places where I have put a Via Point in a location to force the route away from the mainn roads, when it is changed to a shaping point, the Zumo seems to want to put the shaping point on the fastest route between the start and finish.



BUT it doesn't do it if you change it from a Shaping Point to a Via Point. I don't think that I tested this with a route that was created in Basecamp. And I certainly haven't tested it with a route that contains points which were all created as Favourites (or Waypoints) first. I must do that - it may be an answer. *** Update. I've just tested it wiith the same route using Favourites created in the ZUmo. Also with using Waypoints as the three points, created in BAsecamp and transferred. Same result. The Via Point gets replaced with a shaping point with a different name in adifferent location.

Wapping said:

The more I read about it, the XT does seem to be aimed at bods who do not want to create their own routes. They’d rather the device did it for them, I guess? If true, then they’d not care if the device altered the route, as they played no part in choosing its direction in the first place.

Click to expand...

I don't think that your first sentence is a correct conclusion to draw. People are having problems with the XT - but as far as I can see, it is due mainly to a lack of understanding about how it is behaving, rather than a fult with the unit itself. It is introducing a lot of new features - more ability to take live traffic information in the same way that some car sat navs work - using the power lead as an aerial, and it is able to display traffic hold ups on the map. Similarly weather information, and has upped the creation of your own riding trends to adjust the route that it calculates to your won riding style. (eg if you prefer riding at a more sedate pace, it may calculate the route differently, or if you ride a particular road, it will make sure that its route will take you on that road rather than an alternative).
It has also been working on the creation of routes on line - using topographic maps - and Garmin cater for all sorts of satnav users, so this feature works for hill walkers, who can see the contours, the footpaths and obtain 3d satellite images. The XT uses this feature for off road users. You can create a route on the Garmin Explore website (you have to create a free account). Any routes, tracks and Waypoints/Favourites that you create can be made visible to friends or public. But the XT can synchronise with what is available on the website. It does thise through the 'Explore' App that is built into the XT and a 'Drive' app for a smartphone which makes a BT link between XT and phone and a phone data link between smartphone and the website. Pair them up and the XT gets the latest routes.

The downside of all of this is that the route you create on the Explore website is not a substitute for Basecamp - it does not work out what roads to take. It joins up the points that you plot with a straight line.
So when the Zumo gets this, it HAS to calculate the route itself.

Many users don't use Basecamp - they use things like MyRouteApp, Google Maps, Tyre or whatever else there is out there. Presumably because they can do this on their smartphone. The Zumo has to calculate the route.

Your second sentence is probably true - many people want the Zumo to work out the route for them. And indeed, there are many features on the XT that cater for this - create a circular route, create a route lasting 4 hours, follow curvy roads...... Some of which appeare dont he 595 and have been enhanced.

But the ZumoXT still has all of the functionality for people plotting their own routes, with some really useful extras. The closest entry point is a brilliant addition - now they have it right, and the skip feature with names displayed is helpful, as is the autoskipping of Via Points.

There are odd quirks in the way that it behaves, and that relocating bug. But that is a case of getting used to it - and the headaches of switching from the 660 to the 590 - which sparked off the popular document that I created about using Zumo and BAsecamp - well some of the issues going from a 590/595 to the XT have also required a few paracetemol - and a sister document is on its way to completion.

Final unrelated comment.

I read a thread this morning about the XT - it was one that you closed to prevent the thread going round in circles. There were some comments about closest entry point and people getting odd results when starting off.
I have come across all of the problems described. If people have such problems it will be due (probably) to one of three reasons

1) They have not installed v2.90 of the software. Earlier versions do not work properly when selecting 'Closest Entry Point'
2) They have the U turns ticked in the Avoidance, so they do not allow navigation to make U turns. The closest entry point then depends on which way it thinks you are facing. Without being able to U turn, that could be a long detour !
3) The Avoidances used for recalculation are the ones set in the Zumo for the vehicle in use in the route. It is an easy error to think you have set them, but you have set them for one of the other vehicles.

I haven't bothered to read through all this but to change an orange flag waypoint/via flag into a blue dot shaping point on the XT trip planner page just tap and hold on the orange flag and when released it will ask if you want to change it to a shaping point. If yes, then it recalculates the route. Changing a shaping point back to the via point is just done without question when you tap, hold and release.

Ah. I wondered what I was doing wrong !

The point that I was making, was that changing a Via to a Shaping moves the point and renames it.

If yours doesn't, then I'd be pleased to know more - I've reported the fault to Garmin and they have acknowledged it and have been able to verify the behaviour.

I have just had a play and I see what you mean. I originally thought the problem was how to easily change one to the other. It is changing a via point to a shaping point but placing it in not the same spot but an entirely random place. Changing the same entry back and forth many times moves that point to a different place each time, sometimes many miles away.
Hopefully sorted in a future update. Thanks for pointing this out.

In my tests it only moves it when changing Via to Shaping. Not the other way.
It seemed to place it on the fastest route between the route points on either side.

It also does it on the 595, but not on the 590 - I've proved that it is not a hardware issue (because my 595 is actually a 590 running 595 software. I switched it back to 590 software to check that out. But it may need others to complain about it. It is a real pain if you use the Zumo to create a route, because by default it creates new points as Via Points, so they have to be changed, which screws up the route.

I've tried creating a route using stored favourites, because in the gpx files, they are treated differently, but the same thing happens.

Yes- keep switching it back and forth and the little blue disc goes on a trip of its own. Like an old 1980s video game in slow motion.

Hi

I realise this is an old post but it is very relevant for me now.

First post on this forum and hoping you might be able to help. You are very local to me because I live in Baildon which is what drew me to your maps above.

I have also come across your brilliant "Everything you need to know about the Zumo XT" on another forum. This

I am leaving for a 3 week tour of Spain and Portugal at the end of next week, using routes downloaded from Ride Magazine. As shown on the XT it includes waypoints for not only cafes and petrol stations (which would be useful to keep as WP) but also a lot of other waypoints which would be better converted to shaping points.

However if changing waypoints to shaping points is going to alter the route that's not realy what is wanted. Do you know whether this is still the case or have Garmin altered this with subsequent updates?

Other than avoiding motorways, are there any other quick settings tips you could give to help me in leading a group of other riders on a GPX route tour. For example, fastest vs shortest/ U-turns avoidance on or off/ starting from closest entry point.

If these are covered in your booklet perhaps a quick page reference would be appreciated although I will try to read a lot more than I have so far.

Many thanks

Tip one:

If you have imported a route / track from RiDE magazine or anywhere else, install it into your device at home and check it carefully before you set off for Spain. This is before you start wondering about waypoints, shaping and via points. If it looks wrong when you are sat in your kitchen it will look no less wrong when you roll into Spain.

Tip two:

You have got three weeks. Use the device here at home, just to get a feel for how it works. They are simpler than you might think, so don’t get hung up with all the problems that might happen. Lots of people use the XT with no issues at all.

Tip three:

Watch some of the very good DIY instructional videos on YouTube.

Tip four:

I have no idea how experienced you are with GPS devices overall. If it’s zero, then do not try to learn it all at once.

Tip five:

Take a decent map.

Tip six:

Don’t worry if your mates moan. If they were any better at it than you, they’d be doing the job.

Wapping said:

Tip one:

If you have imported a route / track from RiDE magazine…

…Tip six:

Don’t worry if your mates moan. If they were any better at it than you, they’d be doing the job.

Click to expand...

All very good tips, Wapping, especially no 6

Here is an idea.

1. Set your preferences to ‘fastest time’ time and leave it there.

2. The other settings are, by their very nature, personal choices. For example, if the owner is someone who rarely creates their own routes but never ever wants to take a motorway, they will select that option. Personally, I tick very few, only amending some on a case-by-case basis, depending on what I am using the GPS device for that morning. The advantage of this is that it saves me having to remember that I set it to always exclude motorways, then shouting a lot when it does just that.

3. The route from RiDE came to you as either a route or a track. From what you say, it seems to have come as a route, ask the device to save it as a track. Why? That way, no matter what else you bugger around with, you will at least always have the track. Tracks you can convert back into routes, from within the device itself, so you have a safety net. The conversion is not always perfect to 100% and a couple of other factors might come into play but, for now at least, just accept it. The track, by its very nature, will not have any intermediate via, way or shaping points at all.

4. The route from RiDE came with waypoints or via points, things like cafes and petrol stations. You tell us that you want to get rid of some of these and change them into shaping points. Me? I’d get rid of most or all of them. Why? The RiDE routes are fine but they are getting pretty old. There is no guarantee that the cafe or fuel station will still be there. Not least, you are going to Western Europe, following a RiDE route, you are not in the wastes of the Sahara. You’ll find petrol stations and cafes, without RiDE’s help, trust me. Not least, can you really be sure that you’ll want to stop then and there for a coffee or to fill up with fuel at that very moment?

5. Take the RiDE route and use your XT to convert the way / via points into shaping points. It will probably do a recalculation but don’t worry, it probably will not be dramatic, particularly if yiu haven’t ticked (as some are prone to do) lots of preferences.

6. Look at the new route the device offers up. Does it look near enough the same shape, distance and estimated time?

Yes? Bingo! You have done all you need to do.

No? OK do not panic. Look at the route and try to figure out why it has changed.

Can’t? No matter; delete the route and reload it again from your download and play around some more. You can’t break it. Or use the track and go from there.

Do these things NOW, not five minutes before you arrive in Spain.

Report back, please.

=========

PS If you have access to a home computer, iPad or even a phone, you could upload the RiDE route(s) into say, MyRoute and tinker around with them there. Then send the tinkered around with route(s) to your XT, which should transfer across seamlessly. Do though always check, from the comfort of your kitchen at home, as doing this instead of doing the washing-up, is preferable to crying in the heat of Spain. Trust me, again.

Likewise, if your XT is signalling that it wants to do a map / software update, don’t do it two minutes before you waltz out of the door. Do it now or leave it until you come back. The advantage of doing it now, is that it reduces the chances of the device latching onto a hotel’s wifi and starting a download / update just as you fancy leading your mates on the hooning trip of a lifetime.

Roger20, I have been mucking around with a RiDE magazine’s route in Spain.

Here is what I found and what I did with it. In this mucking around, I used MyRoute on nothing more than my iPad. I could have used my XT device but the iPad’s large screen and very fast app makes this easier.




Findings

1. The RiDE GPX does download as a route, not a track.

2. The route also has several via points (points which your XT device will take you through no matter what) which display as ‘hands’ in MyRoute.



3. The route is circular, ie. its start and end points are identical. Modern GPS devices, like the XT, are fully capable of running circular routes. But, they can confuse some owners who are not familiar with how the XT works.

You can see that the start and end points are identical in this screenshot; the ‘hand’ for point 1 (the start) is the same as point 9, the end.




In my world at least, I still break a fully circular route, separating the start and end points by a few yards.

4. Each of the ‘hand’ via points will appear as a destination when you fire up the route in your XT. This is really good BUT it can confuse some new owners of the device. It can also, under some circumstances, confuse the XT too, as it will only ever do what its owner tells it to do.

Mucking around

1. You want to change the via points (the hands) into shaping points. But you want to ensure that the route between the points does not alter. You can do this within the XT but it is probably easier (and maybe even more reliable) doing it in MyRoute.

2. Here I have done it. You can see that all the intermediate ‘hands’ are now teardrop shaping points. In making this change, the black line of the route between the shaping points did not recalculate or alter.




2. You might also notice that I changed the name and colour of the second via point to LEAVE. I’ll now tell you why.

3. If I was staying at the hotel (point 1) and wanted to ride the circular route in the same clockwise direction, I would want to be sure to pass through point 2. I therefore left it as a via point ‘hand’ and renamed it LEAVE. That way, when I am standing at the hotel and fire up the route, the LEAVE point will appear as a choice of destinations on my XT. I would select it. The XT will then guide me to that point AND then continue to run the rest of the route thereafter.

Similarly, had I been standing outside my house in London E1 and selected LEAVE, my XT would create me a route (according to my preferred settings) from my front door, to the LEAVE point and then run the route thereafter. In short, it can, depending on circumstances, be really useful to create and use LEAVE points.


4. I then broke the fully circular route, separating point 1 (the hotel) and the end point 9, back at the hotel.

I gave this point the name END.

In other words, from this:



Into this:




Why, if the XT is fully capable of running circular routes, did I do this?

1. Modern GPS devices like the XT are sort of like personal computers, with the emphasis on the word ‘personal’. What makes sense to me, I do. That it makes no sense to someone else to do it that way is fine; I am not them.

2. When I summon up the route on my XT I will be presented with three choices of destination: The start, the leave point and the end. I will chose ‘leave’. The device will guide me to that point and, without me doing anything more, run the route thereafter, right to the end.

There are lots of other things the XT (and indeed MyRoute) can do. They are both very powerful and very dumb simultaneously. That sounds odd but, when the chips are down, they will only ever do what the owner tells them to do; they really are that dumb. BUT, as we see on lots of posts in this section, if the owner expects a powerful XT to ‘Just work’, they might be in for a disappointment and a frustrating time.

That is why I strongly suggested you spend some part of the next three weeks using your XT at home on a couple of rides, instead of just turning it on for the first time when you arrive in Spain.


=========


PS In passing, I noticed that the RiDE route I downloaded and played around with, as suggested in your opening post, did indeed include a cafe stop at point 4.

I agree that, as it’s roughly halfway around the route, it might indeed be a good place to stop, so I might well change the shaping point ‘teardrop’ into a hand, via point. I might also add a coffee cup marker to it:





But….. this little bit of mucking about activity did highlight why you MUST check any route you download from anywhere.

The route from RiDE contains an error. It is not life threatening but it’s just untidy. What do we know about untidy routes? They lead to frustration and, more often than not, angry bikermates cursing their innocent dumb piece of Garmin shite GPS, which is doing nothing more than exactly what their oh-so-clever owner told it to do.

You will notice point 3, the shaping point. Whoever created the route at RiDE knew they wanted to go to that town and to that cafe. They probably marked the town first and then the cafe. Had you innocently just ridden the route, your XT (being a dumb device and only ever doing what its owner tells it to do) would guide you to point 3 and then tell you to make a U-turn, to go to the cafe.

This is fine, until:

A. You are hot or it is pissing with rain or you can’t make a U-turn at that point.

B. The gaggle of bikes behind you, all think you are a knob. Of course THEY would not have made that mistake….. that of course is probably untrue, they would have done. It just makes them feel better thinking it.

So…..

Let ‘Check, check again and (if necessary) mend, BEFORE you set off’ be your motto and patient guide.

As you can see from this screenshot, it is probably now not possible to make a U-turn at point 3, it routes along and around. That might not have been the case when RiDE first created the route (whenever that was) or they might just have ignored the no U-turn instruction.

I deleted point 3 as it serves no purpose. MyRoute automatically re numbers the viapoint ‘hand’ of the cafe and recreates the route. You’ll notice that you no longer have a U-turn at what was point 3:





Now the maybe interesting bit.

A quick look in MyRoute’s ability to show Google street view, answers that question:



It’s an unbroken white line which, in Spain, means do not cross. Me? I don’t give a monkey’s if you do or don’t but the locals and the local plod might.

More importantly, and as predicted in my earlier post, the ‘Must do’ cafe now appears to have gone. Such is progress.



Your mates, had you blindly followed RiDE’s route to the ‘Must do’ cafe, might by now think you a complete knob, as they have been fined for crossing a white line, it’s hot (or pissing with rain) and you have taken them to some scrotty new development.

The same screenshot, also shows a petrol station just up the road. This also re-emphasises the point I made earlier. Why didn’t RiDE mark that one, as it would make sense to maybe fuel at a coffee stop? The answer is easy:

Maybe THEY didn’t want fuel at that point or maybe the fuel station wasn’t even there when RiDE created the route? Maybe it’s not even there now? Maybe though, it would have made a great place to turn around? Who knows?

Enjoy your holiday!

Great advice, can't comment on use of an XT as I'm still on 590 but the practice of creating a start point (ie your 'leave' point) is particularly useful. I've used similar practice when creating routes from ferry ports etc., I take the first roundabout outside the port and have that as the start/leave point so when one turns on the gps and selects a route, the start is the first destination. It prevents the unit recalcing the entire route.

Thank you.

The LEAVE point’s only downside (as I had once when leaving the Chunnel) is where the normal exit road (in your example to the roundabout) is shut. Until the owner intervenes, the device will keep doing its best to take the rider through the point, it being very dumb….. of course.

The usual method of leaving the Chunnel, is to ride off the train, turn right at the top of the ramp and rendezvous (if there is a bunch of you) at the petrol station before the motorway. I made the petrol station the ‘leave’ point. The Chunnel operators closed the road and, for the first time ever, we had to turn left at the top of the ramp. You cannot then get back to the petrol station, without a lot of feckin’ about, so you have to skip the first point. This, depending on how your route was created in the first place and the preference settings, can lead to other other changes.


That being said, most roads around Western Europe are rarely closed, so 99 times out of 100 it is a really good method.