Converting Garmin planned routes to concrete tracks

[KTMphil]

Its pretty easy to plan routs in Garmin Basecamp or Mapsource. As you may have horrifiedely noticed is that after you sent/ trfd the route to your Garmin gps, when you're underway, Garmin can sometimes change your route without your permission!!


One easy solution is once you have made your desired route in Basecamp on a pc, is to convert that route into a track. Basecamp gives you this option, right click on the route and towards the bottom of the menu options you'll see it. By doing this, you've now made your desired route into concrete and it cannot be diverted by the device thinking there's a better way of getting to your destination.


Once you've created the track, send this to your GPS device.


r to track by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr

 

[Pounce]

It sometimes changes the route if, for example, you have different settings on the software & GPS.

Things like profile (motorcycle), ignore major hwys, tollways etc, shortest distance (not quickest time) & other bits.

I try to keep everything the same in Mapsource, Basecamp & the GPS settings & it seems to play nicer.

 

[johnnysneds]

Different map versions can do it too.

 

[KTMphil]

That's why I like using tracks, any of the variables don't matter your planned itinerary cannot be changed by the GPS device.

 

[bsacbob]

I have always found the best method is to hook your garmin up to basecamp and plan your track or route from the unit to ensure it routes properly. Sometimes when you plan a route on basecamp then send it to your unit it appears as straight lines rather than follow the route when you come to use it.

 

[Gnasher328]

Sounds a good idea but will the unit eventually overwrite it or shuffle it into the hidden archive directory. Will give it a try though as I have found my POS 1340 will not accept routes with more than one waypoint.