Things that I cannot accomplish in Mac BaseCamp

Track line thickness

It would be great to be able to make track lines thinner. At the thickness they currently are, it is difficult to see detail when zoomed out. In the BaseCamp screen shot below, it is very difficult to see the switchbacks going up the hill, compared to the competitor's track display.

Also, it would be great to be able to set the scale of the view so the same scale can be repeated for different areas.

As an example, here's a map and track from BaseCamp...


Here is a map and track from a competitor...

It would be great to be able to make track lines thinner.

It's not a general fix, but if you change a track's color to "transparent" it will render as a thin line. Thanks for the suggestion.

Also, it would be great to be able to set the scale of the view so the same scale can be repeated for different areas.

Does the zoom slider in the main map window satisfy this?

Alt or cmd dragging on the actual route (rather than a point on the route) shouldn't affect the created via point.

It quit working last evening. I suppose some combination of things I did caused it to behave that way for a short while??? It is weird.

Perhaps only the location you were dragging the route to was affecting your vias? A point with no POI that's still on a road seems like something the Zumo would take to be a shaping point rather than a destination.

Is there no visible difference at all in BaseCamp between via points that show up as flags on your Zumo and those that don't? Sending a GPX of a route that has this issue and another of a route that doesn't would be pretty helpful in figuring out what the actual difference is.

Here's a GPX file that yeilds the invisible viapoints when transferred to my Zumo 550.

CLICK

It looks like this When I preview the route on my Zumo:



There are 51 via points in this route, all but 14 are invisible.

Here's what happened. I was looking at the help file. In the section called shaping a route, I misread it and I tried holding down the option(alt) key while I dragged a route for editing it. I sent that to my Zumo and it worked, i.e. the via points were invisible.

I was soooo excited. I cleared out MyCollection and started the route linked above from scratch. I did some shaping and sent that to my Zumo and it was working great, i.e. the vias were invisible like I wanted. I came back to it a couple of days later and it did not work consistently, so that is how the 14 visible vias got in there.


The original Route with all of the vias visible is posted HERE
And the GPX file for that route is there also.

You can import the two GPX files and zoom in on them and see there is no visual difference in the viapoints when viewed in BaseCamp. Also in the viapoint properties there is no difference noted there.

This function is not easy to use.

When dragging the route, you must take your time hover the mouse pointer over the intersection where you want the via. You must wait until the information balloon pops up. That balloon must contain "Road A and Road B" if there is no "AND" in the text the via will not be invisible.

And a second case... if you hover the mouse pointer over an Interstate. That information balloon must have the name of the interstate and the direction you want to travel listed at the TOP.

Example, hover the mouse over I-70. The balloon will show I-70 E and I-70 W. The proper direction you want must be listed at the TOP in order for the point to be properly placed.

A third case... A few other roads do not have any addresses associated to certain points along that road, Like exit and entry Ramps, and some rural roads. If the information balloon pops up and it shows an address then the via will be visible and flagged with an orange flag on the Zumo.

This function is very reliable in MapSource. It is Finicky and it requires patience and very accurate placement of your vias. But it is a Great feature for those times when the routing algorithm just does not produce the desired result.

I have not been able to reproduce it so far in BaseCamp. It worked for a few evenings and suddenly just stopped working. Maybe there is some sequence of events that I have forgotten that make this work? I am certainly going to keep trying some things to see if I can reproduce the results, because this is THE MOST USEFUL FUNCTION OF THE ROUTE COMPOSING TOOLS. And it is very desirable.

You mentioned the fact there is no visual clue in BaseCamp, this is so. It would be very helpful if something other than the "and" in the name of the via would indicate this function.

I don't know if this is something that is intentionally implemented in MapSource. Your comment above leads me to think it might be just an anomaly that happens because of the contents of the map data at these specific and very exact map points.

I wish I could sit down in front of a couple of computers and demonstrate this to you in person. I am finding it is extremely difficult for others to understand what it is, and anyone whose Navigator does not have an MP3 player or XM capability will not appreciate it much. Most people think it is just a frivolous tiny little detail.

Well I think I have figured out the steps I did to get these invisible vias to work. It is pretty consistent when using intersections as the via points. Although not totally fool proof.

I'll check it again in a day or two and let you know if it is still working for me.

:D:D:D:D

Hopefully I'll be able to reproduce it consistently in a few days.

Well I think I have figured out the steps I did to get these invisible vias to work. It is pretty consistent when using intersections as the via points. Although not totally fool proof.

I'll check it again in a day or two and let you know if it is still working for me.

:D:D:D:D

Hopefully I'll be able to reproduce it consistently in a few days.

Sure would be a lot simpler and newbie proof if we could just "click" to make invisible.

Sure would be a lot simpler and newbie proof if we could just "click" to make invisible.

Simpler yet would be to make all via points invisible and use waypoints if you need a semi-permanent marker that alerts you.

Zoom slider

As far as using the zoom slider to set zoom level, yes it is certainly possible, but here's why it can be cumbersome. I want to print out several maps with tracks and waypoints all for the same general area but showing different trails (and print them out at different times). I would like to have all of the maps printed at the same zoom level (and scale) to reduce confusion when comparing maps and their trails. If I use the zoom slider to zoom in or out, it is impossible to exactly replicate the same zoom level from one session to the next. I can accomplish the goal if I use the '+' and '-' keys to zoom, but it's still cumbersome because it is just an arbitrary process of pressing the '+' key or '-' key x number of times every time I want to print another map at the same scale as the last one. Being able to type in a specific number every time I want to zoom would make it accurate and repeatable. For example, you could have a window where the user enters 'x' feet per pixel, or maybe 1 inch equals 'x' feet.

And now that I'm thinking about it, how about being able to save views? That way you could easily go to preset views with out even having to locate a trail and manually zoom to the desired level.

No, you're not missing anything, I am! I regret to admit that I didn't even pay attention to scale marker on the lower left. That works quite well for zoom repeatability. Still, it would be handy to be able to enter a value and save certain views. A thousand pardons and many thanks.

Track line thickness

Changing the track line to transparent makes the track even less readable, in my opinion.