Creating a Route from a Track

That confused even me and I wrote it...allow me to try again.:o

There are two types of routes that can be created using the Create Route from Track feature:

• Direct Route
  
  • This is a point-to-point route and you can set the number of points to use in the Preferences->Advanced->Track Conversion setting(I use 250 since most GPS don't allow more than that in a Direct Route). BaseCamp does't care how many you use but your GPS will care as they all have limited to how many Via Points a Direct Route can have: usually 250pts.
    
  
  
  
• Along Road Route
  
  • If you are using Routable Maps and you preform a Create Route from Track, BaseCamp will try to align the route on to routable roads (this is why you see your route get "screwed up".
    
  
  

What you want to do is have BaseCamp create a Direct Route and ignore the routable roads so before you preform the Track Conversion just change to a non-routable map (Global Map). Once your Route is created you can change back to your routable map. BUT, you must not edit this route while a routable map is active or BaseCamp will want to recalculate the route and screw it up. To avoid this, open the Route Properties and make sure to change the Activity to Direct.

Once you've got the Track Conversion mastered in BaseCamp, you can transfer your Direct Route to the GSP. If you have edited the Route, keep in mind that most GPS can only handle 250pts in a Direct Route.

Hi Dan,
Sorry for not getting back to this sooner.

Here's what I did in basic steps:
1. Created a test route in BikeHikeUK and saved it to my desktop as a GPX track.
2. Connected Monty to my Mac.
3. Opened BC and set it to the base map.
4. Uploaded the test track into BC.
5. Converted test track into a route.
Note, that at this point there are no turn-by-turn directions because of the non-routable mapping.
6. Uploaded test route into Monty.
7. Safely disconnected Monty and quit BC.
8. Booted up Monty and saw test route in Route Planner.
9. Clicked View on Map and Monty then calculated.
10 Pressed Go, but there were too many "points" - max is only 50.
11. Deleted everything and started again, filtering test track to 50 points.
12. Repeated all above, and pressed Go.
13. Monty calculated the route.
14. Absolutely wrong!
He had calculated from home, all the way out to the start of the test route, but came along it on many wrong roads.

Sigh.

Tried again but with a new test track from home instead.
This seemed to work ok.

Thanks!
Regards,
Mick

Mick,
Sorry about the 250pts. As you noted the Montana is limited to 50. This happens to old guys when you try to manage 5 different Garmin devices at the same time and all are different with regards to Direct Route points and Along-road Routing points.

Yes, the Montana will only route from your current location. In this case what I do is set the Montana to Simulation Mode (Demo) so I can move the current location to the starting point of the route I want to test. Then when you press GO you are at the start of the Route calculation.

BaseCamp 4.3 is adding a more sophisticated "track to route" algorithm that hopefully will better meet your needs. It doesn't require direct routing to better match the original track. We should be going out with a beta soon and will be interested to get feedback.

Excellent! If the new algorithm is anything like the one used by the Navigator V (and now zumo390) sign me up.

This can only be good news.
I look forward to trying out the beta program.

As a little aside, I'm on a Montana forum, and I hear on there that the Montana and BaseCamp have never been good bedfellows. Maybe it's fine for other Garmin devices, but not the Montana. Hopefully as BC improves and evolves, Montanas may be better served.

Thanks all,
Mick.

I don't know what you've been reading but I've not had and specific Montana issues. What are you trying to do that isn't working?

Hi again Dan.
My issues are that BC isn't easy to use. Not impossible, not un-learn-able, just not easy or intuitive.
Also, even though I can successfully create a route from a track, and successfully transfer it accurately to Monty, it leaves me with a feeling that all is not well.

Yes it works, but it's not easy.

Also, if you read this from a long-standing member of the Montana forum, he seems to bear out what I'm saying. I'm no expert at all and am still learning, so I cannot say exactly what has being going on or what the history was.
http://garminmontanagpsr.wikispaces.com/share/view/66492484
Note the line:
"routes created or touched by BaseCamp and then used on a Montana don't work either. This has been known for years."

Regards,
Mick.

Mick, I have to apologize as it appears that the last update (v5.70) took a step backwards and is now recalculating the imported routes again. For a while it was working just fine. This is really quite disappointing that the Montana team could take such a backward step.

This is not a BaseCamp issue as far as I can tell. I have two other units that do not recalculate imported Routes as long as they are from the same map version.