Workflow in basecamp

In the Windows version there is a filter at the bottom of the left hand pane enabling you to select just routes, or waypoints, BirdsEye etc, from whichever folder you've selected. Perhaps you don't have that in the mac version but look for a 'filter icon' at the bottom right of the bottom left hand pane.

There are many basic strategies for data management. I’ll offer mine, FWIW.

First, I do think it’s important to create routes in the same folder where you have all waypoints available for use in route creation. Then when you send your data to your device, it’s nice to have all routes and waypoints you may use in a trip available to send in one list.

In my case, I start with one master waypoints list that has every waypoint I've created and saved, (currently almost 1000 waypoints). For a new trip, I create any new waypoints and all required routes in that waypoint list to start with, getting them just the way I want them. Then I create a new list in a "trips" folder and name it with a date and description like "150705 <Short Trip Description>" for a trip starting on 7 July. This sorts all trip lists by date. You can organize these lists and folders containing your lists in whatever manner you wish.

Then I go back to the waypoints list and I multiple-select and "show on map" all the routes, then draw a selection rectangle on the map that generously includes all routes and all waypoints within the rectangular area, then I "send" all the selected items to the newly created list. This works very fast. After checking to ensure it all went ok (it always has) I go back and delete the routes only from the master waypoints list. So I end up with a list for each trip, with multiple routes and all waypoints used in the routes or in the area of the routes in that list (which means I can select any un-routed waypoints on the fly during the trip if my plans change or I just decide I want to change plans). Then I clean all previous data off my device (Zumo in my case) and send that list to it and it gives me everything I need for the trip.

I organize my trip lists by year, but you could do it by country, or whatever. You could also have more than one master waypoints list for points that are not likely to be needed together, like a &#8220;South America&#8221; folder and a &#8220;North America&#8221; folder.

As to the &#8220;mess&#8221; in a large list like a master waypoints list, I find if I am smart and consistent about waypoint naming, I can quickly find waypoints by sorting them by name.

One way of doing it, anyway&#8230; (p.s. - I'm using Windows, but I think the strategy above is platform-neutral.)

In the Windows version there is a filter at the bottom of the left hand pane enabling you to select just routes, or waypoints, BirdsEye etc, from whichever folder you've selected. Perhaps you don't have that in the mac version but look for a 'filter icon' at the bottom right of the bottom left hand pane.

Mac has a filter as well, but it opens a separate window. I think Windows filters it right in the side view. Click the little down arrow and select 'View Detailed Data List'.

@C14_Rider Thanks for sharing. So you keep all your waypoints and routes a particular tip all in the same folder?

Well, we need to keep the terminology crisp to be clear… There are “Folders”, and there are “Lists”. My structure is roughly:

Business Trips 2014 (folder)
Trip A (list)
Trip B (list)
Etc
Business Trips 2015 (folder)
Trip C (list)
Trip D (list)
Personal Trips 2014 (folder)
Etc, similar to above…
Waypoints Master Lists (folder)
Business Waypoints (list)
Personal Waypoints (list)

Each list in the “trips” folders contains all the routes and waypoints related to a specific trip, including waypoints that are just in the “neighborhood” of the trip, even though they are not actually in any route. So many waypoints are in multiple lists. The routes tend to be in just one list, with descriptive names that include the date that a route is taken.

One of the keys to this is that in BC, what you see in lists and folders are just pointers to the data. Each data element such as a waypoint exists only once in the data base, so to have pointers to those waypoints in multiple places does not duplicate data. So you can think of the lists as a way of filtering what you want to see on the screen at the same time. You can create lists and copy data elements into them as much as you like to be able to see and work with them, including temporary lists used just to see certain things together on the screen. When you then delete such a list, only the list and any unique items it contains are deleted, anything that is in other lists and/or folders is retained. Bottom line, you need not worry about what appears to be duplication, use folders to keep thing organized, but make as many lists or folders as you want to make it easier to work with the data you have.

However, remember that if you change anything about any element, it will change in all places where it appears (since these are only “pointing” to what you changed), not just in the list or folder you have selected. So if you move a waypoint, and that waypoint is in many routes, all those routes will be automatically recalculated since you just affected all of them. If you don’t want that to happen, you must “duplicate” a waypoint or route and give the new item a unique and meaningful name, then you have a new and unique item to work with.

Another extremely powerful tool for waypoint management is the "category" field found under "References" in the waypoint edit window. You can add one or multiple user defined category tags to a waypoint that can be used as search criteria in a smartest. This allows you to filter large numbers of waypoints in different ways.