Planning a road trip using Basecamp

Former Member over 7 years ago

I now have basecamp happily connected to my GPS :) - Happy dance ** ** **

I might be attempting something beyond my technical capabilities so please be gentle. I have seen a lot of instructions on the internet and I am following them but what I see on my screen is not what the instructions are telling me I should see.

I have maps for France, Spain and Portugal but we will be nipping over to Morocco on the ferry. My first step is to try to get the top part of Morocco onto my GPS. So I downloaded the open source 'tile' and I have the file that the system tells me is for a Gamin - which ends with _windows.exe. I can't see this using Basecamp. I tried downloading 'generic new tile' files but can't see them in Basecamp either. The only thing that Basecamp wants me to import is a User key from the look of it. Another program said to put it in file directly on the device but I can't see that file either. I can only see a list of directories.

The step I wanted to do after that was to plan the trip on Google Earth and create the file to import. I am a bit worried that I will do a lot of planning and then not be able to put it on my device.

Is there an expert who can explain to me, without and jargon, what I am supposed to do?

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

What exact model do you have? Nuvii or Drive? Do you have auto routing maps?
You must double click the EXE file so that the Morocco map will install into your computer. Then BaseCamp will find it and you will be able to use that map to plan your route and send it to your device.
BaseCamp cannot send maps to your device.
You need to download Garmin MapInstall software and install it to your computer. That will allow you to select portions of or all of any maps you have on your computer and send them to an SD card or directly to your Garmin device.
The way I plan a trip on Google Earth is to create a base folder with a name for the trip. Inside I make more folders for Day01, Day02, etc. I also make a folder on my hard drive with the same trip name. Then using GE I find the places I definitely want to see on Day01 and make waypoints and move them into the folder Day01, Day02 etc. Then I right click Day01 > "Save Place As" > Browse to my hard drive trip folder > Save. Then Day02 etc. Then I open BaseCamp > right click My Collection > New List Folder > name it same trip name. Then I right click that trip name folder > New List > name it Day01 and repeat for more days. Then highlite Day01 > go up top click > File > Import into 'Day01' > browse to my hard drive trip name folder > double click Day01.kmz then repeat for other days. Now, in BaseCamp, I can click on Day01 and since I have "auto routing maps" I can plan the routes I want to use to get to the waypoints and save those routes in Day01.
To see all the days, points and routes at one time just click the base trip name folder.
NAMING waypoints is tricky. Everything in BaseCamp is in ONE HUGE database. Every waypoint name must be unique or the software adds 01 to any duplicate names. I keep it very simple and short otherwise the screen on the device gets all cluttered. Day01 waypoints are named 01a, 01b, etc. Day02 is 02a, 02b, etc.
This is just a small part of the learning curve so feel free to ask questions. There are many BaseCamp guru's on this forum with more experience that will help you.

0 SUSSAMB over 7 years ago

You can send installed maps using BaseCamp since MapInstall is included with it. Just right click your device and select Install maps.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Thank you datezz and SUSSAMB. My Gramin is a Garmin Drive? 50LM .

I will have a go at installing the maps as described and see how I get on. I have started plotting the route in google maps and saving sections as KML files. So I am trying and when I come to a point where I am totally stuck I will ask again.

Best wishes
Louisette

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Hello
Good news. It was much simpler than I thought. I clicked the osm exe file then opened Basecamp. Then clicked Maps, Install Maps and then continue and it was done. I now have a map of Morocco on my GPS.
The KML files seem to be easy to pull into basecamp and then send to the GPS. I have all the waypoints in my favourites. I also have a ton of walking routes which were created in the process. If I ever want to walk from Marrakesh to Porto airport I will be able to do that :).
I feel much more confident now having got this far.
Thanks again :)

0 SUSSAMB over 7 years ago

Great :)