How do you create a route in basecamp???

Hi 115151,

I'll try and help you out. You seem a bit frustrated ;) as was I until I "learned" the BC-Windows ways.

Let's start from the beginning of creating a route. The BaseCamp Help is useful but sometimes terminology used isn't intuitive and the tool methods are a bit abstract. By the way, Tool use in the Mac version of BC is much more intuitive - I use both and am becoming a bit schizophrenic.

The easiest way to create the type of route you want is to use the "On Map" Routing Tool (File->New->Route). For now you can close the Route window that opened up. Using the Routing Tool (pencil), you will want to click a starting point and an ending point. This will generate a Route for you. It most likely will not go exactly where you want to go - depending upon your Preferences settings for Routing and the Map you are using in BaseCamp.

To edit or change the Route you just created, make sure the route is selected in your list (highlighted). You can use several tools. On the Tool Bar find the "New", "Insert", "Move Point", "Erase" and "Divide" tools. The easiest way right now (since you are in tune with select and drag - or "rubber banding") is the "Insert" tool. Click to activate the insert point when you see the shadow line anywhere on the Route. Your not really dragging but you'll get the hang of it. Once you have the insert point active you can click to place the new point on any road or trail on your map.

I don't particularly like this approach myself. On the BC-Mac you can actually do a simple select and drag (rubber band) the route using the Select Tool.

Cheers,

just bought a garmin oregon 450, and so far, i can't figure out basecamp. i am going on a backpacking trip soon and have planned my route on a map, and now want to follow this route on my oregon 450. supposedly, you can create a route with basecamp, but this software is absolutely horrible in terms of ease of use. no manuals, no help, nothing!

the "new route" tool is useless. all it lets me do is select a start and end point and then it creates the shortest route between the 2 points, along whatever trail it wants to. yes, i know there is an option to choose between the shortest route, literally a straight line, and the other option just creates a route that follows a road or trail, usiang the shortest route to the end point. this is useless for backpacking. seriously, who wants the shortest route? i want to create my OWN route, where i specify. that's the point of being able to create your own route, and i just don't see how this is done.

i have tried to drag the route to go along the trails i want it to, but after selecting every tool in the tool bar, i have come to the conclusion that none of them allow you to change this route. i have messed around with the options but none of them seem relevant to what i am doing.

i have also tried creating several waypoints, but there is no way to connect them MANUALLY, because if you try to create a route using the waypoints themselves, it just chooses the shortest route. this should not be so hard! is the software really this bad, or am i missing something? is there any other software available that can easily create a route that i can create and upload to my gps so that i can follow it while on the trail?

Here is a place to start: http://garmin-mapsource.wikispaces.com/BaseCamp.

Also, there is quite a bit of BC discussion here: http://www.zumoforums.com/index.php?board=44.0

Both of these Forums are motorcycle based, but for most routing purposes it shouldn't matter.

Good Luck,

Don

I am no expert but if you create a track you can click in each new leg of the track with the mouse pointer very quickly and simply. Then from the file menu select create route from track and then from the prompt you can select auto waypoints if you wish. Ready for upload to your 450

I am no expert but if you create a track you can click in each new leg of the track with the mouse pointer very quickly and simply. Then from the file menu select create route from track and then from the prompt you can select auto waypoints if you wish. Ready for upload to your 450

Thanks everyone for the replies. I figured this out yesterday, using the tracks. Pretty ridiculous way to go about creating a route though... to create a ROUTE, I had to click and new TRACK, then click NEW in the file menu, then "direct route from selected track". Garmin should make it a little more simple, that's not exactly obvious... but whatever, I got it. Just frustrating when you sped several hundred dollars on a nice GPS and then the software that you are supposed to use with it to do basic functions was made by mickey mouse.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I figured this out yesterday, using the tracks. Pretty ridiculous way to go about creating a route though... to create a ROUTE, I had to click and new TRACK, then click NEW in the file menu, then "direct route from selected track". Garmin should make it a little more simple, that's not exactly obvious... but whatever, I got it. Just frustrating when you sped several hundred dollars on a nice GPS and then the software that you are supposed to use with it to do basic functions was made by mickey mouse.

I kind of agree, the software is not that user friendly and whilst I do not mind a learning curve I think Basecamp is definitely work in progress. At the moment and someone please correct me if I am wrong but I am not seeing any use whatsoever of route creation. I tried it from the tutorial posted here and I do not get the drag screen anymore but even so it is painfully difficult and frustrating wondering what its logic is in joining up waypoints. Creating a track on the other hand is pretty easy and intuitive and then converting it to a route is one click. Surely this makes the route feature redundant?

Anyway same as you, a new user with a 450, and with 3 local routes uploaded ready for testing!

Thank you Garmin.

I bought my first Garmin, the 60csx in 2006. I’ve also purchased a Nuvi 880, an Oregon 550 and I have a Nuvi 3490LMT on order with GPSCity.com with an expected shipping date of Oct. 12, 2011. I’ve always liked MapSource and when Basecamp was introduced I like many of its attributes. I, like you, have had my moments with BaseCamp. The one thing that always comes to mind when those moments occur, is that Mapsource came free with my 60csx and all updates are free. Basecamp is free to anyone in the world and all updates are free. Live tech support has a toll free service to anyone wishing to use it. When you call them, they will work with you as long as it takes to fix your problem or satisfy your concerns, and I mean no matter how long it takes without EVER making you feel rushed through the process. I might add that when you call Garmin, you are actually talking to Garmin people, not some hired service based in India that could care less if you get your problem fixed or not. My understanding is that there is many other mapping programs people can use and not use Mapsource or BaseCamp if that’s what anyone would prefer; however, they are probably not free! I would challenge anyone to come up with any company they have ever dealt with that has employees as dedicated as every Garmin employee I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. The very forum we are all using here to voice our concerns can be use to help each other, to help improve the product, to make suggestions or to just use as a whipping post. This forum is basically a one on one forum with Garmin engineers, senior members and experienced professionals from other walks of life speaking directly to your concerns on a topic by topic issue. I want to thank the Garmin people that deal with all of us out here; it’s not an easy task. Every day you help us and make things better for everyone.

There is probably another piece of this puzzle that needs to be understood to use any program like Mapsource and Basecamp effectively.

How a route gets calculated depends on more than the routing preferences you select and the waypoints you select.

In order for the routing software to calculate a route, it must have routing data to work with.

Garmin's map files are not pictures. They are complex databases which contain a variety of data. They contain all the data necessary to draw the maps on the screen, of course. But they contain much more.

They also contain all the POIs that you can search, address information (country, state, city, street, house numbers) you can search, etc.

And they contain the information needed to calculate routes.

Important Fact: If the maps do not contain the necessary routing information for where you want the route to go, the routing software cannot make a route go in anything but a straight line.

Some topo maps and third-party (non-Garmin) maps contain no routing information at all. Garmin's road maps do not contain routing information on many minor roads.

It sounds like the original poster is trying to create routes where there is a combination of roads with routing information and minor roads or trails that do not. That makes it especially confusing and frustrating if you don't understand the requirement for routing information in the maps.

The original poster did not mention which detail maps are being used,if any. It is possible that only the basic map (basemap) is being used. If so, there is only a bare minimum of routing information in it covering only major roadways.

When you try to create a route to a point, or between points, where there is no routing information, all the routing software can do is draw a straight line. In this case your best solution is the trick of manually drawing a track and converting it to a route.

There is no magic that will force the routing software to calculate routes where there is no routing information.

I hope this helps.

...ken...

Adding missing trials to existing maps

Thanks everyone for the replies. I figured this out yesterday, using the tracks. Pretty ridiculous way to go about creating a route though... to create a ROUTE, I had to click and new TRACK, then click NEW in the file menu, then "direct route from selected track". Garmin should make it a little more simple, that's not exactly obvious... but whatever, I got it. Just frustrating when you sped several hundred dollars on a nice GPS and then the software that you are supposed to use with it to do basic functions was made by mickey mouse.

I'm having similar problems for creating routes that are trials rather than roads. The problem seems to be the vectorial maps themselves - some of the trials that are actually physically present are not on the maps (unofficial private tracks, for example, or just errors) - so when I try to create a route it takes me all round the houses. Surely the way round this would be a piece of software that allows me to add the missing trials - ones that are routable - as an addition to the existing map base? Has anyone out there thought of this, please?? Possible?

I'm having similar problems for creating routes that are trials rather than roads. The problem seems to be the vectorial maps themselves - some of the trials that are actually physically present are not on the maps (unofficial private tracks, for example, or just errors) - so when I try to create a route it takes me all round the houses. Surely the way round this would be a piece of software that allows me to add the missing trials - ones that are routable - as an addition to the existing map base? Has anyone out there thought of this, please?? Possible?

To add trails you need to compile a new map, with ALL the data. Trail data is hard to come by, normally created by folks with GPSrs.

OpenStreetMap is a good place to upload your data. If you do, you can download a routable map with it on it from garmin.openstreetmap.nl. Map updates are generally weekly, so don't expect to see your trails added instantaneously.

garmin.openstreetmap.nl maps do not include contours.

Easiest way I've found to create a hiking route in Basecamp to download to my GPS is to use the direct profile, then it's a simple click to pick the start point, and click at various points to make the route go where you want. I generally start with the map zoomed out, create a rough track then zoom in and add/move waypoints as necessary. Even IF the map you're using has routeable data (as KGANSHIRT pointed out many don't) it probably won't take you the way you want to go anyway if you're out hiking ;)