This might be the same as "Fighting City Hall" but for the user of Garmin GPS for about 11 years and the MapSource Product, BaseCamp is not an equal replacement. First of all, MapSource is more intuitive and easier to navigate on my pc, which I do all of my route planning. Second, I am able to store separate files. I do one each for long rides, say 2 weeks / 3000 miles / 250 waypoints. I do a separate file for each year for shorter trips of a few hours, thus I have 2012, 2011, 2010 ... files. As for the Route Properties -> Directions screen, I can cut and paste it directly into Excel so that I can use this data to develope route itineraries. Instead of a row and column structure that is used with MapSource, BaseCamp pastes all the data in one column that is very difficult to work with, taking a lot of time to spread it back out into different columns. I use the Categories feature quite a bit to diferentiate things such as food, fuel, attractions, Harley Dealers, route plan, etc. I cannot do this with BaseCamp. Everything about the data in BaseCamp is difficult to work with. I am sorry but unless Garmin can restore features and make it easier to find your way around and save files BaseCamp is a looser in my mind.
To be honest I have only just discovered Basecamp - I have always used Mapsource to manage my eTrex - but from what little I have seen so far I have to say I will be sticking with Mapsource as long as I can.
The one item that I use most in Mapsource - the Map Tool - seems to be missing from Basecamp. I use this frequently to select areas of maps to upload to the eTrex and it has always worked well. I have not yet really had the need to do the same in Basecamp but from what I've seen it looks like it is going to be more complicated. I tried using the select tool but this appears to do nothing - so I have no idea how one selects an area of a map for uploading to a device. :confused:
Also the other day I was 'playing' with Basecamp and decided to try to create a route. Later this year I am driving from Seattle to Yellowstone and I tried to create a route for the first part of the trip. Even though I have Faster Time selected in options the route as generated by Basecamp completely ignored a large section of I90 which just by looking at the map must be a much faster road than the local highways Basecamp chose. I realise I could have forced a route by putting in waypoints by this defeats the point of routing - it should be capable of determining the fastest route between two locations without having to be fed supplementary information. Hopefully when it comes to the time my nuvi will be more intelligent when calculating the route.
The select tool is used to select waypoints, routes etc showing on the map.
To install a map to your Etrex, and with it connected and showing in Basecamp's left hand pane just right click the User Data folder and select 'Install maps'. That lauches MapInstall.
Or you can just go the Garmin folder in All Programs and select MapInstall :)
As for the routing, check the Routing Properties to see what avoidances are set. Utilities>Options>Activity Profile, choose the relevant profile and look under the Routing tab. As for your nuvi, it will also select the route depending on the route choice and avoidances you have set. I always check my route before starting off as sometimes local knowledge is better than blindly following the GPS :)
Have spent a couple of weeks trying to get my head around basecamp and new 2495. Have had some great help from forums. But garmin front of house support at least in the UK near useless! They keep on telling me to do this, try that etc..its all misinformation, as they don't know themselves...as this software not fit for purpose and should not of been released. But this is what garmin do release stuff full of bugs and expect us the consumer to be the guinea pigs. So finally yesterday admitting there's is known bug transferring routes. Have wasted days on this...
By example: was told to chop route up as to long. Even though a 1100 mile outward route to spain transferred ok, when I say ok you get no information that route sent, and it hangs and hangs in device. My 775 and map source instantaneous. Sometime route there, sometimes not ..it's BS. Should not be on the market!
At one stage I transferred 3 sections of return leg, one at a time. One went 2 disappear into the ether...they also disappeared from basecamp list. Nothing showing in nuvi trip menu, BUT when I sent content back to basecamp hey presto the 3 segments mysteriously reappear . So they where actually in the nuvi but unseen,...
Really have had enough now, and if I can get my map source installed on new PC (another garmin drama) I may well send the 2495 back as its crap and basecamp worse
Not to start an argument but just for the record, as Falagar and at least one other developer have stated, there is no file compatibility with Mapsource. The only thing they "reused" from Mapsource was the .GDB file extension. I wish they had not done that because it only creates confusion, to no useful purpose.
I must have expressed myself in a confusing manner then. We still use the same gdb format that we used in MapSource, just a newer version. MapSource cannot read the newer version, so therefore it's not compatible in that sense (try opening AllData.gdb in MapSource). But BaseCamp still exports the age-old gdb that MapSource understands.
Switching from the binary gdb format to a real database is something we really want to do.
The select tool is used to select waypoints, routes etc showing on the map.
To install a map to your Etrex, and with it connected and showing in Basecamp's left hand pane just right click the User Data folder and select 'Install maps'. That lauches MapInstall.
Or you can just go the Garmin folder in All Programs and select MapInstall :)
As for the routing, check the Routing Properties to see what avoidances are set. Utilities>Options>Activity Profile, choose the relevant profile and look under the Routing tab. As for your nuvi, it will also select the route depending on the route choice and avoidances you have set. I always check my route before starting off as sometimes local knowledge is better than blindly following the GPS :)
Thanks for the information - I will give that a try. I'm used to Mapsource where you can select parts of a map and send that to the device so I have not had the need to use MapInstall.
I did check to see what avoidances had been set. The only one is unpaved roads - I doubt very much if that would apply to I90 :D No idea why it chose the route it did but I will definitely check the route when it comes to doing it for real.
