I've looked everywhere for any information on this and I can't find it. I have been used to using tracks (instead of routes) to plan my hikes, but I've noticed that the inclusion of nearby waypoints and the calculation of the remaining distance to the endpoint is unreliable. So, I converted all my tracks to routes and added waypoints, as necessary, in the routes. All the "in-between" points I set as "Don't alert on arrival", which I understand makes them "shaping points". All well and good in BaseCamp. However, when I transfer these routes to my Oregon 450, all the shaping points are shown with blue pin icons and the "Via Point Name". This is very messy and makes it hard to see the underlying map on the device. Is there any way to prevent this so that the shaping points show up on the GPS devices (like they do in BaseCamp) as simple dots with no name?
Only the zumo 3x0 series and certain nüvis support shaping points. Every other Garmin device treats them as regular via points. You can however replace the via point symbol on the device with another, less obtrusive symbol: put an alternative symbol with the name "Pin, Blue.bmp" in the folder Garmin/CustomSymbols on the device. You can find one here: http://www.javawa.nl/viatoestel.html . The page is in Dutch, but the link to the file is easily found. This doesn't hide the via point names though, and you will still be alerted when you reach a via point.
Thanks for the suggestions. That at least makes the map easier to read. Now it would just be nice if I could get rid of the names as well.
For anyone from Garmin who might see this thread, the trail range of handhelds is the one that would make the most use of direct mode navigation, so they really should support this feature. For example, as well as handling the shaping points properly by not showing them as normal waypoints, they should ignore shaping points in the "Active Route" display and, for the same reasons, in the calculation for Distance to Next, Time to Next, ETA at Next, etc. Otherwise routes have no real purpose for what is essentially a hiking GPS.
Well I don't have an Oregon but my Etrex 20 has various data fields, allowing me to choose what I see. I simply set mine to Distance to destination when I'm out hiking. Maybe you need to make some changes to your data fields?
So have it. It works on my units--if you use a symbol that the unit supports.
Did some testing: created a gpx file with a waypoint and a short route consisting of 4 via points. The waypoint (Sportpark Rijnvliet3) has the symbol "City (Small)"; I copied the symbol code to the via points in the route (changing <sym>Waypoint</sym> into <sym>City (Small)</sym>) and disabled my own custom via point symbol. You can see the result at the left...
Next test: enabled my custom via point symbol; no changes to the gpx file. The result is shown right. All tests performed on the Oregon 550t with firmware version 6.40. Since your Oregon 450 is almost identical to mine, I cannot imagine why it would behave differently. Can you show an example?
Only the zumo 3x0 series and certain nüvis support shaping points. Every other Garmin device treats them as regular via points. You can however replace the via point symbol on the device with another, less obtrusive symbol: put an alternative symbol with the name "Pin, Blue.bmp" in the folder Garmin/CustomSymbols on the device. You can find one here: http://www.javawa.nl/viatoestel.html . The page is in Dutch, but the link to the file is easily found. This doesn't hide the via point names though, and you will still be alerted when you reach a via point.
Thank you very much, Javawa. Finally got rid of the blue pins on my Montana via points. Your replacement works wonders.
