Routes/Tracks in Garmin GPSMap62st

The attachment (which hopefully I can attach lol) is one of my shorter hikes using the non-routable OS Discovery map as mentioned previously. As you will note it uses the Direct profile and contains 62 points. When transfered to my 62st the display showed roughly a circle (by using ones imagination) with many straight lines emitting from this circle which was of no use to me whatsoever. I then converted the initial route into a track and sent this over to the unit but once again it failed but with time the warning that only 50 points were allowed. Back on the PC each night before the planned hike, I reduced the planned track to 50 points and when transfered to the unit was finally able to get something that resembled what I intended. The only drawback, as also mentioned earlier, was that now the track was reduced to 50 points this always resulted in straight lines being created any two points which on many occasions was less than desireable.

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I'm not sure what's going on but you can have thousands of points in a track, the 50 point limit only comes if you've selected the 'on road' setting in Routing on your 62. I suspect you have routing set to 'on road' as that would also explain your description of the route showing a circle with many straight lines emanating from it. The map you have has an underlying road map, so with 'on road' selected it will try and match your route to the roads.

I'll be sure to check/confirm that when I get the unit back next week. At the moment my brother is out having fun with it but hopefully not as much fun as I've been experiencing LOL.

OK, you were correct SUSSAMB - my 62st was set to Hiking and not Direct although I can't remember consciously changing things as Direct is the default which I discovered after performing a reset.

So then, if I'm understanding this correctly, it doesn't really matter whether I create Routes or Tracks in BC as long as I choose the Direct profile in BC as well as the GPS and am using no-routeable maps? Do I still use this profile when using routeable maps?

Being honest, I must admit to not quite following the logic of choosing the Direct profile when creating a Route/Track that I intend to Hike. It leads to the question of why do other profiles exist, other than motoring that is, when they don't on the surface appear to serve any purpose?

So then, if I'm understanding this correctly, it doesn't really matter whether I create Routes or Tracks in BC as long as I choose the Direct profile in BC as well as the GPS and am using no-routeable maps? Do I still use this profile when using routeable maps?

I was fairly certain that Direct routes created in BaseCamp would always load as Direct on a 62, but after testing this is not case. The Routing Activity must be set to Direct to correctly load on a 62. I still think the limit for a Direct Route is 250 points, but I did not test this. Yes, the Routing Activity must be Direct regardless of the type of map.

Being honest, I must admit to not quite following the logic of choosing the Direct profile when creating a Route/Track that I intend to Hike. It leads to the question of why do other profiles exist, other than motoring that is, when they don't on the surface appear to serve any purpose?

If you like, you can think of the points you add to a route (as seen on the Properties tab of you post above) as being the Direct Route. These are the points your route must hit. For Automated Routes (anything except a Direct Activity), additional points that follow routable features (roads/trails) are added to get from one user point to the next. These additional points must be chosen by application and to do this there are adjustable parameters to aid in choosing (at least approximately) a suitable route.

The different Activity Profiles are preset choices for the parameters needed to aid the application in finding a route. For example, some routable maps have routable trails. Automobiles/Motorcycles aren't allowed on these features while Hikers may use these features. Similarly, a Hiker may not be allowed or in general desire to walk along a limited access highway and so the application will avoid this feature. Garmin classifies its routable features (i.e. a trail is different from a highway which is different from a residential road etc.) to allow/deny access for different activities.

Tracks do not care if routable features are present or not, so profiles do not matter. Tracks are created by clicking on the icon that looks like shoe prints in the ground. You can then click on the map to add points, hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor to lay down multiple points, or use a combination of both. On a 62, you would navigate a track via Find > Tracks> track name. As mentioned in another post, reversing a track may be required correct navigation.

FYI you might want to read this. I bet it applies to the 62 models as well.

Routes and the Oregon x50 (and other?) models

Thanks, you've both been a big help and I'm beginning to understand things a bit better now. :-)

To my knowledge there is no comprehensive reference anywhere on routes/trips and tracks. There are lots of little hints, for various models, scattered in various internet forums and sites. Garmin's manuals are pretty much useless.

Almost everything I know has been learned/learnt first hand by "playing" (e.g. my recent post linked to above). I highly advise readers of this thread to do the same.

As I said in one of my early replies this subject is complicated. It takes time and effort (and experimentation) to understand. What you know may then not be (completely) applicable to a new Garmin model.

Have fun :cool:

OK, sorry to refer back to this topic once more that I believed - no I had hoped - closed, but alas it is not to be. This weekend sees a group of us setting out on the first of our winter hikes and so I've dug out the old 62st once again.

Selecting TOPO Deutschland v6 PRO (which is a Routable Map) in BC I began by setting the activity profile to Direct which is also what the 62st is set to.

I then attempted to create my route (I also tried track but the result was the same) and it became obvious from the setting of my first point that it wasn't going to work because all I got was a straight line between the start and first point. This shouldn't be the case because the map is routable and therefore the marked route between start and first point should have followed the route through the forest.

I then changed the activity profile to 'Hiking' and had another go. This time, because the map is routable, there was no straight line but indeed a route was created that followed the forest track.

When the completed route was transfered to the 62st because the device had been set to the Direct Profile all I got, as expected, was the route appearing as a series of straight lines. Once I had changed the devices profile to Hiking to match the profile in BC then the route appeared exactly as it did in BC and became navigable.

This is completely at odds then with all the advice that I have been given - the latest by BTLAAKE who says "Yes, the Routing Activity must be Direct regardless of the type of map." On the 62st - on mine at least - selecting the Direct profile only results in a series of straight lines; both in the unit and in BC. To repeat though, this is with a routable map - I haven't had the opportunity of testing it with a non-routable map as the only one that I own is for the Yorkshire Dales and I'm about 800km away from there right now lol.

This really depends what effect you want. When hiking I always use direct routing as I want to control the route, not have one calculated based on the map. If you want your GPS to calculate the route between waypoints then you need to select a profile other than direct.