4.0.1 coursepoints (cue points) get messed up if you edit them using 4.0.1

I'm trying hard to get a grip on course design, including the practical difference between regular shaping points and "Course Points."  My main objective is to be able to see the up-ahead distance to upcoming junctions or turns.

If you first designate important Waypoints (either in the app or on the device), and then create the course to connect Waypoint 1 to Waypoint 2 ...to Waypoint End., then don't those locs that are now both Waypoints and course-locations behave properly?  That is, their map icons correspond to the selected waypoint icon, and the distances are shown in the Active Route on the device.  I'm trying to do everything in either Explore or directly on the device and this seems like a decent approach.

Do I have that right?

If you create a course, either on device (using GPSMAP 67 for reference, it may differ for other devices) or in the Explore app, and you use a waypoint for a point in the course, the information of the waypoint (name, icon, location) is copied as a course point in the course. So both are actually separate pieces of data. But in effect it will indeed give you the correct course points in the course.

As for the ability to see upcoming junctions or turns, that is more the turn-by-turn navigation functionality provided by your device. This differs from device to device so you need to try what best works for you on your device. For example on my GPSMAP 67 I hardly use turn-by-turn because for my hiking it is sufficient to just follow the course as a breadcrumb trail and get notified when I go off course.

Some 3rd party platforms allow to include turn-by-turn instructions (cue points) as course points, I think ridewithgps supports this, so that may also be an option that could work well for you.

on my Epix 2  in the navigation menu i can create data pages which show only up when navigating. I added the fields for waypoint, distance to waypoint and time to waypoint. These fields shows the course points and the turn points and time and distance to them. The waypoint field shows either the name of the course point or turn left/right, whatever comes next. The course points are in a list on the up ahead page, but no turn points.

I create my courses in Strava. The course point made in Strava remain in the course when exporting to Garmin. I try to avoid using Garmin explore for or while navigating. I have the feeling that my watch crashes and reboot frequently while navigating and using the app. Today was the worst case. I created a course in GE as described by you. When opening it on the watch, it stayed for 20 minutes in a permanent crashing and rebooting loop. I will open a thread about it for further discussions.

I have created 2 scenarios in order to explain what happens with coursepoints (cues) when sending to or from GEM (iOS) and a Fenix 7x Pro watch.

For some reason I've no longer being able to insert any images here so will try in writing.

1. course and coursepoints(cues) created on GEM iOS and synched to a Fenix 7x Pro watch.
   1. I'm able to create a course and define any coursepoint  as a cue with description and an icon.
   2. When looking that saved course I can see the cues I've created and their icons but as soon I cliclk on any parte of the screen the app takes me to the general map screen and the icons are no longer seen.
   3. on the watch I get the coursepoints(cues) but with a general icon to them all.
2. course and coursepoints(cues) created on Plotaroute, copied as a .fit file directly to the watch's Garmin/NewFiles folder and than synched to GEM iOS.
   1. of course on the watch I can see all of them the way they were created. 
   2. On GEM I can see all coursepoints(cues) without the original icons they were created on the edit list but not on any place else.

In summary.

The watch does not inherit coursepoints(cues) icons from GEM nor GEM inherit coursepoints(cues) icons from a curse that was create some where else (Strava, Plotaroute, etc..) that were on the watch and them synched to the principal collection.

Also coursepoints(cues) are only seen on GEM when they were created using GEM and only while looking to a specific saved course. 

Regards

PS: this was done today on 4.0.4

I checked this with my GPSMAP 67 by creating a course in Explore app and changing course points to have a name and icon, and it seems some of the course point icons are displayed on the GPSMAP, and others are not. So apparently the icon sets do not match between Explore app and the device? And maybe it also differs per device.

Also it is indeed true that the map view in the app does not show the (edited) course points, they are only shown if you view the course itself. I guess that somewhat makes sense, if you have multiple courses in the same area, the map view would become very cluttered with all course point icons.

As for the icons on course points for courses created in plotaroute not being shown by Explore app, I think that is because plotaroute does not encode the data for the icon used in the FIT file it exports. You can see the differences between a FIT file created by Explore app and one by plotaroute in a tool like fitfileviewer.com (enable developer mode in fitfileviewer to see all fields). Maybe other online course creation tools do encode the icon data.

JungleJim said:

And maybe it also differs per device.

Unbelievably they are. They should have kept the Basecamp set and added new ones equally to all devices ...

JungleJim said:

I guess that somewhat makes sense, if you have multiple courses in the same area, the map view would become very cluttered with all course point icons.

I aggre to a certain degree. I believe that edit course points are indeed usable waipoints/POIs but off course directions(turns) would make one day, at the same point, would be a left and the other a right :-) 

JungleJim said:

plotaroute does not encode the data for the icon used in the FIT file it exports.

They do! its THE app I use because they have the most complete icon set including "directions" (turns) as well but it only works if you copy the fit file directly to the Garmin/Newfiles folder which meas you have to use an usb cable for that for iOS devices. Androids have apps that do that wireless without garmin connect ...

 Here  Course creation - fēnix 7 Series - Wearables - Garmin Forums you find a table showing how icons apear on UP AHead and on the map screen.