Display of Course Point Turn Arrow

Hi, A developer I've been corresponding with has created a datafield, which displays the text description associated with the next course point when navigating a course.

I asked if it was possible to also display the directional turn icon that accompanies the description in the course point list adjacent to the text in their datafield.

The developer couldn't find the answer in the CIQ documentation & doesn't have a turn guidance enabled device on which to test such a feature.

Does anyone know if the icon i am after is available to the CIQ api & if so you could let me know the required instruction, which the developer would use on their datafield. Cheers

travis.vitek over 7 years ago

The information available is listed here. Only a few of those fields provide information relating to courses, specifically distanceToDestination, elevationAtDestination, nameOfDestination, distanceToNextPoint, elevationAtNextPoint, nameOfNextPoint, bearing, bearingFromStart, track, and offCourseDistance.

None of these appear to provide information about heading from the current position to the next data point or turn in the course.

FlowState over 7 years ago

^ Seconded. Although I believe the OPs question was actually about the turn type of the next course point (e.g. slight left turn, sharp left turn, u-turn, etc.), not the heading to the next course point. It's kind of a subtle distinction (the former would be pre-calculated and embedded in the course file), but it does make a difference, especially depending on the nature of your course.

https://developer.garmin.com/downloa...vity/Info.html

Anyway, the turn type info isn't available either.

I figure it's a deliberate decision on Garmin's part, otherwise it might be too easy to add turn-by-turn navigation to devices which don't support it natively. Or maybe not. Could always suggest it to Garmin as a feature request.

As it stands, if you want turn-by-turn, I think you have two options:
- Use the native functionality, with the native courses
- Use/implement a full-blown running/cycling app which uses its own course data (like dwMap)

hotdogpartysausage over 7 years ago

Hi. Thanks for you're answers. I was hoping it could be displayed so that I could have it on a regular datascreen on my e1000 along with the description & course point distance, which would enable me to prepare for a turn well on advance without checking the map screen.

FlowState over 7 years ago

That's a great idea. Do you have control over the course point text?

Maybe you could insert text arrows like -> or <-. Of course that would be a tedious manual process, but maybe there could demand for a webservice that automatically inserts some kind of text arrow into course point names. (Of course there's more than just left and right turns...)

Or maybe you could ask Garmin to add the turn type as a native data field, or at least make it available to developers. I think anyone who uses TbT for running or cycling would appreciate it.

Even more ambitiously, maybe there could be a web service that transforms a course file by taking course point turn types and embedding them as a text arrow/special code in the course point descriptions and you could have a complex data field which would render the text arrow as a graphical arrow (like Garmin shows in the TbT notification or map screen) but display the rest of the text normally.

Like:
<| Slight left turn
<<| Sharp left turn
>| Slight right turn
>>| Sharp right turn
U| U-turn

etc.

People who don't have the data field could still see the text arrow, but people who have the data field could see the graphical arrow. Of course it would be a pain to convert all your course files, especially because they would be harder to share after that.

I dunno, maybe these are all dumb ideas. But I think your original idea is great.

hotdogpartysausage over 7 years ago

Hi. There's some great ideas on workarounds there. Unfortunately the TCX course files don't have the course point description embedded in the file just a list of coordinates.
I think that the description along with the turn directional icon must be generated from the map data when you load the course and begin navigating.
I'll raise a feature request with garmin and hope for the best.

FlowState over 7 years ago

Oh right, because on a mapping device like Edge or Fenix 5X, that stuff can be generated on the fly.

I'm more used to watches like 935 where turn by turn directions have to be part of the GPX course that you load on to the unit.

Good luck.

dpawlyk over 7 years ago

Hi. There's some great ideas on workarounds there. Unfortunately the TCX course files don't have the course point description embedded in the file just a list of coordinates.
I think that the description along with the turn directional icon must be generated from the map data when you load the course and begin navigating.
I'll raise a feature request with garmin and hope for the best.

The Edges display the <Name> item for the text and base the icon on the <PointType> item.

The <PointType> items include turns but they also include other things (like "food", "danger", "summit"). RWGPS lets you add custom course points.

Presumably, an app could draw whatever it liked based on the <PointType> value (if the app had access to that info).

Course point XML in tcx file:

<CoursePoint>
<Name>Lake Ave</Name>
<Time>2017-07-26T22:43:49Z</Time>
<Position>
<LatitudeDegrees>43.32187</LatitudeDegrees>
<LongitudeDegrees>-73.83822</LongitudeDegrees>
</Position>
<PointType>Left</PointType>
<Notes>Turn left onto Lake Ave</Notes>
</CoursePoint>

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

It's not what's in the TCX, it's what the FW uses and if it's exposed to Connect IQ. (it's not exposed in this case)

dpawlyk over 7 years ago

It's not what's in the TCX, it's what the FW uses and if it's exposed to Connect IQ. (it's not exposed in this case)

The icons the units display are in the firmware.

The information used to select the icon is in the tcx/fit file.

The iq app can provide its own icons.

"hotdogpartysausage" was talking about what was in the tcx file. I showed an example of what the course point information in the tcx file was. Iq might not give you access to it but the info is there.


hotdogpartysausage over 7 years ago

A very interesting insight into course files & the Garmin device interpretation of them. Thanks
I'm not a developer, but I'm guessing that with the ciq data that's available at the moment the only way this could be implemented would be a standalone navigation app that interprets the contents of the loaded course file and displays an appropriate custom icon at the relevant point as opposed to displaying the icon generated by the Garmin device itself, which isn't currently available to developers.