Fenix 5X and RideWithGPS

My Googlefu has failed me. I must apologize ahead of time if the answer is already here somewhere.

Step by step...what is the process to export a RideWithGPS route and import it into Garmin Connect or straight to a Fenix 5x. I did a TCX export, then dropped the file into the NewFiles folder on the 5x...which in itself is stupid with all the built in connectivity...but it never showed up on the watch as a navigable course.

This is frustratingly stupid that even among the various Garmin models the steps are different, much less between all the application developers (Strava, RideWithGPS, etc.)

Help me out please.

Thanks!

0 Emtec99 over 7 years ago

Export the course as TCX and use one of the tools mcbadger has suggested (he is the "TBT-expert" for quite some time :))
I'm pretty sure that there is no difference between the models regarding this topic (I own a 5X)

0 s_orange over 7 years ago

What do you mean? Do you mean it keeps the original points, or that it gives no points at all? If the latter, it depends on the device, and as I have a 5 not a 5x I don't know what it does for the X and how that might vary with settings on the watch.

I mean that I have lots routes in RWGPS complete with lots of custom coursepoints. It would be nice to be able to move them wireless onto the watch. Ideally I'd dump them all into GC then use the built in garmin tools to shuffle them on/off the watch.

If GC is just stripping all this information out and putting it's own in then it's of no use whatsoever for me. Basically garmin should buy RWGPS and swap out the awful course creator (here's hoping)

0 mcbadger over 7 years ago

Right, got you now. I agree, especially given that you can't control where GC puts turns at all, or see them without pulling the course back off the watch to view it in something else, you're just playing Russian roulette with any routes where you could get lost. I can live with the course creator when I'm just roughing out a route of so many miles from work to home, where I know the area really well, but when you need to know what the TBT will be telling you when, it's poor.

0 mcbadger over 7 years ago

I did a TCX export, then dropped the file into the NewFiles folder on the 5x...which in itself is stupid with all the built in connectivity...but it never showed up on the watch as a navigable course.

Missed that before. This is the right move for a GPX or FIT file, but Garmin abandoned TCX course import about the time the Fenix 3 came out. Awful move in my view; it's XML, the watches can still read XML because that's all GPX files are, and TCX is waaaaay better for TBT support than GPX is. But yeah, I already linked to my blog post about that above.

0 KevBaggers_ over 7 years ago

Just use BaseCamp. Its a bit cumbersome but works perfect. Export TCX GPX from RWGPS/Plotaroute/GPSies and import to BC, connect 5x drop the route on your watch and job done. Takes course points and prompts too.

0 s_orange over 7 years ago

..yes there are lots of options to get courses into the garmin, it's just that they mostly require actually plugging the watch into a computer of some sort. Seems a bit backwards when GCM can easily do this over Bluetooth. It just needs garmin to improve (radically) their course creation side of the software

being able to import routes is at least a step forward :)