Hopefully the answer to this one is easy. I'm wondering if it's possible to plan a route (I'm using BaseCamp) with way points marking the places I need to stop, and so these would influence data fields like distance to next, and perhaps trigger alerts. But also include points of interest along the way that would display on the map while doing the activity, but not influence data fields or trigger alerts. Is this possible?
Yes, you can add waypoints and POIs to your routes and any point on a route can be set to either alert or not by right clicking on the point in route properties and selecting the appropriate option.
That makes perfect sense, however, I believe that's where I'm running into device specific issues. It seems it's a confirmed issue that simply marking shaping points to "alert on arrival" does not work on the fenix 5x. I was hoping that upgrading to a way point that's been integrated in the route would produce the desired result, i.e. have an impact on certain data fields and trigger an alert. I've made some progress in testing this. Today I went for a walk along a route that I had very carefully arranged with 3 different types of points (1) a shaping point set to alert, (2) a way point set to alert, and (3) a way point representing a point-of-interest purposely set to not alert. I was very disappointed with the result, in that none of them showed up on the map, and none of them alerted. Basically it was as if they didn't exist. However, there was a flaw in my test. I had the setting "User Locations" set to "Hide" (because I had tried to get rid of that silly blue pin, but that's a different story). I only realized this in time to confirm that the point-of-interest does indeed show up on the map. I don't know what effect this setting had on the ability of other points to trigger alerts or be reflected in data fields. I will have to repeat the test, after another careful review of all my settings. Thanks for the guidance and I'll post an update when I learn more.
Ah okay. While BaseCamp can set the points as I've said not all devices will read them appropriately, and I have no idea whether the 5x will. Good luck with your trial!
I was able to get the waypoints to display on the map by changing settings, but unfortunately, nothing else. On the fenix 5x, waypoints are not reflected in data fields as they should be (e.g. Distance to Next, ETA at Next, etc.) and do not trigger alerts as they should when set to do so. I'm incredibly disappointed. The fitness watch aspects of this device are great, but for my purposes, it is first and foremost a navigational tool. And in that respect, it falls flat on its face, failing on some of the most fundamental levels. I would love for someone to tell me it's user error, but I'm losing hope on that front, because I've thoroughly combed through the menus about a hundred times.
Anyone else focusing on the fenix 5x's navigation functionality and finding the same shortcomings, and if so, have you heard anything from Garmin about fixing it?
I'm having the same issues with waypoints and have opened a ticket with support. It's surprising that there are data fields available for exactly what we want, but no instruction on how to get them working. I created my course in basecamp, added way points for the course using basecamp, and although they display on the map on my Fenix 5+, they data fields do not pick up any of the way points or alert me to their arrival.
i tryed that too. did not work. i think the only way to get an alarm is, start an activity. go to setting, alarms, "near by" (or something like this in english) select a favourite point you have saved.
This not possible for the Fenix5 using Basecamp. Ridewithgps web site allows you to create what´s called a "cuesheet". Those are based in the Garmin's ANT SDK kit as the chart bellow. Others softwares allow this too. I use a Plug in in Sporttracks ST3 software called Course and Waypoints. Fenix 5 max course_points is 50. Do not confuse with waypoints. They are totally different elements. Be advise that most of .fit files generate by those softwares are not 100% compatible with Fenix5 line so the best is to create a .tcx file (that would work as well) and convert it to .fit using a tool called TCX2FIT developed by McBadger. There are specifics threads about this subject. Look for "TCX2FIT", "TBT", Turn by Turn, " Navigating a course" , course points, cue sheet.
