Turn off turn by turn annotations in map display?

Hi All,

I hope someone can help me with this. When trail running, I get very frustrated with the amount of information on the map screen. So I've completely turned off the map layer, and what I have is just a display of the course I'm following. The problem is that I do like turn by turn instructions. So I've generated these in a FIT file with plotaroute, and placed them on the watch. The problem is that my Fenix displays all the turns in tiny text overlaid on the map, e.g. "Turn left" "Turn sharp left", as well as trail names where they are available. Sometimes I go through areas with many intersections and turns, and what I get on the display is a horrible confusing tangled mess of overlayed text, my breadcrumb trail, my course, etc.

Is there are a way to turn this off? Trying to get an acceptable level of detail is really an issue with this watch. It's constantly trying to give me more information no matter what I seem to do.

Top Replies

phoglund_ over 1 year ago in reply to #Matthias# +2 verified

Just tested. If I remove the text entirely, plotaroute nowadays deletes the direction from the list immediately.

A 'space' seems to work and creates a course point without a text. Not tested it on the watch…

All Replies

0 #Matthias# over 1 year ago

The watch shows the course point names. You can try to remove the names in plotaroute and the watch does not have anything to display.

0 phoglund_ over 1 year ago

First, you can in PlotaRoute use the nice abbreviation feature in the direction list to automatically shorten all 'Turn left', 'Turn sharp left', and so on to maybe a 'dot' or any other code (do not use < or \, then your route can't be opened again).

Another more definitive way is to use a custom maptheme, that I wrote about here: forums.garmin.com/.../1662508

phoglund_ said:
I now found a way to hide the course point description on the map via the MapTheme file. It is the style field MPM_HGLT_TXT_CLR that controls the text on the map for course points. This text hides the text:

<style field="MPM_HGLT_TXT_CLR"><color>
<primary day="#00ffffff" night="#00ffffff"/>
<secondary day="#00ffffff" night="#00ffffff"/></color></style>

Primary is foreground and secondary is background color.

Try this if you're not familiar with changing theme files: OrangeOrange13.kmtf

More info about map themes here: https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/204247/how-to-change-the-colour-of-navigation-course-follow-line-with-your-own-map-theme

Copy the file to /GARMIN/MAPTHEMES folder on your device and then select that theme in your activity.

(This file also changes the color of the course follow line, virtual partner arrow, your position arrow, and the arrows that show what course line to follow.)

0 phoglund_ over 1 year ago in reply to #Matthias#

#Matthias# said:
You can try to remove the names in plotaroute and the watch does not have anything to display

Unfortunately I think that if you remove the text entirely, no course point at all are saved in the file. At least that was the case a year ago or something.

0 #Matthias# over 1 year ago in reply to phoglund_

Okay thank you for your input. I do not use plotaroute. I suggested to remove the name because also Garmin Connect creates the Course points for navigation without a name.

+1 phoglund_ over 1 year ago in reply to #Matthias#

Just tested. If I remove the text entirely, plotaroute nowadays deletes the direction from the list immediately.

A 'space' seems to work and creates a course point without a text. Not tested it on the watch, but at least that is what is visible by https://www.fitfileviewer.com/

0 DrSilverthorn over 1 year ago in reply to phoglund_

This was a good suggestion - but now I have gaps in the course line. The directions are still being drawn, and they are overwriting the course.

phoglund_ said:
I now found a way to hide the course point description on the map via the MapTheme file. It is the style field MPM_HGLT_TXT_CLR that controls the text on the map for course points. This text hides the text:

A question - in your posts on color codes, there are three bytes used for the color code, but there are four bytes for each style. I guess there's no control for transparency? And which three bytes define the color - the last three?

I'll try the abbreviation feature in plotaroute next. I was unaware of this.

Seems like a lot of tweaking just to get something like a very visible breadcrumb trail with TBT.

Thanks for your help.

0 phoglund_ over 1 year ago in reply to DrSilverthorn

DrSilverthorn said:
now I have gaps in the course line. The directions are still being drawn

You mean that you dont se the text anymore, but where the text was it is now empty.

DrSilverthorn said:
I guess there's no control for transparency? And which three bytes define the color - the last three?

Last three bytes are color and the first is transparency. #00 is for transparent.

For the color codes. Google on 'web color codes'.

0 DrSilverthorn over 1 year ago in reply to phoglund_

phoglund_ said:
You mean that you dont se the text anymore, but where the text was it is now empty.

Yes. That is why I asked about the transparency byte, since it seemed inconsistent with what I'd read before. Maybe the issue is that I am modifying the dark theme - or that I have the map turned off. Will have to experiment some more.

0 phoglund_ over 1 year ago in reply to DrSilverthorn

Yes, it's strange, but I've seen it before when helping others to hide the Virtual Partner arrow. Then, if I remember correctly, the borders of the arrow still showed as gaps in course line.

It's like the transparent flag do everything that's dynamic over the map transparent...

0 phoglund_ over 1 year ago in reply to DrSilverthorn

And also I think that the transparency byte should be like a level from 0 to 255, but I've not seen that that's how it is on the fenix/epix.

Either it's transparent, #00, or it's not #ff.

And also it's look like the color need to be set to ffffff for it to be transparent. At least all 0 didn't work earlier.

Hopefully you can come to some nice findings