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Navigation: some questions on how to use it while running (manual is barely useless..)

Good morning everyone; I ask here because, trying to read the manual, I was absolutely unable to understand the functioning of some functions that are important to me in the navigation menu.
1) the function for returning home using a route; I would like the route to be as short as possible because most of the time, I use this function just to get home as soon as possible. In reality, when I try to use it, the watch creates a route several kilometres longer than it could be. How can I tell the watch i want the shortest route and i don't want to do too many km instead?
2) "punta e via" is the description in Italian; I think in English, it can be "point and go". When I select it, a compass appears, I push start and something happens, but honestly, I don't know what; it creates a straight line path of about 80km for an unidentified point. How does it work?
3) Navigation using a point on the map; I believe there is already a bug related to this thing; if I try to navigate the map in a specific point then there is no possibility to select it and start navigation. Do you confirm?
Sorry for the long post, and I hope someone will give me some clarification.

  • How can I tell the watch i want the shortest route and i don't want to do too many km instead?

    No, you don’t.

    From the manual: 

    “You can navigate back to the starting point of your current activity in a straight line or along the path you traveled.”

    The second question, there are some posts here about the navigation bugs, but I never used, so others users can be more helpful.

  • sorry i don't understand what is a "straight line"...of course there's no straight line to follow in a city or in park. My idea was that if you select straight line the watch tells you the ideal direction to follow but it's up to you to find the way, is it correct?

  • A straight line is a "retta" (Italian by google translate) from your actual point to the start point without any turns/obstacles/buildings on the way.

    So yes, if you can’t follow a straight line, the watch will get you back using the reverse course you did.

    It isn't designed to get you back faster but to ensure you can get to the start point if you are lost, like on a trail.

    I think you must need internet access or extensive data collection inside the watch to provide this advanced route calculation (which I believe none of the sports watch manufacturers did).

  • 2) It's called 'sight and go' but I've never really understood it either... https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=6E3avunKgM2X82rFhJiDN9

    *edit* Ah, this explains it (and actually quite usefull I can imagine): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgqpx4O_q-s

    It basically draw a straight line going through the point of interest (the point you're pointing to with the watch when using this feature). You can then move in the general direction and the watch will tell you how far away you are from the straight line pointing you towards your location of interest. So it acts as a guide and you have to find your own path but it will always tell you where to go.

    The 80km is with the idea that you can't really tell the exact distance with this feature anyway so you can't go through a specific point and the 80km is 'well, can't be further than that right?' For a specific location you would want to use 'choose on map' which brings us to the next point.

    3) Yeah, that's a bug... Actually 2 bugs. The first one is that only after restarting you can select a location on the map to navigate to. But after that the option is somehow gone (no crosshairs on the map anymore). However, even when available it reboots the watch if you actually select something (though this is only the case when there is a list to choose from, which is the case 99 out of a 100 times).

  • Thanks so much. The video is very much clarifying....