Is there any GPS that will do...

[goufgators]

On some on-line mapping programs such as MapQuest and Google, you can change the recommended route to the route you want to use by simply clicking onto the recommended route and dragging to the desired route. That capability would be a great addition to a GPS unit. I have a Garmin nive 2595 and have problems getting it to 'map' the route I want. I know there are ways to do what I want on my Garmin but (to me) it's a hassle. Would love to have the capability as mentioned above. Any thoughts? Thanks, Larry

[2gypsies1]

vermilye wrote:

Gjac wrote:
I just downloaded Base camp and tried to create a route but I just get a line from start to finish. I can't figure out how to actually get a street by street routing. Any insight would be appreciated.

While I find the user interface of BaseCamp a pain in the ***, the way I get a route to actually use a road is to recalculate it.

To do that you first highlight the title of the route in the left hand column under "On My Computer". The highlighted route will appear below with all your waypoints. Double click on the last entry (usually has the first & last waypoint as the name) and a new window will open showing the two waypoints. At the bottom of the window on the lower left is a sub menu under a "gear" symbol. Use it to choose "Recalculate" and the route will end up on roads. After that you can also chose "Directions" to get a list of turns.

I'm sure there is a better way to do all this, but that is how I do it. I'm on a Mac, if that makes any difference.

Vermylie: Although we use Delorme for creating our routes we have always been able to transfer the finished route onto our Garmin. However, we just purchased a new Garmin #2555 and on the new Garmins they no longer allow the easy transferring like we're used to doing.

We were on the phone a long time today with Garmin about the BaseCamp issues. Basically, we had to make a completely new map on BaseCamp which took a very long time. 😞 When finished we also didn't see actual roads - just a waypoint to waypoint. We have about 10 waypoints which we can see on the map. So we tried following your above directions. The first hangup is you state "in the left hand column under "On My Computer". . . we don't see that wording. Then you state "at the bottom of the window on the lower left is a sub menu under a "gear" symbol." We don't see that sub menu or the gear symbol. Any ideas? We're so frustrated by this "new improved" Garmin. We should have stayed with our old one. 😞 Thanks for any help!

[DonPd]

Skip wrote:

OK, but I read the dezl manual and under compatibility it said: "File Types: Maps and GPX waypoint files from MapSource®." (Note the absence of "route" compatibility.) So, I called Garmin tech support and asked if the MapSource route transfer functionality worked on the dezl and they said no. Sounds like I need to do some more checking. Which of the newer (larger) Garmin units are you using the MapSource route transfer function? That might help narrow my search.

In any event, though, BaseCamp looks like a worthy substitute, so I'll check that out as well.

I know on the Garmin units that do not let you store routes the only thing you can send to them from MapSource are way points. I have changed to BaseCamp and like it. I am thinking of upgrading to one of the newer 7" Garmin's. I now have a Garmin 1450 with a 5" screen.

[dkreuzen]

I have been using MapSource for many years and when BaseCamp came out I started using it. Mapsource does not work with many if not all newer Garmin units. It doesn't work with my 3590. As has been said, BaseCamp is a pain to work with, I would rather use MapSource for ad-hock routing. In MapSource I can click and drag a route like in MapQuest. I can save a route from MapSource and open it in BaseCamp to transfer to the GPS if a have to. Note that both Garmin products need the maps loaded onto the computer although BaseCamp can get them from your GPS.

As for other Computer based mapping software. I have settled on Delorme Street Atlas for many reasons. The main is probably because I can store a bunch of routes in one file. I have tried Street & Trips a couple of times just for the construction information. Compared to Delorme, Streets is poor and I found out that the construction information is so far out of date and missing road closures that I stopped using it.
The other product I use is RV Road Trip Navigator, it makes it easy to find campgrounds along my route but it is in need of updating for this year and they haven't released it yet.

[John_Joey]

wny_pat wrote:

John&Joey wrote:

Robin1953 wrote:

goufgators wrote:
On some on-line mapping programs such as MapQuest and Google, you can change the recommended route to the route you want to use by simply clicking onto the recommended route and dragging to the desired route. That capability would be a great addition to a GPS unit. I have a Garmin nive 2595 and have problems getting it to 'map' the route I want. I know there are ways to do what I want on my Garmin but (to me) it's a hassle. Would love to have the capability as mentioned above. Any thoughts? Thanks, Larry

I know you can also do that in MS Streets & Trips but I am not aware of any GPS that has this drag and drop capability.

X2

MS S&T after 2010 will allow you to import into some Garmins. That is what I do, I create the route I want, then using a USB cable download it into my Garmin. As I remember the Garmin must have the ability to maintain 100? or 1000? waypoints for it to work.

Doing it this way has made my life a lot easier.

X-3
But my traveling got much easier when I got a small Dell 11z laptop and and mobile mount and run the Streets and Trips as a GPS on the laptop right in the cockpit. Biggest problem I ran into was getting the volume loud enough.

I tried using my laptop also as a GPS (four years ago.) What I ran into was low volume (like you), screen washed out in bright daylight, and no lane assist feature in MS S&T 2010.

It was the lack of lane assist that really made me go back to the Garmin. That one feature is worth it's weight in gold to me when driving the MH with a toad.

[Kaz]

DonPd wrote:
MapSource will allow you transfer your routes and way points to most all of the Garmin family of GPS's. All you have to do is select the Transfer drop down, have a GPS connected to the computer and select the device. That is all It is to it.

OK, but I read the dezl manual and under compatibility it said: "File Types: Maps and GPX waypoint files from MapSource®." (Note the absence of "route" compatibility.) So, I called Garmin tech support and asked if the MapSource route transfer functionality worked on the dezl and they said no. Sounds like I need to do some more checking. Which of the newer (larger) Garmin units are you using the MapSource route transfer function? That might help narrow my search.

In any event, though, BaseCamp looks like a worthy substitute, so I'll check that out as well.

Thanks for the info,
Skip

[DonPd]

If you have BaseCamp you might want to check out the training videos. They have both PC and MAC videos.

Here is the link.

Garmin BaseCamp Training Videos

[wny_pat1]

John&Joey wrote:

Robin1953 wrote:

goufgators wrote:
On some on-line mapping programs such as MapQuest and Google, you can change the recommended route to the route you want to use by simply clicking onto the recommended route and dragging to the desired route. That capability would be a great addition to a GPS unit. I have a Garmin nive 2595 and have problems getting it to 'map' the route I want. I know there are ways to do what I want on my Garmin but (to me) it's a hassle. Would love to have the capability as mentioned above. Any thoughts? Thanks, Larry

I know you can also do that in MS Streets & Trips but I am not aware of any GPS that has this drag and drop capability.

X2

MS S&T after 2010 will allow you to import into some Garmins. That is what I do, I create the route I want, then using a USB cable download it into my Garmin. As I remember the Garmin must have the ability to maintain 100? or 1000? waypoints for it to work.

Doing it this way has made my life a lot easier.

X-3
But my traveling got much easier when I got a small Dell 11z laptop and and mobile mount and run the Streets and Trips as a GPS on the laptop right in the cockpit. Biggest problem I ran into was getting the volume loud enough.

[DonPd]

MapSource will allow you transfer your routes and way points to most all of the Garmin family of GPS's. All you have to do is select the Transfer drop down, have a GPS connected to the computer and select the device. That is all It is to it.

You Might want to update your GPS. Garmin has some new GPS's that are 7" and only work with BaseCamp. If you use BaseCamp you can transfer your routes and way points. You can also select the type of vehicle that you want to create routes for.

NEW 7" GPS

[Kaz]

goufgators wrote:
On some on-line mapping programs such as MapQuest and Google, you can change the recommended route to the route you want to use by simply clicking onto the recommended route and dragging to the desired route. That capability would be a great addition to a GPS unit. I have a Garmin nive 2595 and have problems getting it to 'map' the route I want. I know there are ways to do what I want on my Garmin but (to me) it's a hassle. Would love to have the capability as mentioned above. Any thoughts? Thanks, Larry

I guess I'm the old dufus of the group, but I still have a copy of MapSource (the old Garmin routing program) and only use the older Garmin GPSs that can communicate with MapSource. Right now, I'm still using my old Zumo that I yanked off the motorcycle. While MapSource was a completely clunky program, it had built-in routing options for trucks and buses, allowed a gazillion waypoints, was easy to build a complete route, used the same maps for both the program and the GPS, and allowed easy-as-pie transfers to the GPS. For example, I recently read an article about doing the Oregon Trail, so I programmed the NPS route into MapSource--about 75 via points as the trail follows what are now local roads--and can load it into the GPS as soon as I'm ready to take the trip.

Alas, Garmin no longer supports MapSource and the newer units won't communicate with the program. I think ... one option I want to test is whether the MapSource option to export a .gpx file allows a one to dump file that into one of the newer GPSs.

I'm aware that MS S&T has an option to transfer routes to a GPS, but I've never been able to get that to work. S&T is much better for route planning.

I've said I won't buy a GPS that doesn't allow for PC-based route planning and then easy PC-GPS communications, but I fear I may have to relent.

Skip

[DonPd]

BaseCamp has a bit of Learning curve. The more you use it the better it works. If you select the HELP drop down in BaseCamp and select Welcome To BaseCamp or Video Tutorials there is some good information there.

Here is a link to the intro video

BaseCamp Intro

[Gjac]

vermilye wrote:

Gjac wrote:
I just downloaded Base camp and tried to create a route but I just get a line from start to finish. I can't figure out how to actually get a street by street routing. Any insight would be appreciated.

While I find the user interface of BaseCamp a pain in the ***, the way I get a route to actually use a road is to recalculate it.

To do that you first highlight the title of the route in the left hand column under "On My Computer". The highlighted route will appear below with all your waypoints. Double click on the last entry (usually has the first & last waypoint as the name) and a new window will open showing the two waypoints. At the bottom of the window on the lower left is a sub menu under a "gear" symbol. Use it to choose "Recalculate" and the route will end up on roads. After that you can also chose "Directions" to get a list of turns. It must be different for a windows PC as I could not find the way points or recalculate.

I'm sure there is a better way to do all this, but that is how I do it. I'm on a Mac, if that makes any difference.

[vermilye]

Gjac wrote:
I just downloaded Base camp and tried to create a route but I just get a line from start to finish. I can't figure out how to actually get a street by street routing. Any insight would be appreciated.

While I find the user interface of BaseCamp a pain in the ***, the way I get a route to actually use a road is to recalculate it.

To do that you first highlight the title of the route in the left hand column under "On My Computer". The highlighted route will appear below with all your waypoints. Double click on the last entry (usually has the first & last waypoint as the name) and a new window will open showing the two waypoints. At the bottom of the window on the lower left is a sub menu under a "gear" symbol. Use it to choose "Recalculate" and the route will end up on roads. After that you can also chose "Directions" to get a list of turns.

I'm sure there is a better way to do all this, but that is how I do it. I'm on a Mac, if that makes any difference.

[Gjac]

I just downloaded Base camp and tried to create a route but I just get a line from start to finish. I can't figure out how to actually get a street by street routing. Any insight would be appreciated.

[2gypsies1]

PastorCharlie wrote:
I have used Magellan, Garmin, Rand McNally, etc. and none of them compare to Delorme. In fact I currently own all the above in recent models.

I have a small laptop that sits on a stand beside my instrument panel. The Delorme system is very accurate and easy to use. I use the Street Atlas USA Plus and have used it for many years and keep the updates current. I have never had a problem with their products.

X2. Delorme is so much easier to input your own route. Garmin just doesn't have the flexibility that Delorme has. We rarely travel interstates - always exploring. We need to input our own vias the way we want to go.

[DonPd]

vermilye on 05/27/13 04 wrote:
One point with BaseCamp - be sure you have the same "avoids" set in both the GPS & BaseCamp. With my Garmin 1490, it will recalculate the route when moved from BaseCamp to the GPS & the route will change if the "Avoids" are not the same. In fact, it sometimes changes the route even when set the same - it is worth checking that the transferred route is what you expected...

vermilye is correct about the GPS somethings changing the route. After I send the route to the GPS I check the route with BaseCamp. If the route is not correct I make the changes in BaseCamp and send the route again. There is a option in BaseCamp that allows you to change the route. I also use the view in Google Earth before I send any routes to the GPS.