Garmin BaseCamp

[garmp]

Anyone use Garmin BaseCamp? Just got a new GPS, yes, still old school and not into cell phones, etc. and BaseCamp was touted as a trip planning to use with our new GPS.
What I thought interesting was that it sounded as though you plotted your trip and uploaded it to the GPS and you were good to go from then. From what little research I did, it seems that the base maps were pretty poor and didn't have much detail, but there again I didn't look real hard.
Just trying to gather opinions if it is even worth while spending my time with.

thanks

[bighatnohorse]

BaseCamp is (or is expected to be) discontinued according to reports on the Garmin BaseCamp forum:

https://forums.garmin.com/forum/mac-windows-software/windows-software/basecamp-aa/1438835-basecamp-d...

[phays]

For a tutorial that can get you up and running with basecamp, try

POI Factory Tutorial

This is an 18 part tutorial that helped me a great deal.

[whjco]

fj12ryder wrote:

vermilye wrote:
There is an Apple OS version of BaseCamp, however I've never been impressed with it. Hard to beat the long gone Delorme Street Atlas for planning a long trip.

Very, very true. I loved Delorme Street Atlas and still use it for planning. But everything has to go through BaseCamp since Street Atlas is no longer updated and there's getting to be more new hiways that don't show up on Street Atlas. But Street Atlas is so much more user-friendly than BaseCamp.

I used Street Atlas for years but now use BaseCamp. In years past we visited DeLorme's headquarters in Maine where they have the huge globe in the lobby. We drove past it this past August and the building now says "Garmin" on it.

Bill J., Lexington, KY

[whjco]

I've used BaseCamp for quite awhile and do all of my route planning with it. Last August my wife and I took a 7200 mile trip through all of the Eastern Canadian Provinces and we did our entire route planning in Basecamp. I broke the trip down into daily segments and would load about three days worth at a time into the Garmin to keep things from getting too cluttered.

Another thing that we do is that we download the trip tracks from the Garmin into yearly archive folders in BaseCamp. Then, several years down the road (no pun intended), we can look back and see information on all of the places that we've been.

For those who are considering using BaseCamp with your Garmin, make sure that your Garmin device will support Trip Routing. If it doesn't and you have one of the lower-end Garmin devices, you'll only be able to upload Favorites to the GPS but not a custom designed route.

We love BaseCamp. And even better, it can be downloaded from Garmin's web site for FREE!

See ya down the road.

Bill J., Lexington, KY

[whjco]

GordonThree wrote:
Depending on what map and device you have, the device will need to be connected to the computer while using Basecamp. This allows it to read the license for the more detailed map that was installed when you did the update.

Actually, if you have BaseCamp installed on your computer and do a map update to the GPS, then click on Options and select "Install to Computer". Once you've done that, the map database will be installed in BaseCamp and you don't need to have your GPS connected to do route planning, only to upload your trips into your Garmin GPS.

Every time I do a map update to my Garmin, I'll also do it for the computer as the versions must match in both to have accurate route planning.

Bill J., Lexington, KY.

[fj12ryder]

vermilye wrote:
There is an Apple OS version of BaseCamp, however I've never been impressed with it. Hard to beat the long gone Delorme Street Atlas for planning a long trip.

Very, very true. I loved Delorme Street Atlas and still use it for planning. But everything has to go through BaseCamp since Street Atlas is no longer updated and there's getting to be more new hiways that don't show up on Street Atlas. But Street Atlas is so much more user-friendly than BaseCamp.

[vermilye]

There is an Apple OS version of BaseCamp, however I've never been impressed with it. Hard to beat the long gone Delorme Street Atlas for planning a long trip.

[GordonThree]

Alan_Hepburn wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

wiskeyVI wrote:
Does Base Camp require the use of a windows based computer to use it and upload to a garmin device?

You mean will it work with Apple's? I believe it will but since I don't use Apple I can't say for sure.

...and to further complicate the question: will it work in a linux environment?

did you check on garmin.com already?

[Alan_Hepburn]

fj12ryder wrote:

wiskeyVI wrote:
Does Base Camp require the use of a windows based computer to use it and upload to a garmin device?

You mean will it work with Apple's? I believe it will but since I don't use Apple I can't say for sure.

...and to further complicate the question: will it work in a linux environment?

[wiskeyVI]

I have a Chromebook. I also have a Garmin 60/2 series handheld that can't be updated without a windows based machine.
That why I was asking.
Thanks for the replies.

[bighatnohorse]

There was a steep learning curve (for me) to learn BaseCamp basics.
BaseCamp has a nice "Optimize Route" feature that I like.
Yes, once you have a route, you can export it to the Garmin GPS unit.

However, I use Google Maps (MyMaps) to find places, save them on the map and then export them to a KML/KMZ file - which can be imported to BaseCamp, then optimized, then downloaded to the Garmin.

BaseCamp forum for Win/Mac users: https://forums.garmin.com/forum/mac-windows-software/windows-software/basecamp-aa?179-BaseCamp=

[GordonThree]

Depending on what map and device you have, the device will need to be connected to the computer while using Basecamp. This allows it to read the license for the more detailed map that was installed when you did the update.

[fj12ryder]

wiskeyVI wrote:
Does Base Camp require the use of a windows based computer to use it and upload to a garmin device?

You mean will it work with Apple's? I believe it will but since I don't use Apple I can't say for sure.

[fj12ryder]

Bull Rider wrote:
When you update your Garmin GPS maps, you have to also do a second map update to your computer where base camp is installed. The GPS AND Basecamp have to have the same map version number before they will communicate.

Youtube has some good Basecamp tutorials. It's a bear to learn, but it's the best mapping software that I've used.

Well, not really. You can use different versions of the maps on the computer and GPS. I do it a lot. It will usually comment that the maps may not reflect the route exactly because of the differences, but it will work. I use a Nuvi GPS that has old maps on it because I don't want to pay for a map update.

And usually when you do a map upgrade there will be an option to do both an upgrade to the computer as well as the GPS.