How hard or time consuming is it to learn Garmin Basecamp?

[myredracer]

We recently got an RV 760LMT. DW wanted to use Basecamp but she's been trying for a few days and isn't having much luck. Is it worth spending the time to figure it out? She's generally pretty up on computer stuff and it's not like her to give up. I have no idea how it works and would rather not have to spend the time on it too.

Is it worthwhile to learn it or is there maybe an alternative? I still like good old paper maps for planning a road trip route.

[johnhicks]

Create a simple route, then hit I for Insert and a wide dark line should appear. Click on the route near the beginning and a point should appear. That's a shaping point.

Now click on a proposed detour from the "automatic" route and another point should appear creating a detour; you can keep clicking to shape the detour going back to your original route. Be sure to click the hand symbol (or something else) when you're finished creating shaping points; point creation is "loaded and cocked" until you select something else. If you mess up a point do Edit > Undo and try again.

By using shaping points you can just click right along creating a route between your two endpoints without having to name everything etc. Double-click on the route, select Properties and for each point select Do Not Alert for each shaping point if you don't want to hear about them.

[jcpainter]

What is a shaping point?

[johnhicks]

Basecamp has a tough learning curve and it's pretty counter-intuitive. I liken it to learning Adobe Photoshop back in the old days.

Learn to create routes using waypoints or shaping points, and be sure your activity profiles match in Basecamp and on your GPS (Fastest, Shortest etc). Also zoom in when placing a waypoint or shaping point; Basecamp really cares what lane you put it in. For example, if you're planning a route eastward on a divided highway and you accidentally put a point in the westbound lane Basecamp (and the GPS) will want you turn around to go back and hit that point, then turn around go to east. After all, that's what you told it you wanted.

Rather than doing one long route, you may need to break it into more manageable chunks especially if you prefer to avoid interestates except bypasses around cities.

[johnhicks]

If you bypass a waypoint, try stopping the route, then restart selecting as your first waypoint the waypoint past the one you bypass. For example, if you have ABCD start the route selecting C. Might work.

I've been using shaping points, non-announced, and it seems to not care so much if I bypass one and it doesn't blare at me about it.

[scrubjaysnest]

Base Camp is a PITA, I use Mapsource then import into Base Camp so send routes to the newer Garmin GPSr units. Make sure there is nothing in Base Camp before the import or conflicts occur.

[jcpainter]

This is a question concerning the route that you've downloaded from Basecamp onto the Garmin RV 760LMT.

When you have a waypoint in the route, and then decide not to go to that waypoint (perhaps a rest area or restaurant, how can you delete the waypoint on the Garmin without effecting the rest of the route?

If you don't delete it and you go past it, it keeps trying to reroute you back to that waypoint. Once we tried to delete it (apparently the wrong way) and deleted the entire route.

[joebedford]

You can make a waypoint as exact as you like e.g. use the city dot already on the map, put in a street address, use a previous location uploaded from the GPS, select the campsite icon from the map (have to zoom in to see them) and probably more.

I didn't like Basecamp at first because I knew Mapsource and it is a lot simpler (and a lot less powerful).

[Gjac]

myredracer wrote:
This is DW - I have been trying to create waypoints but it will not recognize it by address and can't figure out how to find the exact location on the map....or are waypoints only cities and not specific campground addresses?

I have watched the videos but will look for the manuals...that might do it.

Thanks for feedback.

I tried the same thing you did with the same issues. To me this was not a user friendly system.

[Willow13]

Does this help?
https://garminbasecamp.wikispaces.com/Waypoints#x-Edit_20Waypoint
(remove the underscore and insert a percent sign in the above link)

[myredracer]

This is DW - I have been trying to create waypoints but it will not recognize it by address and can't figure out how to find the exact location on the map....or are waypoints only cities and not specific campground addresses?

I have watched the videos but will look for the manuals...that might do it.

Thanks for feedback.

[Fizz]

Do a google search on Basecamp.
There are many tutorials and forums that will help ypu with whatever specific need you have.
You will find manuals and Youtube videos.
It's a powerfull app that can do many usefull tasks, well worth learning.

[fj12ryder]

What's she trying to do exactly? If planning a trip, put in Waypoints along the route that you want to make. Include your start and stop point. Select all the Waypoints and click on Create Route. Then check out the route and see if it conforms to what you want. If not, add or remove Waypoints. It's really pretty simple to use.

The main issue I have with it is that as you zoom out to include a larger area, the smaller roads disappear. A real pain.