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Often abbreviated to MRA, this web based utility has made a lot of effort recently in order to address the needs of Garmin Users, and from what I can see, has spent much time delving into how Garmin's routes are transferred and imported into the XT. It seems to have spotted some common issues and found ways around them.

The Main program is web based and can be access at their website at myrouteapp.com, or using Apps which have been developed for both IoS and for Android devices.

MRA also has a navigation app which can be used on a smartphone to give turn by turn directions for routes that you create.

Access to the route planner software is free if you create an account, but only Gold members have access to the HERE maps which are the same as the ones used by Garmin devices. But their lifetime membership is well worth the outlay if you try it for free and decide that you like what the tool offers you.

MRA now addresses the long term issues that many on-line route planners don't seem to be ware of - that Garmin uses Shaping Points and Via Points in order to create a route and will sometimes behave oddly if those two types of route point are not used in their appropriate places. (Although I suspect that it is the users that struggle to understand because they are not aware of the significance. But having read this document to this point, I'm sure that you do not fall into this category !)

Visit https://www.myrouteapp.com/ if you wish to learn more about MyRouteApp

This section is to do with how routes that have been created in MyRouteApp will behave with the ZumoXT.

Using MRA to create Via Points and Shaping Points

Rather confusingly, MRA has always used the term 'Waypoint' to refer to a point in the route. Garmin use the term 'Waypoint' to refer to a point that has been created and saved - perhaps for future use in a route. When a Garmin Waypoint is used in a route it will be treated as a Start, Finish, Via or Shaping Point. Generally speaking, when describing a Garmin route, it is not helpful to use the term waypoint. (There are however, exceptions to this - one of which will crop up later).

I will continue to use the term Waypoint as Garmin uses it. I will use the term 'Route Point' for any generic point plotted on a route because for Garmin users, a Waypoint is something completely different - see definitions Page 4 - (Opens in a new tab).

Pic 1 shows an MRA route with 6 route points:

#1 is the Start Point. Always a Via Point.
#6 is the End Point. Always a Via Point.
#4 is a Via Point.
#2, #3, #5 are all Shaping Points.

The start and end points are always Via Points. Other route points are placed by clicking on the map. By default these are placed as 'tear drop' shaped Shaping Points - but if you click on any one of them, a menu pops up with 6 icons. The 3 dot icon produces an expanded menu with 12 icons. One of these is a hand, and this can be used to change the shaping point to a via point. Of course, if it is already a Via Point, then you get to change it to a shaping point.

Two icons to the left of the hand is a star button. This is for creating 'Favourites' which adds the selected point to a list of saved locations which can be accessed from the left hand menu (not shown above). Favourits can be added to other routes - which saves having to locate places on the map again. However, these points simply place them in the route as Via or Shaping points. They are not the same as Garmin Waypoints, and do not get transferred to the Zumo XTs list of 'Favourites' (UK) or 'Saved' locations (USA). AT present they are restricted to being stored for use in MyRouteApp.

When creating a route point, the point is allocated a name automatically by the system. This can be changed to anything that you want - and these names tend to remain the same when the MRA route is loaded to the XT. Often points created in Basecamp for the XT tend to be replaced by a name allocated from the XT's internal database.