74 - Zumo XT Categories
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Organising Waypoints
‘Waypoints’ is the term given to saved locations in Basecamp. The XT refers to these as Favourites on some XTs, and as ‘Saved Locations’ on others.
Waypoints can be assigned to categories, which makes them easier to find using search features.
On the XT, various saved locations will appear under Hospitals, Petrol Stations, Restaurants and such like.
Once a point has been saved as a Waypoint, it can be edited on the Zumo XT screen and assigned to one or more categories - either existing ones or new categories that you have made up for the occasion. This is accessed from the side menu when editing the properties of a 'Favourite' or 'Saved' location.
New and existing categories can also be declared in Waypoint properties in Basecamp. Once the waypoint is transferred, the category becomes available for use on the XT.
When selecting Main Screen - > Where To? -> Favourites, if there are any home made favourites, these are listed on the first screen - underneath ‘All Favourites’ .
In the example in Pic 1, all of my favourites belong to the Category 2021, and some belong to a category depending on which day of the tour they are being used. So when choosing 'Where To ? -> Favourites' if waypoints have been assigned to categories, then those categories are listed which effectively puts them into groups.
Pic 2 Shows the information screen for Waypoint 01. Oulined in red are the categories to which this Waypoint belongs.
If you have Garmin Explore linked to your XT, then some of the information about categories will not match with what you see on your screen. The XT replaces Categories with 'Collections' to enable the grouping of waypoints routes and tracks. Categories comes back if you disable the link with Garmin Explore.
Pic 4 shows the not-very-user-friendly dialog box in which you can enter the name of the categories that you want to assign this Waypoint. Type in the name, click Add Category.<
Add as many as you want. If the category already exists, there is no help. It is up to you to spell it correctly.
But I have a tip here. A silly tip, but a tip nonetheless. Create a single waypoint and put it out of the way somehwere. The middle of the North Sea or the Atlantic Ocean will do quite nicely. Use the dialog box in pictures 3 and 4, and add every category that you think that might help you to organise your Waypoints / Favourites. Transfer that waypoint to the SD card (out of the way), on the Zumo and Import it. You will find that all of your categories then appear when you select 'Where To -> Favourites'. And you can use the XT screen to assign other Favourites to one or more of those categories.
It's not something that I would use. I tend to clear everything from my XT and start a trip with a completely empty system.
You can create a Category to any Waypoint / Favourite / Saved Location using the XT screen - if the link to Garmin Explore has not been set up. Select the saved point concerned, click the (i) information button. This allows the categories that are already allocated to be viewed in the grey scrollable area. Click the 3 bar menu to edit or add new categories.
Categories and Garmin Explore
If your XT is set up to link to the Garmin Explore website, when you select Main Screen -> Where To? -> Favourites, the normal Favourites screen is not displayed. Instead the Favourites / Waypoints that have been sent to your Explore web page are listed. This screen has an orange banner indicating the last time that its contents were synchronised with Explore. (Pic 5)
The Category data is not available on your Explore webpage or on the Zumo XT screens that are linked to it. It is as if they have been wiped out. But they haven’t. As soon as you break the connection with Garmin Explore, you can access the categories once again.
If Explore is linked to your Zumo XT, then 'Collections' does a similar but better job than categories, in that you can put tracks and routes into collections as well as Waypoints - and although you can organise them on the XT, it is easier to organise them using the Explore website or App.
Gotchas and Extra Info.
Favourites are extracted from any routes that contain them as soon as a route is transferred to the Zumo XT internal storage. They are stored separately. If they are deleted using the Zumo screen, they cannot be imported. They are lost. This is not the case with Waypoints transferred to SD Card - but they have to be imported manually.
You cannot find Favourites on the SD card if none exists in internal storage. To add one, tap the map to place a flag and save it. This will make Waypoints / Favourites that are on the SD card available to import. Oh yes.
When you transfer routes and Waypoints to internal memory, previously transferred data is overwritten in temp.gpx. This means that older routes can no longer be imported. Get into the habit of transferring everything every time.
Use of the SD Card doesn’t have these issues - apart from the disappearing Waypoints in the second bullet point.
To Remove link to Garmin Explore: From the Main Screen:
View Map -> Tap Speed -> Hold Circular Speedo (10 secs) -> Developer Tests and Tools -> Reset Explore Database
Immediately after doing this, hold in the power button until the screen asks if you want to turn off the XT. Yes you do. If you don't do this, at some point the XT will find a way to reconnect through the Drive App, and Explore will become active again. To restore a previous link to Explore:
Where To ? -> Explore -> Connect Now -> Ok -> Enable -> Let it synchronise.
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The information on these pages has been acquired from personal experience of using and testing the behaviour of Basecamp and my Zumo XT. I have no links with Garmin, and these pages should not be regarded as instructions. They are presented for interest only. The contents of these pages must not be shared, copied, transmitted, redistributed or re-published in any form without my permission. (C) JHeath 2021.