BaseCamp and Announced Route Points

[jfheath]

Jfheath,
Thank you for the pdf. A wealth of tips and tricks
Additional questions: If I make a route only with "via" points, the simple act of returning a point via "unannounced" automatically turns it into a simple "shaping point" that can be renamed or passed without warning on the road?

Are you talking about Basecamp here ? Lets assume that you are. Right click on any Via point in a the route list in BC and it will give you the option of selecting "Dont Alert on Arrival (shaping point)". Click on a Shaping point (won't alert), and it changes it to a Via Point.
In Basecamp any of these points can be renamed. No problem.

If you are talking about on the Zumo screen - I don't have an XT2 - but I can telly you what the ZT and 595 do:
In the trip planner list, if you tap a Shaping point (blue disc), it changes it to a Via Point - and recalculates the route.
If you tap on a Via Point (orange flag) in the trip planner list, that will change it to a shaping point and the route recalculates. But here there is an issue. Often the point will be moved to the faster road nearby, and the route point name will be changed to reflect its new position.

It is not a good idea to change a Via to a Shaping point on the XT or 595. Shaping to a Via seems to be OK though.

It seems that the "shaping points" are ignored by the XT2 during a recalculation where the GPS follows the "faster time" configuration instead of the prepared route. If my route is composed of the "via points" A,B,C,D and the "shaping points" i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t and recorded like this A-i-j-k-l-B- m-n-o-p-C-q-r-s-y-D. If a recalculation takes place between via point A and B: the shaping points i,j,k,l may be modified.

Could this be related to what I said in my reply above ? ie after changing via to shaping ? I haven't observed that behaviour just when sitting at my desk. I have seen very odd behaviour on the road - consistently if you skip a route point - but also on random occasions that have caused the route to recaculate. Route point disappear if you refuse to head towards them - I have a video on here of that happening. We have seen phantom route points added to a route. But I have not been able to make this happen whenever I want. Even doing exaclty the same thing on exactly the same route. It makes it impossible to test.

Are the shaping points between B and C and then between C and D also likely to be modified or will only the A-B sequence be recalculated in the XT2 way?

The answer is that they should not be modified. Dictionary: Should / Should not : A word to be wary of. Often used by mechanics to convey the impression of knowledge without the possibility of being held accountable for their statement. As in "That should be OK sir".

But although you have been very clear in what you have described - the behaviour of the XT in your hand is very different from the behaviour on the road. So it is difficult to say without knowing exactly how you are doing this and what you have done beforehand.

If you want to send me an example GPX file in that format and tell me what you do and what you are seeing on the XT2, I can tell you what I am seeing on the XT - and what you can expect to see in different situations.

But let me go back and try to answer the question. I think if you change the nature of the route points - via to shaping ans shaping to via, then the whole route is recalculated without affecting the position of the route points.
If you press skip, the entire route is recalculated.
Subsequently, after pressing skip the nature of the entire navigation is changed completely. IT treats your route as if it was a track converted to a trip, and instead of heading for the next route point if you wander away from the route, it seems to give higher priority to getting you back to the magenta line as quickly as possible.

On the XT, if you miss a route point - I am not sure. I did test it and I did get an answer. But I cannot remember what it was.

Subsidiary question: what's the point of adding "shaping points" to a route if you're not sure that the GPS will take them into account?

Again, I can only answer for the XT.

Apart from changing Via to Shaping on the XT screen
Apart from when riding having pressed Skip to miss a route point

The XT will always take me to the next route point in its sequence. Via or Shaping.

BUT - always with Zumos - if you ignore the instruction to take a road which is leading you to the next shaping point, it will find another way to get you to it. However if you rejoin the magenta line after missing 1, 2, 3, etc shaping points - the XT will start to navigate ahead to the next route point the second that you are back on the magenta line and heading in the correct direction.

I have yet to see any behaviour that suggest that I should use Via Points instead of shaping points - although I have seen the Zumo calculate a different route if a vai point is used where a shaping point was used previously. And vice versa. Place a via point at X the route goes one way, place a shaping point it goes another way. I think that is to do with the route being split into manageable sections by the Zumo. A section here being what I call the magenta line between two via points. I have no answer, just a couple of suspicions. I've not really investigated it.

I have a proposal.

You send me a route in your local area. Don't identify your address. Tell me what you think it is doing wrong. Just one thing at once.
I'll send you something that I think will stop it from doing that. Keep them short and simple.