XT Routing problems

[smfollen]

Wow. Very Strange. Hopefully someone on here has an idea. Sorry I can't be more help.

[Peobody]

Try this;

In Basecamp, create a new list folder.
Using the New Waypoint tool, create a Waypoint for Start point, immediately click its name in the balloon and then prefix its name with "01_".
Create additional Waypoints along the roads you want to travel, preferably shortly after any intersection where you will turn. As you create them, add the numeric prefix in sequential numbers until you have created the End point (maybe just four of them as a test).
Now look at the list panel (lower left). You will see your waypoints listed in the order that you will encounter them. This is not a necessity but I find it helpful. Click on one of them then do a Ctrl+A to select them all.
Right click one of them the select "Create Route using Selected Waypoints".
You should end up with a route that follows the Waypoints.
From here you can start refining the route as needed by adding Waypoints, or stretching the route using Alt +drag, or using the Insert tool.
Keep in mind that adding a Waypoint is a two-step process. You must first create the Waypoint using the New Waypoint tool then you must double-click on the route to open its details and within that window you add the new Waypoint, placing it in the appropriate sequential position. You can then click the Recalculate button the see the results or close that window which will trigger a calculation automatically.

[Deepdiver51]

Thank you, Peobody, and everyone else who has contributed. I’m done for the night now and will start again tomorrow with numbered Waypoints suggestion. Maybe it’s because ze French do not like ze Eeeenglish!

[colirv]

Maybe it’s because ze French do not like ze Eeeenglish!

Heh. Not true! And you'll find that, as a biker, you'll be made welcome - providing you don't expect, let alone demand, that everyone speaks English (or your version of it!).

[Deepdiver51]

After another 6 hours I’ve finally done it. I tried the multiple Waypoints advice (which created a route like all the veins and arteries in a body), reduced the number of Waypoints, lots of Alt dragging, My Google Maps and eventually downloaded Basecamp onto another computer and installed the 2025 maps from the XT. I then created short little routes, joined them one by one (thanks to EZ Moto Tim) and eventually ended up with one long correct route. Mind you I’ve done it so many times I think I could do it in my sleep. I’m beginning to think that the problem was the incompatibility of the 2024 maps on the first computer and the 2025 maps on the XT.
Once again, thank you all so much for contributing and helping with my (first world) problem. Maybe the French don’t hate us after all.

[Littlefield]

For some reason I don’t have routing problems using Basecamp. I create a waypoint at my destination. When creating the route just click on the road a little way from the starting point and then click again at my waypoint. Then use the insert tool (looks like a pencil) to drag the route around to where I really want to go. Normally not zoomed in close enough to determine which side of the road has been selected, seems to know which way I’m going. Open the route and make sure all my intermediate points are ‘don’t alert’. If I had problems like some of the other posters I’d freak out.

[Deepdiver51]

That is how I first started trying to create routes, some of them up to 300 miles long, through the starting town, changing various motorways (freeways) along the route and then into end town. The magenta line that was created went all over the place, 40 miles off and then back again, and literally looked like a body’s veins and arteries. No amount of dragging could ever rectify it.
But I’m now on the last day of my trip. I’ve encountered numerous glitches but have rectified them myself. One involved being sent back along the road I’d just travelled and having to do 40 miles in the wrong direction before there was an exit that allowed me to do a 180° turn. That was a looooong day, 14 hours in the saddle and a lot of it in the rain.
One of the best pieces of advice I was given was to turn off automatic re-calculation as frequently I was told I was off course when quite clearly I wasn’t.
Another small problem I had was trying to sort out the ‘Up Ahead’ system. I don’t want to see where restaurants are (in a town the numerous icons block out the road) but just want petrol stations. What are those stupid crosses which sometimes are green and sometimes not no matter what I click. Why not a nice little box that shows a tick if selected??
Plenty more whinges and whines but you guys haven’t got the time hear about my complaints.

[Deepdiver51]

It was ‘colirv’ who gave the suggestion about re-calculation. Thank you so much for that!

[Peobody]

Plenty more whinges and whines but you guys haven’t got the time hear about my complaints.

Oh, but we do. We've all been there, whether complaining just to vent, or to seek help. For some issues, there may not be a solution. For others, there may be a variety of workarounds. You will likely hear them all and then have to figure out what works best for you.
FWIW, my recalculate is set to "Prompt". I want to know when the XT wants to recalculate, and have control over when it does. Unfortunately, there are instances where it recalculates without prompting. Skipping a point and a road closure are two that come to mind.
Also, my Up Ahead places are turned off. I use the on-demand Up Ahead places function (in the three dot menu) to find upcoming fuel and food. This keeps the map uncluttered.

[jfheath]

@Deepdiver51


1. Early on you were talking about adding Waypoints. A waypoint is not just an ordinary point in the route. It is special. Other points are simply route points. This is probably contrary to what you have picked up from elsewhere - but they are wrong. @Peobody picked up on this earlier - but in case you missed it, I thought it was worth repeating.

From here you can start refining the route as needed by adding Waypoints, or stretching the route using Alt +drag, or using the Insert tool.
Keep in mind that adding a Waypoint is a two-step process. You must first create the Waypoint using the New Waypoint tool then you must double-click on the route to open its details and within that window you add the new Waypoint, placing it in the appropriate sequential position. You can then click the Recalculate button the see the results or close that window which will trigger a calculation automatically.

We use genuine Waypoints for a number of reasons but in this situation it is because the Zumo tends to alter the name that you give to route points, but it never alters the name of Waypoints.

2. To get maps onto your XT, you can use Garmin Express. You get the identical map on your computer and on the Zumo. I always install to the computer first. Its faster. Then I install to the Zumo and leave it doing its thing for a couple of hours.

3. Check every route point carefully in Basecamp. Double click the route. A route list bix opens up. At the bottom is a tick box/ check box labelled 'centre map'. Tick it.
Now click on the first point in your route in that list. The map will zoom in on that point, putting the point at the centre. Make sure that the point is placed on the road and on the correct carriageway. If not, move it. Go back and check the next route point.


When you have done, check the sequence is correct. ie that the points are in the correct order. There are two tricks to doing this

• Double click the route to get the list box. Untick 'Centre Map' and zoom out so that you can see the entire route - or a large portion of it. You may want to position the map so that the route is showing to the right of the screen and the route list is to the left. Select the first point and then tap the cursor down key. The highlighted point on the map moves. Keep your finger on the cursor down. You are watching for a smooth progression of the highlighted point along the route. Any shimmy-ing back and forth becomes very obvious and indicates places where the points are not in the correct order. Note where these are in the list and move the offending route points in the list not on the map.
• By moving a route point in the list, you will see that the route becomes a series of straight lines. This is another way to detect sequence problems. Find the offending point and move it in the list. Note that you have an 'undo' button in Basecamp. Sometimes, there is evidence of a bug where one of the points affected by the move gets three lines attached to it, rather than two. If that happens, just recalculate the route. That gives the curvy lines. To get the straight lines again just move a point and move it back again. (or you could temporarily change the route profile to direct)

4. When you have finished with any route, always -

• check that the correct map is selected - to match the one in the Zumo
• recalculate the route ( whether or not you changed the map)

This becomes particularly important later on when you have had a number of map updates. Besecamp keeps them all, and it is possibe to accidentally have the wrong map selected. If you get into the habit if doing this, it saves a lot of headaches.

5 Finally. When you import or load a route into the XT it will say 'Calculating'. Thats ok. It is not necessarily calculating the route. However, if it takes more than a few seconds, then it has started to calculate the route. Let it finish so that you know what I mean by 'more than a few seconds'. Typically a route recalc may take 30 secs. XT should never recalculate a Basecamp route. If it does, something is not set up properly.