Placing Waypoints and flags

[Mikey]

As a new BC student, I am finding difficulty in placing new waypoints 'exactly' on the magenta route. My flag placements give me no confidence that they are on the centre of the magenta line. I would be much happier if the waypoints could be represented by a dot.

Is there a way of making a global change in BC, so that future waypoints are always dots, by default, instead of flags?
Dear XT may not like it (?)

Thank you, Mikey

[Peobody]

Is there a way of making a global change in BC, so that future waypoints are always dots, by default, instead of flags?

No. Basecamp has been out of development for a number of years.

I use the "Move" function in Basecamp for insuring that the location of route points are precisely on the road. With the "Move" function enabled, zoom in as close as possible to the route point and then hover over it. A dot will appear that better shows the point placement.

FWIW, I think this is easiest done as part of a final review of a route. Open the route details, tick the "Center Map" option at bottom left, then click on each route point, checking its placement precision and alerting preference.

[Mikey]

“With the "Move" function enabled, zoom in as close as possible to the route point and then hover over it. A dot will appear that better shows the point placement.”

Thank you Peobody, I was unaware of this. That would make ‘exacting’ the Via/Shaping points easier.

Mikey

[lkraus]

When you use the flag tool to insert a waypoint, it is placed at the very tip of the arrow. In the Garmin universe, a waypoint is not necessarily a part of a route, so technically there is no requirement for it to be placed "exactly" on the magenta line.

If you are really trying to edit the route, the flag tool is an awkward thing to use. Since waypoint it creates is not automatically part of the route it needs to be manually added to the route and then usually moved to a different spot between the other via/shaping points, and then the route needs to be recalculated.

You already know where you want to add the via/shaping point to the magenta line, or you could not use the flag tool. It is quicker and easier to use the Insert tool (the pencil, or key command I). With the route selected, click the magenta line with the very tip of the pencil, drag it off the road and put it right back. The route will (usually) recalculate automatically and you have just created a new route point. And, instead of a flag, the new point will be a dot!

To make editing even easier, go to Edit → Options → General and remove the check marks under "Edit Options". After this change, you will be able to use the Pan tool (the hand, or key command H) to perform two different functions. Click and drag on the map will pan the map, as usual, but you can also use it to perform editing. Hover the hand over a route or a point until its label pops up, then click and hold - the hand changes to the insert pencil, letting you drag the point or route wherever you like.

[Mikey]

Thank you Ikraus. You have provided very practical information and help. I will do some test runs tonight on BC.
Thanks for taking time to reply.
Mikey.

[Peobody]

I'm very different from @lkraus. I use the waypoint tool a lot. When I first create a route I will create a rough draft of it by using the waypoint tool to place the starting (if not from home), the anticipated ending point and a number of waypoint along the way place on the roads I want to travel. As I place them, I prefix their names with consecutive numbers, incrementing from start to end. This sorts them in travel order. I the select them all and tell Basecamp to create a route from the selected waypoints. The result is a rough draft of my route which I then refine using one of the shaping methods (the Insert tool or Alt+drag). Sometime in the process I may add waypoints for stops (eg: coffee, lunch, fuel, tourist attractions). Google Maps will almost always be open as a research source, often helping with the preliminary determination of the route and which roads to ride.

Edit: Additionally, I want Waypoints as Via points sprinkled throughout my route because they provide entry points in an event where I need to restart the route. Closest Entry Point is not always the best option because it can actually take you backwards so being able to select a waypoint that is in the direction of travel as an entry point is valuable. Also, on group rides, waypoints as Via points can provide valuable meeting points in the event of separation or to re-group after a period of everyone riding at their own pace.

[Mikey]

Thank you Peobody.

There are some very practical tips in your post above that I will take onboard.

One question re 'sprinkling' your Via points along the route: If you pull off the magenta line for a stop, when you re-start your engine, and XT, I assume you select the next destination (Via point) by Name, which is a benefit in giving Via points consecutive numbers and, more importantly, 'real names'.

Sorry, if that question seems a bit elementary but I need to ram basic ideas into my head/memory so they stay there, given I am not using my XT every day.

Cheers, Mikey

[jfheath]

Download the pdf file in the first post of the link in my signature.

It was written with the Zumo 590 in mind, and later edited for the Zumo 596. But the first two sections are relevant to the XT and I still use a lot of my own advice for the XT2.

It turns out that the advice is still relevant for use with the XT1 and XT2 although those two devices behave slightly differently. The specific stuff has its own set of pages on this site.

[Peobody]

One question re 'sprinkling' your Via points along the route: If you pull off the magenta line for a stop, when you re-start your engine, and XT, I assume you select the next destination (Via point) by Name, which is a benefit in giving Via points consecutive numbers and, more importantly, 'real names'.

If the XT is being powered by a circuit that is energized only when the ignition is on (or accessory) then when you stop the engine, the XT goes into sleep mode. When power is restored, the XT wakes up and continues on without any intervention on your part. Some real world examples of using a Via point as an entry point are:
1. The XT detected a road closure and changed your route. The resulting route was illogical and not along the kind of roads that I want to ride. I manually navigated past the road closure and then restarted the route. I chose the next Via point in the route as my entry point.
2. On a two-up long distance tour my wife had a helmet issue that required prompt attention. We were many miles away from any significant town so I had to stop the route and then enter the address of a motorcycle shop in the nearest significantly sized city that I found using my phone. Once my wife had a new helmet, I restarted our route and chose Closest Entry Point as the entry point. My route was westbound but CEP was southeast about 40 miles. I restarted again and this time selected a Via point that was west of where we were.

As for meaningful Via point names, I use a number prefix so that they are ordered sequentially in Basecamp. I use descriptive names to help clue me on their location (eg: Hwy 11 N of Staunton VA). This isn't always helpful. You can assign a names that you think are meaningful during route design but ends up being meaningless when on the road so you then have to guess, check the result, then try again if you guessed wrong.

[jfheath]

You certainly have to check the result when selecting Closest Entry Point.

Re names for route points. The Zumos started changing the name of route points - seemingly at random - with the 595 and XT1.
So on trips to distant countries, I would create a waypoint for most of my route points and each waypoint had a day and a mileage number. Eg 03 123 Santa Dominigo. Day 3 123km.

I would set most of these as shaping points. Just a few as via points. This is because I like to show the trip data on the right of the screen and 'distance to', and 'time to' would show the information only for Via Points. So both me and pillion would have a countdown of how many miles and how long before the next stop. Because they are stored separately as well as in the route, the Zumo will not chnage the name of any route point that has been created as a waypoint.

But why do this for shaping points - you never get to see the name?

Well that is my security blanket. In the event of getting lost, the names means nothing to me. But the distances do. And if I set my trip meter to zero when I set off every day, I have an excellent point of reference.

So if I need to restart the route, I can look at the route list, check my odometer and quickly discover which route point is the next one.
Then on the Zumo screen, change it to a Via Point. Start the route and select that as the next destination.

I came up with that when I got my 590. I've only ever needed to use it once, but I'm glad that I had it all ready on that occasion, and I still used it on the 595 and on the XT1 - but only on the long tours. I've yet to take my XT2 on a long tour by itself. Last time, it was new and I had the XT1 and XT2 running the same routes - just to watch the different behaviours.

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The XT2 is a different beast, and I haven't decided how to deal with it. But displaying track and route together is an excellent standby.

With the XT2, if you use a saved waypoint in a route, the XT2 plots the point and the route point and the waypoint coincide - but if you look at the gpx file, the waypoint doesn't feature in the route itself. It is just plotted on the map. Then when it synch's it moves the route point - sometimes significantly - and leaves the waypoint plotted to one side of the route. Which means that it may not actually navigate you to your hotel.

I sent garmin a couple of examples of this, where my waypoint was for a car park for a hotel. The hotel was on a corner of a crossroads in Ely, Cambridgeshire. There is no parking on the road, but the main entrance and the car park entrance are both about 10m from the corner. If you pull up outside the main entrance, you cannot ride to the carpark, without going round the city and coming at it from the other direction. And guess what ? The XT2 ignores my car park waypoint and puts a new end point outside the main entrance.

I think the answer is to ditch Tread, but I've yet to check out that particular example.