Tracks vs Routes/Trips

[gwilki]

My first post and my first cry for help.

I have had the Zumo XT2 for a week and have had nothing but problems. I'm thinking some of them must be on me, so I joined here for help

First question: I am using google mymaps to create a .gpx file. I then open Explore and import that .gpx file. Should I import it as a track or route? I am using track, but am unsure if that will end up on the Zumo with turn by turn directions.

Second: In Explore, I have the option to convert this to route. Keeping in mind that I want turn by turn directions, do I convert it?

Third: Then it syncs with Tread. Same question. Route or track.

Finally. Zumo. Same thing.

I don't understand why Garmin seems to have made this so complicated. I use Basecamp with a Montana for kayak tracks. I keep everything as a track, inserting waypoints. They download to my Montana and I simply paddle that track. No turn by turn, of course, but everything is simple.

Can anyone here please tell me what I am doing wrong? So far, I either get no turn by turn at all, or the zumo wants to take me from the start point - my house - to the end point - my house - with no trip on between.

Thank you

Grant

[lkraus]

Start here: https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1464. It's not written for your XT2, but it will help you understand how a Zumo (in general) handles tracks and routes (aka trips). It will provide definitions for terms as they are used by Garmin and here on the forum. It will also explain the behavior you've already seen from your XT and show you some ways to get better control of your routes. The "basics" are a lot to re-type every time someone gets a new Zumo, so think of it as the manual that Garmin should have provided and give it a good read. Then we can better help with more specific questions and differences between the XT and XT2.

[gwilki]

Thank you very much. I'll study up and post back.

[Fxwheels]

I think the simple way is to create the route in Basecamp (if you familiar with it) and make a gpx file or export it directly to XT/2.
You can export the route and the track in one shot and have it all in he nav. I'd avoid jumping thru the hoops in Explore and the Tread.

[gwilki]

I think the simple way is to create the route in Basecamp (if you familiar with it) and make a gpx file or export it directly to XT/2.
You can export the route and the track in one shot and have it all in he nav. I'd avoid jumping thru the hoops in Explore and the Tread.

Thank you. I'm still reading the great info that lkraus pointed me to. I'm sure that I will have questions arising from that.

In the meantime, though, how do I get a gpx file from Basecamp into the XT2 without the intermediate step of either Explore or Tread? I tried this morning saving a gpx on my PC, and connected the XT2 via USB to my PC. That started Garmin Express, which allowed the PC to see the folders in the XT2. I copied the .gpx file into the gpx folder on the XT2, but when I then tried to load that file, the XT2 could not find it. Is there a specific folder that it needs to be in?

[rbentnail]

Start Garmin Express. Click the setting gear at the top. Uncheck both boxes. Close Express. At the bottom right of your screen make sure Express is not running in the background. If it is, close it.

Never have Base Camp and Express running at the same time.

You don't have to export the route from Base Camp to your computer to get it on your device.

Start Base Camp. Plug your device into your PC and wait a little while. On the left, eventually, you will see your device listed and all the maps there, etc. At the bottom left, highlight your desired route. Now at the top, File/transfer/selection. Something like that, you'll see it. Now unplug and start your device. Import the route.

[gwilki]

Got it, thanks. It is the in the Zumo and I can navigate. However, it wants me to ride it in reverse. It does not matter where I start. It wants to navigate from the end point to the beginning. I can't see a way to reverse it. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong this time?

[rbentnail]

I've never heard of the device reversing the route. I'd delete the route from the device and look again at it in Base Camp.

[Fxwheels]

Got it, thanks. It is the in the Zumo and I can navigate. However, it wants me to ride it in reverse. It does not matter where I start. It wants to navigate from the end point to the beginning. I can't see a way to reverse it. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong this time?

Do you have a reverse gear? LOL
Yeah, just delete it from the XT2 and check Basecamp if the route is right.
You can also export a route and track the same time. If you have a folder for each ride - in the lower left box you'll have the route and track for that route only (track created from route). Click on the name in the upper left file, then File/Export-->Export(file name) instead of "selection" (the selection will export only the selected route or a track instead).

[jfheath]

I have had the Zumo XT2 for a week and have had nothing but problems. I'm thinking some of them must be on me, so I joined here for help

Glad you found us. Welcome !!

First question: I am using google mymaps to create a .gpx file. I then open Explore and import that .gpx file. Should I import it as a track or route? I am using track, but am unsure if that will end up on the Zumo with turn by turn directions.

The first problem is using Google Maps. It doesn't offer anything that you don't have with Basecamp (until you move away from your PC), and it introduces all sorts of problems. If you really want to use Google MyMaps, then export your result as a KML file which Basecamp can import.
But you still end up with a track on Basecamp that you cannot use for navigation ** and a track that has been created on different maps. MyMaps now exports the saved Waypoints to Basecamp, but there is no route.

Garmin Explore does not create the same type of route that you can create on the XT screen, or in the Zumo's Trip Planner or Route Planner.

I am not saying don't use it, but its use introduces all sorts of issues that you could really do without when working out what to do. Work from a known baseline to start off with. You use Basecamp already, and from my point of view it is still the most complete piece of software for route planning for Zumos that there is.

Second: In Explore, I have the option to convert this to route. Keeping in mind that I want turn by turn directions, do I convert it?

Don't go there. If you convert a track to a route in Explore, you get something which the Zumo treats in a very different way from a normal route.
It has no route points but it does visit every change of direction. See my illistrated description here: https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/app.php/ZXT-P61

Third: Then it syncs with Tread. Same question. Route or track.

I don't know Tread or the XT2 - but in Explore, tracks are placed in the Zumos Tracks App. Route are placed in the Trip Planner App - on the XT2, I believe that is more properly called the Route Planner App.

This from Russ, is spot on. You will find that every time Garmin Express is updated, you have to stop it from keeping itself running in the background by following the same procedure witht he gear icon.

Start Garmin Express. Click the setting gear at the top. Uncheck both boxes. Close Express. At the bottom right of your screen make sure Express is not running in the background. If it is, close it.

Never have Base Camp and Express running at the same time.

You don't have to export the route from Base Camp to your computer to get it on your device.

Start Base Camp. Plug your device into your PC and wait a little while. On the left, eventually, you will see your device listed and all the maps there, etc. At the bottom left, highlight your desired route. Now at the top, File/transfer/selection. Something like that, you'll see it. Now unplug and start your device. Import the route.

You can also export a route and track the same time. If you have a folder for each ride - in the lower left box you'll have the route and track for that route only (track created from route). Click on the name in the upper left file, then File/Export-->Export(file name) instead of "selection" (the selection will export only the selected route or a track instead).

On the PC there are two things that you can do to get the file to the Zumo.

One is to create a GPX file of the data - to place in the GPX folder on the Zumo. (But that too is a long winded way of doing it - but has some advantages).

The other to which @Rentnail is to use the Device -> Send to Device menu within Basecamp.

Or you can simply drag items or mutilple items from the bottom pane to the Zumo in the top window. Internal Storage or SD card.
Watch the green progress bar on Basecamp next to the Internal Storage / SD card. Wait for it to appear, make sure it finishes and is repalced with a tick. Do not diconnect the cable until transfer has completed. There can be quite a long wait if you do not have the Garmin maps installed on your computer - each time you plug in the USB cable, Basecamp has to read the maps from your Zumo.

A word of warning here. On the XT if you do that, then you may lose data if you reconnect the USB cable and then send something else.

As to the answer to your repeated question - "Trip or Track ?" I do not know from what you have described. Create a route in Basecamp using the route tool or waypoints and 'Create a Route' from the selected waypoints. Transfer that one route to your Zumo, and see where it shows up (Route Planner) and see what it looks like when you load it.

Then back to basecamp and create a track from that route and see how that is loaded and displayed and how it behaves.

It will give you an idea of whether you are working with tracks or a route.