Mapquest Change

Sending Mapquest routes has always worked with my nuvi 755T every time I tried it, starting about a year ago. It only sends explicitly set vias and waypoints. It does not recognize avoids or "rubber-banded" route segments unless you explicitly set via's.

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MapQuest has finished with their (Beta) 'Build a Route' program and I am happy to report that they have included their send a route to your Garmin capability.

Gary Hayman
Garmin Tricks, Tips, etc.
http://bit.ly/garmin_gps_tricks

That's good news, thank you. I'll give it a try.

You still can't send a route to your gps, via Google maps?

Thanks for the update, I was wondering why it worked for me.

You can send your Google Maps route to your Nuvi but not near as easily as with Mapquest.

One way to transfer a Google maps route is to use a browser applet named GmaptoGPX (full instructions on how to use the applet are at http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx/ ).

Basically you save GmaptoGPX as a bookmark in your browser. Then go to Google Maps and create your route. Once you have your route create and while still on the Google Maps webpage, click on the GmaptoGPX bookmark which will open another window with the GPX code of the Google Maps route.

Copy the GPX contents into Notepad and save the file as a GPX file. Now open Mapsource and within that program open the GPX file you've just created.
Mapsource will list the file as a ROUTE on the left hand side of the screen.

Right click on the Route entry and select Recalculate Route. Now make any adjustments to the route using the tools available in Mapsource. When you have the route as you want it use the Transfer - Send to GPS command in Mapsource.

The route will be transferred to your Nuvi where you will need to use Tools - My Data - Import Route From File, in order to use your newly created route.

As I said, not near as easy as using Mapquest but it does work.

Bing Maps has a Send function that will transfer a route directly using either the USB connection or over the air if you have MSN traffic. No extra steps needed.

Bing works but it's too hard to make changes to your route. The new Steets and Trips 2010 has a .gpx export and you can adjust your route to what ever you want. After you lay out a route you just save it to your computer and then load it in the Nuvi. It also accepts POI files for this site. The only thing is they have to be converted to .gpx. I used the trial version and it worked great. I may not need Mapsource any more. And it only cost $40.00.

Dragging and dropping the route, just like you do in S&T is hard?

You don't have to drag to change the route, you can type it in or use the Push Pins like way points. As I said it was easy and it downloaded the route exactly as I laid it out. It's seems to be the same as Bing but with a lot more functions.

gerrydrake talked about Google Maps and I was simply giving him a way to send a route from there if he wanted to.

Just inquiring, is Bing Maps actually sending a route or is it just sending the waypoints?

Gary Hayman

Gary,

I had a route downloaded and loaded under Routes in my 885T - not My Data, but Routes.

I haven't had a problem with the google maps, when I finish with the route in google I just go to the send button and select GPS instead of e-mail or phone etc. It loads and finds the GPS unit and sends the route I have a Nuvi780 and a Quest2 and both work just fine.

Could you possibly post the procedure for doing that? If I create a route in Bing I can transfer it to my Nuvi but only the waypoints appear. There is no route in My Data or in Routes but all the waypoints appear in Favorites.

Unless you save the Bing route as a Collection I'm at a loss to figure out what name the Nuvi uses for the Route if it does appear in My Data or in Extras - Routes. What name appeared for the route you transferred?

Also I've never seen a route transferred to a Nuvi that went directly to Extras - Routes, they alway needed to be Imported from Tools - My Data first. Are you saying that the route you downloaded went directly to Extras - Routes?

I'd love to use Bing more but I simply can't get it to work like you have. Any enlightenment would be appreciated.

Are you saying it sent the route to Tools - My Data and you Imported the whole route to the Nuvi using "Import Route from File" or did the transfer just send the waypoints to the Nuvi as favorites?

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A-User

Please share your technique for sending a 'Route' formulated with maps at Bing.com to your nüvi.

I have always been able to send Waypoints formulated via Bing.com to my 755WT nüvi with great success -- they end up in my 'Favorites'.

But when I attempt to send a 'Route' a route isn't sent to my nüvi, either in 'Custom Routes' or 'My Data'. What happens to me is that the waypoints on the route are sent and end up in my 'Favorites' area. No 'Route' to be seen anyplace -- at least to me. You must be doing something that I'm not. I'd like to identify what it is.

[to other readers, route planning capability is only available on the nüvi 700 and 800 series, and the nüvi 1490, 1690, 5000 ]

Gary Hayman

But all I did was create the route and go to send. The name used was the starting and end points. I was looking all over for it until I checked Routes and found it.

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Using maps at Bing.com ...

Try a destination that you have never been to, like Bemidji MN or Challis ID.

Gary

Good idea Gary. I did that before I posted to a_user this morning just to be sure I wasn't seeing routes and waypoints that were already on my Nuvi.

The route I planned was from Germantown to Michie's Tavern outside of Charlottesville. We went down for the Carter Mt Apple Festival on Sat. (Had been through Charlottesville many times, but not to Carter Mtn. The road up to the mountain top is right by the road to the tavern.)

The other routes I have planned include a trip up to Rutgers and from there to Bar Harbor, ME. These were done in S&T 2010 and then redrawn in Mapsource. Mapsource transfers them to My Data.

Two things have come to mind on this discussion. 1) I'm using an 885T; and, 2) it has MSN traffic and I have a Windows Live ID. These may have significant bearing on the how BING interacts.

Possibly but I do not think the 8x5 models handle routes, waypoints, etc. any different than other Nuvi's do.

My 780 uses MSN traffic and I have a Windows Live ID.

I just did a test. I created a route to my Brother-in-law's house and sent it to the 885 via the USB connection. It loaded waypoints in Favorites.

The second test was to create the return route, but adding a waypoint to insure it was a different route. This was sent to the unit from Bing maps using the over-the-air method through the MSN traffic receiver. About 10 minutes after sending it, it appeared in Routes exactly as laid out.

So the answer is, at least with my 885, Bing will send a route directly from the maps if and that's a big IF you have an active MSN subscription and send it over the air.

Who would have thought of that? I've never used anything but the USB option. Thanks for checking it out for us.

The thing I find most curious about this is that it goes strait to custom routes without doing an import. I am not real familiar with Mapsource, but don't you have to do Impoort Route on the nuvi even when you transfer a route from Mapsource? Is there any other route transfer method that goes strait to custom routes without import?

In this case there was no import. The MSN interface put the route directly into routes. Now, I don't know what would happen if I had the maximum number of routes already in the unit, but as I only had 4 saved as routes it went directly into Routes.

This is a first for me. I can't think of any other route creating website or software that will install a 'route' directly into Where To - Routes.

The other interesting thing is why just the MSN Direct transfer option. Other than MSN being a Microsoft offering, what makes this different than sending the same data over a USB cable?

Deleted

I suppose the key difference here is that the nuvi receives the route while it is "online" in navigation mode and the Garmin software is controlling the operation of the nuvi. The other route transfer methods occur when the nuvi is in storage mode and the external device is simply accessing the nuvi as a drive volume.

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Wow! Thanks a_user for doing the added research and uncovering a very interesting fact.

It just goes to show that with all the various combinations between units, settings, procedures and software that we utilize, there may be many perturbations.

I would have never thought of what you have discovered as first, it never entered my mind as a possibility and second I don't have MSN reception for my nüvi 755T.

It's a great thing that we have such a site as this where many can share their experience and ideas and that members are willing to experiment and report their research ... revealing the secrets of the GPS Universe.

I am currently left out of the technique of sending routes directly from maps at Bing.com to my nüvi 755T (although I can still use it for sending waypoints) but I can, however, continue to use the technique offered at MapQuest to send the routes.

BTW I will soon have an improved technique for doing just that based upon the recent MapQuest software revision.

Thanks again ... everyone!

Gary Hayman

This restriction is obviously a business decision on Bing's (Microsoft's) part and not a technical restriction, so they can give added value to paying subscribers. They purposly cripple the GPX file transferred by USB to use tags that make the waypoints favorites instead of a route when imported.

By the way, I learned a new word from you tonight Gary ... perturbation ... had to go look it up. Thanks!