Forcing A Route Calculation a Certain Way

While a route on the BRP can be made with about 20 via points to keep the route in MapSource on the parkway, think about your drive/ride. You get on the road and you have to consciously decide to exit it or else you continue to ride on it. Turn off your GPS or mute and ignore it and enjoy the ride. You don't need navigation to ride that road. Start with your vehicle fueled up, as there is only one service station on the BRP.

That is exactly what I did on US 70 between Memphis & Little Rock. But I still need help to mute the interim waypoints should I decide to use them.

I decide on a route, then use waypoints to navigate the route. After I pass one waypoint, i then enter the next one. I number them so I know which is next. This way you always know your ETA to the next waypoint and you can design your route as you desire.

Sure, you could enter the waypoints all at once, but as stated that doesnt keep you on the route, necessarily.

I just create my route in Mapsource using specific towns along my route and then send the route to my nüvi. If the route is going from town to town along a specific road or route I don't have problems. Works great for me.

What about just ignoring it? Haven't traveled the BRP is quite some time, so maybe there's something I'm not thinking of, but if you get on it and intend to stay there wouldn't simply ignoring the attempts to take you off that road work OK? Or, route to the start, travel the length, route from there to the destination or next closed road. Not saying it wouldn't be nice to do it, but routing on a closed road seems unnecessary anyway, except you can keep track of your progress.

I've been playing a bit with the routes in MSource as well as BCamp, and I don't think you'll be able to totally silence the route points.

From what I'm seeing, each point will end up with 3 announcements close to them, all of which are generated by the device (at least that's what I see on my 765T and 295W). One saying "Approaching (name)" at around .5 mi, another "Approaching.." at around 300 ft., and the last one after you have passed that says "Travel (distance) to (next route point name)".

I've been mucking around in the gpx file before transferring it to the unit(s), and that's the best I can get. The announcements definitely are generated on the initial import calculation into the unit, and even editing once they are in Current.gpx doesn't save the changes in routes like it will with Favorite pois.

..And by the way, Unflag totally doesn't work on my units. It takes the 'flags' off by changing the rtept entries (route points) to rpt entries (autoroute points), which basically gives me a start and end route point that recalculates as the device sees fit (using the unit's routing prefs and generating it's own rpts). So it totally wipes out my 'forced' roads.

I think route control in all GPS devices has a long way to go. I would love to see the click and drag capability similar to google maps. Havin to use mapsource requires too much planning for short infrequent trips.

When I started this thread, I expected someone to reply with something like, "Hit this button and all will be good" since I have been known to be oblivious to the obvious once in a while.

But the software that does the thinking has to consider many options. The roads have two extremes: interstate highways and the littlest backroads.

But then there are the many, many roads in between that must be categorized with some sort of weighting value for use when a route is being calculated. That's where things get fuzzy. And it will be a never-ending pursuit with learning and tweaking along the way.

And not to mention.. in the world of Garmin (and in between gpsr worlds) not all of the units deal with these routes the same!

I've been finding out that your hand-held does 'route things' differently than my nuvi and both differently than Zumo's, as well as differences between particular models and even between map versions!!

I've noted most of the comments deal with either the BRP (I REALLY liked the notion of turning off the route and just driving using the normal road signs which I've thoroughly enjoyed on many ocassions over the years)or the comments deal with many via points for short trips.

This is an interesting issue and there are many potential solutions to the age old problem of routing to specific likes/dislikes.

As indicated earlier I'm in the throes of planning a trip that circumnavigates the continent (about 16,000 miles all told). Once I'm done the planning, I'll post a note regarding how the waypoints were handled. FYI I'm not a big fan of either interstates or little roads preferring the secondary highways -time permitting as I can see so much more!

BTW my Nuvi 360 does not accept mapsource files as an option to route planning - or so I'm told! (and getting a new Garmin is also not an option!)

In 2008 Barbara & I did the Joplin to Albuquerque portion of Route 66 using paper maps, cheat sheets and a Magellan hand-held. This summer we will do the Chicago to Joplin portion using PhinPhan's excellent GPX file. I'm thinking it will be a waste of time to try & force the routing.

I have always wondered about plotting your own preferred route. Now I am gonna have to give some of these a try.

in a keyhole...this routing thing with Garmin is a frustrating mess...look, I love these GPSr contraptions...they have revolutionized travel and you cannot really get lost...but they still have a long way to go to be really user friendly. There is simply no reason that you should not be able to program any route you want and the GPS just takes it and runs with it...if I want to go next door via the other side of town I don't need my Garmin refusing to comply...it's like have a teenager in a box

I was on the road home, having just disembarked from the Boat. GPS was "taking me home" as it usually does, then my wife said she wanted us to stop at our son's place. I just went to the main menu, selected that new, one-before-final destinatin, and the system asked me if this was a VIA. I said Yes.
As we were progressing towards that new point, we remembered we needed to stop somewhere else before our kids. So I repeated the steps, and confirmed once again it was a VIA.
And then another one came to mind - I won't repeat all steps again ?
Bottom line is, you only needed to enter them in the proper order. The last one, then the one before last, then the two before last, then the three before last - and it went just fine with my 205T.
I thought I'd share as well

My Garmin will take me where I want, and on the roads I want. Not sure why yours won't, unless you're not really asking for it to do only that.

There are however, some specific 'qualifiers' people add to 'routes' and creation prefs that can be difficult or in a few cases not possible though.

I'm not sure exactly how you tried your 'waypoints' example in Maine, but I wouldn't have used that method..I'd have used 'route-points' (which are a slightly different animal). And if the most annoying bit was it recalculating when you went 'off course", well I can ignore my nuvi until I get back on-route just as well as I do my wife, so it's not an issue for me in that regard either.

For sure it would be nice if all units allowed turning off recalculation, though.

TTS Voice Editor does the trick of turning off the recalculation voice - GPS still recalculates but doesn't keep telling you about it!

I searched this forum for advice and in the end decided that I had travelled around the USA for 35 years quite well without GPS and stopped wasting my time. Was I doing something wrong...probably. However, if a device takes that much effort for a regular user to make it useful...it has a long way to go...JM2C, YMMV.

Ted

back volume mute OK back view map

It's not he voice during recalc I want to see go away..

It's the fact that if I'm driving (or importing) a pre-defined route and the unit recalculates a 'better' route (not simply a new path to get back to my pre-defined route) that can be a problem.

Most nuvi's auto-recalc, with no way to stop it when desired.

1. If you know the route you want to use in advance:

Using Google maps; after setting the start and end of the route, you can move the route by dragging it to the roads you want to use, then use the "Send" link on top of the map and select the "Send to to GPS" option on the pop up box. (You need to have installed the Garmin communicator pluggin, http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99... ) save it to your GPS, that way you can go to favorites (at least in my nuvi, I think) look up your route and there you go.

This is what I am trying to do with my 7200 Street Pilot. I can download routes just fine, but it will not use the route that I modified in Google Maps. It will only use the route from point A to Point B.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Skip Deedon

We are all trying to do just that. Usually one or two intermediate waypoints along the route will do the trick. Not so if you want to take a scenic route.

I just want to go home...

Click your heels three times, and say, "I want to go home..."

Skip, when you drag the line to make a custom route, Google will indicate that spot with a little circle on the route line. You'll need to set a waypoint at that point. I've played around with this a little and haven't been able to get it to work very well. It works much easier in Mapsource.

Unless Google maps has changed it doesn't transfer routes.It will send the waypoints to favorites.Did find this work around http://www.ehow.com/how_6966283_transfer-google-maps-gps.htm... .MapQuest will transfer routes to units that have the route feature.

http://www.takitwithme.com/

Darn, so simple... Who wouldathunked ???

As long as you are wearing your ruby slippers and standing on the yellow brick motorway.

for the information.