Route creation

 

I have a Mac running OSX 10.7.3, and want to create my own holiday route around Europe via several places hopefully using the excellent route finder from www.viamichelin.com. I have seen that there is a facility to save the route for a TomTom as a file, which I have done, but when I load it onto the TomTom map folder nothing seems to happen under the POIs. What am I doing wrong? Is there a better way of doing this? Any suggestions? Thanks, JimboT

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JamieT

not having a tom-Tom

The first question is do you have the European maps on your unit?

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Illiterate? Write for free help.

POI are not routes

JamieT wrote:

I have a Mac running OSX 10.7.3, and want to create my own holiday route around Europe via several places hopefully using the excellent route finder from www.viamichelin.com. I have seen that there is a facility to save the route for a TomTom as a file, which I have done, but when I load it onto the TomTom map folder nothing seems to happen under the POIs. What am I doing wrong? Is there a better way of doing this? Any suggestions? Thanks, JimboT

If I correctly understand your remarks above, you have created a route (sometimes called an itinerary) on your computer and have loaded that route onto your GPS. You are now looking for "new" Points of Interest (POI) on your GPS, but do not see them.

IF that is what you have done (and I may be misreading you), then the issue is that a route is completely different from POI data. The itinerary (route) that you are loading will provide directions to allow you to drive from one place to another, via a specific selection of roads, but an itinerary adds nothing about POI along that route - you are dependent upon POI data that is already on the GPS, unless you also add POI data files.

POI files are composed of data that tells the GPS where specific types of places are located. To have a POI show up on your GPS, you must have the POI file loaded AND you must go into the "Show on Map" settings of your GPS and select the POI that you want to be displayed. If the POI did not come pre-installed on your GPS, and you have not loaded a custom file with the POI you desire, the GPS has no POI data that it can display, even if you have created and installed an itinerary that takes you to all of these POI.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

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XXL540, GO LIVE 1535, GO 620

POIs or Routes!

Tom,

Thanks so much! And also to clarify, yes I have the Europe edition.
To go back to square 1, I have obviously got something wrong. I know how to add way-points to my TomTom, to create an itinerary, but its is a very clumsy procedure and I wanted to try to create a "route", itinerary', 'journey' along roads and via places that I can set up on my Mac and then transfer that specified route to the TomTom. Am I dreaming about the impossible? Or do I have to set up a POI for each 'way-point'? The trouble is that the GPS tends to calculate its own route from way-point to way-point whereas I want to select the actual road! So that means putting in more and more way-points!

Does this make me sound even more confused?

Much appreciate any comments! Thanks JamieT

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JamieT

Routes POIs etc.

Thanks! yes I have the European edition - see Tom's comments below!

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JamieT

It can be done

JamieT wrote:

To go back to square 1, I have obviously got something wrong. I know how to add way-points to my TomTom, to create an itinerary, but its is a very clumsy procedure and I wanted to try to create a "route", itinerary', 'journey' along roads and via places that I can set up on my Mac and then transfer that specified route to the TomTom. Am I dreaming about the impossible? Or do I have to set up a POI for each 'way-point'? The trouble is that the GPS tends to calculate its own route from way-point to way-point whereas I want to select the actual road! So that means putting in more and more way-points!

What you want to do can be done, at least for the model of TomTom that you have. (With the caveat that the model names are different in North America than in Europe for essentially the same unit, and I *think* that I know what your model can do - but I may be wrong.)

Before going any further on how to do that, I want to emphasize again that what is generally called a POI is NOT a way-point. A POI is some specific attraction - for example, the Cathedral at Chartres - along with the map coordinates at which that attraction is located. It is NOT a way-point on a road map. If you want to plan a route that visits your POI, those coordinates have to be translated into road instructions. It is easy to instruct your GPS to drive to a single POI but - as you said - to drive to a series of POI on a single itinerary via specific roads by entering instructions on your GPS is a real headache.

I am not familiar with the Michelin program you mentioned, but I assume that it is similar to a free third-party program called TYRE. TYRE is intended to allow you to easily create an itinerary on your computer that can then be downloaded to your GPS. If you wish to do so, it allows you to specify exactly which roads you take from one point to another. It uses Google Earth / Maps on your computer, so you can see what the routing will be. When you are happy with the itinerary, it translates that information into a TomTom-compatible file that you can download to your GPS. TYRE is written by a motorcycle enthusiast who likes to take back roads on many occasions, so he wrote the program with the intent of providing a lot of flexibility in route selection.

Keep in mind that this file is just the driving instructions. If you wish the various POI that you used to decide upon the itinerary to show up on the map of your TomTom, you will have to load a separate file of POI data and use the "Show on Map" setting to display the POI that are in that data file.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

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XXL540, GO LIVE 1535, GO 620

Route Creation

Sounds good Tom.

I'll have a look, and thanks. I see it's for PCs only so will probably have to run it on Parallels and use the TomTom Home version on the PC emulator as well. Thanks again.

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JamieT