Garmin BaseCamp - Forgotten?

April 11, 2016 ... yes, it has been a long time.

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it's the dog's fault

If it ain't borken, don't fix it!

It has been talked about in the Garmin software forum that they are no longer developing or updating BaseCamp. It is what it is, just like PoiLoader.

My 64S can not use routes planned or edited with BaseCamp. The routes are frozen and uneditable on the 64S if touched by BaseCamp.

Create/edit your routes in Basecamp then export to a .gdb file. Open that file in Mapsource and transfer to your gps. I can't speak for the 64S but it solves this problem with some of my older Garmin equipment.

You can also just use Mapsource to create/edit your routes but I like the advanced features available in Basecamp.

From the Garmin Spec page: "Automatic routing (turn by turn routing on roads) Yes (with optional mapping for detailed roads)"

Do you have the optional maps mentioned? That may account for the freezing.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

I should not have to use workarounds to do something that was supposed to be the MAJOR objective of BaseCamp. That a route created or edited in BaseCamp is not editable on the GPS device is a MAJOR flaw. That one travel mode (an obscure and never used, not necessary mode at that) works while all other travel modes do not work is a major flaw. All modes should work. I should not have to remember to change into a mode that would never be used to get something to maybe work and then convert back to the mode I am using. All of that is unacceptable and is a MAJOR flaw. This flaw should have prevented BaseCamp from ever leaving beta phase. Making and editing routes is the primary purpose of BaseCamp and is advertised as such.

Interesting when I called Garmin about this, they denied BaseCamp was to be used for creating, managing and editing routes on a computer, instead of the GPSr. Then I read back to them their own BaseCamp literature that stated that BaseCamp was indeed created and intended to create, manage and edit routes on a computer.

This appears to be a device issue rather than BaseCamp. I can edit routes sent by BaseCamp on all my Garmin devices.

Never liked it from the beginning. Search function was too many steps to find anything. They should have looked at the ease of Google searches. Hated the way you had to fuss around with routing. The programmers should have all been fired or sent back to coding school.

Everybody said: Take the tutorials, spend hours watching videos learning how to do simple routes or tasks. Nope.

Rant over.

This is also a problem with a Montana (I sold the Montana).

It is a known problem, for years, with well established workarounds.

It's amazing that people accept crazy workarounds. That workaround is making sure that BaseCamp is in Direct mode when transferring/touching/editing a Route. Direct mode, that useless mode. One mode out of sixteen modes. Why not have BaseCamp be made to do the same with routes in all modes?

... appears to work on my Montana?

Appears?

Does it or doesn't it?

Are you using the workaround? Are you making routes on your computer in modes other than direct, and transferring them while in modes other than direct?

BaseCamp on a Mac, V4.6.3?

Worked OK last time I did it. Also worked on my Etrex 20. Caveat is that I haven't done it for a while so unless a software update broke something it 'appears' to work. When I have time I'll run some tests.

I am on Win version though so that maybe makes a difference?

Big question, do the units have routable maps on them? If there aren't any routable maps, then routes from any source won't work.

Plenty of routeable maps both on the devices and in BaseCamp.

Yes, routable maps.

I can make routes on the devices and those routes will be editable as long as they are never touched by BC. Once touched by BC they can not be edited unless resent back to the unit with the super secret workaround. A route created on BC and transferred to the GPSr will not be editable (unless I remember to use the super secret bizarre workaround). This happened on the Montana just as it does on my present GPSMAP 64s.

This is well known. People just accept that a bizarre workaround has to be used.

phranc, about those coordinates in your sig... current location? And if you are at the current location, I passed by within a few miles on I-64 when I went to the eclipse.

So what is this "super secret" workaround? And why is it a secret?

diesel, yes. I live in Bedford, just across the the bypass from the D Day Memorial.

You know how there are 16 activities (travel modes) in BC, well the only one that allows a route to be sent to a GPSr AND have the route be editable on the GPSr is Direct. You have to remember to switch to Direct before transferring the route to the device or the route will not be editable on the device. Garmin tried convince me this was by design. So I asked what was the desired product objective, and why this "procedure" was not documented or published anywhere. Deer caught in headlights was the response.

I often create routes with numerous points (which is tedious to do on the GPSr) and then almost always change something while traveling. Can't make those changes when the route is not editable.

Creating routes on BC and then sending them to the GPSr is a crucial feature and benefit of BC. A user should be able to edit at will without having to make sure BC doesn't touch it or make sure BC uses the obtuse Direct mode if it does touch a route.

How it continues to be hobbled like this to this day is baffling.

Thanks for explaining diesel. I wonder if that is a Mac only problem as as sussamb suggested? I haven't had that experience with my Windows BaseCamp. That said, I will admit that I don't use BaseCamp very often, although in the past I have created and successfully sent routes to my nuvi's that were fully editable on the device. I always use only the "Driving" mode in BaseCamp with the CN NA map.

Yeah, looks like Mac only.

There's no freezing. What happens is the route not editable once on the GPS. The route is there and will work, but when I want to make a change to the route on the GPS, it is not editable on the device. The options to make changes to the route on the device are not there, as they would be if the route was not touched by BaseCamp.

Very frustrating.

But what if it's broken and not "borken" ;)