Garmin mapsource USER TIPS

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pdecat

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Any one know how to use Garmin map source to plan a route?
Every time I try to create a route out of waypoints it links them in a weird order. I dont see any way to force the link order.
 
Bruce
Make your waypoints- add them to the route- if you need to change the order, highlight the waypoint you want to move and use the up & down arrows to move it

Capture.jpg
 
Thanks guys, I think you added the steps I missed.
 
quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

Pdecat,
Once upon a time I received a Mapsource training CD taped inside a boating book
I bought to read while I was in the hospital. I cannot look at the CD cause my
computers are Vista and the CD is for XP and earlier versions of MS.
Click to expand...


How would a CD not be compatible with Vista? Wouldn't that make millions of CDs obsolete? There are CD standards.

On a slightly different subject, I find the Mapsource built in help to be a bit difficult to use because it contains refferences to Garmin's land based products as well as marine. You would think they could have come up with product specific help.
 
The cd should be fine. It's the program the program that's probably incompatible with vista.
 
When I create routes, I click create route then use my mouse to create waypoints it puts them in order as you go then you can edit them as you need. I usually that old routes of trips that started out the the same direction the delete anything beyond a certain point and add to it save with new name so you don't loose the old route. Once you get the hang of it it's very easy.
 
thanks for the offer of the disk but I think I am breaking the code with the help from here.
 
I am having trouble moving a waypoint. The instructions say:

Click the Selection tool .

Right-click the waypoint on the Graphic Map. Then select Move Waypoint. A small waypoint icon and a curved arrow appear next to the mouse cursor.

Click the new location on the map. The waypoint moves to the new location

Doesent work, no small wp icon appears
 
Hi Bruce:
This gets a little confusing. All waypoints are not created equal. If you used the point and click method with the route tool to create a route, you will not be able to edit the waypoints - they are a temporary place marker, not a full blown waypoint. The way to determine if a waypoint is temporary or permanent is to left click anywhere away from the route your waypoint resides in (on my screen that results in the route unhighlighting to purple). Left click on the waypoint to highlight it and then right click on it and your first menu selection should be "move waypoint" if its a permanent waypoint. If its temporary, the first menu item is "new waypoint". If you are in a hurry to create a route, the point and click method with the route tools is fast, but does not produce editable waypoints. To produce editable (permanent) waypoints, use the waypoint tool and click for each waypoint you would like to create. Name them keeping in mind names that your gps will allow (4, 5, or 6 digit alpha numeric names for instance) if you will be uploading them. After you have all the waypoints created, then you can use the route tool to link them all together; you should also be able to edit them or move them to your hearts content. Hope this helps.

Jim
 
Thanks jim for that clear explaination. Really too bad cause I like the draw and click function.
I dont like the waypoint method because the route creation tool links them in a order unrelated to input sequence and produces a jumbled route.

I input waypoints and they are automatically labeled with the chart number and a wp number assigned sequentially but when I create the route the entry sequence is ignored and a random , or maybe it is ordered by latitude,route is created. What’s up with that?
 
It also seems that there is only one wp list so working with several routs is difficult.
 
OK, a couple of things. You can set preferences for waypoint creation under edit/preferences/waypoint so, for instance, all waypoints for a trip south may start with "so" and contain say seven digits. Also, once you have editable waypoints, you can change the name, color, shape, etc. of the waypoint. If all you have on your screen on the left side is a list of waypoints, but nothing under the routes tab, look at the right side (chart side) and move to the waypoint you want to start your route. You can do this by dragging the screen with the mouse using the little hand icon, or you can left double click on the waypoint in your waypoint list, click on the button "show on map", then click the OK button. That should give you your starting icon in the middle of the map. Then click on the route icon (third from the right above the tabbed lists) and your cursor should change to the same icon. Then just play connect the dots on the right side (map) in the order you want to reach the next waypoint. At the end, after having connected all appropriate waypoints for your route, hit the escape (esc) key and you should have a route, with the waypoints recorded in order, on the left side of the screen under the routes tab. You can double click the route and rename it to whatever you want.
 
One last thing I like to do when planning a route is to use the point and click method zoomed out to complete a route, then go back, zoom in and create permanent waypoints next to all the temporary ones on the map. Then I move the route over to the new permanent ones and delete the temporary ones.
 
Jim: that works great as i can then move the waypoints since they are "real".
Thanks
 
I would like to use the same WP in multiple routes.
is there a way to select only some WPs from the waypoints list to use in a new route or alternately copy selected WPs into a new file list of WPs?
 
I discovered that if I create a route using “real” WPs then I can add fake Wps using the "insert in route" tool. The new Wps dont get named and can be deleted and replaced but not moved. Go figure
 
If you want to reuse some waypoints and add new "real" waypoints to produce a new route, simply add the new "real" waypoints and then do the connect the dots with the route tool. You can still click on a waypoint even though it already is included in another route. You can also click on the waypoints tab, click on edit, click on select all, click on copy. Close the file you are working on, open "new file", click on edit/paste voila, new file with all your waypoints but no routes. I suggest you play with the software, it has capabilities 90% of the users out there don't know about.
 
If you have a list of WPs that would be used in multiple routes you can create different routes from the same list by selecting each using the mouse and the control key then clicking “create a route from selected WPs” tool
 
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