Making A Route, And Sending It To GPS Unit

[Alpine]

I am curious as to what others experiences are.

My use for Topo Fusion is to make routes for ATV rides in the back country of Idaho. Topo Fusion is the best tool out there because it combines the best of all worlds in viewing Sat. images, Tiger data, and topo maps.

Now for the but.

When I make a route in Topo Fusion and send it to the GPS (in this case a Nuvi 500) it doesn't show up as a route. In fact the 500 ignores it completely. So what I have done in the past is to save it as a gpx. Then open it in Map Source, trace it with the route tool, then use the edit/cut, close Map Source, open a new Map Source, edit/paste, and then save it as a route. Then send it to the GPS as a route. Then it show up in "My Data" and can be imported.

So tell me, is there an easier way? I'm all ears!

[ScottMorris]

Hi,

Unfortunately I don't have much experience with the Nuvi models.  Sounds like they cannot deal with tracks at all.  If you make sure your route is less than 500 or 250 points (you may need to experiment to find the limit) you could try the "upload as route" option in TopoFusion's GPS transfer dialog.

That will make a series of waypoints out of your tracklog.  I'm guessing that may be a solution.

Let us know if it works or not.  Thanks.

[Alpine]

So when TopoFusion saves a gpx it is a track. So when MapSource saves a gpx as a route, it adds something?

As to waypoints and via points, Garmin Tech Support has this to say about the 500 (and I would assume all Nuvis):

You can have only 10 imported routes at one time. There for the routes stored in the and on your SD card, will not count against the 10 if they have been imported. The limit of via point and waypoints is a memory issue. I have seen routes with up to 200 way or via points.

I can work around the current problem. And the last MapSource  update solved the problem of MapSource crashing every time you saved a gpx (that work around involved saving the track/route as a gdb, putting it through GPSBabelGUI to save as a gpx).

It's all good, I was just curious as to the difference between a track and a route.

[ScottMorris]

A track is just a breadcrumb trail, and route is a series of waypoints.  It does not have as much detail.  I almost never use routes for navigating in the backcountry -- almost exclusively tracks.

Here is a nice tutorial on the difference:

http://gpstracklog.com/2010/03/handheld-gps-101-routes-vs-tracks.html

[Alpine]

Thank you for the link.

However when I draw a route, using the "crayon tool" (as I like to call it), I don't get much of the "red line" stuff.

Besides, we stay on trails, and with the TopoFusion being able to see the Sat. stuff, you can see the intersections (which is what I mark, if I'm not using the "crayon tool". Besides with the 500 I get distance to turn banners at the top of the screen, which is really handy.

I'm still not certain of the  differentiation between a route and a track. I'm sure it's something very technical, but my gps will do routes but seems to ignore tracks.