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Using Routes with Garmin GPSMap 60


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Posted

I've read everything relating to routes that I could find. I still don't understand. Here is my situation:

 

Youngest son and I will be driving cross country for 12 days stopping at lots of places. We made a route of the places on MapSource. When I upload the route to the GPS, will we be able to use it to go from place to place? We don't have enough memory to upload maps for the entire trip, or a laptop to change maps with. Will the base map be enough to get to these places? Does the route upload include the roads to the waypoints?

 

Thanks, Jim B.

Posted

Since you referred to Mapsource, I'll assume you have topo maps, not street maps.

 

A route includes only the waypoints themselves (essentially coordinates) and a list that shows the waypoint sequence. All the GPS will show you is the bearing and distance to the next waypoint.

 

The basemap has very little detail on it. All you will really see is a nearly blank map with your current location and a line projecting off on the bearing to your next waypoint. If you want something to do street navigation on a trip across the country (as opposed to a cross-country trip :anitongue: ), I don't think you are going to be happy with the 60, unless you get the Garmin street map set. Even then, it sounds like loading maps will be a problem.

Posted

Since you referred to Mapsource, I'll assume you have topo maps, not street maps.

 

A route includes only the waypoints themselves (essentially coordinates) and a list that shows the waypoint sequence. All the GPS will show you is the bearing and distance to the next waypoint.

 

The basemap has very little detail on it. All you will really see is a nearly blank map with your current location and a line projecting off on the bearing to your next waypoint. If you want something to do street navigation on a trip across the country (as opposed to a cross-country trip :blink: ), I don't think you are going to be happy with the 60, unless you get the Garmin street map set. Even then, it sounds like loading maps will be a problem.

 

I have the Garmin street maps. That was why I was hoping that the streets used in the route where uploaded with the route. Sounds like that was too much to hope for.

Posted

I have the Garmin street maps. That was why I was hoping that the streets used in the route where uploaded with the route. Sounds like that was too much to hope for.

Your best bet is probably to use "Select Maps Around Route" in MapSource (right clidk on the route name), deselect less important maps (say along long stretches of major freeways) until you have something that will fit on the 60, then download these to the 60. This will work better if your maps are one of the earlier mapsets, which had smaller segments. Your original route created in MapSource may not look very good on the 60, but you should get decent routes when routing on the 60 itself (knock on wood). When I used to travel with my Vista (the original Vista), I found that I could only get about one or two day's worth of all the maps I wanted at one time on it, but I didn't try the trick of excluding large freeway sections.

Posted (edited)

I have the Garmin street maps. That was why I was hoping that the streets used in the route where uploaded with the route. Sounds like that was too much to hope for.

I see you have 24 MB of memory. Can you download just the detailed map segments that lie along your route, (depending on the map product you own)?

Edited by Klatch
Posted

How much memory do you have for the maps?

 

If you are going to be on Interstates, those will be on the basemap. Perhaps you could just load the maps for the large cities you will be traveling through. That is where the auto-routing will be most helpful.

 

Load all the caches you are interested in finding before you go. Where the maps are, you can use the auto-routing to get to them. For those out in the rural areas, you can just "Follow the Arrow" and the instructions on the cache page.

 

It could work . . . :blink:

Posted

I have the Garmin street maps. That was why I was hoping that the streets used in the route where uploaded with the route. Sounds like that was too much to hope for.

 

The route is not part of the map so that ws too much to hope for. Maybe with a little work you can get it done. Even though the basemap is essentially worthless for routing (ore anything else), why not use that in areas where routing info is unimportant? Create a mapset with only those map tiles around the route that you must have and leave the rest of the tiles unselected. The unselected areas will default to the basemap. Maybe add some waypoints to the unselected areas if needed.

Posted

Wow! All this time I thought I only had 8 MB of map storage on my GPS. I did exactly what was recommended and now have all the maps I really need for the cities or areas of cities I plan to be in during the trip without all the long highway stints. Thanks to all of you for the help. I don't know where I got that 8 in my head. I've let it rule me for 3 years!

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