Creating autoroute from waypoints

[+RAD Dad]

OK here's what I'm wondering. How do you go about taking 10 waypoints for the caches you want to find on a particular outing and get the Garmin City Navigator NT 2008 to arrange them in the most direct route? Can it even be done by the software, or do I have to go through and manually arrange them in a particular order?

 

In case it matters I have a Garmin 76CSx and Mapsource City Navigator NT 2008

 

Also, is it true Mapsource is coming out with a new release of City Navigator, and that 2008 isn't the newest? (when I loaded it up I did notice that it said the maps were 2007, though it called the software City Navigator NT 2008)

 

Thanks for any help. I already searched through pages of search results, maybe the various key words I used weren't good enough, or maybe I'm asking a question that's so stupid no one else has asked.

 

-Rich

[+v2lek]

This is called a 'travelling salesman problem"

 

To my knowledge mapsource dont exactly support what your asking, but you can play around manually, reordering points in route and checking what is the total route leght, to find the shortest.

 

You can read more about TSP from wikipedia. This does not exactly help you, unless youre a mathematican, but still, might be interesting to read.

[+DonB]

OK here's what I'm wondering. How do you go about taking 10 waypoints for the caches you want to find on a particular outing and get the Garmin City Navigator NT 2008 to arrange them in the most direct route? Can it even be done by the software, or do I have to go through and manually arrange them in a particular order?

 

In case it matters I have a Garmin 76CSx and Mapsource City Navigator NT 2008

 

Also, is it true Mapsource is coming out with a new release of City Navigator, and that 2008 isn't the newest? (when I loaded it up I did notice that it said the maps were 2007, though it called the software City Navigator NT 2008)

 

Thanks for any help. I already searched through pages of search results, maybe the various key words I used weren't good enough, or maybe I'm asking a question that's so stupid no one else has asked.

 

-Rich

My 2610 and my 2820 will do it, and I think some of the Nuvis will do it, but I haven't heard of any handhelds that will do it.

[+StarBrand]

Microsoft's Streets and Trips will do it for you. Import in the points and have it calculate the optimum route.

[+g-o-cashers]

Microsoft's Streets and Trips will do it for you. Import in the points and have it calculate the optimum route.

 

The 76csx doesn't support this and I don't believe Garmin has a handheld which does. My SP2610 does it and it seems that its showing back up on the Nuvi line in the 7xx series. More information here:

 

http://www.gpsreview.net/multi-destination-routing/

 

GO$Rs

[+RAD Dad]

I was afraid of that. Anyone know if you can create a route using streets and trips then export it to the garmin?

 

Also, is there anywhere I can find a FAQ with helpful tips on getting the most out of my Garmin with City Navigator for geocaching? I know the basics, but I want to know what I'm missing.

 

Thanks

[+DonB]

I was afraid of that. Anyone know if you can create a route using streets and trips then export it to the garmin?

 

Also, is there anywhere I can find a FAQ with helpful tips on getting the most out of my Garmin with City Navigator for geocaching? I know the basics, but I want to know what I'm missing.

 

Thanks

There is a program called GPSutility that will convert an .est file to many other formats, some of them being different Garmin files. The only limitation is the free version will only do 100 points I believe. It might work for you.

[robertlipe]

http://www.gpsbabel.org/formats/s_and_t/TripPlanning.html describes using Streets & Trips for the TSP in context of geocaching.

 

GPSBabel can also then send the resulting route to your Garmin, but it worth mentioning that on the handhelds, multipoint routing doesn't work the way you want it to work in an automobile; you get straight lines between the caches and not turn-by-turns. That's just a limit of the handhelds.

 

As others have mentioned, the various dashtops handle all this much better.

[+RAD Dad]

http://www.gpsbabel.org/formats/s_and_t/TripPlanning.html describes using Streets & Trips for the TSP in context of geocaching.

 

GPSBabel can also then send the resulting route to your Garmin, but it worth mentioning that on the handhelds, multipoint routing doesn't work the way you want it to work in an automobile; you get straight lines between the caches and not turn-by-turns. That's just a limit of the handhelds.

 

As others have mentioned, the various dashtops handle all this much better.

 

Nah, my handheld is GPSmaps 76Csx, it does auto-routing with turn by turn, audible tones to give you a heads up for upcoming turns, and even recalculates automatically if you miss a turn. I believe the 60Csx does this also. What I like about mine is it's shock resistant, waterproof and something most handhelds don't offer, it floats. (I like to go boating with my GPSr) I think combining streets and trips with GPSbabel to get my desired "traveling salesman" route figured out I'll be good for taking a group of cache points and letting the computer figure out the best route to hit them all.