How can I get a route with more then 250 via points on my nuvi 550

[nuvii 550]

I got my nuvi 550 last winter for snowmobiling. I saved 10 custom routes and then got Map Source to save them on. Now I find out that some of the routes have more then 1000 via points. My GPS only takes 250 via points and no tracks. Then I phoned Garmin and they could not help me but they gave me your web site. They said if there is a way to do it you would know how. I can get GPS snowmobile trail maps for Ontario and USA but I live in Manitoba.

Can I make routes with out via points like a map?

OR can I make my own snowmobile trail map?

[Bob Morphew]

I got my nuvi 550 last winter for snowmobiling. I saved 10 custom routes and then got Map Source to save them on. Now I find out that some of the routes have more then 1000 via points. My GPS only takes 250 via points and no tracks. Then I phoned Garmin and they could not help me but they gave me your web site. They said if there is a way to do it you would know how. I can get GPS snowmobile trail maps for Ontario and USA but I live in Manitoba.

Can I make routes with out via points like a map?

OR can I make my own snowmobile trail map?

You generally don't need more than 250 waypoints in a route. If your route is correctly planned, you can cover a huge distance on or off-road with a 250 point route. Many of the organized Off-Road Rallies hold 2 -day rides and have less waypoints than that. If you really do need that many points then split the route into sections and navigate each sequentially.

 

The reason I see some routes with way too many points is that someone used a utility to convert a tracklog to route and hence got a waypoint in place of each trackpoint. That's NOT a correctly made route. You put waypoints where you need to make a turn at an intersection, either on roads or trails, and occasionally mid-way to confirm they are on the correct route.

 

Routes without via points are only any use in a GPS that does full auto-routing and the map has roads/trails where you want to go.

 

If you have tracklogs and want to use them without restriction in your GPS, then convert them to a map. There's lots of info out there on how to do it - just use Google.

 

Bob

[Orion84]

In other words: when converting a track to a route, first filter out all superfluous trackpoints. MapSource can do this automatically for you. There is a filter button in the track properties dialog. With some finetuning and maybe some manual finishing touches, this should yield tracks below 250 points that are still detailed enough to use as route.

[+Walts Hunting]

If I want to convert a track to a route I put it in Mapsource and use the route tool to draw it. You get a nice clean one with only the turn points on it. and not all the small meanderings of the trail.

[nuvii 550]

Thanks for your replies!

The way I was getting my routes was at the end of the day press TracBack. It would save up to 10 routes in Custom Routes. On a 3 day snowmobile ride with over 600 miles the Trip Log (blue line) would run out of memory and was like a snake following me around. Snowmobiling off road takes a lot of memory. So to make do with what I have. I am trying Mapwel 2009 to make my own snowmobile map. Unless you have better advice?

 

I have a lot to learn. By trial and error and advice.

 

By looking around Groundspeak it looks like I should try some Geocaches when it warms up.

[Bob Morphew]

... The way I was getting my routes was at the end of the day press TracBack. It would save up to 10 routes in Custom Routes. On a 3 day snowmobile ride with over 600 miles the Trip Log (blue line) would run out of memory and was like a snake following me around. Snowmobiling off road takes a lot of memory. So to make do with what I have. I am trying Mapwel 2009 to make my own snowmobile map. Unless you have better advice? ...

The Nuvi 550 won't normally run out of memory for tracks. Although the Active Log will only hold 10,000 points, there is an Archive file(s) created and it's stored in the /Archive folder. I only had my 550 for a month before returning it and in that time it didn't create an Archive but other 550 owners report that eventually you'll have one and it will contain ALL the tracks you made.

 

I've read about Mapwel but haven't tried it. I got started map making using the programs suggested by 'rws' who used to offer a tutorial on using Mapedit, cGPSmapper, and MapsetToolkit on some of the snowmobiling websites. There's a similar tutorial on GPSsledmaps.com - check this out: http://www.gpssledmaps.com/guide/

 

Bob