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Garmin Legend, Trying To Get Directions


Team 010

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I tried searching but didnt find anything.

 

I recently got a Garmin Legend from a friend for about 50 dollars, great deal. I recieved mapsource metroguide USA from his as well, free of charge.

 

I put the map for my area on my GPS, which took hours...

 

I now set a route from one place to another in MapSource and transfered it to my GPS. What I am trying to do is get the GPS to say 'Turn Left' or do what it does when approaching a turn. I was reading the manual and it says it points at the next way point. So does that mean i need to make a way point for EVERY turn on my route? If so forget that.

 

Also, I have Microsoft Streets and Trips. I was wondering if theres anyway for me to export the directions to my GPS or something like that. Maybe there is software for the Garmin that does this? I dont know. I got the GPS for cheap so I really cant complain, but I would like to take full advantage of all of its features. If there is some more software I need to get what I really want I will look on eBay for them =P.

 

Thanks.

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Unfortunately, Team 010 -- the Garmin Legend w/Metroguide (or any other software for that matter) will NOT give you turn-by-turn directions.

 

When you set a point to Nav to, it gives you "as a crow flies" only, not following any roads or anything. It still can be used for street navigating, albeit you have to be a little creative in your driving and following the "trail" that it shows from point A to B.

 

As for S&T allowing you to import route info -- can't be done either. None of the eTrex series GPS's by Garmin will do routing.

 

Sorry! :D

 

Bozz

 

P.S. - Something VERY cool with it though is that you can hookup the GPS to a laptop and use S&T to route you and show you where you need to turn, etc. It doesn't talk to you though -- you'd need different software for that.

Edited by Bozz
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Any GPSes by Garmin or Magellan that will? Not that I will buy any of them, but it will be nice to have them in the back of my head if the time comes.

 

And thanks for the info. It was what I had guessed, but just wanted it cleared up.

 

Thanks.

Edited by Team 010
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Team010, it _is_ possible to export routes & pushpins from Microsoft Streets & Trips if you're willing to also go through EasyGPS. Copy your S&T file to a safe place, then pass it through st2gpx. This will output a .gpx file which can be loaded into EasyGPS, and pushed out to your eTrex from there. I am doing this with Microsoft MapPoint 2002 (same as S&T I believe) and it works just great.

 

Regarding mapping, Garmin "MapSource" refers to the free viewer, not the dataset. You probably have the US "Metroguide" dataset (two CDs), which will perform routing on the PC but not withing the GPS when you upload the route. What I do as a workaround is to let MetroGuide rough out the route then add a number of waypoints at critical intersections. Not perfect, but it works well enough for me.

 

In case you're wondering, I use Garmin MapSource+Metroguide+Topo-USWest, Delorme TopoUSA4.0 on DVD, Microsoft MapPoint, and my beloved USAPhotoMaps. Each one has its pros & cons, but overall I think the Garmin software is the winner thanks to its tight integration with Garmin GPS units.

 

[EDIT: I originally added this, but I was dead wrong: "It's also nice that Garmin .mps files are in GPX-XML format, so I can simply change the .mps to .gpx if I want to hack around in EasyGPS." I was lost in the gps tower of babel, and even gpsbabel won't convert my .mps files to .gpx. I was thinking about USAPhotoMaps .xml files, which can be renamed to .gpx & opened in EasyGPS. *So* confusing! ]

Edited by zapped
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Hmmmm, I stand corrected!

 

However, this is no really easy feat to do all of this.... you can almost zoom out to a manageable level, then make turns to follow the path of the "crow". We do this when we are geocaching and we don't know where the park is, or cache area.

 

The units by Garmin that will are: (this may not be complete)

 

Garmin III

Garmin V

Garmin 2610

Garmin 60c (I think)

 

There may be others, but I mainly am knowledgable with their handheld units.

 

Bozz

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I tried searching but didnt find anything.

 

I recently got a Garmin Legend from a friend for about 50 dollars, great deal. I recieved mapsource metroguide USA from his as well, free of charge.

 

I put the map for my area on my GPS, which took hours...

 

I now set a route from one place to another in MapSource and transfered it to my GPS. What I am trying to do is get the GPS to say 'Turn Left' or do what it does when approaching a turn. I was reading the manual and it says it points at the next way point. So does that mean i need to make a way point for EVERY turn on my route? If so forget that.

 

Also, I have Microsoft Streets and Trips. I was wondering if theres anyway for me to export the directions to my GPS or something like that. Maybe there is software for the Garmin that does this? I dont know. I got the GPS for cheap so I really cant complain, but I would like to take full advantage of all of its features. If there is some more software I need to get what I really want I will look on eBay for them =P.

 

Thanks.

actually with mapsource, you can generate just the start and end waypoints and mapsource will generate all the inbetween.

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I do that too, and it's a purple straight line. I click on properties and goto Directions and its just 1. Blah 2. Blah.. That's it...

 

I could route it to each and every road, but that is far too tedious for me to bother.

 

Maybe my version is too old. I dunno Ill see what I can find from the guy I got the GPS from.

Edited by Team 010
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I do that too, and it's a purple straight line. I click on properties and goto Directions and its just 1. Blah 2. Blah.. That's it...

 

I could route it to each and every road, but that is far too tedious for me to  bother.

Nobody's asked the important question yet.

 

What version of MetroGuide do you have? Older ones didn't have auto-routing. Here's how to tell what version you have. Start the MapSource program. From the Help menu, select About Mapsource. Then click on the Product Info button. I think you need at least v3.0 to do auto-routing.

Edited by Prime Suspect
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I do that too, and it's a purple straight line. I click on properties and goto Directions and its just 1. Blah 2. Blah.. That's it...

 

I could route it to each and every road, but that is far too tedious for me to  bother.

Nobody's asked the important question yet.

 

What version of MetroGuide do you have? Older ones didn't have auto-routing. Here's how to tell what version you have. Start the MapSource program. From the Help menu, select About Mapsource. Then click on the Product Info button. I think you need at least v3.0 to do auto-routing.

I have Metroguide version 4 and it autoroutes in Mapsourse just fine (I am not sure about version 3). The one thing you want to check is to be sure you have autorouting turned on in preferences. You can choose to route using straight line or autoroute.

 

Go to Edit-Preferences-Routing and look under Route Style.

 

RM

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Tried using the S&T conversion and all it converted was the two pins, not the directions.

 

zapped: Im using S&T 2004 and it converted fine, but as I said, only two points. Do I need to do something specific to Streets and Trips to get it to save all the turns as waypoints?

 

Thanks.

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Tried using the S&T conversion and all it converted was the two pins, not the directions.

 

zapped: Im using S&T 2004 and it converted fine, but as I said, only two points. Do I need to do something specific to Streets and Trips to get it to save all the turns as waypoints?

 

Thanks.

You don't need it to do that. It will generate internal route waypoints, which it will upload to your GPS when you take the Upload Route option.

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