Adventure Cycling .GPX file to a route with Garmin Basecamp?

[IAWood]

As far as I can tell, the .GPX data sold by Adventure Cycling simply will not convert to a proper route in Garmin Basecamp. It won't stick to roads, it won't alert - nothing. Useless. Unless I'm missing something - which I'm more than happy to learn about - the "No returns" policy on this data seems a bit, well...$6 wasted, and a little predatory. Any advice on this?

[John Nettles]

I have lots of ACA gpx files and have not had any issues overall.

This may be an obvious question but in BaseCamp (BC) is the Activity Profile setting set to Direct?  The Activity Profile (typically a drop down menu at top of the BC page) will allow you to set the "activity", i.e. Automobile, Bicycling, Hiking, DIRECT, etc.  If on direct, it will only do direct line-of-site "routing" to the next waypoint.

 Since BC does is not on the GPS device, no alerts are given since you are at a desk.  You must also select your Activity Profile on your GPS device typically.  You don't mention the device you have but the setting is typically under Settings.  I personally select the option "Ask Every Time" (or similar) as if I am on a rail trail, the device keeps trying to re-route me to a road so then I will purposely select Direct, otherwise, Automobile.

Another reason is that for some odd Garmin reason (not ACA as it does it on routes I create too),I have found that the device seems to work better if you Transfer (Send to Device) the data in Direct mode.  For some reason, occasionally it will not allow the route to be changed in the device, i.e. Invert, if you send it in something other than Direct.  Garmin is clueless but since it is not an every time or even frequent, they ignore it.

Anyway, without trying to sound rude, you probably are missing something because others have not had an issue.  Keeping playing around with it and you will hopefully figure it out.

Worst case, if you private message me, we can set up a time to talk and I will try to walk you through it.
Hope you work it out as the routing does help.  Tailwinds, John

[IAWood]

"Anyway, without trying to sound rude, you probably are missing something because others have not had an issue."

Not at all!

I'd been fussing with it all afternoon and was pretty irritated (always the best time to post! ) I'll poke at it some more today.

Thanks for the reply.

[John Nettles]

Not at all; I'd been fussing with it all afternoon and was pretty irritated (always the best time to post! ) .

That is one of the reasons I use my real name.  It gives me "be nice" filter and makes me a little more polite than I might be if I used a fake name.

[IAWood]

Back in 2006 I was using a GPSMap 60c (with whatever software Garmin had at the time), and due to memory limits I could only plot out two or three days' worth of routes at a time, using the paper map to plot them out manually on the laptop and then transferring them over. I've got a GPSMap 64s now, and I was hoping to avoid that sort of painstaking daily routine this time.

I think I've got more of a handle on it today, but I'm still baffled by this kind of routing decision:



The generated route is in magenta, the ACA track (Pacific Coast, South) is in green. From what I can tell, the route veers off the track (CA 135), loops around through a couple of small towns, then goes halfway up Harris Grade Road before turning around and heading back down it.    Similarly, there's another section where the route favors an assortment of cycleways over the track's more preferable surface streets.

Ideally, I want the route to just stick to the roads specified in the track, but I can't seem to get the right combination of routing preferences. Is that just how it is? 80% automatic, and then tweak the route by hand to correct for odd routing decisions?

[John Nettles]

First, I always stick to Automobile and Shortest Time.  Garmin gets a bit wonky when it goes into other modes.  Secondly, make sure you allow all types of deviations (U-turns, freeways, gravel, toll, etc.) as sometimes you need to do a U-turn of say 3 feet. Yes, 3 feet.  Thirdly, when an issue occurs, zoom in to specifically the way points before and after the "error".  Map data (the map) changes about every year but the original route does not.  And some of the data is many years old. 

Therefore, it is not at all unusual to see the turn indicated to be 100' off to the left or right.  Garmin think that is literally where you want to go so dutifully directs you to that location and then thinks "OK, how is it 'best' to get to the next way point"?  Sometimes this means to no do a U-Turn (note: remember what I said about allowing u-turns in Settings).

If the way point is say 100' off, just move it to its correct position in BC and then BC should automatically recalculate the route.  If it is still wrong, just add a way point or move the ones bear the error around so the incorrect re-route is corrected hopefully.

Something to remember is that a Route can only have a max of 50 way points in it.  Therefore, you may need to divide the route (duplicate then delete the unneeded way points in each route) to get two routes, each with no more than 50 way points.

It really sucks to get out into the field and then try to load a route only to be told it can not route due to having more than 50 way points in the route.  Then you need to Edit the route on the device (see above about transferring in Direct mode) to get less than 50.   Most likely, you will need lots and lots of routes to do a long tour.  Figure at minimum 1 per riding day, probably closer to 2 if there are lots of turns.

Tailwinds, John