Setting Routes

[flatlander]

I am going to be doing the NT this summer and will be using a hand held GPS with mapping capabilities.  How do you develop a route from the waypoint data?  For example, the first map set contains 384 waypoints, but most are not actually on the route itself.  Is there a quick way to identify route waypoints as opposed to POI waypoints?  Alternatively, anyone have a route file for Mapsource?

Thanks

Frank Cohen
fcohen@frankcohen.com

[ptaylor]

Frank.

I also am doing the Northern Tier this summer  with the ACA expedition.

I have a Garman GPSMAP 76C, and Garmans desktop software, MapSource. With MapSource, you can accomplish what you want, but it is rather involved. Read all the routing info on the ACA GPS website  it is really a rich web site. Also, read all about copying and pasting routes in the MapSource documentation.

I am in the process of making some 92 routes from the ACA routes that the Expedition is taking. I am making one route for each day of travel. I will be happy to share this with you when I am complete.


Gramps

[FredHiltz]

Is there a quick way to identify route waypoints as opposed to POI waypoints?  Alternatively, anyone have a route file for Mapsource?

Hi Frank,

The downloaded datasets include routes built for point-to-point navigation with a non-mapping receiver. The waypoints on those routes are the ones you want. Read up on this in the GPS Data User Guide. The free text-based waypoint management programs can show you a list of the waypoints on a route. However, it is much easier with a program that shows everything on a map. If your receiver is a Garmin unit, the MapSource program that comes with its maps isn't bad, as Gramps mentions.

Many of the on-route waypoints are unnecessary in an auto-routing receiver. They serve to keep the straight-line routes somewhere near the bends and twists of the road; you can omit them.

The published routes are designed to be useful in both directions. On divided highways, you will need to move some waypoints to the correct side. Otherwise the mapping receiver will generate some pretty bizarre routes.

Fred

[ptaylor]

Frank. Yes there is a way to identify just the POI.

Open two instances of MapSource. One with the ACC Routes, and the other one blank (File | New). Select a route from the ACC Routes file. Copy it. Then go to your blank file and paste it. It will copy/paste only the POI from the route. You can do this with all the routes.

Gramps

[Howard]

I too am doing the NT this summer, and just beginning to look at how the ACA waypoints can be formed into a route using Mapsource.  Needless to say, if anyone has this already put together, I'd be very grateful if you'd share it with me!

Howard Neckel
transambiker@comcast.net

This message was edited by Howard on 3-23-06 @ 12:59 PM

[ptaylor]

I have combined and split the Northern Tier into two datasets. Each has less than 1,000 waypoints so that they will fit in my Garmin 76C which has a 1,000 waypoint maximum. I will be happy to share these with anyone who is interested.

Technically, this is not the ACA Northern Tier. It is the ACA Northern Tier Expedition Tour, which I am doing this summer. It has the same end-points, but sets off from the Northern Tier between about Minneapolis, MN, and about Niagara Falls, NY. In that departure, it follows parts of the Lake Erie Connector and the North Lakes Route.

There are nearly 93 routes, one for each day of the expedition, per the ACA Northern Tier Expedition itinerary.

As I said, I have the routes in two datasets: West and East (sorry I could not be more creative in my naming convention). The West goes from Anacortes, WA to Capac MI. The East goes from Capac, MI to Bar Harbor, ME.

During this exercise, I learned two things
1. I owe a lot of thanks to Fred Hiltz, in explaining that the ACC waypoints try to accommodate all GPS bikers including those without base road maps.
2. I've got to learn to live with the limitations of the current GPS technology, where my desktop mapping software (Garmin MapSource) tries to route me on ridiculous and superfluous roads. The errors are obvious, and this is the reason to keep an eye on the ACA paper maps while on the road.


Gramps

This message was edited by ptaylor on 3-27-06 @ 6:08 PM

[dogdoc]

I am having a terrible time loading these waypoints by myself.  Your route sounds very much like what i plan to do starting 8/4/06.  I did the first 1/2 of the NT last yr.  I plan to start in Mpls, take the Manitowoc alternate, Lake Erie, and rejoin the NT at Niagara Falls.  Would you send me your waypoints? I have a Garmin 76C with Mapsource.

This message was edited by dogdoc on 7-20-06 @ 7:15 PM

[FredHiltz]

Hi dogdoc,

Paul is on the Northern Tier as we write, so may not read your note for a while. Hang in there!

Fred