Mapping Software Compatible With Garmin

[marchyman]

I've seen crazy garmin routes because the preferences were set for no toll roads. The software treats bridges with a toll as a toll road does it's best to route around them.

[Paul_F]

When I read this I thought that it made sense, as Map Source and the Garmin do not always agree. Soooooooooo I went into Map Source and believe that I have made the settings the same as on the Garmin.

Sooooo just for fun, I put into Map Source requesting a new route from London, Ontario to Flint MI, a distance of about 200 km with maybe two or three major highways. The programme calculated the route a couple of times at about 1600 kms so I went back and changed another setting, and received a route of 2935 km though NY City and such. Both appear to be very interesting trips, but a little out of the way.

Any suggestions what major item I set improperly to get such wacko routes?

Once I changed the settings from Auto Routing back to Direct Routes, all was normal again. However, why would such bizarre routes be created by using Auto Routing, avoiding gravel & toll roads and U turns? These settings have not been a problem on the Zumo 660 GPS.

[GUENTHER]

Paul F:

Auto Routing back to Direct Routes

...means as-the-crow-flies. Doesn't help much unless you add a propeller to the crank shaft.

I have my fifth Garmin. All handhelds. Always using MapSource except for hiking I use DeLorme's topo.

The one setting that does weird things is "Road Selection" on the Routing setup page. I set it to "Prefer Minor Roads" and it really takes me to single track cow paths - sort of. None of these settings have an influence on how the firmware in my GPSMAP 76csx does the "real" routing. And differnt units have different ways of calculating your actual route. It has nothing to do with your mapping software on your PC because besides the selected route points nothing else is downloaded for a route.

The way I use my GPS is when getting in or out of urban areas I recalculate for "faster driving" and my unit typically selects major highways. Once out in the open I recalculate with "shorter distance" which takes through the more scenic areas with less miles.

/Guenther

[FatChance]

I have become a HUGE fan of the Harley-Davidson route planning site here. I have been using Mapsource and other Garmin offerings since my first GPS, a GPS III, back in 1997, as well as DeLorme's Street Atlas mapping software, Microsoft's Trips, and a host of other ones, and I must say I think the HD online offering is the best all around for actually mapping out the route and getting it on the GPS - which, with my Garmin 2610 at least, is simply a matter of hooking up the GPS with the USB cable and hitting transfer to GPS.

Thank you for that information! I still have an old HOG "life member" card and membership from almost 20 years ago and was able to log on and use their ride planner. It is easy to use and easy to download into Mapsource to use with my Garmin 276C gps. Very nice!