I am trying to get an abundance of tools to work a solution that some of you may have figured out yet, and frustration is getting the better of me. Here's what I currently have:
Garmin III+
MapSource (US Road and Rec CD + Canada Road and Rec CD)
OziExplorer (shareware version)
Microsoft MapPoint 2001

I am trying to get the Garmin to accept a set of waypoint or a route from either of these programs. As far as routing is concerned, nothing beats MapPoint, but it seems to have no output capability, except that it will export waypoints to Excel. However, if I make a route in MapPoint, it is generally sufficient to enter a start and end point and have the route drawn pretty much the way I want, without forcing a Stop to force it along a certain route. Hence it only produces one or two waypoints for a trip from Vancouver, BC to Death Valley, for instance. The other option is to use the route tool in MapSource and patiently click a number of waypoints, which is painful and very laborious. I've got OziExplorer, but haven't figured out whether it will do the job, nor do I feel inclined to spent $75 for the full license.

I know the Garmin III+ won't do turn by turn routing or "rubber banding", but I was hoping to find an intermediate solution by either creating a set of waypoints in another software package (see listed), export them to a file and then upload them to MapSource, from where I could load them into the GPS. I've been experimenting with a number of "hops" between the packages, exporting and importing, but I can't seem to get it to work. Nor does MapSource seem to have a function (and correct me if I am wrong) which allows you to define a start and end waypoint and for the software to draw the route (shortest, fastest, most scenic etc...) and take a rough number of waypoints to upload to the Garmin III+.

So now I am wondering how the people without a Garmin V make a decent route when you are planning something out. Is it really the painful way, using the route tool, zooming in and out of maps to mark a number of waypoints that subsequently become part of the route, or am I missing something completely here?

Thanks for any info.

Kevin


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Kevin

http://www.nohorizons.net

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