The strategy of using lots of Shaping points and just providing a few Via points for TP version users, clearly named with the mileage, gives them the best chance of rejoining a route successfully.
Thanks for your comments Norm.
I've only recently come across a few little issues that have either changed in their behaviour, or that I hadn't noticed before.
1. Changing the name to include the mileage is something that I have done for a long time, and it really helps. BUT - it seems that when these names are transferred to the Zumo 590, 595 and XT, the Zumo uses a different name. I can only think that it gets by looking up the coordinates in a database on the Zumo. The only time I can get it to keep my changed names with the mileage included is if the route point is first created as a Waypoint. OR sometimes by fluke if I happen to drop an insert point onto an existing Waypoint. (But I cannot do that reliably).
I think I have probably created a route by creating the key waypoints first, then selecting them and letting Basecamp calculate the route. Then I add insert points. So I probably never noticed the fact that it doesn't keep my names with mileage.
2. Changing a Via Point to a Shaping point on the Zumo itself often causes the location of the point to move - on the XT and on the 595. Not on the 590 though.
3. Pressing Skip on a route seems to cause the entire route to be recalculated, not just the route up to the next route point. I had never noticed this before - mainly we plot routes that should it ever recalculate , it will join up the dots in a similar way to the original. But if it does this AND takes into account traffic data and my riding style, it could well work out something different.
IN your document, you mention the importance of having the unit set up in a similar way to the preferences set up in Basecamp. What you may not be aware of is how the Zumo responds to the route that is loaded.
The Zumo 590 has a number of different settings - car, bike, off-road and also other settings if a route isn't currently active. It remembers these settings. So if you set up routing preferences to be shorter distance for a car, and faster time for a bike - it will remember those settings when you switch it from one mode to the other. Most people will have observed this.
What isn't so well known, is that Basecamp sends only two pieces of information to the Zumo regarding how a route was set up. One is the vehicle type (Bike, Car, Offroad). The other is the routing preferences (Faster Time, Shorter Distance, Curvy Roads).
When the route is transferred, imported and started the Zumo 590 reads these two bits of information from the route file and switches the Zumo into those modes. So no matter how the unit was set up before the route was loaded, if the route file says it is a motorcycle and prefers curvy roads - that is what the route will do. It over-rides what was set in the Zumo before the route was loaded.
The 595 does something similar - except because it has a facility for setting degrees of curviness, it uses the setting for routing preferences that is in the Zumo for the vehicle, rather than what came from Basecamp. (But it still switches to the vehicle type that is set in the route). The Zumo XT does something similar, but not quite the same as the 595.
Loading a bright green track as a reference is a good backup, and essential if you are the one leading rides.
Yes I often use that trick. I prefer to have recalc turned on, but in Spain, they had so many new roads being built we were routed all over the place and it was difficult to keep track of what the satnav was doing. Having the permanently marked track on the map was a real bonus.
