How does my device recalculate a route?

jimbo

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Shaping Points, are unannounced electronic points, used to shape a route and pin it in place. Miss or pass through them at leisure.

Via Points, are announced electronic points, that you have told the dumb device you MUST pass through.

Waypoints, are announced electronic points, that have predetermined features. For example, a bank, a shop, a hotel, a viewpoint. There is a genetic list of them within BaseCamp and built into your GPS device or you can create your own. Again, the dumb device will insist you pass through the point.

See lots of threads on the subject and on route creation, recalculation and skipping points; some better than others.

Helpful - thanks. :beerjug:

so when I use the recalculate on the GPS, does it re-route including via points - or does it ignore those?
 
Recalculation (especially auto-recalculate) is a double edged sword.

If you miss a via point or waypoint, the device will keep recalculating until you pass through it. That is what you have told it to do.

If you hit the ‘skip point’ button or option, the device will skip the via point / waypoint and route you to the next via or waypoint. How it does this might vary, according to a number of different criteria, not least your preference settings and how your original route was created.

Play around with your device and learn how it works best for you.

Here’s a example of a route of well over 150 miles I created directly into my Nav V. I wanted to go from Verdun to a small village, not far from Calais. I displayed a Michelin map on my iPad, looking at the country roads I wanted to take and, more importantly, the names of the villages and towns along those roads, all the way. I entered each village into the device, basically forcing the device to route along the roads I wanted to take. By default the places go into the route as via points (places I must go through) so are skippable. I did not use any shaping points in between; in other words the via points / villages alone shaped the route.

Off I went....

If the village (the via point) was actually on the road, I passed straight through, the device automatically ticking off that I had passed the via point.

Sometimes, the point that Garmin centred the village at (and hence the via point) was off the road some distance. As I rode along I could see, for example, that the route, on reaching a t-junction, would want me to turn right, into the village, pass through the point (as that is what I had told the device I needed to do) then turn around and pass back through the T-junction, onwards to the next via point. Clearly following the device’s instructions blindly, would be stupid.

When faced with this, what I did was to chose a sensible moment as I approached the T-junction and then hit the ‘skip’ button. The device would make the logical correction, not turning me right but to turn me left on to the next village via point, along the road I wanted to take. It worked perfectly all the way.

The important things were:

Having a good map to chose the route, the road and see the names of the villages.

Building the route with sufficient via points (villages) to guarantee the roads the device generated route would be forced to take, would be the ones I wanted to take.

Looking at the screen to spot the detours off. The ability to zoom in and out on the move is useful, all from the whirly wheel thing.

Picking the right moment to ‘skip’.

In short, it just took a little bit of imagination and common sense.
 
I think if you just click on the name of a village/town as you create a route the route will try and take you to the town hall marie etc.
I always zoom in and click on exactly where I want to go when inserting waypoints and also watch which side of the road you choose if its a dual carriageway/motorway of course.
 


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