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Itinerary Planning

 
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GT
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:07 pm    Post subject: Itinerary Planning Reply with quote

When choosing my routes i use an up to date Michelin map, autoroute, google to zoom in on the terrain etc and one of the tools below.

This link is specific to Tom Tom, http://www.tyre.tk/ simple to use and a very efficient way of planning a route, if you need any assistance with it then PM me!

This one you can use with various Sat Nav's. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&langpair=fr%7Cen&u=http://benichougps.blogspot.com/
Very good for converting a route written in another format e.g. you have a Garmin and your mate plans a route with his Tom Tom, you get your mates route and use this tool to convert it into a language/format your Garmin will understand.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A WORD OF WARNING

When planning a trip/route where several peeps have a twat nav and no matter what make of sat nav you/they have the routes that the sat navs choose will vary depending on what software and version your device is running. Even when peeps use the Itinerary Conversion tool and the route you have painstakingly planned and passed on; some devices will still choose a slightly different way of getting to the same way point!

On our last trip there were 6 tom toms and two garmins. Everyone downloaded my planned routes and all way points were the same!

The routes only varied at worst by about 10 miles over a 450 mile day and about 3 to 4 over a 200 -300 mile day!

The problem was that we had to introduce a second man drop off so as to keep the group together believe it or not, because we found that several of the devices wanted to take a slightly different route to get to the next way point. The realisation of this problem happened when on one day 10 of us went around a village to the left of the centre and three went to the right (unknowingly to all) I waited at a junction to re group, after a long wait and a phone call later we found that the three were 20 miles in front thinking they were playing catch up!

I suggest that you always continue to have a second man drop off as the same probs re starbursting happens and the rule of thumb to stop confusion is that everyone follows the leading twat nav. Even if the person does try and take you on unmade motorways Laughing

If you are in a group and the starburst happens the easiest way to re group is to find out what the next way point "to visit" everybody has on there device! If one person has No 15 on there device and the others have No 14 you know that the person with No 15 is in front and it makes sense to all make your way to Way Point 15 as a re group point!

____________________________________________________________


Here is an idiots guide written by me, for use with ITN.conv hope it helps, any probs Pm me.

I had no instructions on how to use this so have put down on what i have learnt so far, hope they help!

Ok, once you have downloaded this bit of kit i suggest you create a shortcut to your desktop.

When ready to create a route i suggest you connect up the sat nav, hopefully your running xp otherwise your on your own for the following instructions! I have since moved to Vista and found all instructions are near enough the same!

When you connect you should get the box coming up that asks what you want to open the Sat Nav up with, select folders. Will come back to the Sat Nav once you have seen how to create an itinerary.

To create an itinerary

When you open up the ITNConv program you will see the button named editor, click on that and that will open up a google map, you can then put names ito the search field and create your own way points by clicking on the map itself. (You cannot drag the route around to make it go where you want you have to put way points in to make it go where you want).

A couple of things to be careful of :-

1. Make sure you zoom in to the road you want to put a way point at, it makes a difference, i found that out when i clicked on a motorway and it was the wrong carriageway and ended up making the Sat Nav go round in circles!

2. Make sure you put the way points in order, they are sequential and if you put your start and end point in to begin with then put a way point in the middle to make the route go down a particular road you will encounter a problem, this will be that the map thinks that the way point between the start and finish is number three and will send you to your destination first and then to your mid way point second, so in other words you start point will be no1 and your second way point no2 and so on until your end point is the final number.

3. Each time you make a way point name it, but do not use a number in case you have to add one later, will make sense as you read through this all, i will not explain how to do it cos its easy, it makes life easier when you come out of the edit screen and loads those waypoint names onto the sat nav which makes life easier when you come to use it, otherwise on sat nav it will just say unknown location and you will not have a clue of which point it is talking about when your on the road!

4. Click on the car to get directions, all this will do will create the blue line so you can see where your route is going and you can check its going where you want it to, if it hasn't taken a road you want it to then create a way point, name it then you can use the up arrow to place it in the right order amongst the points already created, if you had named your way points with numbers and you wanted to put this between points one and two what would you call it 1a?, i use road names of the place where you put the way point, its easier to follow a route and makes it easy if you have to create a way point to make the route follow a particular road you want to travel down and place it into the correct point in the saved itinerary box on the left of the map. As stated before it will put the road names into your itenary file in the Sat Nav making it easier to "mark as visited" if you come across a problem, like we did in that town centre on Saturday. (Basically i put the way point on a road in the one way system, seeing as we were in the right general area i just went into the itinerary file clicked options and marked the way point as visited, hence why we just rode out of the town onto the rest of the route.

Once you have finished doing your route you will have to click the X to close the window, it will return you to the original page where you clicked editor and all the points will be stored on that page (makes sense when you do it) you then click on the drop down arrow and click on the name of your unit file (this puts it into your particular Sat Nav language for transfer) you then click on export, it will ask you where to save it to.

To be able to put the itinerary into the Sat Nav you have to do the following

Go into "My computer" and click on the connected device, (try and find out the name of the USB port you have connected your tom tom to, it makes life easy again, i.e, e, f or g etc, i always use a port at the front of the tower named "e") click on that and it should open up all your at Nav files, open up the itn and save your itinerary into that, job done.

For Tom Tom open up tom tom home or just start up your tom tom and go to itinerary planning, click on the options and then click load itinerary, you should see the file (that you named) click on that and job done, you should be ready to go!

Any probs give me a tinkle good luck.

It is trial and error with this i'm afraid because i have written this guide specifically for Tom Tom, i have also used it to translate 2200 miles of routes written in tyre for a Garmin Zumo, it was far from simple, but once i had a play around all became clear as stated previously if you want any help ask.

I have locked this thread to keep it relevant, if you have any pearls of wisdom about it then PM me and i will add it to the list.

As an aside i planned my route with regards to timings with autoroute, in conjunction with this you can set out different parameters, i.e, riding times, speeds, stops etc etc, all you must ensure is that you put in plenty of way points to enable your Sat Nav to follow your chosen route, you can then use the ITNConv to turn it into the language for your chosen Sat Nav.

Point to note

TomTom routes can only have a maximum of 48 steps, but if you plan your trip into day by day, i.e day 1 through to 7,10 or 14etc you can make sure you don't overload your GPS by trying to put the whole trip into one document!

Matt Very Happy

NB - Alot of thanks goes to Ninjabob for this as he is the whizz that directed me to all the links and advice. Tinks Laughing
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Last edited by GT on Fri May 08, 2009 7:41 am; edited 2 times in total
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GT
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 2:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a tool that allows conversion of any sat nav language to be converted into your own make and model, never used it myself but was sent the item by Ninjabob

http://www.gpsbabel.org/
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Last edited by GT on Wed May 06, 2009 10:23 am; edited 1 time in total
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wivvy's dad
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PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2009 8:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

matttherat wrote:
This is a tool that allows conversion of any sat nav language to be converted into your own make and model, never used it myself but was sent the item by Ninjabob, appears you have to part with cash but is not an unreasonable amount, about £12.50 at the mo!

http://www.gpsbabel.org/


I DOWNLOADED IT FOR NOWT........................ Laughing

Sorry, didn't mean to shout........................ Embarrassed
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Lil Mush
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PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2009 10:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wivvy's dad wrote:
matttherat wrote:
This is a tool that allows conversion of any sat nav language to be converted into your own make and model, never used it myself but was sent the item by Ninjabob, appears you have to part with cash but is not an unreasonable amount, about £12.50 at the mo!

http://www.gpsbabel.org/


I DOWNLOADED IT FOR NOWT........................ Laughing

Sorry, didn't mean to shout........................ Embarrassed
That's understandable, one can get so excited about such things! Laughing
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GT
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PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2009 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just had a good look at the site and yes it is all free to download, the front page with the $25 box is for donations etc rather than having to purchase!
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CHILLI
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2009 1:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Can't spell though.

Sorry, not a very helpful post Wink
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GT
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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CHILLI wrote:
Can't spell though.

Sorry, not a very helpful post Wink


Thanks Mum, can't do restaurant without spell check either. Well i just did but still went and checked. Laughing
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CHILLI
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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very Happy
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Guppy
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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So we can get it for nout, but is it any good??
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GT
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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Guppy wrote:
So we can get it for nout, but is it any good??


You don't need it mate, well not until you arrange a tour, maybe. Very Happy
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svita
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 11:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was just about to chuck my new tomtom in the bin...
You saved it!
GREAT link and explanations!
Thanks. Applause
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