Print Itinerary

[Mark Novack]

Is there a way to print an itinerary with times and distances between waypoints/stop and with a summary of a trip? This was something I could do in Basecamp with a trip. Thanks

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@mark-novack

Open de route, go to "save as", then choose .pdf

[Mark Novack]

@hans-van-de-ven-mra-master Thanks, I did find this. Not exactly the same as Basecamp but will work. Only issue is how to get ride of all the extra "shaping points" as I know them that are not stops but points to keep the route as planned. This was a route I imported from Basecamp and with shaping points the print out is 16 pages long. In Basecamp it only shows stops so 2 pages. Is there a way to hide these points? I know in Basecamp I tell program to "not alert" and so they don't show up in itinerary. Thanks. Mark

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@mark-novack

Hi Mark, at this moment not.

[PAD 0]

@mark-novack I’m probably missing something blindingly obvious, but why not just use BaseCamp to generate your itinerary?

[Mark Novack]

@pad-0 Thanks, yes, for now, but I was looking at how using MyRoute-app compares to Basecamp as a possible replacement. For now I have no problem using both and probably will, but for future where I might want to use an ipad or non specific computer on trips I would like the option of maybe online only with Basecamp as a backup. for now most of use of Itinerary can be when planning group trips at home so Basecamp is an option.

[PAD 0]

@mark-novack That’s very largely where I’m at.

I subscribed to the (now defunct) ‘all in one’ Routeplanner and Navigation offering just under a year ago to assess their potential to replace BaseCamp and dedicated sat navs. Despite a few idiosyncrasies and omissions (such as the one you’ve addressed here), I think Routeplanner is excellent. With further development, I believe it could ultimately make BaseCamp redundant. Navigation, on the other hand, has proven to be hugely disappointing, frustrating, bug ridden and so unreliable as to be worthless to me.

While it would certainly be great to have Routeplanner able to do everything BaseCamp does, but on mobile devices, for now I’m happy enough to work with and even combine the strengths of both - the two being quite complementary in some ways.

[Larry Stenger]

@pad-0
@mark-novack

I am in the same boat and was frustrated with the sluggish performance of Basecamp. Although slow, it was very dependable as to getting the route into the GPS unit with high fidelity - including very accurate time estimates. I was looking at MRA to totally remove the sluggish performance issue from the process.

Since using MRA to plan with I have been frustrated with the lack of fidelity in the GPX transfers to the GPS. For example there is no support for time zones, so you can mark whatever date/time you want in the MRA planning, but you will end up punching in the correct data from the front panel of the GPS. Same with waypoint stop durations - simply not transferred at all. Overall the platform has some promise but frustrating to have to be back in Basecamp to "complete" the planning process.

I've got a very long trip coming up, 3 weeks and over 7000 miles/11000 km, and it's a multi-step process to get each day into the GPS (BMW Nav VI) with the right info.

[Herko ter Horst]

@larry-stenger This is quite off-topic, but I'm intrigued by some of the 'frustrations' you mention. Now, I have no experience with the type of device you're using whatsoever and only superficial experience with Basecamp, so maybe that's why I'm missing things.

For example, I don't understand how support for timezones works in Basecamp/on your device. Surely your device knows the local time (it gets that from the GPS satellites), wherever you are and will show the estimated arrival time based on your current location/time. I can't fathom what other support for timezones is required and I'm pretty sure I've never had to enter any timezone data into my GPS devices/apps. Can you explain what the process is with entering data on the GPS itself?

With regards to waypoint stop durations, I think I do understand what you mean, but I wonder why those would be interesting beyond the planning phase. When planning a route that includes a lunch stop for example, it's useful to know this takes some time, so the total duration of the ride/drive doesn't get too crazy. But when actually going on a ride/drive, stops take however long they take, in my experience, and I don't care if the stop takes an hour and 45 minutes when I had originally planned for the stop to take an hour and 30 minutes. I also wonder how Basecamp handles this and what happens if you don't keep to the planned durations.

[Jack van Tilburg]

@herko-ter-horst said in Print Itinerary:

But when actually going on a ride/drive, stops take however long they take, in my experience, and I don't care if the stop takes an hour and 45 minutes when I had originally planned for the stop to take an hour and 30 minutes.

I like this phrase
Modern life already consists of tight schedules and performance commitments. Do not allow that in your motorcycle rides.
Route planners are important and MRA has a big function for us. But don't let it take away the adventure of motorcycling.
Live Free and Ride

[PAD 0]

I don’t find either BaseCamp or Routeplanner sluggish at all. Lightning fast in fact. The only thing that does take a while in BaseCamp, in my experience, is downloading and installing map updates to PC and device - it’s a fair chunk of data and sat nav devices seem to be of limited performance in that regard, but that’s only needed two or three times yearly, which I don’t find at all onerous.

With regard to timings and timezones and all that stuff, I avoid including them like the plague and prefer to keep routes as simple as possible to avoid sat nav becoming ‘sat nag’! But I know some like to plan with ‘military precision’ and I respect that. It does seem to introduce a lot of faffing about and hassle though…

[PAD 0]

@jack-van-tilburg said in Print Itinerary:

@herko-ter-horst said in Print Itinerary:

But when actually going on a ride/drive, stops take however long they take, in my experience, and I don't care if the stop takes an hour and 45 minutes when I had originally planned for the stop to take an hour and 30 minutes.

I like this phrase
Modern life already consists of tight schedules and performance commitments. Do not allow that in your motorcycle rides.
Route planners are important and MRA has a big function for us. But don't let it take away the adventure of motorcycling.
Live Free and Ride

If I could, I’d upvote that a thousand times!

[Larry Stenger]

@herko-ter-horst
@pad-0
@Jack-van-tilburg

Well, I was going to explain why the schedule is significant to me but I see the river has shifted and everyone seems to be of a mind that schedules have no place in their motorcycle lives! haha

Ok, sure, I get that point so let me point out the underlying issue with MRA in it's present form. The reason that the route planner currently allows you to specify a departure time and/or stop durations - is because users requested them. This should be obvious. (Also of note is that GPX format supports these route point modifiers.)

What is, evidently, not obvious is that MRA does not pass this data on (correctly) during exports to the various GPX formats - so although it allows the user to specify these times and/or durations, it is of no significance when you bring that data into the GPS unit itself. That is the underlying issue.

Basecamp, on the other hand, does exactly what you would expect with this data, it puts it into the GPX file and/or exports it directly into the unit. This behavior is what I referred to as "high fidelity" in my earlier post.

Otherwise, ride safe and have fun.
Larry

[Mark Novack]

@herko-ter-horst So to reply to your question of a printed Itinerary, I don't use these for every trip, but for a planned group trip or maybe doing an Iron Butt ride I like to have a printed itinerary for reference and to provide to riders if needed. I understand the beauty of just planning a ride and stopping as needed and for whatever time is needed, but sometimes a more strict timeline is needed or a guide to make sure you can reach your destination is nice to have. I dream of the day I am retired and can ride however long and just stop and not worry about time. For now rides and trip have limited time and the printed itinerary acts as a good guide. I can plug in stops and estimated times for stops and get an idea when we will be on a trip and at what time or if we are running ahead or behind schedule. Basecamp only shows the actual stops and the programmed time of the stop to give ETA's and distances between stops for figuring out gas stops etc. In reality the trips seldom follow the itinerary that closely, but it provides some pre ride guidance and when reviewing the itinerary and timeline, sometimes gives guidance to make a change, like shorten or lengthen a trip. I've attached a sample of a Basecamp Itinerary that follows Old Route 66 from St. Louis to Springfield, MO with some stops. As far as navigating with the Garmin GPS, it just uses real time info and doesn't hold you to the itinerary, you can adjust the times in the GPS if you leave later, but the times are just am estimated arrival time in the trip planner and adjust as you ride the route.

[Herko ter Horst]

@larry-stenger Don't get me wrong, I fully see the value of having these scheduling tools available during the planning phase (and I use them for that too), however I was focussing on your troubles with getting that information onto the GPS device. In my experience, I've only ever used the GPS device during the 'execution' phase, i.e. when actually doing the ride/drive. At that point, my planning is done and to be honest, I'm having trouble seeing the use of having the planned time information during the execution phase. What does the GPS unit do to help you keep to the schedule? It doesn't sound any alarms when you need to leave, does it? In my experience, a ride/drive starts when it actually starts and stops happen when they actually happen and take however long they take, without any intervention from the GPS device. So the information I used during planning is just a guideline to check if the timing is likely to work out (roughly), but during the actual ride/drive, things will happen as they happen. But maybe it's just because I've never used a GPS device that supported these features...

@mark-novack I don't think I've commented on the printed itinerary. I can definitely see the value in being able to provide an overview of the route, stops and planned stop durations in such a document, so participants know roughly what to expect.

[PAD 0]

@mark-novack I appreciate the desire to generate an itinerary. As an organiser of group rides, I always provide various support for those who don’t use sat nav or mobile guidance for whatever (strange) reason(s), such as itineraries, route images and links to them in Google My Maps as such things are almost always requested.

The truth is that very little is actually required in practice, not even sat nav, as I use the ‘drop off’ system with participants always between a ride leader and a ‘tail end Charlie’ (TEC), which I’m sure many will be familliar with. No one has ever been lost! Well, not irretrievably!

[Larry Stenger]

@herko-ter-horst

"...troubles with getting that information onto the GPS device..."

As I tried to point out earlier - the departure or duration information isn't being exported from MRA in the GPX files - so if you want it in the GPS you have to enter it from the GPS front panel. (Or, use Basecamp to read the MRA file and generate a proper GPS file.)

As to why it's significant let me give you an example from last year's riding season - I was riding back to New Hampshire from the BMW Performance Center in South Carolina and wanted to have lunch with a friend on the outer banks of North Carolina. He had both selected the lunch spot and also the time to coordinate with his own schedule.

Building the route with predicted duration times at breakfast and fuel stops and setting the restaurant as the trip endpoint gave me a reading on the GPS screen as to my predicted arrival time. It was updated continuously - if I was ahead of schedule I knew it and if I was behind I knew it.

Hope this is clear and if you don't use the tools on your belt the same way I do, that's ok with me.

Larry