A little program to make BaseCamp work better

[ElevenFifty]

I made the transition from MapSource to BaseCamp because the hand writing was on the wall ... it is the SUPPORTED product. I did try some other 'compatible' mapping products but the native Garmin stuff is still demonstrably better than anything else. I've used BaseCamp now for a while and the routing functions are fine. I mostly like it but two things really annoy me.

 

1. There is no way to stop BaseCamp from reading your GPS. I mostly just want to download routes and would like to stop the uploads. I have no answer for this and Garmin says it is 'integral to the operation of the system' so I'll just make sure I delete everything from the GPS before plugging it into the PC

 

2. The whole structure of one massive reservoir of points and routes in an ever growing array of lists and folders is just stupid IMHO. I longed for the simpler elegance of individual files that contained just the points and routes for a ride ... something easily shared and individually saved for later.

 

I have talked with Garmin about these issues (I call at precisely 9:00 am CST) and they offer condolences but no alternatives. So ... I wrote the following program ... beta version ... I call it "BaseMaps Manager". It gives me the same files based system that I had with MapSource. Here's a brief synopsis:

 

First I copied ALL of my MapSource .gdb files into the same folder as the Garmin AllData.gdb file (documents and settings\username\appdata\roaming\Garmin\basecamp\4.1) and then I built a program to manage them. Here's what happens.

 

Launch BaseMaps and you see this:

 

If you click 'View' with the defaults showing you will just get the standard BaseCamp file ... BUT - you can also select a different folder and a specific file

These folders and individual files can be subsets of your existing BaseCamp file or any .gdb files from Mapsource. You can create the individual folders in Windows or in BaseMaps and you can save any file in any location with any name you choose. Select a file and click View:

... and BaseCamp opens that SPECIFIC file. Modify and save it as you wish. Download it to your GPS. The changes will be specific to this file. When you exit BaseCamp, BaseMaps resumes allowing you to Delete, Save, or rename and Save to another folder.

 

You can even Copy elements (waypoints, routes, etc) while working in one BaseMap and then Paste them into another BaseMap. It does not interfere with the 'normal' operation of BaseCamp in any way. If you launch BaseCamp directly ... you get the alldata lists and folders as usual.

 

Still a little debugging to do and I have to build an installer, and a routine to manage updating pointers to coincide with Garmin updates.

 

If there is enough interest, I'll go ahead and built the installer. There will be a small charge ... just enough to make it worthwhile to support updates and revisions.

 

PM me if this sounds like something you could use. PC's only ... sorry, I don't do Macs.

 

Personally, I think Garmin's omission of a simple file based modality was stupid and far from 'Best Practice' programming. Once I got BaseMaps Manager running, I was able to quickly review, rename and re-sort several years worth of rides into a library that is simple to use and IMHO sooooooo much better than BaseCamp alone.

 

DH ;~)

[dirtrider]

1. There is no way to stop BaseCamp from reading your GPS. I mostly just want to download routes and would like to stop the uploads. I have no answer for this and Garmin says it is 'integral to the operation of the system' so I'll just make sure I delete everything from the GPS before plugging it into the PC

 

Evening ElevenFifty

 

I don't know what GPS you are running but I can save my routes from Base Camp as a .gpx file then simply transfer that .gpx directly into my GPS SD card without using either Map Source or Base Camp.

 

[ElevenFifty]

... GPS is a 2730 - Keep thinking about a newer one but haven't found any compelling reason to do so and about 500 reasons not to ... ;~)

[Bob P]

Newbie here I have a Nuvi 2300. It annoyed me that I couldn't select my own route vs the one picked by the GPS. I contacted Garmin and they wrote about the Base Camp. I have to upgrade my Mac OS from 10.5 to 10.6 in order to use the base camp. Thanks Eleven Fifty for the tips and the beta version. Planning a trip to Va to ride the Skyline Drive then the Blue Ridge Pky middle of May

[marcopolo]

Newbie here I have a Nuvi 2300. It annoyed me that I couldn't select my own route vs the one picked by the GPS. I contacted Garmin and they wrote about the Base Camp. I have to upgrade my Mac OS from 10.5 to 10.6 in order to use the base camp. Thanks Eleven Fifty for the tips and the beta version. Planning a trip to Va to ride the Skyline Drive then the Blue Ridge Pky middle of May

 

If you'll be using the Mac version of Basecamp, you shouldn't have any problems creating a route on your computer. It will, of course, take a little practice to get the hang of it.

[lawnchairboy]

It would be virtually impossible to lose your way off of either Skyline drive or the BRP, although I understand your desire to have/use GPS.

[ElevenFifty]

I turned off the BRP just to see what I could see ...

 

... take the gps