How to put a GPX Route onto your Garmin GPS

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AMCQ46
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Joined: Mon May 11, 2009 4:54 pm
Location: Worcestershire / Warwickshire border

How to put a GPX Route onto your Garmin GPS

Post by AMCQ46 »

If you have a Garmin GPS you will already know how frustrating the base camp SW is to map out big ride, so this is my bypass solution:

I use a web based mapping tool called Plot A Route to plan mine, but you can use any solution that will export a GPX file, or you can copy a GPX file that someone else has posted.

1) click on the link I sent out which will open the route on the "plot a route" website and you will see a map with the route on the top of the page.
2) scroll down the web page and you will see a section called "key route data" and it will say "This route can be downloaded in the following formats (click to download):"
3) click on the one marked GPX and this will down load the route to your computer in GPX format.
4) plug your garmin into your computer, open your file explorer tool and open up the Garmin directory so you can see the file structure inside. there should be a folder called GPX.
5) go to downloads on your computer and find the GPX file that you just downloaded, the drag it into the Garmin/GPX file location and save it there.
6) unplug the garmin from your computer.
7) switch on the Garmin and select the "Apps" icon from the home screen, then select" tracks" on that menu.
8.) scroll down the "saved" tab and you will find your file, select the file and it will show it on the map.
9) there will be a spanner icon on the top left, so press that and from that menu select "convert to Trip"
10) once this is done the file will appear in your Trip Planner section and you use it as normal from there.
11) final tip is to disable the "off route recalculation" in the navigation settings - or set it to "prompted" so it wont change your planned route when you leave the path for any reason."... if you set it to "prompted" make sure you press "NO" when it says "off Route, do you want to recalculate" . If you ask it to recalculate, it will calculate the fastest route to your end point and ignore all the great roads you had planned to ride, and that's not going to be any fun is it!
AMcQ
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