Help - before I even open the box!

[BillaVista]

Hello everyone.

I have just purchased a Zumo XT to do double-duty and replace the Montanna on my ATV (off-road) and my phone on my '25 Honda CB750 (on-road).

My Basecamp has a LOT of data for the off-road trails I ride (mostly waypoints and tracks), and I am currently trying to convert all my Google Maps saved places to KML or GPX, which I will then bring into Basecamp as well.

Before I then begin loading data on the XT, I just wanted to ask if there are any steps or specific sort of organization I should take before I import into the XT, so that the data is organized and manageable?

For example, would it be beneficial to save all off-road data to an SD Card and all on-road data to internal memory, or will this not make any difference?

Which method is best for transfering data - Basecamp to device? Using the Garmin Exploer website? File explorer transfer?

Finally - any tips or tricks from other on and off-road users would be most welcome.

MANY THAKS!

Bill

[lkraus]

I would keep all the data in Basecamp, transferring only what is likely to be needed within the next few days or weeks to the SDcard.

Routes stored in internal memory can inadvertently be recalculated and saved with the changes. You can always re-import the original route from the memory card. The XT does not write to the memory card.

You can put everything on the XT, but the selection menu will only display the first 100 routes and (I think) the first 200 tracks. There is no search function for a particular route or track, and scrolling through a long list a few names at a time grows quickly tedious. Storing more data than you will actually be using will also slow down startup.

I prefer to transfer data from Basecamp to the XT via USB cable. I occasionally will transfer a single .gpx file wirelessly via email to myself and then "share" the attachment to the Drive phone app, which will pass it to the XT. I do not recommend Garmin Explore, but if you want to try it, it can be disabled later.

The XT does not have a folder structure for tracks and routes, so "organization" methods are limited. You might be able to create a naming convention (prefix with D for offroad, R for highway?). I would wait and become familiar with the XT before making a changes to your Basecamp files.

I do recommend spending some time with Zumo XT and Planned Routes - Everything That You Need to Know. The emphasis is on routes and highway use rather than off-road tracks, but there is a great deal of information explaining how the XT works in general, information that Garmin does not provide in their manual. reading it will be time well-spent and save you a lot of frustration.

[Peobody]

My response is that it depends on how comfortable you are working with a file explorer. @lkraus provided excellent advice but you can kick it up a notch by strategically exporting out of Basecamp as files which you then copy to the SD card using a file explorer. Once there, they are always available for import by the XT but will never get modified by the XT. This provides security in that the route is what you exported from Basecamp, and allows you control the routes that are displayed in its Trip Planner (which will only be the imported ones). Deletion from Trip Planner won't delete them from the SD card which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that you can delete from Trip Planner and then import again at will. The disadvantage is the removing routes you will never ride again requires manual deletion from the SD card using a file explorer.

[BillaVista]

Thak you both very much for the excellent advice.

I will use the SD card for xfer - either as required or with a strategic org of files & folders on the card.

I am reading through John's excellent tutorial - what an amazing piece of work!

Cheers

Bill

[smfollen]

After you have gone through John's excellent tutorial and have developed a good idea of how things work, you might want to check out Trip Manager developed by @FrankB. It can transfer files between PC and XT but can also work directly with the XT's internal file system, offering some more convenient and more powerful features.

You can find it here viewtopic.php?p=24080#p24080