Best way to set my Garmin Zumo XT to play well with the MRA?

[Hubert Thoring]

The Garmin on "fastest connection" between the WP and SP.

Export the MRA Route as format 1.1 GPX and load it in the Garmin ...

When planning as much as possible SP put so that the path is clearly described,...

Then that should fit, the Garmin is limited with fixed WP as far as I know.

VG

[AWDC LAO]

There are two versions of GPS v1.1; v1.0 is older but more reliable.
MARA has become so good that for on-road use, your smartphone is all you need.
I use the XT2 or XT3 for off-road use and for following a track.

[white.mouse]

The best way, I found out is to make the route in MRA and export it as GPX 1.1 (route, track, poi).
Then use the "good" old Basecamp and import this file. you will see now in Basecamp the track and a route existing of straight lines.
Now open the route and let Basecamp recalculate. You'll find out that the route now follows more or less the track which is also visible in Basecamp .
Manualy put in extra waypoint to make the route follow the track exact.
There is no standard setting to avoid this problem.
After that you can connect the GPS to your computer and in Basecamp, with a left click on the map existing the track and route you get an option to send it direct to the GPS.
This is the most solit way.

[Mzokk]

Nope you don't need to put the additional unnecessary step of exporting to Basecamp. Just create the route with plenty of shaping (teardrop) points between Via(hand) points and download the file as gpx1.1 and send it via your phone using Garmin Drive. You can also use GPX 1.2 but if you do switch off auto recalculate......or the Garmin will take you straight to the end.

[Guzzist]

That is the issue with every Route planner, sending the route to another navigation app/device. Each has it's own algorithm. So it's nearly impossible, to setup on each end the same settings. The only way is, to enter "enough" route points during planning, to force navigation apps/devices to use exactly that roads you have planned.
But as @hubert-thoring said: Garmin devices has limited capacity for work with via points (route points). But you can work in MRA with shaping points, which are also route points (with some differences in the effect).

[Mzokk]

The Zumo XT can handle 30 via (stop points) and 125 shaping points between each via point. So plenty for most purposes. Tracks cancelled have 10,000 points.

[AWDC LAO]

Garmin has also an APP : TREAD for the XT2/3, or do you have XT1 ?

[white.mouse]

@AWDC-LAO said:

Garmin has also an APP : TREAD for the XT2/3, or do you have XT1 ?

I haven't heard much good about it. Especially when it comes to importing routes

[Brian McG]

@Mike-wiruth as @guzzist suggests use lots of points to constrain the route to the path that you want to take

on the web planner you definitely want to be using "Compare" tool to ensure that OpenStreetMap & TomTom also follow the same path that Here is calculating in the MRA web planner

if TomTom or OpenStreetMap can find an alternative path you can bet that your XT will also find a different path to what you had planned

the XT is using a different path calculator profile to MRA even though they are both using Here maps 
so any calculation done by the XT is possibly going to be different unless you force (constrain) it to the same path with as many points as it takes
& again as @guzzist says you have to make sure the settings you have on the MRA planner match the settings on your XT as closely as you can

a rough guide that paths are closely matching is to make sure the mileage for the path in MRA is similar to the path on the XT
it is not a perfect check but if the variation is small, chances are more likely the paths are more similar

it is a lot of work trying to coral an XT to stick on a path you want to go & ultimately the XT will defeat you
you will be taken off your chosen path, I know from bitter experience

yes the search & poi capabilities on a Garmin are far better than MRA, especially when it comes to things like finding petrol
but I would rather my navigation device actually navigates exactly the path I want to go (MRA navigation does this) & sacrifice the nice feature of being able to find restaurants or hotels etc
after all we do have google for that sort of thing

& as @mzokk you dont need to pass the mra file through basecamp, that fixes nothing

[Guzzist]

@AWDC-LAO said:

Garmin has also an APP : TREAD for the XT2/3, or do you have XT1 ?

Folks, the issue is not the transmission method to the Garmin XT, nor the gpx file format! O.k. the file format has other issues in the Garmin device, but this is not the point in this discussion.
After transmit a route via gpx file to the Navi Device, it is starting the calculation, how to come from WP1 to the next WP. Yes, you can deny recalculation - but the first interpretation/calculation is necessary.

By the way: in many forum discussion (also in Garmin forum) users suggests not to use the bloody TREAD app...

And @mike-wiruth asked only why the planned route differs after transmission into the navi.

[white.mouse]

That is simply the only reason I still use Basecamp.
In all the time until now the route I check there (and if neccesary modify) has never been different in my XT1