Difference between a Track and a Route

[cbrinkhuis]

I Have a TomTom GO-6100.
What is the difference between a Track and a Route?

 

[Willy875]

A .gpx file will always display as a track. If you use an .itn file, it will be a route.
FYI an ITN file contains less detail than the GPX file.

 

[Fidalgorob]

I continually have a problem with this on my Rider 550. With a track, if you miss a waypoint (for instance, if it is slightly misplaced from the road that you’re traveling on), the TomTom will insist that you go back to reach that waypoint rather than defaulting to the next one. The only way that I’ve found to address this is to stop the navigation and then restart it, which is a pain.

When I plan a route on MyDrive and try to transfer it to the Rider 550 the only way I can get the GPS to sync is if I use “sync as a track” option. I can’t get routes to transfer, and that drives me crazy.

 

[Willy875]

I continually have a problem with this on my Rider 550. With a track, if you miss a waypoint (for instance, if it is slightly misplaced from the road that you’re traveling on), the TomTom will insist that you go back to reach that waypoint rather than defaulting to the next one. The only way that I’ve found to address this is to stop the navigation and then restart it, which is a pain.

To cancel a point that has not been seen.
Click the … then delete the next waypoint and it very quickly recalculates the route to the next point.

 

[Fidalgorob]

Thanks for this tip. Unfortunately, that’s not easy (or safe) to do on a moving motorcycle. I’d like to have the GPS show routes that direct you to the next waypoint once it determines that you have passed a previous one.

 

[BikerJoe]

The way that tracks and routes are implemented on the latest Rider devices and their interaction with TomTom's MyDrive is really, really crap and, having just looked at MyDrive for the first time in a while, it's even worse now we're stuck with what used to be the optional beta planner.
You can carefully design a route with planned stops (for e.g. fuel, food or sightseeing) and you can "drag" the route to include favourite roads (in a browser on a PC). Saving the route with sync enabled then allows your device to pick it up which should be great. However, the "track" which appears on the device doesn't show any of the stops you carefully put in, doesn't take any account of traffic updates (if you've those enabled), won't recalculate if you detour for any reason, and can't be edited on the device.
If you use the Export option to send the route's stops to the device (but only up to a maximum of 20 points), it'll work like an old itinerary, does show the stops, and will recalculate for diversions or traffic. However, it doesn't automatically save the route, so you have to do that manually or run the risk of losing it if you look at the map carelessly or inadvertently load a different route on the device. Oh, and don't try to edit a route with mixed stops (destinations) and and dragged points (waypoints) in the MyDrive app on your phone during the day as it will completely screw the route up. Also, if you do edit the route on the device during the day or create a new one (saved as a route, not a track), it's impossible to export it from the device should you want to save it on your PC or send it to friends. Even exporting a track created on the device is a clunky bodge of exporting it to an SD card and manually transferring from that.
The addition of MyDrive and the options of tracks should have made for an excellent system but it's been so poorly implemented that it's comprehensively crippled and is a frustrating chore to use my new Rider 500, and I'd prefer to use my lumpy old Rider 2013 if only it still held charge and didn't keep losing power.

 

[Fidalgorob]

The way that tracks and routes are implemented on the latest Rider devices and their interaction with TomTom's MyDrive is really, really crap and, having just looked at MyDrive for the first time in a while, it's even worse now we're stuck with what used to be the optional beta planner.
You can carefully design a route with planned stops (for e.g. fuel, food or sightseeing) and you can "drag" the route to include favourite roads (in a browser on a PC). Saving the route with sync enabled then allows your device to pick it up which should be great. However, the "track" which appears on the device doesn't show any of the stops you carefully put in, doesn't take any account of traffic updates (if you've those enabled), won't recalculate if you detour for any reason, and can't be edited on the device.
If you use the Export option to send the route's stops to the device (but only up to a maximum of 20 points), it'll work like an old itinerary, does show the stops, and will recalculate for diversions or traffic. However, it doesn't automatically save the route, so you have to do that manually or run the risk of losing it if you look at the map carelessly or inadvertently load a different route on the device. Oh, and don't try to edit a route with mixed stops (destinations) and and dragged points (waypoints) in the MyDrive app on your phone during the day as it will completely screw the route up. Also, if you do edit the route on the device during the day or create a new one (saved as a route, not a track), it's impossible to export it from the device should you want to save it on your PC or send it to friends. Even exporting a track created on the device is a clunky bodge of exporting it to an SD card and manually transferring from that.
The addition of MyDrive and the options of tracks should have made for an excellent system but it's been so poorly implemented that it's comprehensively crippled and is a frustrating chore to use my new Rider 500, and I'd prefer to use my lumpy old Rider 2013 if only it still held charge and didn't keep losing power.

Yes! These are the complaints that I’ve had with the TomTom Rider 550 ever since I got it. It is mostly useless for planning routes. The only things I use it for are tracking my speed and looking for the next turn that I’ve remembered from studying a paper map. Overall, it’s been a disappointing purchase. The hardware seems fine, but the supporting software is — as pointed out above — crap.

There is a new device out for motorcycles that runs Apple Car Play and Android Auto via a bluetooth connection with your phone. I’m probably going to try one of those and unload the TomTom.

 

[raesewell]

You need to send it to the device as an .itn file
Go here read that #11

The New Online Plan.TomTom.com

I received an email from TomTom today about their new updated online planner. Just wondering if anyone has tried it yet?

www.tomtomforums.com

 

[Fidalgorob]

I've tried uploading .itn files generated in MyRouteApp and unfortunately have never been successful with that approach, either. When the route syncs with the device, it differs from the route displayed on plan.tomtom.com. This has frustrated me for years. I don't know why I continue to fight with this crappy software.

 

[canderson]

I've tried uploading .itn files generated in MyRouteApp and unfortunately have never been successful with that approach, either. When the route syncs with the device, it differs from the route displayed on plan.tomtom.com. This has frustrated me for years. I don't know why I continue to fight with this crappy software.

I'd like to see one of the "*.itn" files that MyRouteApp is creating. It should be nothing more than a sequential list of the waypoints requested in *.itn format.

Further, an *.itn file doesn't specify HOW you should reach each of the successive waypoints - it leaves that up to the routing engine, which will include routing preferences, historical traffic data and the traffic at the moment, so why would one expect to always see the same route from even ONE routing engine, much less two built on different code?

The purpose of the *.itn file is to take you from one stop to another. If you want to force a more specific route, you can have TomTom work instead with a track, which I find far inferior in most cases for a variety of reasons. Alternately, you can often impact the route the software uses to reach the *.itn waypoints and bend it to your preference by adding more intermediate waypoints to the *.itn. That's how we did it before we had track functionality on TomTom devices.