Infrequent GPS User

[korotev]

Hi guys.

I faced quite a task on my new job today. Trying to plot a route of destinations from street addresses only in areas of the city/county I had never been.
My boss was there to actually navigate as I drove, but even he wasted some time finding addresses he's never visited before.
This job desperately calls for a gps...and they have one, but it is like mine and only good for one direction-to-destination at a time.

Do you know of a portable auto unit which can accept a list of addresses/locations, then PLOT A COURSE from any current position?

Makes sense?

Kevin

 

[dhn]

How many points are you referring to?

 

[korotev]

Maybe 20, max. They could be deleted as deliveries are made.

 

[alfie67]

I believe this may be a possible solution for your situation. It does require an internet connection to do the preplanning, and the ability to then transfer the route onto you (TomTom) GPS.

You can change the default startup internet display location by changing the latitude/longitude.

 

[korotev]

Thanks.
Yes, that would work, but for the pre-planning use of an internet connection. Ideally, everything could be plotted on a hand-held GPS unit.

Very close!

 

[canderson]

I need to understand just a little more of what you're trying to do.

Are the locations you are trying to visit those that you would visit with any regularity, or are these all more or less random locations?

Are you trying to get the unit to automatically route a full day's schedule for you?

Please add just a little more detail about your intentions. I think I'm hearing something in "only good for one direction-to-destination at a time." It could be that something as simple as setting up your stops as a custom POI (easily done) and daily setting up an Itinerary using places in your POI would be sufficient... but I just don't have a solid feel for what you want to do yet.

 

[Andy_P]

As you're in a TomTom forum, we tend to know a lot more about TomToms than other brands....

Some TomToms have what is described as "Itinerary Planning". This allows you to add up to 48 destinations or "waypoints".
You can add them to the list from street addresses or previously saved Favourites or Points of interest, or by just tapping spots on the map.

You can then set the device to navigate you from one to the next, and skip ones if you wish.
The lists of places can also be saved for re-use, or shared and loaded from another unit.

The big limitation is that it is not "intelligent" i.e. it doesn't work out the best order to make the visits in.
however, it is often fairly easy to look at the planned route on the screen and juggle the order yourself, to make a more sensible round trip.

The next big limitation is that some of the cheaper models did not have this incredibly useful feature and the LATEST TomTom models only have a way to add upto 3 "via" points on the route to your final destination, although it does make SOME attempt to sort them into a better order.
On these new models you cannot save the points or load them from somewhere else either.

If you look at the chart of all the different models our moderator "mvl" has created (download link on this page, you can see which models do the "proper" itinerary planning by checking row #43.

Other brands may make a better job of "optimizing" the places to visit, but usually this takes quite a bit of processing power, which is why it tends to get done on a PC and then the final route downloaded to the navigator.

Hope that helps.

 

[korotev]

You're all helping a lot.
I have the TomTom 720 but can't access the comparison chart???

I drive floral delivery. Every morning I fill the van with flowers and the like that all have to be delivered to unique addresses throughout a multi town community. As the deliveries are made, the location (which I've programmed into the GPS in advance)
could/should be deleted. New ones are often added late and any pre-determined route can be interrupted. I'd like to be able to pick up the route from wherever I am to wherever I was supposed to be next (that may be impractical).

The POI option did not occur to me as I've never used it. Can the 720 be programmed to include many of these?

One of the competitors offers this kind of function as "Multi-Destination Routing".

 

[dhn]

I don't know why you can't acess the comparison chart but, be that as it may be ...........

You can have custom poi categories on your 720 and you can create Itineraries.

See the info in the following link about establishing waypoints in google and having the trip optimized for you, an itinerary created, and the file sent to your tomtom:

Google Translate

 

[korotev]

That's all good news but for the need to use a stand-alone computer with internet access.
Thanks!

 

[Andy_P]

On the Go720, go to the last page of the main menu to find 'Itinerary planning'.

Tap "Options" / "New itinerary" and answer "yes" to start from scratch.
Tap "Add" to enter your first destination.
You can use Postcodes, town and street names, or previously stored favourites or Points of Interest, just the same as when you set up a normal route.

Tap "Add" again to set the second and third destinations in the same way.

Note: each location can be configured as a "destination" or a "way-point". Play with the settings to see how this affects the way it works.

You change each one by tapping on it to select it and then tapping "Options". Also, If you want *all* the locations to be waypoints, just change the FIRST one to be a way-point before you add any more.

when you've added all the places, tap Done and it will ask if you want to navigate to the first destination (which will be the first place you added if they are all set to be destinations, or the last one if you set all the rest to be waypoints).

Check the map view of the entire route to see if you can improve the route by adjusting the order of the places to visit (again done on the options page).

 

[spider362]

{snip}

Also, If you want *all* the locations to be waypoints, just change the FIRST one to be a way-point before you add any more.

{snip

Nice tip, Andy. Thanks.