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Peter Höglund Wednesday 30 Apr 2025 11:55:02
I've been using navigation on my fenix/epix watches since fenix5 days and been trying to find the best app to help me with that.
I've also agree that many other apps have nicier maps and easier way to edit them, but for the purpose to create routes and compared pros and cons, plotaroute has been the best for me.
Plotaroute unique features (for my use cases) is the ease of go through the direction list w TBTs/turn points/course points and double check if correct. Also the possibility to customize the automatic turn point descriptions with the abbrevation feature. Other things is support for most of the Garmin up-ahead symbols and overall great fit file support.
I've not had any problems with the shift back feature and thats another plus for pr as Garmin watches always has been lagging in the navigation. For me shift back with 15m has been perfect when used for running.
Have you enabled 'Turn Warnings' in the fit dowloading dialogue? That could be the problem. The Garmin watch has it owns turn warnings, so it will be a lot of alerts if plotaroute also includes those in the file.
Strange problems you have with snap to map. I've no problems with that. Could it be that the osm maps where you live have a lot of one-directial paths/ways and that other route planners are more 'nice' on handling those? Or if the underlying map data has disconnected features and other route planners can handle that?
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jake go Tuesday 29 Apr 2025 07:35:32
Hi There,
Some general comments how plotaroute works with garmin fenix 7 navigation.tl;dr: voice directions are vastly improved using plotaroute though still not perfect. Actually planning a route is better done somewhere else due to poor UI/UX, inaccurate maps.
My main problem with garmin navigation was that directions are not given natively (when route is uploaded to watch from garmin connnect) based on switching from one road to another, but based on curvature of the track.
And I want directions based on when I should signal a turn to other road users, and not on an arbitraty number for curvature of the track being exceeded.
Secondly, garmin plays default directions right after previous turn and ON the turn. So when it decided to play them at all they are often easy to miss.I've paid for premium in an attempt to conunteract those issues.
I like the snap to map feature. I often plan routes on komoot, upload them here, snap them to map and end up with actual navigable route thanks to directions placed according to map, not curvature of the track.
But it requires some work on my side still. Often when snapping to map, plotaroute decides on a silly detour, unable to trace the path on map that other route planner traced and which I know is navigable.
I end up having to manually re-plot a section with tracking set to "off" to make the course connects where I need it to. Komoot and plotaroute both use OSM, but completely different versions.
Easy to fix thanks to replot a section feature, but annoying as I always have to check entire route after snapping it for glitches.The directions themselves - feature to move them back by certain distance does not seem to work on garmin.
Reconfigured directions seem to be played before the turn AND when garmin decides to play them - basically repeated. And in my experience, directions moved back by e.g. 30ft are played 30 meters before the turn. So there are a lot of useless voice cues being played.
Roundabout handling is a nightmare. Garmin does not recognize them at all, plotaroute only sometimes in my experience. So you end up with A LOT of directions played one by one. My phone is playing catch-up long after I have already crossed the roundabout.
Still, propably not a fault of plotaroute, but garmins bad design choices, but all we get is a series of cardinal directions instead of "on roundabout, take X exit".In terms of copying the .fit file to my watch - would love an integration from plotaroute directly to garmin. If course is copied via garmin connect it overrides all the work done on directions, so I have to download the file to my pc and copy over manually to my watch via usb.
If the plotaroute UI and UX were better, probably it would be enough to just plan a route from scratch here and upload to watch - no premium features needed.
Unfortunately komoot does the route planning MILES better. Maps are more accurate, being able to choose specific sport and have the route snap to road, gravel road or singletracks is great (plus all the POI and community warnings etc are useful).
Modifying a fragment of the route on komoot is also so much easier - simply drag and drop the points at the start, end or middle of the route, no anchors.Knowing all that I would still pay for premium - all quality of life issues aside, being able to snap route to map and get turn navigation based on ACTUAL MAP and how roads work is life-saving. Until I find a better alternative that is.
and yes, all my issues could be fixed by buying a bike computer. But I already own the watch and want to make it work the way it's supposed to, not just buy another expensive device.
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