On a Garmin Handheld device you have a number of different Routing options which you setup depending on the type of Route that you are sending to your device.
If you plan a off-road Route using something like Garmin's Basecamp software using Direct Routing where you mark a point to point straight line route or use our own GPS Training free to use OS Route Planner , this type of Route can be made up of up to 200 via points max or 250 via points max depending on your model of GPS Device**
Also you will normally find if you download GPX Routes from the internet they tend to have been planned as Direct Routes as well.
If you GPS device Route setting is not set to direct and set to something like Hiking, Walking, Cycling etc, this setting is only designed for Routes planned in basecamp software as turn by turn snap to paths or roads routes depending on the type of mapping you have and not for direct routes hence you will get an error message on your GPS device advising you that only 50 points can be used for on road navigation.
To allow your GPS device to load a direct route with upto 200 or 250 x via points goto your Main Menu - Setup - Routing and make sure Direct Routing is on or set as the Activity.
*Garmin GPSMap66s, 66sr, 66i, 86, 86i, Oregon 700 / 750 Series, Montana 700, 700i, 750i can have 250 x via points max in a Direct Route.
*Garmin GPSMap64, 65 series, eTrex Touch series, eTrex 20,22,32 series, Oregon 600, 650 series can have 200 x via points max in a Direct Route.
On our Online training resource with the Garmin basecamp sections we have lots of videos that cover creating direct routes as well as turn by turn routes and also a video that shows you how to convert a Route that has to many point to a track in basecamp software to allow it to work with your device.
If you purchased a GPS device from GPS training you get 1 years free access to our Online Training resource, the Online training resource can be purchased as one of our support packages - more info here
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