Garmin Nuvi1350 Help With Navigation

[jmruperto]

I have what is a very fundamental question(s) about navigating with my Navi which is about 12 years old, but functioning very well. I think my questions are best put into an explanation in what I have already done and what I am experiencing. I have the latest version of the required maps (CN North America NT 2027.20) as well as Garmin Express and Basecamp.

I used Basecamp to develop a new route to test functionality. I live in an highly urbanized area with lots of highways some of which are elevated. The 18 mile route (home to work) has 14 waypoints that I carefully selected, and the route appeared to be correct in Basecamp. I backed up all of my old data from a few years ago then deleted it all from the unit before I transferred the test route to the GPS unit from Basecamp. The route came into the GPS as a series of waypoints (that match those in Basecamp). But there is nothing to indicate that they are part of a Route.

So the first question that I have: Is there a way for my Nuvi1350 GPS unit too recognize a set of waypoints as a "Route"? I searched the unit and web sites but cannot find anything to address this.

I tested the route this morning, by selecting the final waypoint (Work) of the "Route" and then pressing go. Two turns into my drive and I got "Route Recalculating" message. The GPS ignored my route and just selected its preferred route to my work. The route it selected is the faster and shorter than my "Route" and is the one that it would use previously (when I was using the GPS several years back).

So the second question that I have: Is there a way to force the unit to follow my selected route?

I want to use the GPS for an upcoming vacation that may have a dozen routes and a 100+ waypoints. That would mean just a jumble of waypoints in the unit which would be inconvenient to use.

So the third question that I have: Is there a way to organize (group) waypoints from the same route within the unit?

Realizing that the Nuvi1350 may be antiquated technology due to its age would a new model like Garmin Drive have this functionality (Question 4). I have done many web searches regarding functionality but can't seem to find anything to address this matter.

Thanks for any help you can provide in this matter.

 

[Scout]

I have what is a very fundamental question(s) about navigating with my Navi which is about 12 years old, but functioning very well. I think my questions are best put into an explanation in what I have already done and what I am experiencing. I have the latest version of the required maps (CN North America NT 2027.20) as well as Garmin Express and Basecamp.

I used Basecamp to develop a new route to test functionality. I live in an highly urbanized area with lots of highways some of which are elevated. The 18 mile route (home to work) has 14 waypoints that I carefully selected, and the route appeared to be correct in Basecamp. I backed up all of my old data from a few years ago then deleted it all from the unit before I transferred the test route to the GPS unit from Basecamp. The route cam
[...]

Welcome to GPS Forums, jmruperto, great to have you here!

To answer your first question, the Nuvi 1350 does support routes as a distinct object, but the key is that the route itself needs to be transferred as a route, not just the individual waypoints. In Basecamp, make sure you are sending the route object directly to the device, not just the waypoints collection. In Basecamp, right-click the route in the left panel and choose "Send to Device", selecting your Nuvi. When it arrives correctly, you should be able to go to the unit's menu, tap Where To, then Routes, and see your route listed there by name. If you only see waypoints and no route entry, the transfer likely sent only the waypoint markers rather than the route itself.

On your second question about the unit ignoring your route and recalculating to its preferred path, this happens because the Nuvi treats a route as a series of via-points it needs to pass through, but if you only navigate "to" the final destination waypoint rather than activating the route as a whole, the unit will just route its own way to that endpoint. The fix is to navigate via the Routes menu rather than selecting a destination waypoint directly. Once you have the route loaded properly, go to Where To, Routes, select your route by name, and then choose Go. The unit should then guide you through each waypoint in sequence. If it still recalculates away from your path, check that your routing preferences (fastest time vs shortest distance, avoid highways, etc.) are not fighting against the route you planned in Basecamp. Matching those settings between Basecamp and the unit helps a lot.

For your third question about managing multiple routes and waypoints for your vacation, once routes are transferred correctly they stay organised as named routes rather than a jumble of loose waypoints. You can have several routes on the unit at once and select whichever one you need for that day's drive. The waypoints that make up a route will still appear in your waypoints list, but as long as you navigate via the Routes menu you will not need to dig through them individually. Keeping your route names descriptive, like Day1 or Monday Drive, will make it much easier to pick the right one on the road.

Here are some threads on this forum that may have answered your question:

• Garmin GPSMAP direct navigation to waypoint not working — reply by Nuvi-Nebie

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[jmruperto]

Thank you for the response.

Previously I did only send the Route to the device i.e. I did not send the individual waypoints. and the issue described above occurred.

Following your response, I cleared out all of the data (waypoints, logs) and resent the Route to the Internal Storage and to the Secure Digital Card installed in the unit. The only thing that I see in the unit through Favorites are the individual waypoints, same as before. Also, there is no way to select a Route. The devise gives no indication that there is a route to select.

Realizing that the Nuvi1350 may be antiquated technology due to its age would a new model like Garmin Drive have functionality to navigate a route?

Can you point me to any information available on the WEB or otherwise that details how Routes are used for navigation?

Thank you

 

[Scout]

Thank you for the response.

Previously I did only send the Route to the device i.e. I did not send the individual waypoints. and the issue described above occurred.

Following your response, I cleared out all of the data (waypoints, logs) and resent the Route to the Internal Storage and to the Secure Digital Card installed in the unit. The only thing that I see in the unit through Favorites are the individual waypoints, same as before. Also, there is no way to select a Route. The devise gives no indication that there is a route to select.

Realizing that the Nuvi1350 may be antiquated technology due to its age would a new model like Garmin Drive have functionality to navigate a route?

Can you point me to any information available on the WEB or otherwise that details how Routes are used f
[...]

That's a useful clarification, and it does point to a known limitation worth addressing directly.

The Nuvi 1350 has a somewhat awkward relationship with Basecamp routes. When you send a route from Basecamp to the device, the unit often strips it down to its waypoints rather than preserving it as a navigable route. This happens because the 1350 uses an older routing architecture that doesn't fully support the route format Basecamp exports in the way you might expect.

The practical workaround that tends to work well with older Nuvi units is this: rather than sending a route, create your sequence of stops as "Via Points" within Basecamp, then use the device's own "Where To / Multi-stop" or "Route Planner" feature on the unit itself to string those waypoints together into a route on the device side. The unit recalculates the route using its own engine, which is actually what you want because it will use the map data already on the device and give you proper turn-by-turn.

On the 1350 specifically, go to Tools, then My Data, then Route Planner. From there you can select your transferred waypoints one by one as stops and build the route directly on the unit. It's a bit manual but it works reliably.

One other thing worth checking: did Basecamp confirm a successful transfer with no errors? And when you look at the device through Windows Explorer or Garmin Express, can you see a GPX file that contains a "rte" element rather than just "wpt" elements? That would tell us whether Basecamp is even sending the route structure at all before the device interprets it.

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[jmruperto]

My Nuvi1350 does not have the functionality "Tools, My Data, Route Planner".

Windows Explorer a 'current.gpx' (4KB file) and a 'temp.gpx' (87KB) file with 1,555 rows of data. Row 315 and 316 identify the Route. Below is a copy of the code:
<rte>
<name>Route Home to Work Pay Road</name>

All of the 19 waypoints are in this file and are identified as "rptpt" as shown below.

<rtept lat="27.786018988117576" lon="-82.63722276315093">
<time>2026-10-20T01:50:29Z</time>
<name>14th Ave N and 3rd St N1</name>
<sym>Flag, Blue</sym>
<extensions>
<trp:ViaPoint>
<trp:CalculationMode>FasterTime</trp:CalculationMode>
<trp:ElevationMode>Standard</trp:ElevationMode>
</trp:ViaPoint>
<gpxx:RoutePointExtension>
<gpxx:Subclass>000000000000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF</gpxx:Subclass>
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786247730255127" lon="-82.637222846969962">
<gpxx:Subclass>060053E6F7018D870100211600000B000B00</gpxx:Subclass>
</gpxx:rpt>
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786247730255127" lon="-82.637486457824707" />
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786247730255127" lon="-82.637486457824707" />
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786247730255127" lon="-82.637486457824707" />
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786247730255127" lon="-82.637486457824707">
<gpxx:Subclass>060053E6F701088701001F020800D0C31300</gpxx:Subclass>
</gpxx:rpt>
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786247730255127" lon="-82.637486457824707" />
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786655426025391" lon="-82.637486457824707">
<gpxx:Subclass>060053E6F701567E86001F06080017C40C00</gpxx:Subclass>
</gpxx:rpt>
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786655426025391" lon="-82.637486457824707" />
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786655426025391" lon="-82.637486457824707" />
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786655426025391" lon="-82.637486457824707" />
<gpxx:rpt lat="27.786655426025391" lon="-82.637771610170603">
<gpxx:Subclass>060053E6F701567E0600211700001F000C00</gpxx:Subclass>
</gpxx:rpt>
</gpxx:RoutePointExtension>
</extensions>


I have attached the 'temp.gpx' file for your consideration.

 

[Scout]

My Nuvi1350 does not have the functionality "Tools, My Data, Route Planner".

Windows Explorer a 'current.gpx' (4KB file) and a 'temp.gpx' (87KB) file with 1,555 rows of data. Row 315 and 316 identify the Route. Below is a copy of the code:
<rte>
<name>Route Home to Work Pay Road</name>

All of the 19 waypoints are in this file and are identified as "rptpt" as shown below.

<rtept lat="27.786018988117576" lon="-82.63722276315093">
<time>2026-10-20T01:50:29Z</time>
<name>14th Ave N and 3rd St N1</name>
<sym>Flag, Blue</sym>
<extensions>
<trp:ViaPoint>
<trp:CalculationMode>FasterTime</trp:CalculationMode>
<trp:ElevationMode>Standard</trp:ElevationMode>
</trp:ViaPoint>
<gpxx:RoutePointExtension>
<gpxx:Subclass
[...]

That's actually encouraging news - the fact that the route data IS in the current.gpx file, with the rte and rtept tags properly structured, means Basecamp transferred it correctly. The data is there on the device. The problem is purely on the display and navigation side of the 1350.

The Nuvi 1350 sits in an awkward middle ground. It can store route data in GPX format, but its navigation interface doesn't expose a "route" selection screen the way later Garmin units do. What it actually does when you go to navigate is reconstruct a route on the fly using its own internal routing engine, using those waypoints as via points. So the route as you built it in Basecamp essentially gets recalculated by the device rather than followed literally.

This explains what you saw earlier with it wanting to take you to an interchange differently than you planned. The 1350 sees your waypoints as destinations to pass through, but it will always calculate the path between them itself based on its map data and your current routing preferences, which are things like faster time versus shorter distance, and whether you allow toll roads or highways.

The most productive thing to try right now is checking those routing preferences on the unit itself. Go into Settings, then Navigation, and look at what Route Preference is set to. If it is set to Faster Time it may route you onto a highway even if you had a surface road in mind. Changing it to Shorter Distance sometimes produces a more predictable result when your waypoints are closely spaced.

Also, how far apart are your waypoints? If some of them are only a block or two apart, the device may be snapping them to different roads than you intended.

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[jmruperto]

Thank for your help, but I think it is time to buy a nee GPS unit.

Based on your understanding of what i am trying to do with my GPS, can you recommend a unit that will handle the routing that i need.

 

[johnwd98]

I have both a nuvi 1450 and a DriveSmart 55, both work well with BaseCamp. I know that BaseCamp can be a little overwhelming a first but, in the end, not that difficult. I use a Windows laptop for BC and, have made most of my Routes to use with the nuvi and later transferred them to my DriveSmart. There is virtually no difference between the two when using BC. A simple way to plan a Route on BC for me is to click on File>New>Route. Then add your Start Point and Destination, click Go. On the map make sure you are in Pan mode (hand symbol) from the tool bar. You can then use the alt/drag option to change the Route. You may have to use Recalculate to keep the changes. This seems to work best with using the same map version from both BC and my GPS. Also make sure the pop-up New Route menu has the same map version and is set to Driving. Do you know that Scout is AI? My experience is that AI can only gather the same info that you or I could find on the internet, in other words, AI has no actual hands-on, real-life experience. I believe the difficulties you are experiencing may be tied more to BC than your GPS.

 

[jmruperto]

Thanx for the information.

 

[Motorcoach Driver Steve]

Thank for your help, but I think it is time to buy a nee GPS unit.

Based on your understanding of what i am trying to do with my GPS, can you recommend a unit that will handle the routing that i need.

The DriveSmart series will do exactly what you want. I am a professional motor coach driver and use BaseCamp all the time to plan my trips based on customer itineraries of 1 day to 3 weeks. I currently have about 3000 routes and over 3000 saved waypoints in BC, developed over about 17 years since I retired from my engineering career. I plan each trip and save it in a "list" in BC. I then send that list to my DS76, which transfers its entire contents, routes and waypoints. Once on the road, I select the "Apps/Route Planner", and all the routes I created are displayed in order of execution, I select the one I am ready to do, and off I go and it follows what I planned. Easy peasy. On top of that, the newer units have much improved graphics and other features. Just do it, you'll be happy.

 

[jmruperto]

Motorcoach Driver Steve, thanks for the spot-on response. I was surprised that, what I thought was a simple question was actually rather rare. I even spoke with the Garmin folks and didn't really get a convincing answer. I recently retired as a Civil Eng. (after 45+ years) and want to do some traveling; the west coast is our first target. I used GIS software for much of the last 20 years at work, so BC was a quick learn. My 15+ year old Nuvi was the real issue, although it still functions perfectly, there are hardware/firmware limitation relative to the new models. One advantage in the older model is higher capacity battery; I am still getting 2+ hours of runtime. I'm going to go ahead with the purchase of a Garmin DriveSmart 86MT (older eyes could definitely use the larger screen).

 

[Motorcoach Driver Steve]

I think you'll be happy. I run mine plugged into a charge port on the coach or car all the time, I think that's pretty necessary, the battery seems to be minimal. Two things I ran into that I didn't think were clearly documented: one, to connect to your computer to transfer data, the charging cord that comes with the unit won't do that (at least mine didn't). But any plain charging cord with USB-C on one end and the other compatible with your computer (C or B probably) will work, and I had multiple of those for phones. Second, the way the new units sort routes in the Route Planner is by departure date/time. So for each route, you'll want to double-click on the departure point in the route and set the departure date and time. Then they will be listed in the order you intend to do them. Not a big deal, it just makes them easier to find. I've had some trips where I have fifty routes, so I can use all the help I can get... BTW, I always name my routes "MMDD # Short description" where MMDD is the date I'll be doing it, and # is the sequence within that day. But even if you do that, it won't sort the routes by name, that's why you have to set the departure date/time for it to sort properly.

 

[jmruperto]

Thanks for the tips, appreciate the insight.