Cycling UK Forum

There have been a many posts( CTC and elsewhere) on the voice guidance system when using a GPX track in Osmand. Instructions can be imprecise when faced, for example, Y junctions or roundabouts. There are no road names. It takes some getting used to the vagaries such as "slightly left then slightly right" or cross roads being ignored completely.

I believe there may be a solution to this. It involves not using your imported GPX track for navigation at all, but using it as a template on which to build an Osmand generated route (layer). This gives one the full repertoire of Osmands voice instructions.

One will first need to familiarize oneself with setting and moving waypoints including “sorting door to door”

When Osmand asks if you want to “use the displayed GPX / imported track for navigation” press NO. This will leave an inoperative imprint of your intended GPX route on the map.

Now move to Osmonds navigation feature and create a start and finish point that corresponds to the start and finish of your now inoperative GPX template. It is best to use the “select on map” feature for this.

Osmand will then calculate a route which will invariably differ from your GPX template.
Now insert waypoints on your template to force Osmand to route along your intended track. Then press go.

As it is now an Osmand generated route that is following its own map, you will have enhanced voice instructions.

As with anything in Osmand this takes practice but can be done quickly once it has been mastered . Best done the night before. I have found for a typical day ride between four and ten waypoints are all that is required.

I traversed an unfamiliar Bournemouth in both directions using this method and it is demonstrably better than using a live GPX track.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give this a try. It would be nice if Osmand could be made to do it for you, though!

rfryer wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give this a try. It would be nice if Osmand could be made to do it for you, though!

Agreed. Apparently Osmand have been aware of the issue since..........March 2014. Extraordinary given the popularity of GPX. This workaround can save a lot of aggravation on the road, especially in built up areas.

An update on the first paragraph of the original post and the issues surrounding GPX.

An imported GPX route is not in anyway connected to the underlying map. It makes no use of OSM data.The Osmand app is describing a line with no reference to any features around it. The result is often poor, misleading or non existent voice instructions that can be exceedingly frustrating.
What is needed is for Osmand to describe an OSM map. For that one needs to use Osmands navigation feature layered over your GPX route. ( As described above ) A bit of a faff initially but at least one receives useable instructions that work.

. . . . rather than using a.n.other generated gpx file as a template, why not just plot the route directly in Osmand ? (2019)

Graham wrote:. . . . rather than using a.n.other generated gpx file as a template, why not just plot the route directly in Osmand ? (2019)

Manual plotting from scratch would be a real pita and auto routing is not good in Osmand, not least because it's not a cycle specific program. Cycle.travel gives you a nicer route.

To the OP. Is there a way of plotting a route in osmand on a larger tablet and then exporting it to your phone to navigate with?

climo wrote:

Graham wrote:. . . . rather than using a.n.other generated gpx file as a template, why not just plot the route directly in Osmand ? (2019)

Manual plotting from scratch would be a real pita and auto routing is not good in Osmand, not least because it's not a cycle specific program. Cycle.travel gives you a nicer route.

To the OP. Is there a way of plotting a route in osmand on a larger tablet and then exporting it to your phone to navigate with?

I email it to myself

Al

Al
Surely if you export it from Osmand on a tablet it's a gpx file and reimporting it back into Osmand on the phone results in the same problem as the OP has overcome. Question is - is there a native Osmand format which preserves all the extra info that you get by plotting it in Osmand. Hope that makes sense.

Perhaps you can save it as a favourite and transfer the favourites file.

Thanks for that - Sure, it`s a bit of faff but a breeze compared with getting lost in a town that you just need to be on the far side of.

My first 35 mile test run around the country lanes was somewhat blighted by the seemingly endless . . . . . .
< turn slightly right > : < turn slightly left > - which on a normal country lane was actually a straight-on. An appropriate silence was preferable.

As others comment elsewhere, a straight-across-the-crossroads prompted no comment ( from the squawking goon in my back pocket ).

climo wrote:Al
Surely if you export it from Osmand on a tablet it's a gpx file and reimporting it back into Osmand on the phone results in the same problem as the OP has overcome. Question is - is there a native Osmand format which preserves all the extra info that you get by plotting it in Osmand. Hope that makes sense.

Climo, I created the .gpx file in cycle.travel on the web. Imported it into Osmand.

As Graham observed Osmand squarks sharper turns in the road, but that doesnt bother me.

Al

Graham wrote:My first 35 mile test run around the country lanes was somewhat blighted by the seemingly endless . . . . . .
< turn slightly right > : < turn slightly left > - which on a normal country lane was actually a straight-on. An appropriate silence was preferable.

As others comment elsewhere, a straight-across-the-crossroads prompted no comment ( from the squawking goon in my back pocket ).

Al

al_yrpal wrote:

climo wrote:Al
Surely if you export it from Osmand on a tablet it's a gpx file and reimporting it back into Osmand on the phone results in the same problem as the OP has overcome. Question is - is there a native Osmand format which preserves all the extra info that you get by plotting it in Osmand. Hope that makes sense.

Climo, I created the .gpx file in cycle.travel on the web. Imported it into Osmand.

As Graham observed Osmand squarks sharper turns in the road, but that doesnt bother me.

Al

That's what I do already. I'm interested in the OP's technique of refining the imported .gpx route within Osmand itself and exporting the amended route from a tablet to a phone. Refining a route through a city sounds like an excellent idea.

I saw that, sounds a pain to me. I will put up with the squarks I think. Hopefully Osmand will sort it.

Al