Simple Waypoint Management on Echomap Ultra 126sv?

[WCBasser]

I am a relatively new Garmin user, with two Echomap Ultra 126sv units networked together, and using Active Captain for software updates. Is there a simple solution to organize waypoints now? Even something as basic as being able to group them into "Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall" and then show or hide by group would be really helpful. My screens are getting cluttered now with too many waypoints in certain areas of certain lakes.

I see much has been written in older threads about waypoint management, but most of it is either obsolete (as it relies on Homeport or is broken by Active Captain) or quite complex with sporadic results (using 3rd party software on specific platforms, avoiding duplicates from Active Captain, etc.).

I don't need to manage thousands of waypoints. I'd prefer to just do it on the unit(s), or transfer to my PC. I'm sure I'm not the only user with this issue - what are most people doing?

Many thanks!

[fishin couillon]

There is no way with Garmin to group your waypoints like you want to with the unit......you would have to use a program, and make seperate files and add/delete them from units when no using them. Using Homeport would help with that task....just might take a while to go thru and delete waypoints for each season unless you have them named/numbered a certain way to tell a difference...

I'm sending you a PM......

[RangrSkipr]

Its a chore. I just got through doing this with about 88 waypoints. Not to the extent by season like you're wanting to do but like Jeremy said, about the only way to do it on the units is sorting by name or symbol. Renaming the waypoints using the initials of each lake in the name of the WP would help sort by lake. Using a different color symbol (flag) might allow you accomplish the sort by season. I cleaned up all of my points and folders in Google Earth before transferring to the units via SD card but still had a bit of clean up to do once transferred.

This is the site I use for converting GE's KML files to GPX for use on the chartplotter. https://kml2gpx.com/

In GE right click on my places and create a new folder for each lake and add your waypoints for that lake to appropriate folder. Once you're finished click on the folder and "save my places as" to a folder on your computer. They will be in KMZ format on GE so be sure to change the extension to KML before saving. The Folder and all WP files in the folder will go together so from there its just a matter of clicking the folder once you're on the converter site and all will be saved as GPX to your downloads (Mac) or wherever you tell it.

When ready to copy to SD just click the folder and move or copy to SD for transferring to your chartplotter. If you don't want to make all of the name and symbol changes on the units just name the WP's and designate the symbols accordingly on google earth before saving them. IF you're not using GE to create waypoints and they are all on water created points then you're probably stuck with making all changes and designations on your chartplotter. Sorry for the lengthy dissertation. Just trying to give you some options to consider.

[WCBasser]

Thanks DeadStik. I'll give it some thought. I like your idea of a naming convention for waypoints - I just need to come up with a plan on to how I'd implement it.

I'm sure I'm not the first Garmin user to face the challenge of too many waypoints cluttering up the screen.

[RangrSkipr]

I take my units off the boat and do all updates on the bench this time of year. You know you could just wait until you're on the water and change them as you visit the lakes they apply to. Add a designation for that lake when renaming them so that when you query your waypoints when you're back in the garage sorting through them won't be so overwhelming. Its a start

[fishnhams]

I export my points to an SD card at the end of the day and put them in garmin Homeport. Clear the points off my unit and reload my card with whatever I want for the next trip.

[Mike2718]

You could import your waypoints into Garmin's Homeport. It's free but is no longer on their site for download or supported anymore but does still work for Garmin units. If you have trouble finding a copy to download on the web, just let me know. Once you import all your waypoints, you can select all the waypoints for a particular season then copy those to a new file such as "Summer". You can even further subdivide them by lake, such as "Lake ABC - Summer", "Lake ABC - Fall", etc. Using the first method, you will end up with 4 files, "Summer", "Fall", "Winter" and "Spring", which includes all your lakes. Using the second method will give you 4 files for each lake. Either method will allow you to maintain all your current symbols. All you will have to do is delete everything on your unit then load the waypoint file you need. I'm guessing you will be able to look at the map and determine which waypoints go with each particular season.

You can select multiple waypoints by clicking a symbol(not the waypoint name) on the map then hold down the "Shift" key and click as many waypoints as you need. This will highlight all those waypoints in the list to the left. You then Right Click on one of the highlighted waypoints in the list then select "Send to". This will bring up your Folders and Folder lists and you can choose where to copy your data. You need to create a Folder and List before selecting all your waypoints so it will already be available when you use the "Send to" function. You can also do it in batches instead of having to select all the waypoints at one time, however, you will have to remember which ones you already copied.

A lot of times, many waypoints will just have generic numbers as a name. In that case, you can select all those waypoints in the list and change the setting so only the symbol is displayed on your unit and not the names. This reduces a lot of clutter on the unit's screen not having to display a bunch of meaningless names.

Good Luck