RouteConverter 2.1 is ready

The latest release 2.1 from 20. November '10

• reads and writes GoPal Route 5 (*.xml) files
• reads time and elevation from Google Earth (*.kml) files written by Navigon 6310 devices
• adds Spanish localization
• adds a menu with recently opened files
• always displays times in GMT/UTC timezone
• solves the menu performance problems on Mac OS X
• avoids the browser polling most of the time on Linux and Mac OS X
• complements comments, elevation and time of manually inserted positions
• speeds up reading of files by first trying most likely candidates
• speeds up writing of files by not reloading them if the format didn't change
• contains a workaround for GPST(racker) which stores m/s instead of Km/h in GPX 1.1 (*.gpx) files
• fixes a bug introduced in 2.0 where selected positions where not centered on the map
• fixes a problem with routes that could not be selected in the position list chooser
• fixes wrong time when reading GoPal Route 3 (*.xml) files
• fixes wrong order of positions when writing Falk Navigator (.tour) files
• fixes the find populated place lookup by using http://ws.geonames.org/ as a default

How to plan routes with Google Maps and use them on TomTom devices

Most RouteConverter users wonder, until they figure out that routes planned with Google Maps on the PC sometimes do not match the route that a TomTom device displays them after they have transferred the route to the device.

The reason is that the TomTom device uses different map data plus a different routing algorithm when compared to Google Maps. Thus its a good idea to set more waypoints and doublecheck on your TomTom device that the routing of the TomTom device matches your desired route.

You have to learn where to set these waypoints. I always put them on streets I want to pass by in all cases - and always in the middle between road intersections. This ensures a rather predictable routing on the Tom Tom device for routes planed with Google Maps.