Using mapField on your Garmin

After you've done the one-time link step, created or imported a route, and set it as your current active route, it's time to go for a run with mapField! Or a ride or a hike.

At the start of the activity, mapField shows a black/gray countdown bar at the top or bottom of the field to show when it will be able to connect next. This is necessary because a data field is only allowed to get online once every 5 minutes. Once it has successfully checked for a route (and either downloaded a new route, or confirmed that your current active route has not changed) it will hide the countdown bar.

It will show a ? at the end of the countdown bar if it has not yet checked for new route. 
It will show an X at the end of the countdown bar if there was no data connection last time it checked.

It will continue to check every 5 minutes whether you have changed your current active route, so you can use your phone and our mobile-friendly website to pick a different current active route at any time. Otherwise it will continue to happily use the prior route.

Since you can load a route at any time ahead of a planned activity, we recommend opening the Bike/Run/Hike activity app on your Garmin after you have set a new route on the website, so you can see mapField download your new route. Then you can exit the activity, confident the route is ready for you when you're ready to set off.

Using mapFile during your activity

mapField automatically toggles back and forth between showing your full route (for 3 seconds) and zoomed-in (for 12 seconds).

 

The zoomed-in view shows approximately 0.3mi/500m of the route near you if the route is a cycling route, or 600'/200m of the route for running, hiking and other routes.  A vertical scale bar is shown briefly when the view switches to zoomed-in.

The full view is shown with north "up", as you would see it on a paper map or on Google Maps. The zoomed-in view is shown with your direction of travel "up", so you can see what is coming up next. If your watch has a built-in magnetic compass, note that the zoomed-in view will change if you rotate the watch to the left or right.

The route start is shown by a green square and the end by a red square. Your current location and direction are shown by the blue arrow.

All of the above features are offered in the free version of mapField. dynamicWatch Premium subscribers also get a few extra navigation features.