Getting Started
To begin using Course Creator, start a free account at Garmin Connect if you don’t already have one. You will make the best use of Garmin Connect and Course Creator if you also own a Garmin sports GPS device, but you don’t need one to create and share courses online. Once you’re logged in, you can access the full website and begin making a course.
Course Types
The Course Creator tool does a good job of tracking roads when you have the Follow Roads option enabled. If you pick Freehand for a truly custom course, make sure to watch closely at where you’re clicking; the line between each selection is straight and doesn’t factor in buildings or yards. Note the options on the left side of the map. You can have your course points follow popularity routing or roads, or you can even make the course follow your every move with the Freehand option which will create direct lines from each of your course points. If you wish to do a loop route, click your way to the last point you want to be sure to hit, and then select Loop to Start to finish it out. There’s more on these options below. If you wish to plan out a course where you go to the ending point and then return to the starting point, following the exact same path, you can do that, too. Just map out the path and then choose Out and Back from the left pane in the map. Editing any course is as easy as clicking and dragging intermediate points. For example, if you want to move your course south by a few blocks, find the line that is too far and drag the blue point down a few streets. The rest of the course will auto-adjust to make it work.
Sharing and Exporting Your Course
When you’ve built and saved your course, it appears in your courses list, accessible through the Training menu as described above. When you open a course, you can keep it private or use the Make Public link to share it. Sharing a Garmin Connect course is as easy as sharing the URL. Copy the link in your browser and share it with anyone so that they can view the course details like the distance, map points, elevation, etc. They can also download your map in the GPX or FIT file format. One of the neatest tricks of Course Creator is the ability to export your course to your Garmin GPS device. Simply connect your Garmin to your computer via its included USB cable and then select Send to Device. This works only if you have Garmin Express installed.
About the Garmin Connect Service
If you’re an active cyclist or runner, you’ve probably at least dabbled with online mileage and training logs. These online services add tremendous value to your training information. When used with data uploaded from a sports GPS device, they take virtually all of the tedium out of capturing, storing, and analyzing training data. Complementing online training logs have been services such as Map My Ride, which provide utilities that let you map, measure, and pre-plan routes. Garmin has successfully combined the features of online training logs and online route planning and mapping services in its free Garmin Connect service. The route planning and mapping feature specifically is called Course Creator. With Course Creator, you can also export a route file to your Garmin GPS device. The export feature is terrific if you want to pre-map a new route in a new location. A mapping GPS such as the Garmin Edge 800 can provide you with turn-by-turn directions from a pre-loaded route.
