Posts for this topic...
-
Post your comments.... Sign In to Post
-
plotaroute admin Monday 05 Aug 2019 09:32:18
In our recent User Survey quite a few of you asked if we could look at ways to improve the way routes are edited, to make it easier to change a section in the middle of a route. Currently this is done using the Replot Section feature, by selecting the section of the route you want to change and then dragging a replacement line to replot it. However, sometimes this can get confusing, particularly if you’re replotting a large section or the new route doesn’t follow the path you expect when you drag it, which is then hard to undo.
So, we’d like to get your views about an alternative approach to replotting part of a route that we think will be much more intuitive and easier to work with. The new approach will work in the same way as the Plot a Detour feature, which has proved very popular. With this approach you select the point on the route where you want to deviate from the original route, then plot the revised route in the normal way by simply clicking along it (this allows you to UNDO clicks and also change the Auto-Plot setting at any point, which you can’t do currently). To finish replotting, you click on the point on the original route where the amended section rejoins it. This amended section would then replace the original section.
One of the other benefits of this approach over the current one is that it would be feasible to implement this on mobile devices, so we could possibly add route editing as a new feature on the mobile site too (currently the Replot Section feature isn’t available in the mobile site as it isn’t really practical to edit routes by dragging lines on a small touch screen).
So, let us know what you think about this alternative approach to editing. If there is a general consensus that this would be better than the way it currently works we’ll look into making the changes.
-
Peter Höglund Monday 05 Aug 2019 12:23:32
I say that this would be awesome.
The three things that you point out are all things that I've found irritating: (UNDO clicks, change the Auto-Plot setting at any point, do it on a mobile).
Plus that it is easier when commands behave in the same way.
-
Colin Hoppe Monday 05 Aug 2019 22:28:11
I've not yet used the Detour option but it sounds good approach.
It's true that a large "Replot" can require several goes, each time getting nearer to the new route.
The Detour option sounds like I could always do it in one hit.
In short - good idea.
-
Benjamin BERTELLE Tuesday 06 Aug 2019 17:53:09
Definitely, the Plot a Detour is very easy to use in comparison of the Replot Section. I use it to do so, and I delete the other part each time so it would be a great change !
-
Anthony Kemp-Jones Sunday 18 Aug 2019 19:04:07
Got to be better than the current method, but I've come from RidewithGPS which seems to have a simpler method - it inserts visible control points every time you click on a route, then lets you drag the route between the control points, which you can remove if you need to. Probably too radical a change in methodology.
I don't understand your control points yet. They must be there because Undo goes back to them, but they aren't visible and you can't move or remove them.(RidewithGPS often won't follow the footpaths even when they are clearly marked, and it doesn't have a road bikeable option. Haven't tested yours yet).
-
plotaroute admin Monday 19 Aug 2019 10:06:28
Thanks for that feedback Anthony. Yes, our route planner doesn't work around the the concept of control points as such, so it would probably require a fundamental rewrite of the whole software to use these as the basis for the whole route. However, the Replot Section feature does work in a very similar way, in that once you've selected the start and end of the section you want to edit, you can drag any point on the line between this and it will create a visible waypoint shown as a small circle (effectively a control point) that the route is rerouted through. You can add more of these by dragging other parts of the line. You can also remove these waypoints if you need to by right-clicking on them. So, I guess the thing we'd like to better understand is what it is we need to change about the weay this works to make it easier to use. I think the ability to Undo a dragged point (putting it back to where it was before you dragged it) is probably helpful. Also, perhaps showing where the route will be rerouted to before you release the mouse after dragging a waypoint, so you can decide whether to drop the waypoint at that position or not. Those are just a couple of thoughts we've had.
Most people do agree though that it would be easier to replace the current Replot Section tool with one that lets you replot a section in the middle of a route in the normal way, by clicking on the map rather than dragging the route around, however as there some people who would still like to be able to edit sections of a route by dragging it so that they can experiment with different options, I suspect we're going to end up with two editing tools depending on which approach suits your needs.
John
- 1
