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Jason Smith Sunday 27 Oct 2019 13:08:15
Hi - just found Plotaroute yesterday and am already a huge fan. After trying to use Google MyMaps to build a TSD rally driving route and yelling at the computer screen for a day and half when it tried to outsmart the specific route I needed to draw, Plotaroute is the exact application I was looking for! Building a route in Plotaroute took less than 10 minutes...I was never able to get one completed in MyMaps due to their insane re-routing logic.
One odd item popped up with regards to printing the map/instructions. We ran a small section of the route using the mileage from Google MyMaps and compared against a GPS-based odometer, and it was largely correct down to a hundredth or two (likely just where we pushed the reset button versus where Google measured the turn). I then printed the Plotaroute route to PDF and compared to Google MyMaps and/or our GPS notes, and it was significantly off...like multiple tenths off. For example, the first instruction in Google is measured at 0.658 miles. Viewing the Plotaroute online directions, it's measured as 0.659, but in the Plotaroute PDF copy of the same route/instructions, it shows as 0.492. The next instruction should have cumulative mileage of 1.668 miles per Google, and is 1.667 per Plotaroute online, but only 0.754 miles in the Plotaroute PDF.
As an interim workaround, I've been able to copy and paste the online directions into an Excel spreadsheet and build the route (STILL far easier than Google MyMaps!), but would love to offer a printed copy of the route to all competitors at the end of the event (the route isn't disclosed in advance). I'm not sure if this is a known bug or just weird behavior I'm seeing in this particular route, but wanted to call it out to improve an otherwise awesome product.
Thanks!
Jason
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plotaroute admin Monday 28 Oct 2019 09:36:15
Hi Jason,
Good to hear you're finding the site easy to use. Glad you found us!
I can't seem to reproduce the printing problem you mentioned though. Are you sure that the online and printed directions are both in the same units (km or miles)?
John
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Jason Smith Tuesday 29 Oct 2019 22:12:43
Hi John - thanks for the quick response! I double checked and the print out shows miles, as does the PDF. I built a small test route so you could see what I'm up to:
https://www.plotaroute.com/route/960645
I can't seem to upload the PDF, but here are two snips from the test route print-out.
If you compare the mileage in directions for the test route at the link above, it's different than the mileage from the PDF. The left hand turn on Kenyon Rd should be at 0.660 miles per the online instructions, but is showing as 0.493 in the PDF. This may just be a setting I missed and/or an option I didn't enable, but if you can let me know how to get them sync'd, that would be awesome. The mileage online appears to be largely correct; it's the print out/PDF that appears to be different from reality.
Thanks!
Jason -
plotaroute admin Wednesday 30 Oct 2019 09:14:34
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the additional information. That is very odd as it isn't happening on other routes I've tried. We'll look into it and I'll post back when we've got to the bottom on what's causing it to happen. If you can leave that test route in your account for now while we investigate that would be great.
John
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plotaroute admin Wednesday 30 Oct 2019 09:33:58
Hi Jason,
We've found the problem and implemented a fix, so it should hopefully be OK now. Thanks again for flagging this up.
John
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