Auto-anchors in reshape route

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  • plotaroute admin   Thursday 20 Jul 2023 14:25:34

    Nice idea Mark but I'm wondering of the crosshair might get in the way of the anchors. When you use Reshape Route on a mobile device we make the route line wider to make it easier to tap on. Perhaps it is not wide enough - we'll try making it a bit wider. 

  • Mark Worthington   Thursday 20 Jul 2023 15:43:25

    Worth trying!

  • plotaroute admin   Monday 24 Jul 2023 15:07:40

    Following the feedback below, we've added an Auto-Anchors button on the Reshape Route tool, to automatically place Anchor Points at key points on the route. If the route has directions, it will add them at the location of each of the directions, otherwise it will add them at all vertices where there is a change in heading of more than 25 degrees.  We've also made the line a bit thicker when using the Reshape Route tool on a mobile device, to make it easier to place Anchor Points manaully.  Thanks for all the suggestions on this.

  • Mark Worthington   Monday 24 Jul 2023 17:11:07

    That is very nice and will need some playing with, especially on a mobile ..... :)

    Couldn't wait, tried it and it's WAAAAAAYYYYY better, thanks!

  • Stephen R   Monday 24 Jul 2023 17:28:49

    This looks like a step forwards, although for me it's still not a fix.

    Firstly, there seems to be a bug where Auto Anchor misses some corners, see screenshot showing several >25deg corners that are missing an anchor:

    Example of missing anchors

    Secondly, the 25 degrees limit makes it still not worth using for me personally. Would it be possible to only apply that rule to routes with directions but apply anchors to all vertices for routes without directions? Or maybe make the angle limit configurable down to 0? Alternatively if it's for performance, perhaps you could instead sort the anchors by angle and then only add anchors to the top X (whhere X is a reasonably large number) vertices or something like that?

    Thanks for the changes though, I really appreciate your responsiveness to this issue.

  • Mark Worthington   Monday 24 Jul 2023 18:34:38

    Interesting, Steve.

    On the other hand, while Auto-Anchors is a feature that may be developed, I have never found the need to have an anchor placed for me. The problem on a mobile was being able to place and then re-select an anchor, and this does seem to work much better.

  • Willy Van Driessche Tuesday 25 Jul 2023 07:47:02

    Why so complex?

    Please allow me. Free info no obligation or (must) demand.

    An alternative method described.

    Compile a short trackpath in Plotaroute.

    Where you click are Plotaroute "anchor points".

    "Shaping and or Via points" are more common.

     You clicked 4 times = 4 Plotaroute anchor points.

    - 0(start), 1, 2, 3(end).

    The router engine (profile) calculates a track with turn info (L/R).

    You want to change the track design between 1 and 2?

    Place an extra anchor point on the track. Result:

    0(start), 1, 2(NEW), 3, 4(end).

    Anchor (shaping & via) points are movable.

    Move 2(NEW) to the desired new position.

    The Plotaroute router then rules between pt 1 > 2 > 3.

    The clicked points (anchor points) are saved in the Plotaroute database.

    - Export as regular gpx track. All anchor points and extra are then lost.

    NEW in Cruiser.

    - Export as regular gpx track or 

    - Export as gpx navigation track.

    All Via & Shaping and turnpoints (L/R) are present.

     A discreet track mode.

    When importing into an existing app, you do not notice the extra, except for a slightly larger file size

    When importing into Cruiser, all the "anchor points" (via & shaping) and the turnpoints are restored.

    Both in the desktop and mobile version. Mobile and total offline offers a 100% faithful TBT navigation.

  • Willy Van Driessche Tuesday 25 Jul 2023 15:27:25

    The next video briefly shows how it works.

    Add shaping point to reroute

    Walk 0(start)_1_2_3(end) becomes Walk 0(start)_1_2_3_4(end).

    The planner point positions shaping or via shown with which you finally clicked your route together are not lost in a gpx navigation track export.

  • plotaroute admin   Wednesday 26 Jul 2023 10:14:56

    Thanks for the additional feedback. We've found the bug that caused it to miss some of the anchor points and have also reduced the threshold for detecting a change in heading, so give it another try - hopefully you should see a lot more anchor points bring added automatically now when you use the Auto-Anchors button on a route with no directions.

    Willy - the approach you've suggested (to capture and store the positions of every point you click on the map) would be much more complex for us to implement, as this would affect data capture, data structures and data storage. This isn't something we'd want to do, as we don't feel there would be enough benefit, when compared to lots of other things that people have asked us to consider.  We've added this Auto-Anchors button as it was a relatively quick enhancement. 

  • Willy Van Driessche Wednesday 26 Jul 2023 14:31:54

    No problem John.

    You know your software like the best and you have looked at the possibilities.

    Plotaroute does attach information waypoints linked to selected track points.

    As gpx track + directions Locus Via Points routing references together with turns announced in navigation.

    These directions are given the waypoint type and thus so are without via or shaping type distinctions.

    See: Plotaroute demo

    That's why I thought Plotaroute already had almost everything in place to offer this. 

    False thinking, then.  ;)

    Greetings, Willy.

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