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We're very pleased to announce the latest new feature that we've added to the plotaroute.com route planner - our new Map Inspector.

A simple right-click on the route planner map will now bring up a host of useful information, including details about a road or path, what type of surface it has, the map coordinates, elevation above sea level at this point and the gradient to here from the last point you plotted - all useful information to help you decide between alternative paths when plotting your route.

The new Map Inspector feature is available for free to all users of plotaroute.com on both the desktop and mobile versions of the site. On the mobile site, the Map Inspector can be accessed by simply touching the crosshair on the route planner map.

This is the latest in a list of many new features that we've introduced in 2020. If you've missed some of the other announcements, take a look at our News page to see what else has been happening.

Perfect, I've been using other tools to see that in parallel to plotaroute.

This is an absolutely great feature! Thanks for this! It will be very useful.

Just one question about the gradient info: Is the gradient calculated as a mean gradient from the last point plottet by direct path or is it a calculated using the routing option currently selected? In the latter case it wold be nice to have a max. gradient info too...

Thanks for the positive feedback. 

The gradient is calculated based on a direct line from the last point plotted.

Great feature but how do I make the floating instructions go away?  Thanks.

Thanks Maryka. The new tooltip on the plot cursor should disappear after you've plotted the first point.

Thanks for a great feature. Would it be possible to add the following?

When you are in split screen mode with goolge street view could the "peg man" be moved to the map inspector location. This would save having to pick up and drag the man to the new location? Useful to see road conditions/pavements at the new location before you plot a point to it. 

re post from Maryka Sennema

Yes after plotting the first point the new tooltip on the plot cursor disappears but is there any way to turn it off completely for those of us that don't want it. I find it quite annoying when I'm just exploring the map before plotting the first point. Once a user has used plotaroute for a while the tooltip isn't really neccesary. 

Also for those who don't need it is at also possible to have the option to remove the icon from the cursor indicating the auto plot mode . I know if I'm in road, foot or bike mode without it.

I would also like to say that I find plotaroute the best route planner out there by a long way and these requests are minor issues.

Thanks

Just catching up with the thread, yes I agree with Ian.  I use Plotaroute for lots of map stuff that's not related to cycling (like house-hunting...) as it's so useful!  Being able to turn off hovering mouse/tooltip stuff is a minor thing but would be nice to have. 

That's a great idea Andy to reposition the Street View map when using the Map Inspector. We'll see if we can sort that out. 

We'll have a think about options for the cursor tooltip too. We needed some way to let people know that a right-click triggered the Map Inspector, otherwise nobody would know it existed, so that seemed the best solution along with hiding it once you've started plotting, but I can see how it might be annoying if you are just looking around the map before plotting a route. We could possibly link it to the "Route Planner Instructions" option on your My Settings page, so that you can turn it off if you don't want it.

Thanks also for your kind comments about plotaroute.

Hi, Just subscribed for the year. I love the tool as it is. I am particularly interested in 3D or sections  to allow a line of site assessment. This is really to assist in finding good house sites. Do you have such a feature or if not does anyone know what app I could use to see this

We've tweaked the Map Inspector so that it's now hidden as soon as you start interacting with the map, rather than when you plot your first point, so this should help when exploring the map before you start plotting. We've also now linked it with the Street View split-screen.

Anthony - thanks for subscribing, glad you like the site. The only 3D view we have is Google Street View, which you can access in the Premium route planner. Your question is a bit off-topic on this thread though, so if you want to see if anyone else knows of other apps that have the 3D features you're looking for, it would be best to start another forum topic.

Thanks for implmenting the moving of the Street View with map inspector!

I also like andy's idea to move map inspector when right clicking. I used street view splitscreen a lot to create routes. The way it is now just doesn't work for me to inspect and trace routes in a fast way.

but for me at the moment the map inspector doesnt move along with google street view split screen?