Dynamic Milemarkers and Route Planning UpgradesFORUMS HOME SEARCH FORUMS

We're pleased to announce a bundle of changes that we've just implemented on Plotaroute, including dynamic milemarkers, persistent background routes and creating copies of routes.

Dynamic Milemarkers

One of the most popular requests on our Feature Requests list was to make it possible to see markers at every mile or km, rather than limit them to a fixed number per map, as we have done historically. The main reason we didn't do this initially was that long routes ended up with so many markers that you couldn't see the route, but our new Dynamic Milemarkers overcome this problem by showing more markers as you zoom in and fewer when zoomed out. We now test each one to ensure that it is not too close to another, so all you have to do is zoom in to get more detail.

Persistent Background Routes

One of the really useful features of Plotaroute is the Trace a Route tool, which enables you to add routes to the background map for tracing and general context. This can be very helpful when planning new routes based on other ones you've already done. However, up until now routes added to the background map were lost when exiting the route planner, making it difficult to add more than one. With the new Persistent Background Routes, any routes added to the background map will now stay there until you remove them. And, don't forget, you can still hide them temporarily in the route planner by toggling the Traces switch under the map's Display Options.

Edit a Copy of a Route

Sometimes it can be easier to create a new route by using another one as a starting point, rather than plotting it from scratch. To help with this, we've added a new option on the My Routes page to Edit a Copy of a Route. This will load the selected route in the route planner, but you won't have to worry about overwriting your original one as it will be saved as a new route.

Other Changes

As part of this upgrade, we've also made a few other tweaks and bug fixes based on your feedback, including the option of higher levels of point reduction when using the Reduce Points feature and improved highlighting of errors when saving a route.

Wow, these are some really nice upgrades, thanks!!

Dynamic Milemarkers 

Is there a Feature Request to be able to set the milemarkers? For a 100 miler it would be good to see every 10 miles ..... 

If not, I'll start a request!

Mark

Great enhancements. Love your product, best I've used. Premium account worth every penny. Thanks.

Perfect, thanks.

I love this feature.

Persistent Background Routes

A request, please; waypoints (directions) are removed when Trace is used. I am taking part in the British Cycle Quest (https://www.cyclinguk.org/british-cycle-quest) and often find myself tracing a route to/between these BCQs based on a previous route. It would be great if an option to keep waypoints could be implented, please!

Thanks,

Mark

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Really glad you like the changes.

Mark - I'm afraid we've ruled out developing a way of fixing milemarkers at specified intervals, as this creates problems on different sized maps and would further complicate the user interface, which not all of our users would like. You can of course now see where the 10 mile intervals are by zooming in and if you wanted to you could add your own cusotm labels or symbols at these points. I think adding waypoints to background routes could be tricky too, but we can have a think about that one.

Ok, understood.

Creating by plotting waypoints then dragging or changing the sequence is really handy.  Not sure if this is new, but I've certainly not noticed it before 

That one's been there since 2015 Mark! It can be a very useful feature for expermenting with different route options.

"That one's been there since 2015 Mark!" Colin?!

I must admit to not having used that feature, but I will have a play, it may prove useful for BCQ planning!

Mark

I like this feature, but on my Macbook using Safari once the km marker gets >100km, the number no longer fits in the white circle and I can't read the distance! See screenshot - it doesn't matter what zoom i choose. 

Sorry Steve, that screenshot hasn't worked. Can you email us the screenshot please and also provide a link to the page where you're experiencing the problem?

Email sent with a new screenshot

Received, thanks Steve. It's fine in Chrome, so I think it's only affecting Safari. We'll look into it and get it fixed though.