How To Trace Over Other Routes

There are a number of scenarios where it can be helpful to plot a new route by tracing over one or more existing routes. Perhaps you want to use the route planner to generate directions for a route you've uploaded to the site that doesn't have any directions; perhaps you want to check the suitability of the route for cycling by tracing over it with the Auto-Plot switch set to "By Bike"; or perhaps you simply want to base part of your new route on an existing one. Whatever your reason, you can use the Trace a Route feature on plotaroute.com to trace over other routes. Here's how to do it...

1. Sign in to your plotaroute.com account.
   
   
2. Choose the route you want to trace over and load it for editing in the route planner.  You can select a route from your My Routes page, your personal home page, by selecting Find a Route from the menus, or by using the Universal Search box at the top of most pages.
   
   
   
   
3. Select Trace a Route from the menus or from the toolbar in the route planner.
   
   
   
   
4. Confirm you want to continue when prompted and the route will be added to the background map, shown as a semi-transparent line.
   
   
   
   
5. If you want to add further routes to the background map before you start tracing, you can do this by selecting them as described in step 2 then selecting Trace a Route again from the menus. Each route will be added to the background map in a different colour.
   
   
   
   
6. Now begin plotting you route in the normal way. You can use the routes added to the background map to as a guide when tracing the new route.
   
   
   
   
7. When you've finished plotting, save the route in the normal way - it will be saved without the routes that were added to the background map.
   
   
8. To temporarily hide routes added to the background map for tracing, toggle the TRACES switch under the map's Display Options.
   
   
   
   
   
9. To permanently remove all routes from the background map, select CLEAR and then click the CLEAR MAP button.