How to Use Route Planning

The routing function in Azimap will enable you to create a route or path from A to B.  In this guide we will show how to utilise the route planning tool in Azimap.

Time to complete: 5 mins

Contents

1.    Getting started

1.1  Open an existing map

1.2  Select the routing tool

2.    Basic tools to create your route

2.1  Capabilities of the routing tool

2.2  Placing destinations on your map

2.2.1      Using the CTRL key

2.2.2      Address search

2.2.3      Adding ‘via’ destinations

3.    Advanced features

3.1  Clone route lines

3.2  Fastest route and the travelling salesman problem (TSP)

3.3  Route optimisation

1.    Getting started

1.1.  Open an existing map

Click on the row of your chosen map.

1.2.  Select the routing tool

Select the ROUTING AND DRIVE TIMES tool from the toolbar.

This opens the ROUTING AND DRIVE TIMES menu.  Select the ROUTING option and press NEXT.

This will open up the ROUTING side panel.

2.    Basic tools to create your route

2.1.  Capabilities of the routing tool

On this panel you can do a number of things:

• Search for a start and end point using our geo-coding service
• Set the start point as current location based on IP        
• Add new destinations (will turn previous final destinations into ‘via’ destinations) 
• Select points on map to route between 
• Select return journey or not
• Print successful route** 
• Click on the map using the CTRL key to set destinations
• Reset search 
• Route search 

2.2.  Placing destinations on your map

2.2.1.     Using the CTRL Key

Start/ destination locations can be placed using CTRL key and clicking map location, this will place a coloured circle on the map and populate the appropriate search box with an address:

• Green – start point
• Amber – via destinations
• Red – final destination

2.2.2.     Address search

Alternatively, addresses can be searched using our geo-coding service

2.2.3.     Placing ‘via’ destinations

As many new ‘via’ destinations can be added as desired

Destinations can be re-ordered using the drag handle

Press the search button  to get your route. Results will be displayed on the map and turn by turn instructions in the routing panel. A distance time overview is displayed above the results.

Map and instructions can be printed** showing route map and instruction using print button in top right of panel

3.    Advanced features

3.1.  Clone route lines

Route lines can be cloned using the clone button in the top right of the panel.   To successfully clone a route line you must select a receiving line layer in the layer selector.

Use the paste button on the toolbar to paste the route line onto an available line layer

Results should display like the below image

3.2.  Fastest route and the travelling salesman problem (TSP)

Azimap can solve the TSP - Given a list of destinations and the distances between each pair, what is the shortest possible route that visits each destination exactly once and returns to the origin destination?

Points can be selected using the lasso selector   

These will add new destinations to the route planner auto populating the corresponding addresses.  Set your start point by using the CTRL key and clicking the map or searching for an address or by your current location. 

Clicking search will supply an optimized route between all selected locations between the fixed start and end point as shown below.

3.3.  Route optimisation

Users can search for or select multiple destinations.  The route will be calculated in the order that the destinations are listed.  Example below of a poorly optimised route with lots of back tracking.

After running a route you can optimize it using the wand button  for the most efficient route to all destinations with a fixed start and end point and optional return to start. Newly optimized route pictured below.

That’s all for our routing!

Thanks for reading the guide and we hope you plan your future routes with Azimap.

If you haven't signed up yet go to the Azimap website and click REGISTER.

Azimap currently utilises our own geo-coding and routing service powered by Photon and OSRM respectively.  Photon is an open source geocoder built for OpenStreetMap data.  Open Source Routing Machine is a High performance routing engine designed to run on OpenStreetMap data.