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Layout and calculate routes

A route is a concatenated selection of tracks. You can layout routes manually or let TrailRunner calculate routes for a given distance.

What you should need to know first

Introduction to TrailRunner
If you are new to TrailRunner you might want to read this introduction to basic concepts first.

Manual layout

To plan a route manually, follow these steps:

During the whole process the status area at the bottom of the main window displays the current length of the route under construction.

Additionally you can add intermediate tracks while you are in the layout route process.

Automatic calculation

An alternative to the manual layout route process is the automatic route finder. The route finder will send out a small armada of virtual ants that try to present the best route suggestion they are able to find.

To create routes automatically, first start to lay out a route manually to indicate in which direction the route should head into. Then follow these steps:

The route quality is measured by a number of factors: a high number of highly rated tracks, revisiting waypoints as little as possible and "psychological valuable routes". Psychological valuable routes are routes that traverse around on the outward leg and then return directly on the homeward leg.

Please note that TrailRunner defaults to using a track only once in calculated routes. Should you want to use a track twice, the track must be set to multiuse. This can be done in the info pane for any selected track. During the layout route process, you can enforce this directly by clicking on a track adjacent to the end of the current route fragment.

Modify the course of a route

After a route is created and added to the routes list on the left, several commands in the Routes menu allow subsequent manipulation.

Two techniques are available to alter the course of a route. To remove tracks from a route Select Route > Adjust and press the backspace key to remove the last track from the route.

Another technique is to reroute or modify the course of the route in it's middle section.

The command Route > Include Selection is very similar to the rerouting described above.

Modify the direction of a route

The command Route > Reverse Direction reverses the order of way-points the route will visit. This might be the case for the whole route if the starting and the end point are identical or if the route has a loop within. To reverse the direction from a certain way-point on, select the way-point and apply the reverse command.

For example, if you have a route from A to B to C to D and back to B and A and you apply reroute on B your route will then go from B on over D and C.

Where to go from here

Building Ping-Pong Routes
Routes that have a course that goes forth and back need their tracks to be multiuse.

Journalize with the diary
After you have accomplished a workout, add personal notes in the diary.

More questions?
Write the author to improve this documentation.