Expand / reduce feature

[Wapping]

Users of Gold, may (or may not) be familiar with the expand / reduce feature. This adds (or takes away) waypoints to a route.

MyRoute recommends a waypoint every 5 km or so, to help ‘fix’ a route when transferring it to a GPS device. Having more (rather than fewer) waypoints can also help if you want to best use MyRoute’s ability to join a route, other than from the start, as it gives you more choices of places to start from.

Two things to watch out for:

1. When expanding the number, the app does not always place all the waypoints smack bang on the route. Rather like BaseCamp, if the waypoint is generated to sit on a junction, a fraction the wrong way, might see you deviating off. Similarly, if it places a waypoint on say a bridge, the app might think that want to be on the road beneath.

Like BaseCamp, always check the route before you use it, by zooming in, or tap on each waypoint in the list, which will show it on the map. Move (drag) any poorly positioned waypoints.

2. When reducing, be careful how many you reduce by. If you take away too many, your route might well alter. Always check.

 

[mw3230]

I've found the reduce function useful when importing a route (can't recall where from) and when displayed in MRA there was such a profusion of waypoints that it was almost impossible to determine the route itself. I reduced to an arbitrary 50 and all looked correct and worked well

 

[Wapping]

That is quite a common feature of many imported routes, particularly those that are converted from a track. The reduce feature does indeed work really well, cutting down the number of waypoints. Before reducing though, I make a copy and display it against the reduced version, just so I can see what differences there are. I also check the route, just to be sure that I am not about to follow his trail to his front door.