Round trip planning with BRouter (offline)

[devemux86]

Calculate round trips automatically with BRouter (offline).

• Enter your starting point and the approximate distance / time you want to travel.

• BRouter will suggest a tour to you. Every calculation results in a new round trip.

• Give an compass direction if you already know which direction you want to go.

• Press the recalculate button to generate a new round trip.

• Calculated round trips can be edited like normal routes.

[devemux86]

BRouter round trip function is described by @afischerdev here:

• New Roundtrip function abrensch/brouter#759

[devemux86]

We will also have a new user interface for planning round trips. See the updated images above.

[MotoUKRider]

@devemux86 This is good work, and similar to what The Other Apps have offered and people seem to like the "random" nature of a route/ride.

The pie-chart slice looks the best, possibly bolstered with a N-NE-E-SE-S-SW-W-NW "around the clock" set of labels?

[bios4]

Very nice addition to Cruiser, I'm really looking forward to this!

The pie-chart slice looks the best

I fully agree!👍

The other two examples of Emux look nice, but for me they do not represent the selection of a (rough) "direction" sufficiently to be self-explanatory.

[MorrisMania75]

Hello, I'm looking forward to this new option.
To be honest, it's exactly what I missed in Cruiser.
I use Cruiser for cycling and am really happy that I can use my route with Brouter Offline with my own profile and can display up to 4 alternative routes.
I think the Round Trip is really great.
I would use this option more often in summer, as I'm often out and about with my caravan at the weekend, so I can plan my round trip in an unfamiliar area. Just start point, direction and length.
Great

[devemux86]

Cruiser uses the BRouter "trekking" profile when selecting bike or mountain bike.
@MorrisMania75 What BRouter profile or changes do you use?

BRouter website displays more profile options. Do you think we should add them in Cruiser?

[MorrisMania75]

@devemux86 For daily or normal cycling, the internal Trekking profile is completely sufficient. From time to time I use the Trekking_SB.brf profile from Brouter and the Gravel "quaelnix" (wenig verkeher) or MTB Standard profil from Bikerouter.de.

[devemux86]

In round trips we can also control the initial extra waypoints for more interesting results.

See the updated images above with the new control.

[bios4]

I see.

Let's see whether other users expect (like me) to get their number of selected waypoints finally shown in/added to the calculated round trip, or if they are aware that they only affect the calculation of the trip with this setting.

It cannot be read out unambiguously from the UI IMHO...

[devemux86]

We will name it "Points" to avoid confusion.

And we will see it it is really needed in the interface for the users or we can just use BRouter's default value.

[bios4]

We will name it "Points" to avoid confusion.

Is "Points used for trip calculation" too long?
I'm not aware about other languages than ENG and GER...

[bios4]

"Stützpunkte zur Berechnung" would be a suitable GER translation, BTW... 😉

[devemux86]

We are already in the round trip calculation screen. 🙂
The purpose of Distance / Points / Direction controls is the round trip calculation.

[devemux86]

Round trip planning with BRouter (offline) is available in:

• Cruiser 5.3.0 Beta 12 #734

See the link for instructions.

[bios4]

Just tested the round trip feature by "dry runs" in the office and want to say a big "Thank you" for providing this feature in Cruiser!!! 👍

Long press on the route to calculate a new round trip with the same settings.

Suggestion: what about to allow for a direct recalculation of a new round trip with the same settings via the most-right "modal button"? This would mean just ONE instant single tap, instead of going via long-pressing the route > "Recalculate route".

[devemux86]

@bios4

what about to allow for a direct recalculation of a new round trip with the same settings via the most-right "modal button"? This would mean just ONE instant single tap, instead of going via long-pressing the route > "Recalculate route".

Long press on the route and select again "Round trip" to calculate a new round trip with the same (or different) settings.
"Recalculate route" does not use the round trip algorithm, it recalculates the route with existing waypoints.

Indeed, we need a more direct round trip recalculation, the idea with the on screen buttons is interesting. 👍

[bios4]

Indeed, we need a more direct round trip recalculation, the idea with the on screen buttons is interesting. 👍

If this would be possible, it would minimize the required actions/taps from three (1. long-press route > 2. tap "Round trip" > 3. confirm [when using previous settings]) to just one single tap.

If one wants to change the round trip settings, the existing behaviour will do fine.

[devemux86]

Reminder: BRouter round trip planning is still being improved in BRouter repository.

You can check the discussions with @afischerdev from the early tests here:

• New Roundtrip function abrensch/brouter#759

[bios4]

Am I right in assuming that this change is not yet implemented in Cruiser?

I would assume that the generated round trip in my screenshot above would look different in shaping points 1 and 2, if the change was already available!??

[devemux86]

@bios4 This improvement and all previous ones are included in current Cruiser (Beta).

But as @afischerdev mentions in that post: "it doesn't protect in all cases".
So more improvements may be needed.

It also depends on the available road network of that area and the active routing settings.
e.g. curvy profile, avoid options, etc.

[MotoUKRider]

@bios4 I raised this with @devemux86 during the closed beta as I was getting the theme ready: I also noticed "round-trips" with u-turns and what I would call "an incomplete circle" (my route looking like a large number 6 or 9) 😢 Of course, it's partly a routing issue and also relies on which road types are along the route, and where the ShapingPoints are placed.

I had better results with my "Curvy route" profile:
Motorways 4/5, Trunk 3/5, Primary 1/5, Unclassified 1/5, Residential 3/5, Avoid cities.

At present, I would say use a fairly aggressive routing configuration; You don't want the route to be too efficient as that was leading to u-turns, ie: "get me there quickly, not enjoyably" 🧭

[bios4]

I encountered BRouter errors during round trip generation, see below.

Unfortunately I assume this as "not reproducable", because after calculation of a/the next round trip everything is back to normal.
Until there is a new route suggestion where the error occurs again... 😟

[devemux86]

@bios4 Thanks for the report. I also mentioned it in BRouter repository:

• New Roundtrip function abrensch/brouter#759

cc @afischerdev

[devemux86]

"Press the recalculate button to generate a new round trip" is available in the latest:

• Cruiser 5.3.0 Beta 12 #734

See the updated images above.

[bios4]

Very nice, thanks for implementing that suggestion @devemux86! 😄

I'd like to add one more suggestion: would it be possible to execute a "Show whole route" zoom after each (re)calculation of a round trip? Especially if one round trip differs significantly from the previous one, this would help big time because you wouldn't have to zoom (out) manually to see the new route in its entirety.

What do you think?

[devemux86]

would it be possible to execute a "Show whole route" zoom after each (re)calculation of a round trip?

We can also do this. 🙂

[devemux86]

I forgot to mention that when we generate round trips with any of the bike or foot profiles:

• If we enable forests / rivers / elevation in routing settings
• And have not set a specific round trip compass direction
• Then the round trip will prefer the direction of the mentioned routing settings

[devemux86]

• Round trip planning with BRouter (offline) is available in Cruiser 5.3.0 #757

See the link for instructions.

[devemux86]

A new unique feature will arrive in the next Cruiser: plan offline round trips by entering the approximate time.

See the updated interface above.

• Enter your starting point.
• Select an approximate distance / time you want to travel.
• Give a compass direction if you already know which direction you want to go.

[devemux86]

@Ciutnik This cannot be the real route time, as the route has not been calculated yet.

It is an estimation using the average speed. We could probably do what you suggest.

I don't know what is more clear to the users. Separate options or a mix of them?

[Ciutnik]

I see. At first I thought that the time is calculated based on the average speed (which is set by the user). But this is a more complex calculation!

You managed to answer me before I wrote that my proposal is impossible to implement if the distance is not known before calculating the route... I'm actually curious to see how closely this time will correspond to the real one 🙂

[devemux86]

@Ciutnik Even the distance is just an estimation in all round trip generators.

The time is more estimation, because elevation has large influence in non-driving profiles.

Only CycleStreets has native time option in round trips:

• Round trip planning with CycleStreets #729

We will keep the separate options there and will think if it's better to merge them here.

[Ciutnik]

The time is more estimation, because elevation has large influence in non-driving profiles.

Not to mention the user's leg muscles 😀

I agree that separate options look very good. It's a cool thing. Although round trips are new, I have already done a few on the bike, each 50-60 km, now I would like to try 3-4 hours 🙂

[devemux86]

But wouldn't it be simpler if the time was always given (e.g. in brackets, next to the distance) when setting the distance?

Let's go with this simpler solution, as time is not a native option here.