Auto Route Question

[Oldmanwheeler]

I have volunteered to create GPS maps for the Lincoln Highway Association using their existing DeLorme CD based Map. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Lincoln Highway it was the first coast to coast road across the United States. The Lincoln Highway is the second longest man made structure in the world only to the Great Wall of China. One of the purposes of the Lincoln Highway Association is to help people discover the landscape and attractions along the Lincoln Highway as it winds its way from New York to San Francisco.

Here is where I need some help. I have a very detailed CD Map showing the 1913 Lincoln Highway route and the revised 1928 route. I've tried the Delorme's Street Atlas USA 2009, Garmin's MapSource, Garmin's Bobcat and RouteBuddy and I run into the same issue with all of them. As I layout the route, per the CD Map, the softwares auto routing features want to move the route to where it thinks it should be. I need to be able to re-create these routes without the auto routing feature taking over. I appreciate any suggestions or recommendations any of you might have. All in all when I've re-created every variation of the Lincoln Highway from the early 1900's to present, I will have mapped a total of 5,869 miles, so being able to turn the auto routing feature off and have it follow my input is extremely important. Thank you in advance for your help.

[davidr]

Hi Oldmanwheeler,

To switch off the Auto routing in MapSource, do the following:

Edit -> Preferences -> Route Style -> Use Direct Routes.

This will allow you to draw a straight line between places without the auto-routing kicking in.

HTH,

David

[Oldmanwheeler]

I've tried that, but its just a straight line and doesn't follow the road. Am I overlooking something?

Bob

[davidr]

Aaaah I see, I thought you wanted to draw it yourself and you wanted the auto route feature switched off completely.

I think the answer to your question is therefore a combination of manual and automated options, youcan use the 'prefer minor roads' option from the route preferences options (edit -> preferences -> routing -> road selection) in combination with custom avoidance areas (and just set the avoidance area as a rectangle covering the adjacent highway or problematic area)

but to be honest, if I was doing the same task, I'd start by entering the start and end point precisely, then let MapSource draw a route between the two points and then start correcting it by selecting the route at intermediate incorrect points and dragging the route back onto the correct road until you get a result you're happy with, this is IMO the only way you'll get a good quality result.

If you see what I mean:
(for more explanation, see page 15 of this doc http://www.bestbikingroads.com/usefu..._Tutorial1.pdf
)

Does that help?

David

[Oldmanwheeler]

Thanks David I'm going to give that a try. What you say makes sense.