Feature request: switch off automatic calculation of routes in the web routeapp

[Drabslab]

When making a route, each waypoint introduced leads to an automatic recalculation. When seriously changing a (long) route this can be a bt annoying as the system can take quite some time to recalculate and I have to wait in front of the screen until its done;

As a user, I would like to be able to stop automatic recalculation to change many points (or their order in the route) , or to combine several exiting routes and delete all the unneeded parts of that combination, and only have it calculated once when I switch calculation back on.

Uncalculated parts of the routes could be shown on screen by straight dotted lines (as an example).

I guess this could also save some server time?

[Con Hennekens]

@Drabslab, About a route of how many waypoints are we talking? And on what kind of device?
I merely use a windows PC to mess with routes, and I have never been held up while changing waypoints.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@Drabslab I agree, even though we're talking worst case "seconds" here, I still find it annoying to wait 500ms for the system to recalculate the route. I am spoiled in my job to have super fast machines so perhaps it's only a nice to have, but hey, you suggested, so I upvote.

[Drabslab]

@Con-Hennekens I am talking for instance about a 1000 km route (e.g. brussels - Toblach) through Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria and finally Italy.

I enter start and end point and a first route is calculated automatically.

Then I drag the route to a point I want to visit underway and have to wait until recalculated, which is useless because I know already I will add plenty of other waypoints. Each point I add leads to a recalculation and each time I loose some time waiting until its finished.

The same when I want to delete waypoints etc...

[Drabslab]

@Con-Hennekens On my computer the CPU load seems not at all influence by asking the routeapp to recalcualte a long route.
From that I derive that the calculation is done on the MRA servers which seems logical as well.
Hence, I think it has little to do on what kind of device you are using.

My request could however have an impact on the load of the MRA servers as these would have to do less useless route calculations;

At least, when all my assumptions here are correct that is.

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@Drabslab

Split the route where you want to stay overnight, ie are you droging 1000 km in one Day?

[Drabslab]

@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master

I prepare my holiday making one huge route, then split it in 300-400km long parts;

While making the huge route, destinations change, places to visit as well... but I simly find it such a waste to see the system calculate constantly with every routepoint added/deleted/replaced ...

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@Drabslab,
If you roughly set up your route of, for example, 1000 KM and say a route point move after every 250 KM, so that you split your route there, then you fine-tune the 4 routes of 250 km, then the calculations won't take too much time long. And depending on your card choice and toolkit setup, the math will take a little more time. But I do like that the route is calculated immediately when changes are made.

[Exilfranke]

Why do I consider the feature "turn on/off route calculation" helpful for me?
I often do multi-day trips betwen 3-6 days. Start and end of that trip would be my home - so I want to plan one big round trip.
When starting the planning, I have a rough idea on "the target" - e.g. Harz, Luxemburg, Assietta, Vercors, you name it ...
Next step is a rough planning: interesting streets, passes, cities on the route, where to stay for the night, which de-tour would make sense, ...
So there are many decisions, before I can split the overall tour into the daily pieces, on which I do the fine planning.
For the coarse-planning of the total tour it would be helpful to temprarily turn off the calculation, cause it e.g. needs to take multiple actions before it makes sense to recalc - e.g. "what if I drive the Assietta from South-to-North, instead Noth-to-South" needs to shuffle around 5-10 waypoints. Currently I have to wait these 5-10 times for the recalculation to finish, where thiese interim calc results are of no use.
For me personally this feature "turn on/off route calculation" would be nearly as helpful as the "lock/unlock waypoints" - but just my personal opinion.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@Exilfranke said in Feature request: switch off automatic calculation of routes in the web routeapp:

For me personally this feature "turn on/off route calculation" would be nearly as helpful as the "lock/unlock waypoints" - but just my personal opinion.

The actual implementation of the "on/off" calculation can be just as easy as that! Just another button on the left hand side of the map. Perhaps a calculator symbol or perhaps a "recycling" symbol or something like that. The recalculation option, if implemented, shall be very easily changed from on to off for it to be practically useful! Hiding it in the toolkit options is no way to go.

[Terry Cox 0]

@Drabslab I think it is a very good suggestion. Doing a large multi day route before splitting off into multiple parts can be very handy for overall route hours or km. The refresh needn't be done every single route point change and must relieve the server of some CPU time too.

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@Terry-Cox-0
A rough schedule for a multi-day holiday for me is:
Step 1: Determining departure - intermediate stops (overnight stays) - end point
-Departure point
-Arrival day 1
-Arrival day 2
-Arrival day 3
-etc, etc
This requires little calculation. Because I only have a small number of waypoints.
Step 2:
Then I split the (rough) route into day routes at each route point, because I want to spend the night in that area. Then I still only have 2 waypoints on a travel day.
Step 3:
I'm going to fine-tune the day routes, by looking for the nice little roads, coffee, lunch stops, including a gas station in the route. The calculation time when placing the waypoints is negligible in my opinion.
Step 4:
Check that there are no closed roads for motorcycles in the route, by using the map layer "traffic" and TomTom MyDrive (I will keep doing this until 3 days before I actually leave)
Step 5:
Precise placement of the shapingpoints and viapoints on the road. Adding pause times in the waypoints so that I know what time I will arrive at the endpoint.
Step 6: Final check on any closures and any corrections. Lock waypoints so that they can no longer be accidentally moved.
Step 7 : Create event, place routes in the event to use via MRA Navigation and transfer routes to the Garmin Zumo XT.
Step 8: Day of departure: Just drive and enjoy.

[Drabslab]

@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master We all have our own working habits, mine is close to yours but I put more emphasis on maturing the "collection route" before cutting it in "day-routes".

Maybe this suggestion is useless for you but there seem to be a few people who would find it could be a benefit.

And to answer an earlier question. I have been doing 1000 km trips in one day., record being Roeselare-Toblach in one day (1150km or something like that). Not much fun and mostly highways, but at time and circumstances of those days, it was a perfect start of the holiday.

These days, I try to restrict to 350 km a day (except for distance-days) but that does not always work out and maximum 3000 km for a week of holiday-driving.

[Con Hennekens]

@Drabslab said in Feature request: switch off automatic calculation of routes in the web routeapp:

When making a route, each waypoint introduced leads to an automatic recalculation. When seriously changing a (long) route this can be a bt annoying as the system can take quite some time to recalculate and I have to wait in front of the screen until its done;

As a user, I would like to be able to stop automatic recalculation to change many points (or their order in the route) , or to combine several exiting routes and delete all the unneeded parts of that combination, and only have it calculated once when I switch calculation back on.

@Terry-Cox-0 said in Feature request: switch off automatic calculation of routes in the web routeapp:

@Drabslab I think it is a very good suggestion. Doing a large multi day route before splitting off into multiple parts can be very handy for overall route hours or km. The refresh needn't be done every single route point change and must relieve the server of some CPU time too.

Hmm, I see that this can be a problem with large routes and many shapingpoints. However the solution would better not be to disable calculation temporarily, but to limit the recalculations to the shaping-point being created or moved, and the previous and next shaping point. That would eliminate A LOT of calculation, make every change a snap. Earlier and latter shaping points are not impacted by this recalculation anyway...

[Nick Carthew]

In my capacity as a RouteXpert I make and check 100s of routes each year and have never considered the recalculation as being a problem.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@Nick-Carthew It all comes down to one's patience and state of mind haha!

[Drabslab]

@Con-Hennekens said in Feature request: switch off automatic calculation of routes in the web routeapp:

However the solution would better not be to disable calculation temporarily, but to limit the recalculations to the shaping-point being created or moved, and the previous and next shaping point. That would eliminate A LOT of calculation, make every change a snap. Earlier and latter shaping points are not impacted by this recalculation anyway...

Fully agree, optimizing the calculation algorithm to only the points that need recalcualtion would give a better effect than what I proposed

[BFG]

@Drabslab

Apologies if it's poor form here to bring back old threads, but it seemed to be the exact right search result.

New user here, and I recently imported a route started in google maps, brought it in via KML file. Some part of the process went wrong and the 50 stops were partly in the wrong order. So I thought I would shuffle in MRA rather than play with KML.

I needed to move about 20, and I was hoping this would have taken me about 90 seconds. with moving some points multiple times, it took about 5 minutes, with the millisecond lag between each move getting more and more painful to experience.

Microsoft excel has an option to switch off auto-recalculation and I went looking for a similar feature, but couldn't find one. It would be a great addition.

I do get that some people might feel that it's just a matter of throwing more processing power at the problem, but there will always be a delay, and we have different expectations of what makes a good experience. Personally I shuffle data like I'm shuffling dominoes and the merest delay feels like trying to shuffle dominoes in treacle.

When a first quick shuffle is needed, or when brainstorming a road-trip, I would applaud the ability to pause recalculation. Great suggestion.

[Drabslab]

@Abssorb-0 said in Feature request: switch off automatic calculation of routes in the web routeapp:

I do get that some people might feel that it's just a matter of throwing more processing power at the problem,

No problem to raise an old theread again, that is what these are there for.

to my knowledge the recalculation is done on the MRA server so you may buy a supercomputer and it would not help at all.

Unfortunately, the suggestion in this thread was (again to my knowledge) not taken on board by the developers.

[Steve Lynch]

@Drabslab

https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/social/route/6366286?mode=share

Here’s a public route from Lands End to John O’Groats.
851 Miles, 200 hundred waypoints.
For me it takes about a second to recalculate?
Maybe this is a bit too simplistic an example, as I used the Expand function to generate them.
I have not checked all the waypoints and some will be on junctions and will cause issues.