You know it, you're riding your bike in the woods by Locus navigation and there are trees fallen on the path so you take a detour and hope that it joins the original route somewhere. Correctly set Locus lets you immediately know that you've left your route and starts guiding you to the nearest route point. After some time it rather recalculates the route so that you don't get completely lost. That's perfect but how to get this? Let's be honest, Locus settings can be sometimes quite a riddle for someone so it's not useless to chip in an advice or a tip.

Distance for recalculation or maximum allowed deviation?

These terms can be found in Locus navigation settings (menu > settings > navigation). Distance for recalculation defines the spot that triggers automatic recalculation and rendering of a new route. Maximum allowed deviation is a distance in which Locus switches from navigation to guidance mode - guiding to the nearest route point with a beeline. Add the "out of route notification distance" - yes, all these can be set according to your needs.

Alerts according to Willy

All mentioned parameters are pre-set with default values. However, not everybody is happy with them. It's good to get inspired from time to time.

Willy Van Driessche is our long time "power user". He frequently supplies us with hints and improvements, he's a fellow helpdesk man and many of his ideas has been implemented in the app. Couple days ago he sent a video showing his route alerts setting. At once it was clear that it would be a pity not to share his method with you. So, let's enter the labyrinth of Locus settings:

Set the Auto-recalculation as you need - if you want to be navigated to the finish or back to your original route is up to you. You can leave the default value of the distance for recalculation as it is - 100 m. If you have the "out of  route" notification off, the switch it on. Another settings window appears:

Set the distance to 75 meters, select the sound. Willy selected a simple beep in 1 second interval. It's pretty audible during a bike ride (unlike TTS that can be appreciated during a hike). Go back to the settings menu and select "Advanced settings".

The maximum allowed deviation can be set to 30 meters. In a more rugged terrain we recommend bigger values, the GPS can be less accurate. Switch off the "snap to route" option for better illustration of the settings.

Terrain test

And you can set out to a ride. Check yourself if these settings suit you. In Willy's case it looks like this:

So how did it go? Is your setting different? Better? Share it with us!

Článek How to set alerts for leaving your navigation route? se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

What is GPX?

You must have met this GPX abbreviation many times before when working with tracks or points. GPX importing into Locus, track or points export into GPX... Anyway, what does this magic formula mean?

A file with GPX suffix, meaning GPS eXchange format, is a common GPS data format based on XML and used in various software applications. I describes georeferenced line and point objects, tracks or points in our case, e.g. geocaches. Its detailed description can be found on this Wikipedia page. As it 's been already mentioned, in general it is used for transferring information about tracks and points between applications. In case of Locus it means communication between it and e.g. websites where you can upload your tracks in GPX form or between Locus and other similar apps (e.g. OruxMaps) or between Locuses mutually. One GPS file can contain both tracks/routes (even more at once) and points - Locus can handle them all. Let's show it on a few examples.

GPX into Locus

You love riding a bike, hiking in the mountains. You always plan your routes carefully but when you are headed to some unexplored places you can find out it could be worth getting yourself inspired by someone who had visited the place before you and had planned the routes, or even better, tested the routes on his own. And so you start browsing the Internet. There are loads of options, loads of route database servers all over the World. Locus directly cooperates with one of them, GPSies.com - you can browse their database directly within the app, as we have mentioned here once. Anyway, it might happen you won't find the right route on GPSies or you just prefer some other service. For instance, Bikemap.net.

When you export the route out we recommend to store it in your Dropbox. That the shortest way to a mobile and subsequently to Locus that is able to display Dropbox folders as one of the file manager tabs. You have several options in Locus how to import a GPX route. Over the Data import button in the main menu, over the Import in a route folder action menu... all about import can be found in our User guide.

Routes and points at once

As we mentioned in the beginning, GPX can contain both routes and points. When importing such a file Locus offers storing points to an extra folder or merging them with the route and store in one folder. This way, however, you'll miss the option to manipulate with the points individually.

GPX from Locus

You are going on a trip, recording your track so that you can view it comfortably later at home on your PC. Displaying track on a mobile is fine but the big PC screen gives the track a completely different perspective. So now it requires a reverse procedure. Open the track detail window from the track manager and pick Export from the bottom bar:

If you don't have GPX set as the default export format, tap the item under the Export type title and select GPX. Name your track, define the storage place (again we recommend Dropbox) and export.

On the Bikemap.net, click the "Upload" button in the upper right "New route" menu. Find your file on Dropbox and import.

GPX with geocaches

If you'd like to sent a tip for afternoon geocaching hunt to you friend, GPX again may be the solution. Mark the caches for export in your points manager in Locus and select Export from the bottom bar. Save the file where you need and sent it via e-mail.

Your friend can import it to his Locus or some web based map service.

GPX format can handle a pretty huge amount of data as we have recently seen in the article about a unique database of sleeping shelters, that we transferred into Locus as one big GPX file as well.

Do you have any other tips or tricks on using GPX in Locus and would you like to share them? Write in comments.

Článek What is GPX and what can you do with it in Locus? se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

In recent blogposts we were talking about various aspects of navigation like automatic recalculation settings or offline routing data use. We solved situations when the router creates a route from point A to point B itself. That's a typical procedure when we need to get somewhere quickly and easily and we don't care where the route goes through.

On a hike or a bike ride something else matters. We want to see interesting places, we need to ride some funny trail sections, we'd love to visit that awesome pub for a meal. Alas, no router has this information in its database - we have to draw (click) such a route ourselves. However, a router can be very helpful in this.

So that we can appreciate its help to the full, let's try drawing without it:

Clickmania

Drawing routes in Locus is done with the Add new route feature. After starting it a new bottom panel with routepoint adding and managing buttons emerges. Either we can start tapping the points on the map right away which is quick but inaccurate, or, shift the map to the cursor position and tapbutton.  And again and again, click, click, click... until the whole route is finished:

Uff, really tiresome... and time consuming and inaccurate.

When the router helps...

... we're much happier. Tapbutton before inserting points and select means of transport for which the route is drawn. In case you're not content with the transportation offer, tap the settings button in the top bar and select another source of routing data.

When you get back to the route editing thebutton is highlighted in blue. Shift the map on the desired position on cursor and tap . The router will draw all curves for you up to the inserted point.

You can add as many points as you like this way. You can even change the router or transport during inserting. It may happen that you make a mistake or the router doesn't draw as you like - then just tapand delete last added point (and last drawn section). Then change your settings and go on. Remember, if you want router to draw the route, you have to switch it on first (the button is blue) and then tap, not the other way round.

This way the drawing is easy and fast. We don't have to draw routes on various websites and then laboriously import routes in Locus anymore.

What if the router doesn't know the way?

Just switch it off byand go on manually according to the map. Of course routers don't know every goat path despite their databases are growing steadily (talking about OSM based routers). The moment we get to a more distinct road we can switch the router back on.

The route profile can be checked in the chart accessible from the panel menu.

When you're finished with drawing, don't forget to confirm and save everything by the green button!

Enjoy your trip!

Článek Have you tried engine-assisted route drawing? se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

Check our brand new video promoting bike riding adventures with Locus Map. Do you like it? Get inspired and go for a tasty long ride in the woods. Don't forget to turn on track recording to share your trip with us when you get back.

Článek Enjoy your bike rides with Locus Map as these guys do se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.