The new version of your favorite navigation app brings again some essential improvements. The most changes have been made to the app's online LoRouter, the “generator” for route planning and direct navigation to the destination. We've finally revived the Locus Map project for Garmin devices and although it’s already fall and the swallows have long flown away, we have the first one in the area of e-bike support.

Warning!

No, this wasn't meant as clickbait (hahaha). Take it more like a joyful exclamation - yes, online LoRouter in the app can now generate warnings for various pitfalls on the route - for challenging terrain, heavy traffic, barriers, tunnels, unprotected railway crossings, and so on. And that’s both in the route planner and in the quick route calculation for direct navigation to the destination.

Some warnings have three color-differentiated levels - from the least to the most serious warning:

If a warning concerns entire sections of the route, e.g., challenging surfaces or heavy road traffic, it also has a zonal variant, so you know exactly which part of the route to be careful on.

The degrees and types of warnings depend on the chosen activity or vehicle you plan to use on the route. If the route goes over cobblestones, it’s not a problem if you’re walking or biking. It’s worse on a road bike, and in such a case, Locus Map will display a warning.

For example, a route through the center of Prague is teeming with such warnings.

Warnings are typically displayed on the route on the map. During navigation along the route, the symbols also appear under the main navigation window:

If you tap on any warning symbol on the map, a list of all warnings on the route opens, sorted by distance. The length is also displayed for zonal sections. By tapping, you center the selected place or section on the map.

The warning system is so far available only in the app - in time, of course, it'll also be available on our web planner. We believe that it will greatly contribute to better comfort in planning your outdoor activities, as well as to greater safety in their operation.

For example, thanks to Locus Map, you already know that this section will require rubber boots... :) :

Do you have any tips on what else you would like to be warned of when planning your route? Let us know in the comments!

I Want My Own Routing Profile!

Yes, we know that many of you secretly (some very loudly) desire this option, however, for now, we can’t offer you such a variant. However, with new customization options for existing profiles, we are much further ahead.

First and foremost, we’ve enriched Online LoRouter with switches, which you’re already used to from its offline variant. For car profiles, these are standard options to omit toll sections, highways or unpaved roads. For walking profiles and trekking bikes, a “wet conditions” parameter has been added, which adjusts the route selection more to paved surfaces with a smaller risk of mud.

The most changes have been made to the MTB profile. Here our routing guru Radim finally had fun and compiled a sophisticated algorithm for route calculation based on the choice of terrain difficulty level. 

There are five levels and they reflect both the surfaces of roads, trails, and footpaths, as well as their slope, elevation, and other properties. So if you choose the lowest level, Locus Map will serve you the smoothest progress with the gentlest available ascent. 

The most difficult level, on the other hand, will dish out a line with a proper dose of adrenaline, where you’ll really give it your all:

Although the mentioned changes concern the online variant of LoRouter, we are already working hard on their introduction into offline - there is really a lot of work ahead and we still haven't left the "experimenting" level in the router development. Anyways, if you have any particular wishes regarding the customization, let us know.

Garmin Add-on for Locus Map Lives!

And now a fantastic piece of news for all the holders of these beloved rugged watches. Despite all the adversities that Garmin constantly throws at independent developers, our colleague Honza has accomplished a formidable feat - he has operationalized the add-on for the latest models. More details revealed by the creator himself:

"The existing functionality of the addon is "saved" again for now, so we can continue to extend the compatibility with devices or develop it further. Unfortunately, the feature of streaming maps from the phone to the watch display is no longer available and, after unplanned restrictions by Garmin, cannot be offered any longer for technical reasons. However, other features continue to be available, including "1-click" route export to supported watches.

This has given me a new impetus to think about integration with Garmin products further and I hope we will be able to pleasantly surprise you in the future. For example, we are well aware of the lack of the ability to easily export routes with Locus Map to Garmin Edge bike computers, but more on that next time."

The First Autumn Swallow - integration with Specialized e-bikes

No, we haven’t gone mad, we have indeed just launched the first swallow in the field of Locus's communication with e-bikes.

In the trial run we launch support for e-bike really fancy - all-suspension Specialized Turbo Levo, on which we first tested the possibilities of connecting the bike software with our application beyond the previously supported sensors of speed and cadence or power… The new sensor not only reads from the bike in aggregate the already mentioned information but also adds data about the currently selected mode of assistance of the e-bike and the status of its battery. We can add all this to our dashboard and keep it all in sight when riding with Locus Map on the handlebars!

The sensor should work with most Specialized e-bikes, including road bikes, but for now, the names of the assists will appear as they are named on their mountain bikes. We will then adapt this further according to interest.

News in LoMaps

The hike/bike theme of our offline LoMaps has gained a lot of improvements over the last months, of which we especially like to highlight:

• the return of road numbering - we managed to solve a stubborn technical mystery and especially long-distance cyclists will again appreciate the road numbers on the map

• marking of ferratas - adrenaline lovers will welcome on the map clearly visible challenging mountain, iron-secured paths (hence ferratas). And soon also with difficulty marking!

• more accurate contour lines - in the new LoMaps we generate more detailed drawn contour lines from 1'' height data, while maintaining the volume of map files. We have completed Europe so far, but the machines are running at full speed, so you can look forward to further additions soon.

And finally, goodbye, Munzee…

Unfortunately, after eight years, we have to say goodbye to this interesting outdoor game. Its creators have terminated the operation of the API, thus cutting off the possibility for the game to develop independent applications. We have therefore also ended the support of the Munzee add-on for Locus Map and removed it from Google Play.

Článek New Locus Map 4.19 Heading for Even Better Route Planning se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

Route planner, one of the main features of the mobile outdoor navigation Locus Map, has become an indispensable tool of many enthusiasts for hiking tours, treks, road or mountain bike rides. Its main characteristics is simplicity of controlling in complexity of background data and route planning options. Together with the wide map selection Locus Map offers, running on a portable device like tablet or mobile phone, planning routes is quite a different experience. Let's have a look at its most useful features:

Routing on-road, drawing off-road

When you plan a trip running along roads or paths, use automatic route drawing powered by cooperating routing services - BRouter or GraphHopper.

Each service has its pros and cons. BRouter works offline and offers a lot of routing profiles:

On the other hand, it needs storage for offline routing data and the route calculation is quite slow and power consuming.

GraphHopper is very fast because calculating a route runs on a remote server and doesn't engage your mobile processor. And you usually plan routes at home with wifi internet connection, right? But alas, it offers just a few basic routing profiles:

When you plan a backcountry trip where there are either no roads or paths or required map/routing data aren't available, use the manual mode:

Check route elevation and estimated on-route time

During planning, all necessary info is at hand. Just slide the chart up:

The chart changes according to your editing:

Detailed statistics show also the gradient chart for even finer route tuning:

Avoid obstacles

Forrest works ahead and it's dangerous to pass? Put it in map and let Locus find a detour!

Plan a geocaching trip

Nice warm weather expected next Saturday and you are a keen geocacher. Let's go for a trip somewhere you don't know and hunt a dozen local geocaches. Put them in Locus route planner, it'll find a way connecting them all!

Want to go on bikes instead? Recalculate the route!

You've changed your mind. The weather's gonna be awesome, wow, you will manage to hunt even more geocaches! You've just planned a walking route... doesn't matter, just push Recalculate all button and select bike as the activity.

Cool tip at the end - gradient-colored route

Would you like to know clearly where is your route steep or flat? It's quite useful, especially when you ride a bike. And what's more, you can plan the route according to it and avoid too steep up-hills... Just set up gradient coloring of your route planning line:

Locus Map route planner is very intuitive but if you need to know everything about its features, check Locus Manual.

Happy route planning!

Článek Locus Map – plan your routes like a pro 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.