Hi Greg - thanks for the reply. On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 4:27 PM, Greg Troxel <g...@lexort.com> wrote:
> First, start the app and download maps. Understand that the main > operations are showing the map and computing a route to someplace from > your current location. > OK. I had done that, and can see a nice-looking and detailed map. > Routing is definitely complicated. OsmAnd will compute routes, and > there are some settings to bias the choices, but it is unlikely to > generate a pleasing bicyling route compared to a bunch of offline > thoughtful planning that's aware of not only elevation but which roads > are nice to cycle on vs too trafficy particularly based on time of day. > So it seems a typical way to use OsmAnd for a long carefully-planned ride is to use some other app (e.g., RideWithGPS or Strava) for route planning, then to load the route onto your phone for navigation. I don't see a convenient way to get GPX routes into the mobile app. When I click on the "GPX track..." item from the menu that opens when I touch the bike icon (top left), it has a blue button labeled "Add track". I click that and my options include (Google) Drive, Images, Videos, Audio, Downloads. I could copy a GPX file to Google drive, no problem, but I'd rather do things locally. When I add a GPX file to the phone's "Download" folder (note singular), it doesn't show up in the OsmAnd Downloads area (which is empty). The app tells me I can also add tracks to /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/net.osmand/files/tracks but I don't see how to do that. I have to use AndroidFileTransfer, which doesn't show me a top-level /storage directory. It does have top-level /Android/data directory, but that does not contain a net.osmand directory. So I don't see how to get GPX files into OsmAnd, without using Google Drive. As usual, look at all the menus and understand all the routing settings. > Yes, thanks. The phone app looks really good. > The main operation is search, and then you can find a place, and you can > then calculate a route from here to there. For cars, or for pedestrian, > if you have no idea how to get there, the routes are usually ok, because > particularly for cars, a route that works and is close to the best is > awesome compared to being lost. > > To force routing to go how you want, you can use intermediate points. > If you prepare a set of those points as a gpx, you can then route to the > destination and then add intermediate points. You might do this > interactively to see how many you actually need. Often the routes > generated are quite good and probably not that many routes are needed. > This gives you turn-by-turn at intermediate road junctions without > needing to program them all. > > You should also check out brouter. I have not tried it, but as I > understand it, there is an android version and it calculates better bike > routes; you can use it as a plugin. You can also use other online > routers, I think, but I haven't done that either. > I'm looking at Brouter now, thanks. It would be great if it works well. I've had disastrous (and sometimes entertaining) experiences trying to follow routes made by some apps (like RideWithGPS, which uses Google maps AFAIK). The routing leaves a huge amount to be desired if you want a reasonably fast route, on roads, that doesn't go along stony/muddy forest paths, across empty fields, and a whole variety of other oddities... :-) > Also, you may find that the OSM map data is not quite right. You should > in those cases feel free to fix it. But make sure you are actually > representing reality, vs making a routing app make the choice you want. > OK, thank you. None of the route I'm planning is known to me, so I'll probably find some non-real things along the way :-) Thanks again for the help! Terry -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Osmand" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to osmand+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
