Difference between revisions of "My Route"

Revision as of 14:32, 29 September 2009

This page contains information specific to Geocaching Australia.

My Route is a function developed by Geocaching Australia to show you caches within a defined distance from a route you have chosen.

Creating a kml file to load as your My Route

• Go to Google Maps.
• Click on Get Directions onthe left hand side of the page near the top.
• Enter your start location in the box marked A. This can be as specific as a street number and name or generic like a suburb / locality.
• Enter your end location in the box marked B. This can be as specific as a street number and name or generic like a suburb / locality.
• Click Get Directions
• You can change any of the intermediate points of the route determined by Google by moving your mouse over the route line and dragging the line around until the route fits where you want to go.
• If you make a hash of a particular route it is easier to start again rather than try and fix the route.
• Try to keep routes to a reasonable distance. It is unlikely you will drive from Melbourne to Brisbane in one day, so make multiple routes based on where you will stop. Shorter routes will return caches along that route faster and will keep the load on the website reasonable.
• Once you are satisfied with your route click on Link on the right hand side near the top.
• Click in the Paste link in email or IM box to select the route.
• Copy the link by using CTRL-C or Edit | Copy depending on which browser you are using.
• Paste the link using CTRL-V or Edit | Paste into the address bar (the bar that has http://) but do NOT yet press enter.
• Scroll to the end of the link and add &output=kml to the end of the link.
• Press enter.
• You will be prompted to download a kml file containing the points of your route.
• Save the file to your computer in a location you can find again.
• Please do NOT edit the kml file. My Route expects the file to be as it is generated by Google Maps and any interference with the file may cause the My Route loader to fail.

Creating A My Route

Routes are private. No one else will be able to view or use your route.

• Log in to Geocaching Australia.
• Go to My | Route (via the navigation tabs, hover over My then select Route).
• Click on Create New Route
• Enter a meaningful name for your route.
• Enter a meaningful description for your route.
• Enter a search radius for your route. Please note that the greater the radius, the longer the system will take to return caches. A radius of 5km is probably the maximum you would want to consider. For a shorter radius, use decimals. i.e. 0.25 for 250m. The minimum computed diatance between points in your kml route file is 250, so a radius of less than 125m may fail to return some caches along the route. A radius of 500m (0.5) to 5 (5km) will probably serve most people best.
• Click on the Browse button. This will open the files on your computer so you can select the kml route file you created at Google Maps. Find the file and then click Open. The full directory of where your kml route file exists will be populated into the KML file to upload box.
• Click on Save Route
• All things being equal your route will load and be available for your use.
• If your route fails to load, please contact a site administrator via the forums.

Using My Route

There are 6 actions which can be taken on your route.

Edit

Click on Edit to edit the name, description and radius for your route. You cannot change the route itself. To change the route, delete the route and upload a new route using the instructions above.

Delete

Click on Delete to delete a route. You will be challenged a second time to confirm whetgher you really want to delete this route. Click the appropriate button. Deleting your route is irreversible.

Caches

Click on Caches to see the caches that appear along your route bounded by the radius you have set. To change the radius, click on Edit.

GMAP

Click on GMAP to see the caches that appear along your route, along with your route and the search area, coloured light grey, on a Google Map. While the best effort has been taken with regards to producing an accurate search area on the Google Map, due to pixel sizes and distances, some search area may not be cm perfect. Use the search area as a guide rather than a definitive area covered.

KML

Click on KM to load your route into Google Earth. Caches will not appear in Google Earth. If you want to see caches that maybe along the route with Google Earth, also load the Google Earth Dynamic Cache Loader which can be found on the front page at http://geocaching.com.au

View

There is no link marked view, but if you click on your route name, you will be taken to a page where you can see the route (no caches), your name, description and radius. You also have options to maintain your route from this page.

To Do

Phase 2 of My Route will allow you to select cache types, containers, difficulty and terrain to be shown on your listings. Phase 3 of My Route will allow you to export a GPX file for any Geocaching Australia caches that appear along your route.