Route planning

Provided an event has a valid address configured, Tangles will create an event map automatically for your event. You can configure the default base map and add layers to the map using the web interface

Layers

You create maps by adding layers, for example to show the location of facilities on your events site and, for orienteering or hiking events you can add waypoints and routes. To track teams and participants you add team tracking layers or participant tracking layers.

When viewing maps, users can choose their own base layer and which map layers they want visible, although the defaults for these are configurable.

For each layer, you choose whether to allow only participants or everyone to view it.

Creating map layers and route planning is supported on the web interface. Layer characteristics and permissions etc can be viewed and modified on the mobile app but layers and actual map data cannot be created or edited on the app.

Map layers

You can access the event map from the event page. This shows the 'live' view of the map with all valid waypoints, routes and other layers. To view more detail about the overlal map configuration as an admin, click on the Map Layer action button on the top right of the page.

Visible detail includes options such as the base map and whether participant tracking is enabled as well as who can see the map. This view also shows you the layers currently visible in the map.

To modify the configuiration or to chaneg or add visible map layers, select the configuration action icon on the top right.To add a new layer, click the '+' button. To change which layers are visible, drag the layers between the 'Active layers' and 'Available layers' containers. Changes to layers are made immediately. Adding a waypoint layer to the active layers also makes any dependent routes active, although you can configure for each layer who can see or modify it.

When adding a new layer, once saved, if you want it to appear on the map you must add it to the active layers.

Map layers can also be copied using the copy action button, in which case the new destination event or team can be defined. Map layers cannot currently be shared between communities however they can be eported using extended GPX or GeoJson formats and these can be re-imported in other communities.

Layer types

Facilities

The facilities layer allows you to add site facilities such as food, information, fire safety points, toilets etc to the event map. To add a new facility, click 'Add new' and drag the icon to the correct location or, if you prefer, enter the longitude and latitude directly in the facilities list panel. You can change the facility type and its colour in the right hand panel. You can set the type of marker and change its default colour by finding and modifying the marker detail in the right-hand panel.

Waypoints

For a waypoint layer, you add new waypoints in the same way as for facilities and drag them around the map to the correct location or enter their longitude and latitude directly. A waypoint layer can be configured as ordered or unordered which defines whether participants are required to visit each in order or not. To change the ordering for an ordered list, drag and drop the waypoints in the waypoint list in the right hand panel.

Route

A route layer defines a route that participants will take. It must have a waypoint layer as a parent.

If the parent waypoint layer is ordered, then the route will automatically follow that order. If the waypoint layer is not ordered, when defining the route, it is possible to drag and drop the route segments in the route panel on the right to define the order that the route will visit each waypoint.

A routing layer can be configured to route automatically or manually. For automatically routing layers, an initial route will be calculated based don the waypoints. Sections of the route can then be dragged to refine the route. Where a route goes off a known track or road, manual routing is used. For manual routing, simply select sections of the existing route to add a new control point and drag that to define the route.

In autoroute mode, the route instructions will be populated automatically but may be edited manually. Once a particular instruction has been edited, it will not be overwritten by auto-routing. In both manual and automatic routing modes, route instructions can be edited, added and deleted for any route segment in the right hand panel.

Boundaries

Boundary layers allow the user to create circular, rectangular or polygon zones that can be used to define areas in which participants must remain or areas in which they should not enter. Use the shape tools panel on the map to add, remove and modify shapes and to cut sections from existing zones. The boundary centre and colour can also be configured from the right hand list panel.

Participant

Used for live tracking during a running event. See below for more detail.

Editor layout

The editor shows the map on the left hand panel, centered initially on the address defined for the event. Markers, routes, boundaries etc can be modified by dragging around the map and, for boundary layers, by using the drawing toolbar shown on the map.

The right hand panel shows the ordered list of markers or boundaries. These can be moved around by dragging the marker to the desired position on the list. Coordinates can be viewed using traditional or decimal notations for longitude and latitude using the dropdown at the top of the list.

If you give your markers a name, the name will be visible in the web interface when the mouse hovers over the marker. The ful description is displayed when clicking on the marker. In the app, these details show up in the marker detail panel when this is visible.

Adding a new marker or boundary is via the relvant 'Add' button at the top of the marker list. For waypoints and facilitiy markers, this adds the new marker next to the main event marker and this can be dragged to its correct positon or its positon entered as longitude and latitiude in the marker panel.

For routes, the editor will create an initial route between the previously defined waypoints and these can be dragged by clicking on a point on a line to create a handle and dragging that handle. The handle can be removed by right clicking on it, causing the route section between the two most adjacent markers / handles to recalculate. When inserting a new drag handle and dragging it, the route either side of the handle will recalculate the section bounded by the two nearest markers or handles. To modify a specific section of a route, insert handles either side of the section that you wish to re-route and drag a poitn between them to create the new route section.

Routes will automatically use known pathways and roads, although not all paths shown on the various map base layers are visible to the routing engine. You can route manually by inserting handles along a route segemnt and moving them to the desired position on the map. In this way you can use a combination of automatic and manual routing.

Team maps

Teams can also have their own maps which can be configured to use map layers from the parent event or from the team itself. By default, layers created by a team are only visible and editable by participants in that team, but this can be configured for each layer. Teams maps are accessed from the team page and behave the same as event maps.

For competitive events or where teams are expected to devise their own independent routes, you can define a common set of waypoints on the event map and teams can create their own route layers on their team map.

As a facilitator you can see all map layers and can even add the team route layers to the main event map to allow you to overlay them on a single view when the event is live. Event wahn added to the main event map, the team layers each respect their own visibility controls to determinte who can see them.

Import and Export

Waypoint, boundary and route layers can be exported to GPX or GeoJson formats which can be imported then into other tools or back into Tangles. On the relevant layer page, click the export action icon in the top right hand corner and choose the export format.

To import GPC or GeoJson files for any of these layer types, open the layer in configuration mode and drop a file onto the upload zone indicated by the dotted boundary in the waypoint list panel on the right hand side. Tangles will identify the correct file type and import the data. Where there is existing data, Tangles will merge the dropped file with the existing data.

Print view

Clicking on the print action icon on a route layer page will format the map and route full screen in order to allow for printing. Route maps can then be taken on routes where the mobile device is not to be used for tracking by participants.

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