How do you make a loop road trip map?

[Mark Sedenquist]

I went to http://www.roadtripamerica.com/Maps/mapcenter.php and I entered some addresses into the "Add Custom Places" Method 2 field, and now what I am looking to do it for the application to create a trip to those locations with my start point and ending point being the same place, my house address. Is there a way to make that happen? Am I just overlooking something?

Yes, you can make loop trips with CREATE A CALCULATED ROUTE (using waypoints).

1. Create a "custom place" for each place you want to visit, as you did, saving each one.
2. Click the "Select Marker" button (to the right of the "Add Waypoint" text), and
3. Click the marker for the place you want to visit. Do (2) and (3) for each custom place.
4. Now you have a list of waypoints to visit. (You need to click them in the order you want the route to go, and you’ll see them on the “my current waypoints” list in the "My Current Waypoints" just to the right of the "Add Waypoint" button.)
5. Add the start & finish addresses – your home for both, in "Start Address" and "End Address".
6. Click “find route from addresses"...
7. It will draw the route. If the RTA Maps program thinks a loop is the shortest way, it will draw a loop.

Try this!

And let us know, how it goes for you.

Mark

[Mark Sedenquist]

This is close to what I am looking for. Instead of me creating the route based on how I enter the addresses, I would like the application to create the route with the most efficient route to get to all of the addresses. Is that possible?

Lane, yes, that's possible, but it's sort of a "next step" element. We can add that programming -- but it complicates the learning curve a bit. I'll ask the senior programmer, Michael, to jump in here and share his perspective on that!

Mark

[Michael Dickman]

While it is possible to attempt to find the most efficient route, given a selection of waypoints, that option would add another checkbox to the interface. Since we're trying to keep the page as simple as we can, we were postponing adding that feature. We'll note your request, and bump the priority up...
- Michael

[LaneVids]

Sounds good!! I havent found anything that does this, except for a cd-Ron program from about 10 years ago.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Lane,

Your question got the wheels-a-turning here at the RTA offices. I think we'll eventually program a couple different ways to order a road trip route. But, first we've got to get the basic program fine-tuned a bit more.

Thanks,

Mark