Position and slope info in RoutePlanner
Position and Slope Info in the RoutePlanner
How to activate this function
Click on the green button of the RoutePlanner at the top-right of the map: "Show info on the route" (click on this link to activate the RoutePlanner or go via the main tab: "Create").
Position
Some customers want to mark a spot (POI) exactly half away the route, or at 10 kms,... That's what this function allows you to do.
The RoutePlanner offers you the function to show the position of your cursor along the route you planned. The position is the curvimetric position (the length of that curving line following your route) from the beginning of the route.
Slope
You can also see the slope of the road at the spot of your cursor. A negative slope means you are going down in the direction of the planned route.
How do we measure slope
We measure the slope based on the height difference of a point 100m before your cursor and 100m after your cursor (with the exception at the beginning of your route and at the end). We show the slope in %. 4.6% means that the road goes up 4.6m over 100m (on average).
Why 2 times 100m and not total 100m?
The height info is based on SRTM data, which is a bit "rough" (not that detailed) and there are also errors in height of a few meters. So measuring slopes over short distances gives very strange effects on the slope measurement because there is too much noise in the data. This is less the case over longer distances.
The disadvantage is that you get in general a reduced value of the slope vs reality. Especially for short slopes
In mountainous areas, a small positional error of the road means also a huge difference in height (just imagine that you are driving along a cliff: 10m next to you is a huge difference in height).
Frequently asked questions
I get a different slope from the slope I see on the roadsign, my GPS or a slope profile from another source
See above "Why 2 times 100m and not total 100m?"