RouteSavvy Online User Guide

Transcription

1 RouteSavvy Online User Guide Welcome to RouteSavvy Online by OnTerra Systems! These next few pages will explain step-by-step how to use this powerful tool for your daily or weekly travels. Logging in When you navigate to the first thing you will see is the login screen. Recall when you registered to use RouteSavvy Online you were asked to create a username (your address) and a password; these are what you ll need to log in: Once logged in successfully, you ll be presented with a clean map and what we call a workpane on the left: Page 1 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

2 Workpane First let s take a close look at the workpane on the left side of the window. There are several moving parts here to take into account: Add Stops to Route: There are multiple ways that you can add stops to the route in order to create the route : 1. Point and click you can zoom into a city or neighborhood on the map and then click anywhere on the map with your cursor; each time you do this, a pushpin will be added to the map and an address will be added to the list. 2. Add from entry field you can type or copy addresses into the field just to the left of the Add Stops button, and you only need to click the Add Stops button one time after you finish entering the address. 3. Add from Excel file To quickly add large numbers of stops, you can import a spreadsheet the includes them as long as it is an XLSX file and you follow these guidelines: a. You use headers on the columns b. You avoid using fancy formatting 4. Add from CSV file Same as in #3, you can import a CSV file with your stop names and addresses to quickly generate an optimized route Secondary Filter Column / Filter By: This allows you to actually filter by a particular value in one of your spreadsheet columns should you so choose. This would in effect limit further the number of stops displayed from the spreadsheet. Color By One of the things that users have been requesting is a way to differentiate groups of stops. For example, if you have enough pushpins plotted on the map you may want to know which are in what cities or towns, which are what types of customers (daily visit, weekly visit, etc.), and so on. Pressing the down arrow displays a set of column names from your spreadsheet: the primary address fields, and the information fields "Info1" and "Info2". If any of these columns have distinct values of less than 8 combined, then they can be used to color the pushpins simply by selecting that column. Go Page 2 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

3 ahead and try it! (Don't worry, if you have more than 8 values in the column, RouteSavvy Online will tell you!) Select Route Type One of the unique capabilities of RouteSavvy optimization is that you can select from a variety of route types to fit your special needs: 1. Round Trip Simplest and most popular route, it starts with the first address in your list and ends there as well 2. Best Start Best End Sounds quite different, but simply means that the computer will pick BOTH the best starting point AND the best ending point to absolutely minimize the distance traveled between starting and ending points 3. One way (define end location) If you know where you want to end up after making several stops, this one is for you. 4. One Way (undefined end location) - If you want to make the maximum number of stops in a day without caring how far the drive from/to home base is, then you ll want this one. Select Directions Type Of course, you ll want to pick the kind of directions you re looking for especially since we offer some cool options here! 1. Shortest Distance Easy to understand, this type returns the route with the minimum distance to travel from beginning to end points. 2. Shortest Time Also easy to understand, it may be a longer route but street type and traffic may play a role in how this optimizes 3. Shortest Time w/traffic If there s a chance you ll be using Interstate highways on at least part of the route, you ll want to use this option to take traffic on them into account Page 3 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

4 Other Workpane Commands Finally, there are a number of remaining commands to note towards the bottom of the workpane: 1. Generate Optimal Route when your list of stops is complete, you ll want to get the optimizing started by pushing 2. Clear All Stops When you re ready to start over, or you want to import a new spreadsheet, push. (NOTE: if you generate a route with one spreadsheet, then import another without using this button, BOTH spreadsheets will be displayed and optimized as one.) Adding Stops Since adding stops for optimization is what this is all about, let s take a closer look at this important function. Since pointing at the map and clicking ( point and click ) is pretty simple and straightforward, let s focus on the other options. Field Entry If you are uncomfortable trying to import a spreadsheet or have relatively few known addresses to enter, then this option works well. Simply place your cursor in the field and start typing addresses as shown in the figure to the right, then click when done: Spreadsheet or CSV Arguably the most powerful tool in RouteSavvy (apart from the algorithm itself) is the button; this enables the user to take a set of addresses in a spreadsheet and load them into RouteSavvy in seconds! In order for this to work properly, though, you ll need to make sure your spreadsheet looks as below, with minimal formatting and good addresses (with enough detail to geocode). (NOTE: If you click on the question mark in the upper right corner of the workpane, you will find a link to a sample spreadsheet that you can use.) Page 4 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

5 When you click that button, you ll be asked to choose an Excel file residing on your computer. Once you browse for and select the file, you ll see a screen like this: Note the steps to follow in this screenshot: 1. Worksheet - Choose the worksheet in the Excel file that contains the addresses/stops you want to optimize (usually Sheet1, but not always in this case Test Stops ) 2. Columns - Choose the column with the names of the stops as you d like to see them displayed, and then match the appropriate address columns of the stops Page 5 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

6 3. Info1/Info2 - Choose a column with other info you d like displayed in pop-ups or in the directions print-out. 4. Import Filter if you want only a subset of the addresses plotted, select the column of data that will determine how you want it filtered, and then the value of the filter in Filter by. 5. When done with the above steps, click on and you ll see your addresses show up in a table (also known as a data grid ) as follows: 6. At this point, simply click on and you ll see all these addresses as pushpins on Bing Maps! Note that when I hover over a pushpin, it simply displays the address. When I left-click with the mouse on a pushpin, it brings up the Stop Detail information shown in the screenshot above with the option of making it a start or and end stop, or to delete the stop altogether. Page 6 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

7 7. If one or more of my addresses were in error, an error column shows up with an explanation as follows: At that point you can edit the address directly in the data grid and press Retry, or press Delete and remove it entirely. Alternatively, you can also click the x in the upper right corner as all of the addresses were plotted with the exception of the one(s) with the error. SPECIAL NOTE: If you have latitudes / longitudes (like , ), then select the Use Location radio button and you ll see the following columns to select: Page 7 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

8 Using Output You have some options available once you ve generated your results. You ll notice that your tab near the top of the workpane has switched from Optimize to Results. It should look like this: Time/Distance Besides having an optimized route, you also have an indicator of time and distance required to cover that route. Even more importantly, you can: 1. Modify Minutes Per Stop to determine how many stops you can complete in a given period of time. In this case I ve entered a stop duration of 30 minutes. 2. Set the Start/End Work Time to indicate when your work day would begin and end to see if your route will take multiple days. Note in this example I am working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with 30 minute stops at each meaning that since I selected Thursday as my first day, I will finish up in the morning on Friday. 3. Determine estimated ETA at each stop! (useful when you re making appointments with clients) Simply modify the Minutes Per Stop and then adjust the Start/End Work Time to your satisfaction (by either clicking on the clock to pick a time or manually entering start time in the hours/minutes fields), and all the other calculations automatically take place - as exemplified in the above screenshot. Page 8 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

9 Stop Order Manual Adjustment At times when you don t have any choice regarding the order of stops for 1 or more stops, you can use the up/down arrow to the left of the stop to move that stop higher or lower in the calculated order. This will automatically re-calculate the time/distance results, as well as re-order the directions you would ultimately print out. Print If you scroll down in the Results tab, you ll find a button. Clicking on this will open a pop-up window with a printer! option; simply click Print again and direct it to your favorite Save Route Another interesting option here is to actually save a route in a variety of formats by pushing the button, which brings up this dialogue: Page 9 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM

10 As indicated, this allows you to save the waypoints either as 1. A text file with complete directions (allowing you to format in a different tool such as Word) 2. A text file with the stops only 3. A Comma delimited file with the stops only that can be read as a CSV into many other applications, and 4. A GPX file which is the XML standard for geo-spatial data (for all you GIS geeks out there). Summary We hope you find RouteSavvy Online profitable, easy, and fun to use. Please us with any questions, suggestions, or feedback at routesavvy@onterrasystems.com and happy routing! The OnTerra Team Page 10 of 10 3/28/ :19 PM