How would you compare routes?

[Peobody]

I am running into a problem where I duplicate an existing route into a different list, modify and rename it with a suffix, and then at some future point want to figure out what I changed. An example is modify a personal route for use as a group ride. One modification will always be the start point but sometimes a mod is needed so that the route passes through a convenient point for other riders join. I know that I can assign different colors but the fact that they are in different lists prevents displaying both on the map simultaneously. What would you do to compare routes in this case?

[ZFtracker]

Could you not put both Routes (with different names) in the same List, which is what I do when planning a trip with possible alternate Routes. Or put both lists in the same Folder and highlight the Folder.

[Peobody]

I had thought of that but wondered if there were any other options. Although I occasionally edit dup, I have messed up some routes by not realizing I was playing with a copy so there is always trepidation around modifying a route without affecting the original. It's too bad BaseCamp doesn't allow us to select routes using Ctrl+Click for displaying on the map.

[lkraus]

I Google "basecamp copy vs duplicate" just about every time I need to use one of those options. Doubts will arise if I need to make a copy (duplicate?) again after a day or so.

I keep a Temp folder containing only an empty Temp List, and use that as my workspace until the planning is complete.

To compare routes I'd make a duplicate (which is the "safer" choice) of both routes and put them both in the Temp list. Edit as needed, rename the results and place them in a permanent folder and list, delete any remaining data in the Temp list.

[Peobody]

I keep a Temp folder containing only an empty Temp List, and use that as my workspace until the planning is complete.

I do exactly the same thing.

To compare routes I'd make a duplicate (which is the "safer" choice) of both routes and put them both in the Temp list. Edit as needed, rename the results and place them in a permanent folder and list, delete any remaining data in the Temp list.

I have a feeling that is going to be the best way.

[Peobody]

So, I have duplicated some routes, placed them in a folder, and then assigned them different colors. Does anyone know if there is a way to easily see which route is which color other than opening the details of each route and then 'remembering' or making a note?

Edit: I just realized that when one route is displayed, there is an intrusive route name indicator but I don't see such an indicator when multiple routes are displayed. Seems like it should work just the opposite.

[lkraus]

I don't think you need to Open the route. Simply clicking the one of the route names in the lower left window to highlight it makes that route on the map more bold with a thin black outline, shows arrows for the direction of travel, and displays the name balloon pointing to that route.

Using the Pan (hand) tool, you can also click and hold on a point in the map to see items that are referenced by it. Holding on a position along a route will pop-up the road name, the route name, and any other routes or tracks that also reference that point. Clicking a name in the popup will open the route, track, or point.

A color coded background in the route list would be nice, but that's not likely to happen.

[Peobody]

Thanks @lkraus. While playing with your suggestions I discovered that with the folder selected so that all routes are displayed on the map, hovering over a route line with the hand tool or the waypoint tool will produce a balloon showing its name, distance, arrival time to that point, and arrival time at the end point. No click required which is a good thing if the waypoint tool is active.

[jfheath]

Be careful copying data in Basecamp.

Sometime when you make a copy, it is not a clone - ie a second version of exactly the same thing.

Basecamp minimises the amount of data duplication, so in some cases when you copy (eg a route) to another folder, you have one route but it appears in two folders. If you make a change to one of those entries, the same change is made in the other location. That is because there is only one route - the 2/3/4 entries in the table are simply pointers to the same data.

This is why sometimes when you delete an item you are warned that it will delete every entry. It only has one item to delete, but it removes all of the pointers to it as well.

Likewise, if you use the same waypoint in a number of different lists/folders, and then change the name of one of them, or the location - every other route that uses the same point is also affected.

[Peobody]

We're on the same page John. Early in this discussion I expressed my reticence to use copies and dups for exactly the reasons you described.