Zumo User Forums

Fxwheels wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 3:02 am I see no point in creating all via points instead of shaping points. Via points should be set precisely on route to avoid nagging you to go exactly there, and that creates annoyance in planning and navigating.
A via points can be start, end and maybe some in between as a particular places to stop. And even that can be a shaping point unless you want to display the miles or the time to the next via point on the nav and maybe announcing it.

I agree entirely. Or at least I used to. But @Peobody has identified weird routing behaviour associated with Shaping points, which he doesn't get if he uses Via Points.

I have confirmed this in a very simple way by creating a 3 point route. If the middle point is set to a via point, the route generated is different from the one generated if it is a shaping point - and this has nothing to do with the fact that if you change a via to a shaping using the XT screen, the point is moved to a slightly different location.

That situation is described with screenshots here - Post #1
viewtopic.php?t=1966&hilit=different+shaping+via

@Peobody finds that his routes behave better if the route points are all set as Via Points. There are other reasons for creating the points as Waypoints - like Waypoints retain the name that you give them. He may have discovered other reasons.

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The route that I created was starting at the south end of the Yorkshire Dales close to the north-south centre line of the Pennine hills.
The end point was further north - again on the centre line of the Pennines.
The midpoint was also near the centre line of the Pennines.
(I think the points i used were Skipton, Hawes and Alston - cant remember, but ai have some screenshots which I will post when I get to my Pc).

There are a number if good A and B roads to link these together. About 15-30 miles to the west is the M6 motorway which runs North-South broadly parallel.

If the midpoint is set to a Via Point, the XT calculates a route that goes through the pennines.
If the midpoint is a shaping point the Xt calculates a route that uses the motorway as much as it can and visits the mid point and then diubkes back to the motorway. I know the XT heads for faster roads, but this difference between via and shaping points is odd.

I haven't done any further testing with this yet to try to understand this behaviour.

jfheath wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 4:43 am @Peobody finds that his routes behave better if the route points are all set as Via Points. There are other reasons for creating the points as Waypoints - like Waypoints retain the name that you give them. He may have discovered other reasons.

Route behavior is the only reason. The 'nag' factor is not an issue for me; I ride with spoken navigation turned off most of the time. I do more u-turns and around-the-blocks because of this but it is worth it for a better behaved satnav and not having it interrupt communication from my wife on the pillion or from another rider.

That's really strange. I have not experienced something like that or I haven't noticed that (which is unlikely).
I'll experiment with it the next time.

Peobody wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 12:42 pm I do more u-turns and around-the-blocks...

To be clear, these are self-inflicted (eg: forgetting about the right turn I'm supposed to take a mile ahead).