Can RV Trip Wizard reorder the stops on a trip?

[AvaV]

I've been using MapQuest Route Planner to plan my trips. Yes, it's been very cumbersome and I've had a lot of extra work to do; that's one reason I was so happy to find RV Trip Wizard. BUT! One thing the Route Planner did for me was reorder my stops so that it made it the best driving route possible... either time-wise or distance-wise, whichever I chose. I could just put in all of my destinations, in any order, and then the Route Planner would reorder them for me. But I can't find that option in Trip Wizard. I'm having to do it myself, and that is becoming a royal pain. Is there an option somewhere I just haven't found yet? I HOPE!?! Thanks.

[reubenray]

I don't think there is.

[Victory Blue]

RVTW is a trip planner, not a route planner. Yes, it lays out a route as you insert CGs or other stops in date order and with length of stay, but it's not really meant to optimize a route made up of waypoints. Personally, I use my GPS-based nav system for that.

[Rock342]

this is a massive gap in functionality of RVTW - who has the time to go through every little stop on your trip to add a little side-trip to some local cheesy tourist destination? If you get it wrong, it starts routing you backwards!

[FreeLunch]

I think there could be a misunderstanding here.

If you give RVTW 10 stops, then you need to specify the order of the stops. You can drag/drop the order of the stops using a mouse or you can change the order of it using the Edit modal.

RVTW will not auto-arrange the 10 stops in the order that it thinks you want to go to the stops. RVTW is used to plan trips of all sorts of complexities (out and back, looping, etc) and I've seen people plan hundreds of stops in one trip. In this case, you add the stops you want, and drag/drop them in the order you want to visit.

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by Rock342

this is a massive gap in functionality of RVTW - who has the time to go through every little stop on your trip to add a little side-trip to some local cheesy tourist destination? If you get it wrong, it starts routing you backwards!

It’s not clear what you’re asking RVTW to do. If I’m traveling from CG1 to CG2 and I add some POI stops along the way it’s easy to tell from the route on the map if the stops are not in the best travel order. In that case I can just slide the stop that’s out of order up or down in the list (using the 2 columns of dots to the far left of the stop in the list) until it’s in the desired order.

[Rock342]

Originally Posted by Victory Blue

It’s not clear what you’re asking RVTW to do. If I’m traveling from CG1 to CG2 and I add some POI stops along the way it’s easy to tell from the route on the map if the stops are not in the best travel order. In that case I can just slide the stop that’s out of order up or down in the list (using the 2 columns of dots to the far left of the stop in the list) until it’s in the desired order.

Why should i have to do that? Every mapping software i've ever used has the ability to add the POI stop in the correct travel sequence between start and end.... not sure why this request is "so out there'.

Craig

[JMonroe]

Trip Wizard does not have this feature but it would be a good add.

Years ago we had mapping software that our assistants could add multiple stops to and then click a button to have the software order them for greatest efficiency before handing those route sheets out to our field people so he's right, it is possible.

[Teamfoxy]

If you want to add in a stop, just use the pulldown to add the stop after whichever stop you wish it to be after.
Personally I would not like to have my stops automatically reordered. In general I pick a starting and ending point for my trip and then go back and find campgrounds based on how far I want to travel each day. I often change those at some point if I find that we want to spend our time differently. For example, I often look for points of interest that we would like to visit, say a museaum or other attraction and insert them between the appropriate camping spots.
When I logged in today, I noticed that you may now enter additional paramiters such as length, weight, and whether or not you carry propane. That is really helpful to me. The only feature that I really wish RVTW would add is the option to have dates stick rather than float. If you reserve a site, or need to be somewhere on a specific date, you want that date to stay fixed and adjust other stops accordingly.

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by Rock342

Why should i have to do that? Every mapping software i've ever used has the ability to add the POI stop in the correct travel sequence between start and end.... not sure why this request is "so out there'.

Craig

When you choose “add to trip” you specify “add this stop after” and choose from the drop down list. This is important because the trip may encompass weeks or months of travel, with days or weeks spent at one location. Because of the long time frames allowed there’s really no logical way for the software to know exactly where and when to put a new stop. You don’t have to do it but it’s the way the software works.

The route optimization software you’re describing is used by trucking and delivery companies and the stops may all occur on the same day and most likely in a small geographical area. That’s a completely different animal with a very limited goal.

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by Teamfoxy

The only feature that I really wish RVTW would add is the option to have dates stick rather than float. If you reserve a site, or need to be somewhere on a specific date, you want that date to stay fixed and adjust other stops accordingly.

I agree date pinning will make planning easier. Here’s some insight from Andy R from yesterday:

“It's in the works. Per the previous posts, we can't say exactly when but it's very high priority and we are actively working on it.

I know this feature sounds easy but it's more complex than you think. Mostly because the system was designed one way and not for this scenario. That means some re-architecting stuff which is a lot of work.”

__________________

[Vamos A]

Originally Posted by Victory Blue

When you choose “add to trip” you specify “add this stop after” and choose from the drop down list. This is important because the trip may encompass weeks or months of travel, with days or weeks spent at one location. Because of the long time frames allowed there’s really no logical way for the software to know exactly where and when to put a new stop. You don’t have to do it but it’s the way the software works.

The route optimization software you’re describing is used by trucking and delivery companies and the stops may all occur on the same day and most likely in a small geographical area. That’s a completely different animal with a very limited goal.

I was a professional route planner for 28 years. I had to manually design routes with 40ish stops based on traffic conditions, time of day, preset appointments, and whether the destination was a house or business. These routes were completely different every single day. And I had to know how to adjust the route on the fly when things didn't go to plan. This was in a geographical area of about 400 square miles.

I just planned a 13 park, one month trip through Arizona and New Mexico using RVtripwizard. The only thing that matters is are the stops optimally routed to include all the locals we want to visit and to include scenic byways we want to drive. How long I spend at a park is absolutely irrelevant. I just want to get to the next park as efficiently as possible, with side trips included.

I am really good at this but there are some folks that simply aren't. If I gave my wife four places to go in town tomorrow she would vapor lock. Route optimization could be extremely helpful to many people. Now why do I care about optimization? Because I'd like to see if I could shave a FEW miles off, and a few diesel dollars of a 2,528 mile trip. There are folks out there that could shave hundreds of miles off a trip like that because they don't have the skill set for optimally routing a drive.

I also use Garmin's Basecamp which has an optimization feature. It works pretty well if I plan the whole route in it. I can export a GPX file from RVtripwizard into Basecamp but the problem is that it imports as a Track and it is a massive PITA to attempt to convert it to a route.

RVtripwizard should absolutely have route optimization, and this is from a guy that routes in his sleep.

[Mike8253]

[QUOTE=Vamos A;5445060
RVtripwizard should absolutely have route optimization, and this is from a guy that routes in his sleep.[/QUOTE]

I think that your 28 years of having to do route optimization has skewed your perception of what the general population feels is necessary to do route planning. I personally don't find it very necessary. MS Streets & Trips, which I used for years until MS pulled the plug on it, had an optimization feature, and I never used it. I don't full time, but my "long" trips typically are 5-7 weeks and many stops. My stops order bounces around based on what I want to see, when I can see them and if I want to make one or more intermediary stops enroute. I certainly don't double back on myself when preparing the route plan, but I also don't have concern that every last mile has been shaved off the route plan I ultimately choose to use. I find that RVTW with all of its existing features is a great enabler for putting my trip plans together. And I don't think I'm in the minority with that opinion.

Possibly, the future of RVTW holds the possibility of having that functionality added at some point, and that's fine. But I think you are incorrect to say that without route optimization RVTW hardly fulfills its obligations to its customer base for providing a well-rounded trip planning package.