Marble/Maemo/GuidanceMode: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:21, 9 December 2010

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This page describes a version of Marble on Maemo which has not yet been released (as at 21 Nov. 2010).

Marble's Guidance Mode assists you on your way to your destination. Once activated, the map follows your current location (GPS position) and adjusts the zoom value to your speed. When approaching turn points, driving instructions are shown.

Planning a Route

Marble provides several means to create routes: Use search terms to find source and destination, use your bookmarks or just point at the desired place on the map.

Using the Routing Dialog

The Routing dialog, available from the menu via a click on the Marble - Virtual Globe headline, let's you create routes using search terms and bookmarks. We'll look at an example that combines both. Open the Routing dialog to get a screen similar to the one below.

We'll enter Augartenstraße, Karlsruhe as our search term for the route source in the upper input field. Tapping on the Search button (or pressing Enter) starts the search.

More than one result may be found; you can select the correct one in the list at the bottom of the dialog. Of course you can also correct any mistakes and start a new search if the desired location is not among the results.

With the source of the route defined we head over to use one of our bookmarks as the target. We'll get a list of them to pick from when pressing the arrow (triangle) button next to the target input field. It opens a new dialog.

The selected bookmark is used as the route target. You are now ready to calculate the route. Tap on the Get Directions button to do that.

Once the route is calculated, driving instructions are shown at the bottom of the screen. In case more than one route was found, you can optionally switch to an alternative one at the bottom of the screen.

Your route is now ready. Tap on the Done button to close the dialog. You'll see an overview of the route.

Using the Context Menu

If the start or the destination is visible on the map, you can also use the context menu to set the start or the destination of the route. Click on the map once (without moving it) and a context menu comes up. Select Directions from here to set the route start and Directions to here to set the destination. The route is calculated automatically (if both a start and a destination are set).

Adding Via Points

Once a route is calculated, you can insert via points (stopover points) with drag and drop. To accomplish that, use the pen of the N900. Click on any point of the route and move the pen to the desired location where a via point should be inserted. While dragging, a small green flag is shown as well as blue lines to the neighboring points on the route.

Activating Guidance Mode

With the route planned you can now switch to guidance mode. Do you have Internet access throughout your journey? If not, switch Marble to offline mode to inform it that you don't want it to download any missing information from the Internet. Otherwise it's likely that your N900 will open popup dialogs asking you to connect to the Internet frequently. Marble's offline mode is activated from the main menu, accessible by tapping on the Marble - Virtual Globe headline of the main window.

Tap on the guidance mode icon to activate the mode with the same name. It is the left of the four icons on the bottom of the screen.

In guidance mode, the GPS and the two zoom icons are hidden. Instead a couple of other elements are shown. Let's look at the items relevant during your journey, one after the other:

A white triangle indicates your current location (GPS position) and the direction you're moving. The red circle around the current position indicates the quality of the GPS signal: Your real position will likely be somewhere in this circle. The smaller the circle, the better is the GPS signal.
The route source and destination position as well as via points are shown in the map using icons with letters. For a route only consisting of source and destination, the source is indicated by the (A) icon and the destination using the (B) icon. A green icon indicates that you haven't visited the target yet, while a gray icon indicates visited targets. In the screenshot above, the route source position (A) has already been marked visited since we're very close to it at the moment.
The next turn point is marked in the map using an orange circle.
Once the distance to the next turn point falls below 1 km (1000 m), a progress bar is shown. It indicates the distance to the turn point.
This icon indicates the turn type of the next turn. When it is gray, the next turn is more than 1 km (1000 m) away. Please note that only offline routers generate turn type icons.
Driving instructions are shown in the middle.
The turn type for the turn point after the next turn point is shown here. This information is useful when turn points line up in short distances.
This label displays the distance to the route destination.
You can disable guidance mode with another click on the guidance mode icon.

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 === Adding Via Points ===
+Once a route is calculated, you can insert via points (stopover points) with drag and drop. To accomplish that, use the pen of the N900. Click on any point of the route and move the pen to the desired location where a via point should be inserted. While dragging, a small green flag is shown as well as blue lines to the neighboring points on the route.
 == Activating Guidance Mode ==