Press the button or use the short cut “Ctrl-R” to start the creation of a route. “Esc” ends the route. The cursor changes to a pencil (
). Left click to create sequential numbered route points. The numbers will not be visible, but are available in the Route Properties Dialog, accessible through the right click menu or the Route Manager. The running total distance of the whole route will be shown along the “pencil” together with the course and distance from the last marked route point. When creating routes, OpenCPN will ask if it should use a nearby mark, when a route point is added that is close to an already existing mark.
If you click “Yes”, the existing mark is copied to the route.
For longer distances, especially on east-west courses in higher latitudes, the Create Route tool seamlessly switches to also offer a Great Circle alternative to Mercator rhumb-line route legs.
Read more Great-circle Sailing.
Hovering the cursor over the route brings up a yellow roll-over rectangle. It shows the name of the route (if it is set in the properties dialog), the total length of the route, the course and distance for the leg under the cursor and distance run so far along the route to the first waypoint in the current leg. Looking at the four legged route above. The total distance is 8.8 NMi. The third leg is 1.89 NMi in true direction 160° and the accumulated distance in the first two legs is 4.76 NMi.
If your desired route extends off the currently displayed chart, move the route cursor in the desired direction and the display will automatically pan to show the area. You can zoom in and out with the mouse scroll wheel or keyboard +/- keys during route creating. You can also right click and select 'MAX DETAIL HERE' or 'Scale Out' during route creation. When finished right click and choose end route from the context menu or press the “Esc” key.
The new route will be shown in blue to indicate it is inactive. Active routes are red.
Right-clicking on a route brings up a focused menu
To prevent deleting a route by mistake, a confirmation dialog is activated if you choose “Delete” from the pop-up menu.
In OpenCPN multiple routes can be handled in a couple of different ways. Many routes can be created in a session or imported into a session.
The visibility of every route is controlled in the Route Manager. There is an “eye” to the far left on the line for each route. This works as a toggle switch. A plain Eye means that the route is visible, while an eye with a red cross means that it's hidden. This allows you to show only the routes of current interest.
Another way is to create and export routes, and later import them when needed. To keep the chart clear of useful, but not currently needed, routes follow these steps:
You can export any number of routes to one big file or export each route to a separate file.
When you import a route that uses shared waypoints those waypoints will be left on the chart when you delete the route. To get rid of the way points left on the chart when a route has been deleted follow these steps.
Right clicking on the track, changes the color from blue to orange and brings up a comprehensive menu.
Clicking “Activate Route” or performing the same action through the Route Manager changes the route color to red and a new route information window appears on the right side of the display.
Once a route is activated, you are presented with the choice of “Deactivate Route” in the different menus.
There is one unique item in the route focused right-click menu above. Zero XTE sets the present XTE (Cross Track Error) to zero. This comes in handy if you for some reason are off course following a route and want the autopilot to follow the route adjusted for your current position rather than the position of the last route waypoint.
Right clicking on a waypoint in a route brings up this menu.
Right clicking on “This Leg” above brings up this dialog