Follow paths and roads

Follow cycling roads, then move a point to change the route.

Routing needs GPX Explore Pro.

Choose how lines are drawn

The menu beside the tools in the edit bar (on the Mac also Track ▸ Draw Lines) has:

• Straight Lines: each click joins the last point in a straight line.
• Follow Paths (Walking), Follow Roads (Cycling), Follow Roads (Driving): each click asks Apple Maps for directions from the last point, and the leg follows the path or road, with all its bends.

The choice stays for the next document. It applies to new legs only, so you can mix them: walk to the trailhead along the road, then switch to Straight for a stretch the map does not know.

Drawing a route

Choose Draw, pick Walking, Cycling or Driving, and click along the way. While Maps answers, the new leg shows dashed and the edit bar says Finding a route…; clicks you make meanwhile wait their turn. Each leg lands on the path, and its points get their elevation from the terrain model.

Drag a point to re-route

The points you clicked are the route’s control points. Drag one with Select and Move while Walking, Cycling or Driving is chosen, and the legs to the points you clicked before and after it are found again in that mode, through the new place. Points that directions filled in between can be dragged too, but they move alone.

GPX Explore remembers which points you clicked only while the document is open. After you reopen it, dragging any point moves just that point.

If you change the track while a route is being found, the route is left as it was and the edit bar says so.

When there is no route

If Apple Maps has no route between two points, the leg is drawn straight and the edit bar says No route found between these points; drew a straight line. Undo it, put a point in between on the path, or choose another mode.

Close Loop in the track tools follows the same mode back to the start.

Routes come from Apple Maps and may not include every trail. See Accuracy.