How to add a via point to a route

To add a via point in Route by Zaweba, drag the green route line to the place you want to pass through and let go. The route is worked out again through that point. Drag a via point to move it, double-click it to remove it, and use Route > Clear the via points to remove them all at once.

That is the whole technique, and because the maps and the routing engine run on your own PC, it works with no signal at all. The rest of this article covers when via points are worth using and how to keep them from getting in the way.

Why you would want one

A route planner picks the best road by its own measure, fastest or shortest. Sometimes you know better. You might want to pass a fuel station you trust, keep to a road a large vehicle handles well, take the scenic way, or avoid a junction that is always queued at school time. A via point says go this way, without making the place a stop.

That difference matters. A stop is somewhere you visit, with a time at stop and perhaps a time window, and it takes part when you optimise the order of a round. A via point is simply a place on the line between two stops. It belongs to the leg it sits on.

Dragging the line, step by step

Plan your route first, from A to B or across a round of stops. Find the leg you want to change and zoom in enough to see the roads clearly. Press on the green route line near where the change should start, drag it to the road or place you want to pass through, and release. Route recalculates the leg through that point.

If it lands on the wrong road, drag the via point a little further. Zooming in before you drop it helps, because a point placed on the right carriageway is less likely to send you round a block. To try a different idea, double-click the point to remove it and drag the line again.

When you have finished, Route > Zoom to the route fits the whole trip back on screen so you can check it from end to end. If anything looks odd after a lot of changes, Route > Calculate the route asks for it afresh.

Via points and your other choices

Via points work alongside fastest or shortest routing and the avoid options for motorways, tolls and ferries. The avoid options are strong preferences rather than bans, so a via point placed deliberately on a motorway will still be reached. Turn restrictions are honoured on every leg.

If you reorder your stops, either with Optimise order or with Route > Reverse the stops, think about whether your via points still make sense. A via point added to make one leg take a particular road was chosen for that leg, and a changed order may leave it somewhere unhelpful. Clearing them and adding fresh ones is often quicker than adjusting each.

Keeping them for next time

Via points are saved in the .ozroute file along with your stops, time windows, options and set-off time. For a regular run where you always take the same road through a town, set the via point once, save the route, and open it next week with the line already where you want it.

Because the route itself now passes through the via point, the turn-by-turn directions for that leg follow it too, and so does whatever you export from the finished route.

Using via points sparingly

Use as few as you need. One well-placed point usually does the job of three nervous ones, and fewer points are easier to understand when you look at the route again a month later. Put them on the road itself rather than beside it. And if you find yourself adding the same via point to keep away from motorways on every route, it may be simpler to set motorway avoidance for new routes in Settings instead.

Dragging the line is the quickest way to make Route by Zaweba go the way you would have gone anyway.