Draw a route with a story
The walk you remember, a cycling loop or the last stretch of a trip can become part of a map’s composition. In Cartivale, you draw the route yourself and decide how it sits among the streets.
Place the route point by point
- Choose an available place and frame the view you want to show.
- Open Decorate, choose routes and select Draw route. Click the map to add points in order; two points create the first segment.
- Add points around the turns you want to follow. Choose Finish route when the line is complete.
- Use Continue drawing to extend the route, or Undo last point while correcting its end. Give it a useful name in the controls.
Points that are too far apart can cut across a bend rather than trace it. Add enough points to describe the shape you intend, without trying to turn the artwork into a survey. Routes use the same available map coverage as the rest of the editor. Check that the places along your route are shown.
Choose one clear line, then vary it with purpose
Set the route’s line colour, width and opacity. Solid, dashed and dotted lines give different rhythms; highlighted and subtle presets offer quick starting points. A warm accent on a cool map can be easier to follow than a thicker line in almost the same colour as the roads.
The main line controls apply to the whole route. Open Segments to style a particular stretch separately—for example, a dotted walk after a solid travel segment. Make those local changes after setting the overall line, because another whole-route change also updates its segments.
Show route points if they help tell the story. Their size, fill and outline are adjustable. Hide them when you want a continuous line to do the work instead.
Make the beginning and ending readable
Start and end markers can be styled independently. Choose a symbol and adjust its size, colour and outline; the endpoint fill control lets you change how solid it looks. Keep endpoint symbols large enough to find without letting them cover the first or last turn.
Distance milestones can add a regular rhythm along the line. Choose an interval and decide whether to show distance labels. These positions and the displayed distance follow your drawn points. A straight shortcut across a curve shortens that measured line, so do not treat it as an independently verified running or cycling distance.
Let the route belong to the map
Try a quiet theme when the journey is the main subject. Add a short title or separate marker for a stop that matters. Check crowded corners, overlapping labels and the attribution before export. The route, styled segments, endpoints and enabled milestones are included in the exported artwork; they are not a separate navigation file.