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Customize Routes with Road Preferences
You can instruct PC MILER to either favor or avoid certain roads when generating
a route. To try
this out, let’s create a new route from Augusta, ME to Charleston, SC and then
designate road
preferences around Augusta. Whole roads can be avoided or favored using the
Custom Roads
Manager (Tools menu), but in the steps below we’ll be picking road segments from
the map.
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Minimize any open windows, and click the New Route button on the tool bar to
open a new
route entry window.
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Enter “Augusta, ME” as the origin, “Oakland, NJ” as a stop, and “Charleston, SC”
as the
destination of your route, using any ZIP codes for those cities. Run the route.
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In the Map menu, select Frame and uncheck Auto Frame Route.
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Highlight Augusta on the stop list and double-click to
zoom into this city in Maine on the map. Notice that PC MILER’s route travels on I 95 (the Maine Turnpike) going
south from
US 202 out of Augusta.
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Click on the Favor Roads button on the tool bar, then return to the map
window.
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Select the RouteMap window from the Windows menu. Zoom into Augusta again if
necessary, then click on the segment of US 201, ME 27 that runs south out of
Augusta to
designate it as a road to be favored (you may have to click a few times on
different road
segments for good coverage). Green cross-hatching will appear to indicate a
favored road
segment.
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Now click on the Avoid Roads button on the tool bar.
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On the map, click on I 95 going south from US 202 to designate it as a road
segment to be
avoided. Red cross-hatching will appear to indicate an avoided road.
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Select Route 3 (the Augusta route) from the Windows menu, click on the
Options
button and
check Use Custom Roads, then click OK. This step is crucial to running a new
route
that includes the road preferences you’re about to designate. If this option
isn’t turned
on, road preferences won’t be included in PC MILER’s route calculations.
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You’ll see that PC MILER automatically reruns the route using the new road
preferences –
your route now travels on US 201 and avoids the Maine Turnpike!
HINT: To clear road preferences, you have two options: you can click again on
the selected
road segments – with the appropriate button selected (Avoid Roads or Favor
Roads); or open
Tools menu > Manage Custom Roads and use the Avoids and Favors tabs to delete
current
designations.
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