Editor — Build a roadbook, one note at a time

Turn a recorded track, a GPX or a route you draw into a roadbook with readable junction diagrams, curved arrows, symbols, instructions and navigation settings. This guide follows the desktop Editor from import to export.

The screenshots use English controls and a demonstration roadbook. Click a screenshot to see it at full size. The same steps apply in the app; the panels are arranged differently on a smaller screen.

1. Open or create a route

Open Editor. Choose GPX to import a track, Draw on the map to create one, or .rdbk to open a complete roadbook. Record a track takes you to the Recorder. Your saved roadbooks appear below; event roadbooks you can co-edit appear in their own list. A reusable public roadbook can also be copied from its public page.

A GPX supplies the route and any waypoints it contains; it does not automatically write a useful instruction at every junction. A .rdbk preserves the notes, symbols and attached voice notes. Imported files create a separate roadbook: save the new copy deliberately. Opening your own saved roadbook edits that roadbook.

2. Understand the workspace

The map is on the left; on the right are the title — with the Name it from the map wand beside it — the Settings, Save and Close buttons, and the notes. Each row shows its number, total and partial distance, diagram, instruction and coordinates. Click a row to select it: its border turns orange, the map centres on it and the editing tabs open immediately underneath.

Write a short, unambiguous instruction in the note’s text box. Distances and bearings are calculated from the track. Use the map to correct the route rather than trying to compensate with misleading text or distances.

3. Draw and repair the track

Drag the map to pan; while you select, a tap never zooms. Press Esc to return to Select. Undo/Redo also accept Ctrl/Cmd+Z and Ctrl+Y or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z, and say what they undid or redid. A right-click on the map opens contextual actions for the point or note, photos, coordinates and external maps.

A slim bar at the top of the map says how many are selected — a lone note by its number — and offers what fits, a word on each button. A note selected alone opens in the list beside the map. One point: Make it a note or Delete point. One note: Turn into a point or Delete note. Two points: Delete the start stretch or Delete the end stretch when one of them is an end, Delete the points between when both are in the middle, Add a point between two neighbours, Fit to the path to put the stretch on the road, track or trail it follows (two neighbours far apart: the way the road goes from one to the other; every way a car, a motorbike or a bicycle could take shows on the map in its colour with its length and ground — tarmac, track, trail — and you choose), Simplify the stretch, and Select every point between — the way to take a whole range on a phone. Three or more: Delete N points. What you select turns fuchsia, the stretch between two with it; a note opens by itself only when it is all that is selected. A point moves only when you really drag it: a tap selects. Point at a delete button to see what would go, dark and dashed. On a computer, Shift+click selects every point from the last one picked, Shift+drag boxes points, Ctrl/Cmd+A selects them all — each button’s tooltip names it in full, with its key.

Add a GPX track joins additional geometry; a track whose two ends meet the existing route can replace its middle section. Simplify reduces excess points; inspect bends and distances afterwards. Adjust on the trail re-records a section using GPS. Reverse direction is in Settings → Navigation: review every instruction after reversing.

Every deletion joins the line straight: the route never has a hole. If the removed stretch followed a bend, select the two points at its ends and use Fit to the path, or shape it again with Add points. A deletion that removes notes names them and asks first; an end left without a note gets a blank one.

Once a roadbook is open and you are signed in, the map also shows what lies along the route — fuel, drinking water, gates, fords, traffic lights, restaurants… — as small icons once you zoom in close. With a note open, the roads around it show too, each in the colour of its kind — tarmac, track, trail, bike lane — so you see where a junction’s branches come from. Tap an icon to see what it is and its name; Add a note here puts a note on the nearest point of the route, with the icon beside the note or in its diagram.

Auto-notes. The map writes the notes it can along the route: junctions with their roads, roundabouts, villages, fords, gates, water, fuel… A route that opens with no notes of its own — a recorded ride, a GPX with no waypoints — gets them at once, ready to check: Keep or Discard. Once you have notes of your own, the Auto-notes card before the first note writes them when you ask, and your notes stay as they are. Check them before you ride: the map can be wrong.

4. Curved arrows: the route shapes the diagram

The main arrow is generated from the track near the note. A detailed bend can produce a smooth curve or hairpin; sparse geometry produces a simpler turn. The small open circle marks the note’s position. The diagram is oriented in the direction of arrival, not north-up.

To obtain a clear curved arrow:

1. Select the note and zoom in until the individual route points are visible.
2. Check that the note is at the actual turn and that the route follows the approach and exit.
3. Use Add points where a segment cuts across the bend, then drag those points onto the road in Select. Preserve enough nearby points to describe the curve.
4. Check the diagram again after each change. Its shape updates with the track, as do the distances.
5. Preview the result in the Reader or PDF before sharing.

There is no separate Bézier handle for the main arrow. To change its curve, change the underlying track. Add junction creates another branch of the junction; it does not reshape the main route. The first note has no incoming road and the finish has no outgoing arrow.

5. Add the other branches of a junction

Select the note and click the fork icon beside its diagram. Select the new grey branch and drag its orange handles to place its origin and end. Use its road-type selector to match the surface. Repeat for other roads visible at the junction; keep the route arrow easy to distinguish.

Deleting a selected branch removes that branch, not the note. If an imported OpenRally note displays its original tulip image, Toggle original tulip switches between that image and the editable diagram. Review this choice before exporting.

6. Symbols: search, position, resize and rotate

Open the Icon tab. Browse the categories or search for a symbol, then click it or drag it onto the diagram. Use only symbols that help someone recognise the situation on the ground.

Select a symbol on the diagram. Drag it to move it; drag the blue corner to resize it. Icon tools also provides smaller/larger, rotate left/right, horizontal mirror and delete. Rotation advances in 15° steps. Move symbols away from the arrow and the note’s centre so they remain readable.

Upload a custom image with +, or use Paste icon. If a plain background is detected, compare the original with the transparent result and choose whether to remove it. Custom symbols are embedded in the roadbook. An icon still used by a note cannot be removed from its library until those uses are removed.

7. Road, danger, speed and CAP

In the Note tab, set the Road you leave on. The incoming road style comes from the preceding note. Tarmac uses a double line; tracks and less visible/off-track sections have their own strokes. Choose Danger from none to three exclamation marks.

Speed starts a limit zone at this note; use the end-of-limit choice where it stops. A blank value means no new limit instruction. The Reader carries the active limit forward and reports zones exceeded.

Enable Compass (CAP) to calculate the direction towards the next note. Choose the CAP type to describe the intended instruction. CAP is a bearing in degrees, not the curved arrow’s shape; it updates when the route changes. The last note has no next-note CAP.

8. Waypoint types and detection radius

In Settings → Navigation → Roadbook type, choose Basic (adventure) or Rally (FIA) to expose the appropriate vocabulary. Back on the note, choose Note type and set Detection radius in metres if that note needs a specific value.

Leaving the radius empty inherits the roadbook default, then the type/system fallback. The Reader also applies a GPS noise floor; an extremely small value is not a guarantee of metre-perfect validation. Make the radius appropriate for the actual junction and test it on the route. Choosing Rally vocabulary does not by itself turn a trip into a scored competition; the event determines that.

9. Photos, advertisements, headings and voice

The extra tabs belong to the selected note. Photo and Ad let you choose an image, add a caption and place it before or after the note. They are displayed as content around the note, not as symbols over its arrow.

Heading adds a text block before or after the note: useful for a stage name or a longer explanation without overcrowding the main instruction.

Voice note records spoken guidance. Allow the microphone, press Record, speak for at least two seconds and press Stop. Listen back, use Record again if necessary, and set Play before the note (m). The Reader plays it automatically on approach, 100 m before the note by default. Audio is saved with the roadbook; it is not transcribed.

The separate photo gallery in Settings → Media contains geolocated survey photos. Add photos there or from the map context menu; open a photo to move its pin, create a note there or delete it after confirmation. Survey photos and note-image blocks serve different purposes. Include the gallery photos explicitly when exporting a portable .rdbk. Below the photos, paste a YouTube link to add a video (a Short shows vertical). Photos and videos appear on the roadbook’s public page while the roadbook is public.

10. Settings, visibility and collaboration

Settings has five tabs. Details: the description — what makes the route worth riding, read first on the roadbook’s page — the author, the organisation and the suitable vehicles. Visibility: Private or Public, and Let others copy this public roadbook. Navigation: the roadbook type (Basic or Rally), the default detection radius, whether the Reader may show a map, and Reverse direction. Media: the Logo — your mark, or that of a club, an event or a brand, on the cover of the roadbook’s PDF and embedded in the file — kept apart from the Gallery of photos and videos shown on the roadbook’s public page; the gallery needs the roadbook saved first. Export: every format and, for a saved roadbook, Delete.

Save creates a numbered version. The first time you save a complete roadbook — every note says something — the Editor asks Who can see this roadbook?: Public (recommended) or Private. You answer once; change it any time in Settings → Visibility. A Recorder recording is saved private without asking; when you finish completing its notes in the Editor’s review — the junction, the icons, a few words — the question comes then (Every note is complete: your roadbook is complete — who can see it?) and the roadbook is saved with your answer. A roadbook nobody else reads — private and linked to no event — simply makes each save its active version. One that others read — public, or private but linked to an event — asks Use this as the active version? once per roadbook on that device: No keeps later saves in history without asking again; Yes activates every later save. Versions shows chronological history, pending GPS reviews and exactly one active version; its Use as active version asks every time. The Editor always edits the newest version, and every save goes on top. Restore brings an earlier version back as a new version on top, which readers then use; nothing is deleted. The owner can delete a single version, never the active one. Visibility belongs to the roadbook: activating a version never changes it, so a private roadbook stays private. Photos and audio are shared, not copied for every version. Only the owner and authorised editors can access history. Coordinate before taking over another editor’s lock.

Delete, at the end of Settings → Export, moves a saved roadbook, with its media, to the trash. Do not use deletion as a way to close the editor: Close does that.

11. Export the right format

Export is the last tab of Settings; the Export button of a roadbook in My roadbooks opens that tab directly.

An exported file is a local copy. It does not save your current changes to your account. Keep both a profile save and a .rdbk backup for an important route.

12. Recovery and final checks

An interrupted edit can offer to recover its local draft on this device. Read the prompt before replacing it. Local recovery is not a cross-device backup; clearing browser data can remove it. A map, cloud save, media upload or a library loaded for the first time may need a connection even when local editing remains possible.

Before sharing: follow every note in order, inspect curves and junction branches, confirm speed-zone ends and CAP instructions, listen to audio, check visibility/map access, and open the exported file in the Reader. Desktop shortcuts are also available from Map menu → Shortcuts.

Continue with the Reader, field recording or event organisation.