Show bearings between waypoints
I suggest that bearings be shown (or at least displayable upon request) for (1) route segments and (2) between two selected waypoints.
This information is already visible and helpful on ios if you ask for bearing and distance from your present location. But when you are not at one of the two points it is not.
The present backup alternatives (drawing and measuring angles on a paper map, or geometric calculations based on UTM differentials) are cumbersome.
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I agree.
This makes the app much more versatile without any additional clutter. The info could be displayed in the route info page right below distance or ascent.
For instance, I'm setting up orienteering courses, to be able to drop the points and mark them on my phone and then when I get back to my computer find and print distances and bearings. This seems to be a simple addition, the ability to create routes from pre existing way points.
Please add this as it is frustrating and confusing why we can't already.
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BTW - I was experimenting (at home using a saved route) with ability to measure distance between points while out on the trail. The info provided when doing this is not only the distance - but also what appears to be a bearing "from me" (assume in this case I'm at the first point) to the second point.
I've only tried this at home using a saved route. Here's how to do it: (i) Long press on your current position, (ii) long press on the spot you want to go to / measure, (iii) make sure select Hiking at lower LH corner. Each point added from the long presses is a waypoint - and when you tap either one it shows distance between them. If you tap the one that is your current position - I believe it will show bearing to the 2nd point (though testing it from home - it shows bearing from my home (I think) as it states "356% from me" - even though on the route portion I used, the actual bearing would be ~ 90%. And of course - after you have the needed info - delete these new WP's so they don't appear on your saved route!
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good lord how many people have to ask for this before GAIA gets it done? I have been requesting this for years. It’s a no-brainer and entirely ridiculous that it hasn’t been included from the get-go. It is absolutely basic tour planning functionality and the lack of capability can add massive amounts of time while i export data to OTHER COMPETITOR APPS/WEBSITES just to do this.
Yeah, apologies for the “shouting” but this has been completely infuriating ...for a really long time.
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FYI, for those interested in how to hack around GAIA’s problem here (at least for routes in the USA), the most efficient option I’ve found is:
- get the Topo Maps app for iOS
- export your waypoints in GPX format
- open with the Topo Maps app (your GPX file will be under the “Waypoint Files” link)
- place your center marker over the waypoint you are measuring FROM
- open the measuring tool link (button in upper left that looks sort of like “radar”)
- drag the centerpoint to hover over your next waypoint
- distance and direction (True) will be noted on the screen
Hope that helps. There are more ways/apps to do this. Hopefully Gaia gets this figured out for the app soon.
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Circling back after two years.
WHAT DO WE WANT?!?!
BEARINGS BETWEEN WAY POINTS!
WHEN DO WE WANT IT?!?!?!
TWO FREAKING YEARS AGO!
If you are reading this then mark your calendar and bookmark this page, then come back here in a month and scream it to the devs again and again and again.
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As far as aware I can only see the bearing/azimuth to points from my current position. That's great and all but I would like to be able to see the bearing between two points, whether that's on a straight line route or simply two waypoints doesnt make a difference to me but we need the feature. It should be extremely easy to do so since it would be just calculating the bearing based on the rise over run between two points.
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4 years already, since I first asked for that help. Time flies.
Meanwhile, in my Search & Rescue work, we've switched over to using CalTopo (actually a version of that called SarTopo). FWIW, it's easy to compute bearing and distance with that program, on the desktop.
On the cell phone version of SarTopo (which we use in the field), if it's possible to do the same, I've not figured that out yet; but it's easy to show bearing/distance to a point, from where you are at the time.
If I were just traveling on my own, I'd still prefer Gaia, just because I'm more used to it now, and perhaps that's why it still seems easier or more intuitive to me. And the (downgraded) free version that I can still use as a first responder is adequate. But SarTopo is quite adept, and has real strength when used by teams where people want to track each other or share maps and markers, or access many helpful layers.
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I'd also recommend CalTopo and Hillmap for anyone who wants a much more robust set of tour planning tools. But with this simple add on Gaia would again be useful enough to bring me back. Until then I'll keep pointing my clients and ski-touring friends elsewhere.
I keep it on my phone as a backup since it's easy to share tracks and tour plans with the platform. Seems like it might be time to stop paying for the Member level though. I'll have to look into SarTopo for those capabilities.
Gaia - your users have been asking for this for years. Paying attention to your customers, especially your paying customers, seems like a worthwhile usage of your time.
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Thanks for sharing that Robert. Glad to hear about SarTopo and that there's a tool like it for SAR groups; it's good to see new technology other than a map, compass, and handheld GPS being used, which was my experience in SAR. I've used Gaia maps for SAR but it's limiting compared to the features that SarTopo has. Unfortunately I don't think Gaia will ever implement any SAR features and as far as other feature requests go, it seems like very few are implemented.
As a programmer, it is especially frustrating since I could code some of the features that I'm looking for but alas I am not able to. It would be really nice to see an open source app similar to gaia where anybody can contribute to the code and anybody can collaborate on coding the feature requests the community is looking for.
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I've started sailing and being able to calculate bearing along a planned route is critical. Gaia provides the NOAA charts basemap, so they recognize that boating is a market, but without being able to calculate bearings of legs along a planned route is a show stopper (yet it would be super easy to add to the route-building pop-up banner at the bottom of the window, which currently only has the mode selection, distance, and ascent. It would be super easy to add course bearing to this banner).
Gaia, if you are listening: Other marine apps are clunky, your app is way more intuitive and includes more options for base maps (I've been using it inland for years), except you have a couple missing minor little issues like this that would make it competitive within the boating community. You are missing out on a huge market. No, you won't every pick up the die hard compass and sextant folks, but the majority of boaters these days are using navigation apps on their phones and tablets instead of expensive dedicated GPS units and high-cost digital charts.There's a huge market.
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