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Routino setup

Assume, QMapShack is correctly installed. Then the Routino routing engine is in principal ready for use but it needs still some routing data for proper work. The steps in this section describe how to set up this routing data.

1. Check, if the Routino routing engine is correctly installed:

   • Start QMapShack from a console window with parameter -f to write a debug logfile:

     path_to_qms/qmapshack.exe -f
     

   • Open the debug logfile org.qlandkarte.QMapShack.log which is located in

     • c:\Users\user_name\AppData\Local\Temp\ (for Windows systems),
     • /tmp/ (for Linux-type systems).

   • If a line of the form

     2020-11-08 18:03:56.036 [debug] "ROUTINO" path "some_path/translations.xml"
     

     can be found in this debug log, then the Routino routing engine is correctly installed. Otherwise, the installation is corrupted and must be repeated. Linux users should compare the section about the Routino installation.

2. Load OpenStreetMap data from the Internet:

   • Open the Geofabrik homepage.
   • Click on your region (e.g. Europe).
   • Find your subregion (e.g. Germany).
   • If the subregion is the wanted one, then click on [.osm.pbf] to download the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data for this region (pay attention to file size!). Otherwise, click on the subregion name and find (if available) a smaller region and download its .osm.pbf file (e.g. Berlin as German subregion with download file berlin-latest.osm.pbf).
   • Repeat these steps for other required regions.
   • Hint: Don't download OSM data for regions bigger than those where your routes are located. The smaller the downloaded region the better the performance of the routing engine. If you have to route across region borders, then use the technique described later for cross-border routing.

3. Prepare Routino databases from OpenStreetMap data:

   • Preliminary remark: This step is necessary to convert the raw OSM data downloaded in the previous step into a highly efficient database form for use in the routing engine. This conversion can be seen as a filter that removes those OSM data items not used by the routing engine. The Routino package includes a tool for this conversion (planetsplitter.exe). The easiest way to create these databases is with QMS itself which can access planetsplitter.
   • Start QMS and choose the menu entry Tool - Create Routino database.
   • A new notebook window will open.
   • Select one or several downloaded .pbf source files with the help of the open icon at the top of the tool window (in the example shown select D:\GPS\Test\EN\berlin-latest.osm.pbf).
   • Select a target path (should have write access!) with the help of the open icon at the bottom of the tool window (in the example shown select D:\GPS\Test\EN\).
   • Select a short prefix as an identifier for the used region (in the example BE for Berlin). This prefix is also used as a filename prefix for 4 Routino database files with extension .mem created by this tool in the target folder.
   • Click the Start button next to the prefix field to start the data conversion process.
   • In the upper right column of the tool window you can follow the executed actions. This process can take some time! The completion of the operation is shown.

4. Use of several Routino databases and cross-border routing:

   • A Routino database can be built for each .pbf file, i.e. for each selected region. To do this, select just one .pbf file as source file and create its Routino database as described in the previous point. The used prefixes must be unique! More than one folder can be used as target path. If a single routing database is created for each region, then these databases support only routing within the given region. They don't support cross-border routing, i.e. routing from one region into another one.
   • If cross-border routing is wanted, then the user should select the .pbf files for all regions needed as source files and then create one routing database for these regions. The resulting database supports cross-border routing.

5. Setup Routino database paths in QMS:

   • Go to the Routing window (if not visible, open it with the menu entry Window - Routing!).
   • Select Routino (offline) in the listbox at the top of the window as routing engine.
   • Add the folders with Routino databases using the open icon at the end of the database selection line.
   • The database listbox shows now the prefixes of all Routino databases in all selected folders (here the above-mentioned uniqueness of the prefixes is essential!).

6. Setup routing parameters:

   • Go again to the Routing window.

   • Select a profile (a vehicle type) from the profile listbox (e.g. Bicycle).

   • Select a language for routing instructions from the language listbox (e.g. English, can be different from the language used in the user interface!)

   • Select a mode (shortest resp. quickest) from the mode listbox (e.g. Shortest).

   • Select a routing database from the database listbox (e.g. BE for the Berlin region).

   • Routes and tracks can now be created with the support of the offline Routino router (in the area covered by the selected routing database, in the example for Berlin!).

     

7. Change/add routing profiles:

   This feature is available starting with QMS commit a0eda84 - 2020-06-23 08:10:57, check entry labeled [QMS-158] in the QMS changelog to find out if this feature is available in a QMS release version.

   When QMS is using Routino as routing engine it reads in several Routino configuration files. Details about these configuration files can be found here. By default, these files are located

   • for Windows in the routino-xml subdirectory of the QMS installation directory,
   • for Linux in the /usr/local/share/routino folder.

   One of the configuration files is profiles.xml. The purpose of this XML configuration file is to allow users with administrator rights (the above-mentioned directories are read-only!) modifications of the routing parameters for the offered vehicle types. The structure of the profiles.xml file is described here.

   In addition to the default profiles file QMS users can define folder- and database-specific profiles files. To do this proceed as follows:

   • Folder-specific profile:
     • Choose a folder with some Routino databases.
     • Copy the default profiles.xml file to this folder.
     • Modify the configuration in the copied file as necessary.
     • The folder-specific configuration file replaces the default one. It is applied to all Routino databases in the given folder with the exception of those having a database-specific configuration.
   • Database-specific profile:
     • Assume, you have a Routino database with files prefix-*.mem in some folder.
     • Copy the default profiles.xml file to prefix-profiles.xml in this folder.
     • Modify the configuration in the copied file as necessary.
     • The database-specific configuration file replaces the default and folder-specific ones. It is only applied to the Routino database with the given prefix.
   • Several profiles for some routing database:
     • Copy the prefix-*.mem files of the considered database to prefix_xxx-*.mem where xxx should describe the profile variant.
     • Define a new profile file prefix_xxx-profiles.xml as described above.
   • Warning: Don't add new profile tags to a profile file and don't change the name or transport attributes of a profile tag! Change only the values of tags within a profile tag (kph, percent, ...).

   Here is an example of the use of 3 different profiles files for one Routino database when creating a route/track through 3 waypoints (the area under consideration has lots of bridges not suitable for bicycles, cycle routes, and footpaths):

   

   The routing properties used for the 3 variants are

   type	default (%) - red	bike routes & no bridges (%) - blue	foot & no bike routes (%) - green
   bridge	50	0	100
   footroute	50	50	100
   bicycleroute	60	100	10

   Comments:

   • The blue route with a high preference of cycle routes and which should avoid bridges follows mainly cycle routes. It is rather long because it avoids bridges.
   • The green route with a high preference for bridges and footpaths.
   • The red default route is a compromise between the extreme blue and green routes.