The Route Map element draws a recorded track on a map: a marathon, a training ride, a long walk. Around it you can print the numbers that make it personal, including the runner’s bib number and finish time. This guide covers building one and letting a customer bring their own race.
A route map needs an actual recording. If your customer never recorded the journey, use Travel Map instead, which needs only a list of places.
Give it a route
Add the element
Open Elements and click the Sport route tile. It lands selected, with its Edit tab open.
Upload a sample track
Under Route, choose Upload GPX or TCX. Both formats come out of a watch or a training app. The map re-frames itself around the track and reads its statistics: Distance, Elevation gain, Time and Pace.
Upload something representative. This is the track that ships with the template and prints if the customer uploads nothing of their own. To change it later, use Replace route file; to go back to an empty element, Remove route.
Or start from a race
If the product is for a named race, type in the Or a race search, by race, city or country. Picking one draws its course and frames the map around it.
Some races have no course line yet. They are labelled City only in the list: picking one frames the host city, and the panel says so. For the real course line, still upload the GPX.
Add the race details
Two fields under Content carry the numbers a runner actually wants on the wall.
- Bib number is the number pinned to the shirt on the day.
- Finish time is written as hours, minutes and seconds, for example 3:42:10.
Neither is drawn on the map by itself. They become available to caption text, which is how you place them where you want them on the poster. See Auto-filling captions from an element.
Style the line
The Look section on the Design tab has the same looks and Map colors as City Map, plus controls for the track itself. The look gallery groups the Sport looks, made for a training or race route, and the classic Map looks.
- Route sets the line’s colour, with the swatch at the start of the row, and its thickness. Pattern makes it Solid or Dashed.
- Start · end styles the two ends of the track one at a time. Pick Start or Finish, then its Mark, its colour with the swatch at the end of that row, and its Size, so a green start and a red finish is one setting each. None leaves that end unmarked.
- Shape, Edge and Glow work exactly as they do on a city map.
A route reads best on a quiet basemap. Turning off Place names and Buildings usually makes the line the only thing the eye follows.
Let the runner bring their own race
Each switch under What customers can change, on the Personalize tab, adds one thing to the customizer:
- Upload a route puts a file field in the customizer, so the shopper attaches their own GPX or TCX. The map, the statistics and any captions all follow their track. While it is on, More than one route lets them attach several files, for a multi-day trip or a season; each file becomes its own track.
- Pick a race gives them the race search instead of a file.
- Bib number and Finish time add those two text fields.
The map frames the shopper’s track by itself, so there is no switch for them to move or zoom it.
For a race-day product sold at one event, leave the route fixed and switch on only the bib and finish fields: everyone ran the same course, and only their numbers differ.
Credit lines
A route map credits OpenStreetMap like any other map, below the canvas here and under the shopper’s preview in the customizer. When the line comes from a race preset rather than an uploaded file, the properties panel adds Course route derived from OpenStreetMap, which is a note to you about where that course came from.
Neither line is a layer, so neither is drawn into the exported print file. See credits on a smart element.
Next
Add the climb with Elevation Profile, or put the numbers on the poster with caption tokens.