Guidance in Locus Map is a process of direct guiding towards a point or along a route. Unlike navigation it does not provide voice turn-by-turn instructions along roads on a map but shows direction, distance or estimated time of reaching a target. Therefore it is useful mainly for hiking and biking off-road or in badly mapped areas, and especially for geocaching. It is usable also for such “exotic” sports like sailing or flying.

There are two kinds of guidance in Locus Map:

• Guidance to a point
• Guidance along a route

This function is executable by several ways depending on where you select the point to guide to:

• Menu > Points (or top panel > Data > Points tab) > folder with the point
• Tap the selected point
• Tap Navigation button in the bottom panel and select Guide On
• A line of arrows accompanied by the distance indicator stretches between your position and the point
• The Guidance button in the upper left corner appears - it displays the point detail info

Point search results are always displayed on the map:

• select the point for guidance
• tap it and again tap the arrow button on the popup label
• select Guide On
  

LoMaps POI

• shift the map screen center at any of LoMaps POI icons on the map or tap any of them directly
• tap the arrow and select Guide On

Places to guide to can be easily selected by long-tapping the map on the spot, tapping the arrow button on the label with address and selecting Guide On. If nothing happens when long-tapping the screen, enable the function in Settings > Map - control&panels > Enable address search

When you start guiding to a point a special control panel appears at the top of the screen. It displays information about the point, its distance and direction. In case of guidance to a geocache there are also other facts like the cache type, difficulty and terrain. Tapping the panel displays the point detail screen. The context menu on the right side of the panel contains following:

• Point detail - opens the point detail screen too
• Hint - in case of guidance to a geocache
• Load all waypoints - in case of guidance to a geocache
• Navigate to - switches to turn-by-turn navigation and calculates route
• Guide Off - stops guidance
• Compass - switches into compass view and guidance
• Hide - makes the point invisible on map

Locus Map can notify you when you reach defined distance from the point of guidance, repeat and even increase frequency of the alerts when getting nearer.

• Menu > Settings > Guidance > Notification
• Switch Notification on
• Select notification mode:
  • Notify at distance - Locus alerts you once when you reach defined distance
  • Repeated notification - Locus alerts you repeatedly in defined distance intervals
  • Increase frequency when approaching the point - Locus alerts with repeated beeps with increased frequency
• Set the distance you want to be alerted at (or distance interval between repeated notifications). When the first two options are selected, there are further settings:
• Settings of sound
  • Disable - all sounds are disabled, notification is made by the device screen and vibrator only
  • Beep - notification by a beeping sound. It is possible to set number of beeps (1-10)
  • Select sound - select any sound stored in your device memory
  • Text-To-Speech - voice notification informing about distance and direction of the point

Tap Play to check your sound settings.

• Settings of vibration - visible only when the device is equipped by a vibrator (mainly mobile phones)
  
  • Disable - the device does not vibrate on notifications
  • Pattern - sets notification vibrating pattern, using three symbols: '.' for 200 miliseconds vibration, '-' for 500 miliseconds vibration and ' ' (space) for 500 miliseconds of silence.

Tap Play to check your vibration settings.

Locus can zoom the map automatically according to the distance from the point you are guided to - the closer the target is the bigger zoom is displayed. The option can be switched on in Settings > Maps advanced > Miscellaneous > check Speed Auto-zoom.

Technically, guidance along a route is actually guidance to a chain of trackpoints. You are guided to the first point of the route, then to the second etc. It is useful e.g. for sailing, sea-kayaking, flying or crosscountry hiking when there are no roads for turn-by-turn navigation. Nevertheless, Locus Map can help you with orientation by screen and sound alerts at important track turns.

• Menu (or top panel > Data manager) > Tracks tab
• tap the selected track to display the detail screen
• bottom panel > Navigation/guidance button > Guidance (check Guide reversely if you need reverse guiding)
• a line with the indicator of distance stretches between your position and the starting point
• direction-change waypoints emerge on the route line
• an additional upper bar emerges

• Locus Map can alert you of the next direction change (if you set it up) by a sound signal and switching the display on (must be pre-set as well).

• Guidance button
  • information - detail info on the track
  • nearest point - guidance to the nearest point of the track (it does not have to be the starting point)
  • next point - guidance to the nearest trackpoint of the previous one
  • guide off - aborts the guidance
• two optional fields - tapping them unfolds a menu of features to display:
  • Distance to target (default)
  • Time to target - estimated time calculated upon your average speed
  • Time of arrival - estimated arrival time calculated upon your average speed
  • Name of next waypoint - in case the waypoints are named
  • Distance to next waypoint
  • Time to next waypoint - estimated time calculated according to current speed
  • Time - device clock
  • Altitude - current altitude of the user, calculated from GPS or the device barometer
  • Speed

• Menu > Settings > Guidance

• Show guidance panel - sets display of an additional panel with information about the point, its distance and direction etc. The panel is ON by default.
• Notification - see Guidance notifications >>

• Set next trackpoint - sets the distance at which Locus Map switches the guidance to a next trackpoint
• Set notification of the next direction change - Locus Map can evaluate which trackpoints are important for turning your direction when guiding you along a track, makes waypoints on such spots and can alert you of such waypoints. Tap the item to display the notification settings.
• Out of track notification - notifies user of leaving the track/route. Tapping the item displays a dialog to set the alert distance, notification repetition and sound settings.
• Advanced settings:
  • Strict route guidance - depending on the track shape Locus Map automatically selects trackpoints that are closer than the pre-set distance. This option switches this automation off and Locus guides along the track strictly from point to point.
  • Number of alerts - defines number of alerts of direction changes on the track: low - medium - high
  • Notify on every trackpoint - starts continuous notification of accurate following the track. Applies only for tracks without navigation waypoints, e.g. when sailing, flying or sea-kayaking.

• Color - sets the color of guiding lines and texts
• Line resize - changes % size of guiding line
• Figure above guiding line - defines the figure displaying above the guiding line - distance, bearing, time to target or elevation
• Figure below guiding line - defines the figure displaying below the guiding line - the same selection as above
• Text size - sets the guiding texts size (dynamic altitude, labels etc.)