One Click to the Shortest Walking Route: Automatic Point Reordering
Add your stops, click a button, and automatically optimize your tour for the fastest, most efficient walking path in just a few seconds.
Planning the perfect walking tour involves a delicate balance of captivating stories, historical insights, and, crucially, a logical flow that enhances the user experience. Over time, as you enrich your ARTOUR guides with new points of interest, the walking order can sometimes become a bit… meandering. What started as a clear path can evolve into a zigzagging journey, potentially adding unnecessary distance and confusion for your visitors.
With ARTOUR, your route no longer needs constant fine-tuning. Let the technology take care of the logistics while you focus on what really matters—creating an engaging experience for your visitors. That’s exactly what our new “Optimize walking order” feature is designed to do.
Optimize Walking Order
Whether you are building a quick city tour or an extensive outdoor trail, our automatic reordering instantly arranges your points of interest into the most efficient sequence possible, without unnecessary backtracking.
How It Works
The new "Optimize walking order" feature is your new magic wand that perfectly blends automation and manual control, with no need for any technical expertise to use it.
1. Optimize in One Click
Open the "Edit route points order" dialog and click the magic-wand button. The system instantly re-sorts all stops into the shortest possible open walking path, saving your visitors from unnecessary detours.
2. Get Instant Feedback
See exact distancew savings immediately with clear metrics (e.g., Walking distance 4.31 km -> 2.87 km (-33%)). If your route is already optimal, the system confirms it right away.
3. Stay in Total Control
Nothing is saved automatically. The proposed order updates in your drag-and-drop list so you can make manual adjustments before clicking "Save changes" to commit the new order.
See It in Action
Watch our quick video guide to learn how you can optimize your walking routes in just one click.
Under the Hood:
Precision, Not Prediction
For the technically curious, let's peek behind the curtain. When we set out to solve the challenge of optimizing walking routes, we knew we needed a solution that was robust, reliable, and perfectly suited to the task. This isn't a job for a general-purpose AI model sorting coordinates; it's a classic computational problem known as the Traveling Salesman Path (TSP) problem. Instead of relying on probabilistic AI, our feature employs a sophisticated geometric algorithm executed right in your browser.
Real Walking Distances
The algorithm calculates actual walking distances between the geographical coordinates of your points.
Every Starting Point Considered
A nearest-neighbor approach tests every possible starting point to identify the best initial route.
2-Opt Route Refinement
The route is further improved using a 2-opt process, intelligently swapping segments until no better route can be found.
The result? A highly efficient, optimized route that arrives instantly, costs nothing to run, and is completely deterministic – the same set of points will always yield the same optimal path. Furthermore, it comes with the exact distance saved, a guarantee that would be difficult to achieve with less precise methods.
Practical Safety & Prerequisites
We've also built in some practical safeguards. Points with missing or broken geographical coordinates (latitude/longitude) won't derail your optimization. Instead, they are intelligently "parked" at the end of the list with a clear warning, ensuring they don't drag your route off the map. To perform an effective optimization, the feature requires at least three located points in your guide to calculate a meaningful path.
This new feature is designed to save you valuable time, reduce manual effort, and ultimately provide an even better, more streamlined experience for your guide users, ensuring every step they take is part of a thoughtfully planned, efficient journey. We believe this blend of smart technology and user control will become an indispensable tool for all ARTOUR content creators.
Ready to Optimize Your Guides?
Log in to your authoring dashboard today and try the new "Optimize walking order" feature to eliminate unnecessary detours and give your visitors a seamless, enjoyable walking path.