Follow trails and roads

Choose Walking, Cycling or Driving beside the drawing tools, and each new leg follows the real path or road from the last point to the one you add, with Apple Maps choosing the way. Choose Straight for a line as the crow flies.

On the Mac the same choice is in Shape ▸ Draw Paths: Straight Lines, Follow Paths (Walking), Follow Roads (Cycling) and Follow Roads (Driving). The choice applies only with Add Points.

While a leg is being found the panel shows “Finding a route…”. If Apple Maps has no route between two points, the leg is drawn straight and the panel says so. A routed path shows Apple Maps’ travel time beside its length.

Changing a routed path

The points you placed are kept in the file with the mode of each leg, so the route opens the same way tomorrow.

• Drag one of your points and the legs beside it are routed again.
• Delete one and its neighbours are joined along the road.
• Mix modes: change the mode before adding the next point, and only the new legs use it.

A route that closes an area along roads would retrace itself, so an area closes with a straight line.

Routes come from Apple Maps and may not include every trail. If a trail is missing, add a point in between on the trail, try Walking instead of Cycling, or keep the straight leg.