Introduction and Help

Canalplan AC is a web-based program designed to help you plan a journey on Britain's inland waterways. It has evolved from programs my family has used to help plan our holidays for many years.

In general I think that the interface is fairly self explanatory, and I recommend you try it out to find out how it works, but a few notes might help...

To use the program it is necessary to define at least a start point for the journey by entering a place name in the "Start from" box on the main form. For help on selecting places, see Place finder below. If the "Finish At" box is left empty, then the start place will be used for this (in other words, the default action is an out-and-back or circular cruise).

If you wish to do a circular route, enter the starting place in the appropriate box, and a pair of points at about one third and two thirds of the way round the ring in the "intermediate places" boxes. Similarly, you may want to use the intermediate places to define a route if you do not wish to take the obvious path or if you want to include diversions up arms etc.

The little menu symbol by each "place" box allow you edit the list of places. The options available are:

• Clear - erases the contents of the box
• Delete - erases the contents, and moves other places up to close the gap
• Insert - makes a space to insert a new intermediate place
• Look up - Searches for places matching the text in the box (only works if the box is not empty)
• Replace - Calls the place finder and replaces the contents of the box with the result

The radio buttons and check boxes towards the bottom of the form affect the display. The first set the amount of detail shown in a route and the second if the route should be shown in tabular or list form ("with titles" means that waterway names will be displayed as well as places).

The buttons at the far right actually affect the route generation. "Quickest route" calculates the most direct route between the places, using your cruising speeds, but ignoring your preferences. This can include very large tidal rivers. "Preferred route" will pick the route that best matches your choice of cruising speeds and liking for types of waterway.

Before calculating a route it is necessary to set your cruising speeds and (except for "Quickest Route") preferences. This is done with the "Set Options" button at the bottom left. This also allows you to set other useful functions such as whether links to gazetteer information (the little pointing hands) are displayed. See below for more details.

When everything is ready, press "Calculate Route" to produce the route listing.

The Options Screen

This is divided into three sections. The first ("General Options") controls miscellaneous functions, mainly to do with display. The options available are:

Always show options before calculating

If checked, this screen will be displayed whenever a route is calculated: the "Continue" buttons will be replaced with "Calculate Route" buttons.

Miles, Miles and furlongs, Kilometers

Controls the way distances are displayed in route lists and table.

Show extra place info

If checked, some places will have extra information (bridge numbers, distances to towns, snippets of history) displayed in route lists.

Place and waterways gazetteer

If checked, a small pointing hand will be placed in the route tables and lists next to any places for which gazetteer information exists. Clicking on this hand will pop-up the gazetteer window. If "list with titles" is selected, some waterways will have their names prefixed with a black triangle. This will pop up the gazetteer window with information about the waterway, sometimes some history, a list of places with gazetteer info and a list of other sites with information about the waterway. (See "Gazetteer Links by Icons" below for more on this).

Show times for each leg of route

This shows the calculated cruising time for each stage of the route and a cumulative total.

Show movable bridges in route

In addition to the distance and number of locks in each stage of the route, any moveable bridges will also be listed

Gazetteer links by icons

Unless "Place and waterways gazetteer" is checked this does nothing. Otherwise it replaces the "hands" and "arrows" described above with more standard links using the text

The next section of the form is labelled "Preferred Route Options". This allows you to chose how much you like cruising on each sort of waterway, and to select your speeds through the water and through locks for each. "NEVER" means never - it is possible to prevent routes from being generated through over zealous use of this

By setting the "time per lift or swing bridge" you get more realistic calculations for some waterways, in particular the Skipton to Bingley section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. If the program knows that a bridge is usually left open, it will not add time for passing it.

The "Avoid repeating places" selector is used to make it easier to create circular routes. When set to "No", it does nothing; when set to "Somewhat" a leg of a route will only be repeated if that way is twice as quick as any alternative and when set to "Yes" it will never repeat a leg if there is any other way. So, for example, Braunston to Braunston via Fradley Junction will be an out-and-back cruise for "No" and a ring for "Somewhat" and "Yes". Braunston to Braunston via Ansty will only be a ring for "Yes".

The row starting "Use boat size" is used to allow you to limit the route generated to ones that a particular boat can pass through. To use this option check the box and enter the size of your boat. Note that the dimensions used are the official maximum sizes: it is often in fact possible to pass a longer boat than the size shown if it is not the full width.

This section of the form also contains a list of waterways that will not be used for preferred routes unless you check the appropriate box. This is particularly useful if you want to plan a trip in the future, when a waterway currently under construction or restoration will be open.

Place Finder

All major towns and junctions are included in the database (if you think differently, please let me know) but to help you find the closest place to somewhere that is not present, or just to provide an alternative way of chosing places, a "place finder" has been provided. This will allow you to home in on the waterway of your choice and to select a place on it. Normally the place finder will insert the chosen place in the first blank box on the form. So, if you want to add a place between two others, first insert an empty box (using the arrow icon) and then call the place finder

If the "Place Finder" button is pressed with a incomplete name in any of the input boxes it will do an exhaustive search of the database for places matching the input and let you select one. This is useful if you find that otherwise the program is insisting on changing what you type into something else.

You can also find places based on their coordinates. This is particularly useful if you use a GPS device when travelling. Enter coordinates into the lookup box in one of the following formats:

• Short-form OS grid coordinates. For example SD446560 for Glasson Basin
• Full OS grid coordinates. For example 374200 206700 for Splatt Bridge. Use either a comma or a space between the eastings and northings
• Numeric latitude and longitude, in degrees with decimals. For example 51.35198,-1.85064 for Honey Street Wharf
• Numeric latitude and longitude using N/S and E/W, For example 52.18903N,0.94665W for Gayton
• Traditional latitude and longitude, using compass points in place of the degree sign. For example 51N48'49" 0W48'27" for Aylesbury
• Latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes, with decimal places of minutes. For example 52n17'14 1w12'35 for Braunston

In general I recommend playing with the software to get a feel for it. Famously, all software contains at least one bug, and I'm pretty sure that there are more than that in here. Please let me know of any (and of any enhancements that you'd like to see - many of the best features have been suggested by users).

Frequently Asked Questions