Route Planner: plan, edit and navigate every route with confidence
Planning a route is where safe navigation really begins, and Aqua Map's Route Planner is built to give you full control over that process, however you like to work. You can let the app calculate the optimal path automatically, build every leg by hand, or mix both approaches within the same route.
Route Planner can also draw on the tracks and routes already saved on your device, using them as your preferred path when calculating a route automatically. And where local data such as USACE Surveys or Coast Guard information is available for your area, Aqua Map factors that in too.
Before you start: download your chart tiles
Route Planner needs chart data to work. Before you start plotting, make sure the chart tiles covering your journey are downloaded, otherwise the route simply won't calculate, and you'll get a pop-up message if you try to place a waypoint on an area you haven't downloaded yet.
To download the tiles you need, tap the Charts icon in the bottom-left corner of the map to open Grid View. For the full walkthrough, check the chart download guide.
Creating a new route
To start a new route, long-press anywhere on the chart where you'd like your first waypoint to sit. Alternatively, tap the chart and select the route icon 
from the pop-up menu. Either way, you'll be asked to choose between two starting options:
- Start from, which uses the point you placed as the beginning of your route.
- Navigate to, which uses that point as your destination, with your current GPS position as the starting point.
Once you make your choice, Aqua Map creates the new route and drops you into Route Planner mode. From here, the app automatically shows the Route editing info window, displays the AUTO/MANUAL toggle at the bottom of the screen, and hides the Search and Camera icons so you can focus on the route itself.
Adding, moving and deleting Waypoints
User Waypoints VS Automatic Waypoints
Every waypoint you place yourself is a User Waypoint . These appear in the Route editing info window and are marked on the map with a distinct symbol (the start
and end points
get their own unique icons too). When Auto mode calculates a path between your waypoints, it also generates Automatic Waypoints
along the way, shown with a much subtler symbol and not listed in the editing window. If you want more control over one of these calculated points, just drag it, and it becomes a User Waypoint you can edit freely.
Adding a Waypoint
You can add a waypoint two ways: tap the "Add Waypoint" button in the Route editing info window, or long-press directly on the map (or tap and select the waypoint icon from the pop-up). Either method adds the new point to the end of your route. You can also tap any Active Captain or Waterway Guide point of interest and use the same button to drop a waypoint right on that location.
Want to insert a waypoint mid-route instead of at the end? Tap directly on the route line to split it. Aqua Map will confirm the split, and you can then drag the new waypoint into the exact position you want.
Deleting a Waypoint
Only User Waypoints can be deleted (Automatic Waypoints exist purely as calculation output). Tap the waypoint on the map and select the trash icon from the pop-up, or find it in the Route editing info window and tap the trash icon on its row.
Moving a Waypoint
Same rule applies: only User Waypoints can be repositioned. Drag it directly on the map, or open the Route editing info window and edit its coordinates field manually.
Auto Mode, Manual Mode, or a bit of both
The AUTO/MANUAL toggle at the bottom-center of the screen controls how Aqua Map calculates your route, and you're not locked into one choice.
You can switch between the two modes freely within the same route, which is what makes Route Planner genuinely flexible rather than just automated or just manual. Auto segments are drawn in dark purple 
and Manual segments in magenta 
, so it's always visually obvious which parts of your route were calculated and which you built yourself.
Auto Mode 
In Auto mode, Aqua Map calculates the optimal path between your User Waypoints automatically. Add, move, or delete a waypoint, and the app recalculates that portion of the route on the fly, based on your vessel's specifications and the routing preferences set on the Route Planner settings page and the My Boat page. It's worth checking both of those pages before running any calculation, since the accuracy of the suggested route depends entirely on them.
While calculating, the Route editing info window shows a progress bar and percentage, and you won't be able to interact with the map except to hit Cancel. If part of your route can't be calculated, Aqua Map will tell you so, usually because your vessel specifications don't match the available chart data, or because a chart tile is missing. The app will also flag any waypoint you place in a non-navigable area.
One important reminder: automatically calculated routes are suggestions, not guarantees. Always review the full route carefully before using it for actual navigation.
Manual Mode 
Prefer to build the route yourself, point by point? Manual mode gives you complete control. Aqua Map will still check your route for hazards as you go, even though nothing is calculated automatically, so you're never editing blind.
Hybrid Mode: mixing Auto and Manual 
Here's where Route Planner gets genuinely useful: you can switch between Auto and Manual as many times as you like while editing the same route. Switching modes doesn't retroactively change anything you've already plotted. If you move from Manual to Auto, nothing that came before gets recalculated, and vice versa. Each mode only affects what you do from that point forward.
The logic behind each mode differs too:
- In Auto mode, moving, adding, or deleting a User Waypoint always triggers a recalculation of the path to the previous and next User Waypoint, regardless of what type those segments were before.
- In Manual mode, nothing is ever recalculated. Adding, moving, or deleting a waypoint simply creates a manual segment to the previous and next point.
A good approach is to set your start and end points (and maybe a few key intermediate points) in Auto mode, let Aqua Map suggest a route, then switch to Manual mode to review it and adjust any sections where you'd rather chart your own path. That combination gives you the speed of automatic calculation with the judgment only you can bring, and reviewing the suggested route is always essential before you rely on it.
Editing an existing route
To edit a route you've already saved, tap it on the chart and select the edit icon from the pop-up. What happens next depends on how the route was originally created. If it's an "old style" route, built before Route Planner existed or imported from elsewhere, Aqua Map treats every segment as manual. If it was created with Route Planner, all your previous editing history is restored, and you pick up right where you left off.
One thing to note: hazards are always fully recalculated when you reopen a route, to account for any chart updates since you last touched it. The automatically calculated segments themselves, however, are not recalculated just because you've reopened the route.
The route editing info window
As soon as you enter Route Planner mode, a window appears summarizing your route and giving you control over the editing process. It comes in two versions: a compact summary and an extended view with full detail. On a smartphone, you'll see the compact version by default (tap it to expand):
On a tablet, the extended version is shown by default on the left side of the screen:
The window includes the route name (which you can only change after saving, from the Route Info page), along with distance, estimated duration, and estimated fuel consumption, calculated using the average speed and fuel data set on the My Boat page. You'll also see a reminder to check your Route Planner settings, with a direct link to that page.
Further down, if any hazards are detected, you'll see how many, along with the full list of your User Waypoints in sequence. From each waypoint's row, you can select it to center the map on it, tap its coordinates to edit position and name, or delete it with the trash icon.
At the bottom of the window: an Add Waypoint button, a Save button (which also lets you start navigation immediately), and a Cancel button that discards all your changes and restores the route to its original state.
How hazards are calculated and displayed
Hazard detection is one of the most valuable parts of Route Planner. Whenever you're in Auto mode, Aqua Map searches for the shortest path with the fewest possible dangers. Sometimes a compromise is unavoidable, especially if you've enabled the Weak Safety checks option, and in those cases the app flags the hazards it found rather than pretending they don't exist.
Importantly, hazard checking isn't limited to automatically calculated segments. Even a route built entirely in Manual mode gets the same hazard analysis, so nothing slips through unreviewed.
On the map, hazards appear as a dedicated symbol placed at the center of the affected area, and the route itself changes color depending on severity:
- Gray, "You cannot pass": a completely non-navigable segment. Auto-calculated routes will never cross these, aside from short stretches needed to reach a destination that isn't directly on the water, like a marina restaurant.
- Orange, "Very critical": a very hazardous segment, caused either by shallow water (your draft setting exceeds the safe depth range for that area) or low clearance under an undeclared structure like a bridge or cable. If you've selected Strong Safety checks, Auto mode avoids these areas entirely.
- Yellow, "Danger: low clearance": the route passes under an opening bridge that must be raised to let your boat through.
- Yellow, "Pay attention: low clearance": the route passes under a bridge or cable with enough clearance to pass, but with a margin tight enough to warrant caution.
You can also review every hazard in list form from the Route editing info window. Each entry shows the time and distance from the start (based on your average speed from the My Boat page) along with a description, and tapping any row centers the map on that hazard.
Adding Waypoints from points of interest
Tapping the Add Waypoint button opens a dedicated search page where you can look up points of interest or pick from your saved markers.
In the top-right corner, a globe icon 
opens the Set Coordinates window, so you can enter exact latitude and longitude if you already know where you want to go. From the results list, tap any item to center the map on it, or tap the Add Waypoint icon to insert it as the last point on your route.
Route Planner settings
You'll find Route Planner settings from the main Settings page.
This is where you fine-tune how Auto mode calculates routes and how hazards are flagged, and it's worth reviewing before you rely on any automatically generated route.
Turning Route Planner off entirely still lets you create and edit routes, but you lose access to Auto mode and, more importantly, all hazard calculation. In other words, with it disabled, you won't be warned about hazards at all while editing or navigating.
Resolution and safety checks. Resolution controls how much detail goes into calculating a route. Standard works well for most navigation, while High resolution helps with narrow channels and tight passages, at the cost of longer calculation time. Safety Checks determine how cautious the algorithm is: Strong keeps the route strictly within safe areas based on available chart data, while Weak may route you through potentially shallow water or hazards, so use it carefully and only when you understand the trade-off.
Using your own tracks and routes. If you enable "Use visible Tracks & Routes," Auto mode will treat any track or route currently visible on your device, including imported ones, as your preferred path. "Skip Track safety check" removes safety validation from those tracks entirely, which should only be used with tracks you already trust for your specific boat. Track/Routes priority controls how strictly the algorithm follows them: Standard treats them as a guide and will suggest something more efficient if it finds one, while High follows them closely, even if that means a longer route.
Draft and clearance margins. Here you set extra safety margins added on top of your boat's draft and height, as defined on the My Boat page. Draft setting adds margin when checking depth data, and Clearance setting adds margin when checking passage under bridges, cables, or other overhead structures. Getting your boat's actual draft and height right on the My Boat page first is essential, since these margins are calculated on top of those numbers, not instead of them.
Local data. Aqua Map factors in any local data currently displayed on your screen when calculating routes and hazards. If USACE Surveys are switched on, for instance, Auto mode uses them (respecting the same age-filtering settings from the USACE Surveys page). Turn that layer off, and it's left out of the calculation entirely.
Want to see it in action?
For a full walkthrough of Route Planner in use, check out our video tutorial.
