Stops vs Via points. What’s the difference?
Typically you use stops for places where you actually would like to stop (a restaurant, a specific gas station, that waterfall you don’t want to miss, this little town you want to visit, etc.). Via points are typically used to shape your route (they are sometimes called shaping points in other software). So, they are meant to force the route to take the roads you want.
During planning there are few differences between stops and vias, but during navigation, the differences are significant.
| Stop | Via | |
|---|---|---|
| During Planning | ||
| Name | You can edit the name of a stop during planning | Vias do not have a name. They are always called Via 1, Via 23, etc. |
| Distance and travel time in the route timeline | The route timeline will give distance and travel time between stops. | The route timeline does not give distance and travel time between vias. |
| During Navigation | ||
| Approaching / getting close to it | For stops you get a navigation instruction (visual and audible) similar to a normal instruction like "turn left" or "turn right" in 500 meters. You will see the name of the stop too. | No navigation instructions. |
| If you deviate from the route. | Stops will never be automatically skipped. (they can be skipped manually with the "skip waypoint" button) | Via points may automatically be skipped, depending on your "IF I LEAVE THE ROUTE" setting under Settings > Navigation & Tracking > Detour Behaviour. |
| Auto-skipping upon deviation from the route | Stops will never be auto-skipped. | If Auto-skip next Via is enabled (in Settings > Navigation & Tracking > Detour Behaviour), the next via point will be skipped after the set number of recalculations. |
| Time to next stop/via | Scenic can display the ETA to the next stop (if enabled in Settings > Navigation & Tracking > Show distance and time to). | Scenic can NOT display time and distance to the next via. |
| Distance in "skip waypoint" button. | If the next waypoint is a stop, the "skip waypoint" button will show the distance to it. | If the next waypoint is a via, the "skip waypoint" button will NOT show the distance to it. |
Tip: when using via points to shape the route, do not place them at junctions. Rather place them between two junction, so that Scenic does not have to guess on which road of the junction the via point belongs (it might guess wrong and create little loops in your route).
Also have a look at the power planner tutorial video. At 5:30 the difference is mentioned. It’s a good video to watch regardless.
