About SketchMap
SketchMap turns a start point and a finish point into a route you can watch, read and pass around. You type two locations, pick how you are travelling, and the route is drawn on the map as a colour-graded line with directional arrows and a head marker that runs the course in front of you. The result gets its own web address, so sending someone the route is just sending them a link.
Who it is for
It was built with cyclists, runners, race organisers and group-ride leaders in mind — anyone who has ever tried to describe a course over text and given up. It works equally well for briefing a team on a delivery run or showing an audience where an event actually goes.
How it works
- Routing comes from the Google Maps Platform Directions service.
- The map is drawn by Google Maps; the route line, arrows and animation are drawn by SketchMap on top of it, as vector layers rather than an image.
- Your route is encoded in the page address. There is no database and no account — the link is the saved route.
- Route lookups run through our own edge service, which caches results briefly so that a popular link does not re-query the routing provider for every visitor.
What it deliberately does not do
No sign-ups, no profiles, no follower counts, no notifications. SketchMap is a tool, not a social network. Route accuracy, safety and legality are matters for your own judgement — please read the terms before using a route in the real world.
Contact
Questions, bug reports and feature requests: piumaldias@gmail.com.