Every route shows an estimate like Est. 3 min · 180 m. That comes from two numbers you control: a scale that turns the drawn path length into real-world metres, and a walking speed that turns metres into minutes. Get the scale right and your estimates are genuinely useful; get it wrong and every route is off by the same factor.
How the estimate is worked out
The maths is simple: distance = path length × scale, then time = distance ÷ walking speed. The path length is measured from your route line, so the only things that can make the estimate wrong are the scale and the speed.
Scale from GPS (recommended)
The most accurate scale isn't typed at all — it's derived from your GPS corners. When every level that has an image has all four GPS corners set (on the GPS tab), Mapvera works out real-world distances directly from those coordinates, per level. That beats a single hand-typed scale because it accounts for each level's own image and layout.
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Leave "Auto-calculate scale from GPS" ticked
It's on by default. With every level's corners set, Mapvera uses your coordinates automatically.
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Read the status line
The coloured line just under the toggle tells you what's actually happening: a green tick means GPS distances are in use (the accurate case); an amber warning means not every level has all four corners yet, so it's falling back to the manual scale below.
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Fill any missing corners
If it's amber, go to the GPS tab and set the four corner coordinates on every level with an image. Once they're all set, the status flips to green.
Or set a manual scale
If you'd rather not use GPS, untick auto-calculate and set Scale — metres per map unit: the real-world metres each map pixel represents. To estimate it, divide the real width of your site by the width of the map image in pixels. For example, a 2000px-wide map of a 600m-wide site is about 0.3. Until you set anything, a rough 0.35 is assumed — fine for a ballpark, not for a real figure.
Walking speeds
Speed converts distance to time. Set it to match your visitors:
| Setting | What it is | Typical value |
|---|---|---|
| Walking speed | Average pace for the normal estimate, in metres per second. | 1.3 m/s (~4.7 km/h, a typical adult) |
| Accessible speed | Slower pace used for the estimate when step-free mode is on. Needs step-free enabled. | ~0.8 m/s |
If your audience is slower-moving — a hospital, an aged-care campus, families with young children — dial the walking speed down so estimates don't run optimistic.
Sanity-check your estimates
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Route a distance you know
Pick two places whose real walking distance you can estimate, and compare it with the metres shown. If it's consistently double or half, your scale is out by that factor.
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Fix the scale, not the speed
A distance that's wrong is a scale problem. Only adjust walking speed once the metres look right — speed changes the time, not the distance.
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Prefer GPS if numbers won't settle
If a single manual scale can't get every route close, set the GPS corners on all levels and let per-level distances do the work.