Aster has a route builder for planning a ride or run on the map, and My routes, a personal library to keep the ones you want again. Open both from the account menu.
Build a route
Open My routes from the account menu and tap Build a route (or go straight to it from the empty-library prompt). The builder opens on a map centred on your location.
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Pick Ride or Run with the toggle — it changes how your route follows paths and how the route-style questions below are worded.
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Choose a draw mode:
- Auto — follows roads and paths between the points you tap. This is the default.
- Manual — draws a straight line between your points. Use it for tracks and paths the map doesn't know.
- Trace — draw along the map with your finger; Aster snaps your line to roads and paths.
Switch between them at any time — the mode applies from your next point onward.
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Tap the map to drop points. Drag a point to move it, tap a point for its options (delete it, or close the loop back to your start), and long-press the line to add a new point where you press. Undo steps back through your edits one at a time.
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Tap Route style to set what you're on and how you like your routes. A ride asks your bike (Road bike, Gravel bike or Mountain bike); a run asks the surface (Roads & pavements or Trails & paths). Both then ask how direct you want the line (Quiet & scenic, Balanced or Fast & direct) and how much climbing to seek out (Keep it flat, Don't mind or Bring the climbs). Your answers are remembered on this device and shape the line Auto and Trace draw.
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Use Search to jump the map to a place — it moves the camera only; you still tap your own start point.
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To plan a loop rather than point-by-point: tap the map once for your start, then Plan a loop. Pick a distance (20–100 km presets, or a custom distance from about 5 km up to 200 km) and a direction — north, east, south, west, or Surprise me — and tap Build my loop. You can try another suggestion or keep it. Planning a loop replaces whatever you'd drawn so far, so it's only offered while your route is still just a start point.
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Turn on 3D preview to tilt the map and see the terrain. It's a look, not a setting — it never changes the line you've drawn or what gets saved.
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Tap the stats chip for the route summary: distance, climbing and descending, and an elevation profile. Turn on Colour by gradient to shade the route from green to red as it steepens (only available once there's elevation data).
Auto, Trace, Search and Plan a loop all need a connection. If you go offline mid-build, the app tells you and offers to switch to Manual so you can keep drawing straight lines. Manual itself doesn't need a connection, but you'll need one to save the finished route to your library.
Save your route
Tap Save, give it a name (or keep the suggested one) and an optional description, and it's added to My routes. If you opened the builder from an existing route (see below), Save updates that route in place instead of creating a new one — and if the route is already attached to any of your upcoming events or meet-ups, you'll be asked whether to update those too or leave them as they were scheduled.
Bring in a route another way
Building isn't the only way a route ends up in your library:
- Save a ride you've already done. On a finished ride's page, tap Save as route, choose My routes or a club you admin, and Aster turns the ride's own track into a route. It's named "Route from my ride" (or run) with the date, and re-saving later refreshes it if the ride's track filled in further after the fact. See Your results, history and profile.
- Save a copy from a link someone shared with you. Opening a shared route link (see below) offers Save to my routes if you're signed in.
Aster doesn't currently offer a way to upload a GPX file straight into your personal library — that entry point exists for a club's route library. If you're not a club admin, recreate the route with Auto, Trace or Plan a loop above, or ask whoever holds the GPX to add it to a club library and share the link with you instead. See The club route library.
Your route library
Every route you own lives in My routes, plus the library of any club you admin. Filter by where a route lives, how it arrived (built, uploaded GPX, or from an activity), and distance, and sort newest first, longest first or by name. Each card shows the route's shape, distance, elevation gain and a source label.
Tap a route to open it: the full map, distance, elevation gain, an elevation profile where one exists, and an editable description. Its card menu offers:
- View route — opens the route page above.
- Duplicate — opens the builder on a copy of the line; saving creates a new route in your personal library and leaves the original untouched.
- Use in event or meet-up — attaches a copy of the route to one of your own upcoming events or meet-ups. If you don't organise any, it tells you so rather than showing an empty list.
- Edit route — opens the builder on the route itself, including a route that arrived as a GPX upload or from a saved ride: Aster works out an editable line for it automatically.
- Share route — mints a public link at
astertrack.app/routes/shared/…that anyone can open with no account: the map, distance, elevation profile and a Download GPX button. A signed-in visitor also gets Save to my routes and Use in event or meet-up. Turn sharing off again from the route's page — the link stops working for everyone it was sent to, though anyone who already saved a copy keeps theirs. - Delete — removes it from your library. Any event or meet-up that already used it keeps its own copy, since attaching a route copies it.
From a personal route's own page you can also Save to club library, which copies it into a club you admin without touching the personal original — see The club route library for what happens to a route once it's shared into a club.
Aster Plus and your library
Building a route and saving it to your personal library is free for your first three. From the fourth, saving a brand new route from the builder — whether you drew it from scratch or tapped Duplicate on one you already have — offers you Aster Plus. Editing an existing route in place doesn't create a new one, so it's never affected by this limit. It's also specific to your own personal library: routes you build or save into a club's library don't count against it and have no limit of their own. See Club membership and Aster Plus.
Troubleshooting
- Save is offering me Aster Plus. You already have three routes in your personal library. Get Aster Plus, or delete one you don't need and try again.
- Auto, Trace, Search or Plan a loop are greyed out. You're offline — switch to Manual to keep drawing, or reconnect to use them again.
- I want to upload a GPX file to my own library and can't find how. That isn't available yet for a personal library — see "Bring in a route another way" above.