railmapgen
Allow non-45°/90° angles
It would be useful to allow the user to draw straight lines between stations or create angles that are not 45° or 90°. For example, in Chicago it is customary to draw the metro lines according to the street grid, and sometimes the metro lines do not go at 45° angles. Also, for certain systems when drawing a diagrammatic map, it is useful to draw the lines at 30° or 60° angles.
Hi, thanks for the suggestion, and welcome aboard! 🚇
Regarding Chicago, on the current diagram it’s not very obvious where the lines bend at angles that aren't 45° or 90°—could you point us to a specific map or section you're thinking of? That would really help us understand your point better.
And about 30° or 60° angles—do you have an example from another city where the diagram uses those angles? We'd love to take a look and see how that style works.
The current Chicago diagram is not in the traditional style. In the traditional style the map is similar to a geographical map, except with some simplifications.
For example, here is the map from last year: https://ia601301.us.archive.org/15/items/ctamap_LMap/ctamap_LMap.pdf
30° and 60° angles can be useful for many systems, here are some official and unofficial maps with those angles: (from a transit map reviews blog)
- https://transitmap.net/future-houston/
- https://transitmap.net/utrecht-cerovic-2016/
- https://transitmap.net/plauen-moritz-kohler/
- https://transitmap.net/rome-dimitry-goloub/
- https://transitmap.net/paris-metro-konovalov/
- https://transitmap.net/luxembourg-simon-s/
- https://transitmap.net/tgv-france-2023-lars/
While they could be redesigned with 45° angles, it would probably result in a suboptimal map or take up more space. In some cities they can also make the map closer to the real-world geography of the city while still having a diagrammatic style.
Thanks for the follow-up and for sharing those references!
You're absolutely right — that archived CTA map does show that the current available line path options aren't enough to recreate that traditional style. However, simply allowing additional fixed angles like 30° or 60° still wouldn't make it possible to reproduce that map accurately. What’s really needed is support for freeform curves and segments with arbitrary angles.
The good news is — that's exactly what we’re planning for this summer! We'll be introducing features that allow you to use a real map as a background and draw fully flexible curves. Stay tuned!
As for the other unofficial designs you linked — while they’re very interesting and well made, we’re currently focused on supporting official designs first. Our priority is to cover the major cities around the world before we consider incorporating third-party or fan-made styles.
And just a quick tip: drawing straight lines is already possible, but you’ll need to subscribe and unlock that feature first. Once you're logged in and subscribed, you can enable it under Settings → Procedures → Unlock Simple Path.