Frequently Asked Questions

Do not use the "Name 2" column type setting when you import your locations into MapPoint. MapPoint will create new pushpin names by concatenating the Name and Name 2 columns. These will never match the Name column you are using in MPMileage, so avoid "Name 2" completely.

Note: MapPoint will often default to using the "Name 2" column type if you have more than one column that looks like a name. Select the correct column for "Name", and set the other column to "Skip Column".

MPMileage has been written to take advantage of modern processors, and hence can perform route calculations much more quickly than MileCharter. However, some of this speed depends on a correct configuration. Here are some suggestions for speed:

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Make sure your database has an index on the start and end location fields. These two fields are used as references for both reading and writing the data. Note that indexes cannot be applied to Excel workbooks. Large datasets should be implemented using a proper relational database using Microsoft Access or via an ODBC connection.

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Make use of all available CPU cores but do not have more threads than are necessary. This may require some experimentation. Both the operating system and the database require some overhead, so the optimum may be less than one processing thread per core. Tests have shown that three threads on a quad core computer work well. It is expected that 6 or 7 threads will be optimum number on an 8 core system.

•	Remove duplicate rows from the input data. MPMileage is clever enough to avoid duplicate route calculations, but duplicates will always slow data reading and writing.

All output values, regardless of the database, are written in the format of the data field. Unlike a true relational database, Excel is weakly typed. Therefore it is possible for a cell or column to appear to be blank or un-typed, but Excel reports it as being text.

The solution is to clear the entire column, and then format it as a number with two decimal places. You may have to re-enter the column header (if there is one).

This usually occurs if your location names are numbers. Location names are often numbers if you are using your own numeric identifiers, or if you are using zipcodes. Excel is weakly-typed and will usually treat these as numbers. However, the locations must be text for MPMileage to recognize them, and for MapPoint comparisons to work properly.

It is strongly recommended that you use use a proper strongly-typed database (eg. Access or an ODBC connection) for applications like this. However, if you must use Excel, format the entire column as text and precede each and every value with a quote (') character. The quote character tells Excel that the field is text and not a number. An alternative is to use text location names.

This is a side-effect of the Excel database driver. You have to exit MPMileage in order to view the workbook. This is another reason to switch to a proper database such as Access.

MapPoint's memory footprint tends to grow with batch route computations. This can be limited by reducing the Restart Interval on the Advanced Options dialog box. A recommended restart interval is 1000 or less.

This error may occur at the very beginning of processing, if MapPoint is not installed properly.

It is also possible that MPMileage might suddenly encounter an error when attempting to restart MapPoint. This may be due to the operating system being busy, and the "start MapPoint" request timing out. MPMileage will report the error and give you the option of trying again, or stopping processing. If the problem was caused by an operating system alert, clear the alert before continuing processing.