Design. Run. Repeat.

PaceCasso turns a drawing into a runnable route. Pick a shape (photo or freehand), place it on a city map, snap it to real walkable streets, fine-tune the path, export GPX. Here's what happens at each step.

1. 01
   01

   Pick your city

   Choose where your route will live. The system uses the city's street grid layout to align letters and shapes cleanly. Manhattan is live today; more cities are coming.
2. 02
   02

   Pick a source — photo or freehand

   Trace an image (a letter, animal, logo — whatever you want to 'run'), or freehand-draw directly on the map. Both paths lead to the same place.
3. 03a
   03a

   Image path — trace a silhouette

   Upload a photo or image. We auto-threshold it into black-and-white line art. Use the draw/erase tools to clean up stray marks or to draw a bridge between disconnected pieces. When a single continuous outline is showing, click Next.

   Tip: shapes with an inner hole (like the eye of an R) are auto-connected to the outer boundary with a small bridge. But two totally separate shapes (e.g., two letters side by side) need a hand-drawn connector — use the draw tool for that.

4. 03b
   03b

   Freehand path — sketch on the map

   Toggle to draw mode and sketch the shape directly on the city map. Pan and zoom for precision. Your strokes get flattened into a single path automatically.
5. 04
   04

   Place your shape on the map

   Size, rotate, and drag the shape to where you want it. Two auto-tools here:

   • Auto-find placement— PaceCasso searches the whole city for the best 5 placements and ranks them by how recognizable your shape will be once snapped to streets.
   • Refine around my placement— after you've dragged the shape roughly where you want it, Refine searches tightly nearby (size ±30%, rotation ±20°, position ±2 km) to polish your choice.
6. 05
   05

   Snap to streets

   Mapbox routes your shape onto real walkable streets, turning your smooth outline into an etch-a-sketch version that follows avenues and blocks. You'll see a 'gestalt-style' match score — how recognizable the result still is after snapping.
7. 06
   06

   Fine-tune the route

   Drag individual waypoints to fix ugly spots. Toggle 'Full snap' to see the original auto-snapped route under your edits for comparison. Add or delete waypoints to take a different street where you want.
8. 07
   07

   Export for your watch

   Download GPX (for Garmin, Coros, Apple Watch, etc.), GeoJSON (for custom maps), or a plain-text cue list with turn-by-turn directions. Run it, share the art.