CSE Questions

Joined
Dec 29, 2007
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9
I have a Garmin StreetPilot 2720 and find the day and night themes understandable and easy to read. I've looked around for Garmin color schemes for TomTom and not found any.

I'm developing these schemes myself using the CSE Color Scheme Editor. I have some questions:

  • When I zoom out, the colors of some of the highways change. It seems to be the major highways that change color. Can these colors be controlled?
  • What are distinctions between secondary roads...
    • Small
    • Solid
    • Inside?
  • What is the route background?
  • What are the distinctions between:
    • Secondary road
    • Connecting road
    • Major local road
  • What tools do you use to pick and adjust colors? I'm using HPS PixelColor (trail) and Colourificator. I'm using both because neither one has all the features I want. I have also tried Instant EyeDropper, Color Picker and Get Color.
  • How many colors can the TomTom GO 720 display? Is it 24-bit color? 16-bit color?
  • On the CSE home page they mention using TomTom HOME to transfer the schemes to the TomTom, but I don't know what they mean. I'm actually editing the themes directly from the schemes directory in the TomTom file system. All I have to do to view an edited scheme on the TomTom is file the changes then use TomTom HOME option "Operate my GO". If I'm already in that mode I just click "Done" then "Operate my "GO" to reload the color scheme.
 
A few answers

  • When I zoom out, the colors of some of the highways change. It seems to be the major highways that change color. Can these colors be controlled?
  • What are distinctions between secondary roads...
    • Small
    • Solid
    • Inside?
I can now answer my own questions, including some new ones I didn't ask:
  • Inside, Edge, Solid, Small:
    • Inside and Edge are used when the map is zoomed in.
    • Solid is used as the color as the map is zoomed out and the inside and edge colors can no longer be discretely displayed.
    • Small is the color used when the map is zoomed out further yet and the road becomes a single pixel in width.
    • In other words a road can have three different colors depending on the zoom level. Typically the three colors will be similar, perhaps different shades of the same color, so that they can be emphasized when the map is zoomed in, and deemphasized when the map is zoomed out.
  • What is a Motorway? [lines 20-22] In USA terms this is an Interstate highway.
  • What is the distinction between a Major and International highway? [lines 24-27] In the USA, the International highway category seems to apply to the most major highway that's not an "Interstate." The term seems to be relative, as in some cases this is a limited access divided 4-lane, while in other cases it might be a highway with some stoplights, that just happens to be THE major E-W or N-S highway. The distinction between Major and International is relatively minor. They are displayed the same color as the map is zoomed out. International roads remain displayed a bit longer than Major roads.
  • What is a Secondary road? [lines 29-32] I'm still vague on this. Based on when these highways disappear as the map is zoomed out, they are classified just below a Major road.
  • What is a Connecting road? [lines 34-37] These are THE main local roads. Think 4 lanes with stoplights and speed limits of 40-45 MPH. I suppose you could think of them as connecting highways together.
There appear to be 8 classifications for a road:
  1. Motorway [20-22]
  2. International [24-26]
  3. Major [24-25,27]
  4. Secondary [29-32]
  5. Connecting [34-37]
  6. Major local [39-40]
  7. Local [39-43]
  8. Destination [42-45]
There are sometimes subtle distinctions between the various local roads. Lines 41-43 are key fields. Typically line 41 will be set to some subtle color that shows the local roads but doesn't highlight them. As the map is zoomed in to the point where the local and destination roads are important, I like these to "pop up" to a more prominent color with lines 42 (edge color) and 43 (inside color).


I'd like to note that I am relatively inexperienced with CSE (Color Scheme Editor). I have created a grand total of two schemes. I'm still feeling my way around, trying to figure things out. So while I'm trying to share what I've learned, I am in no way an "expert" at this point.
 
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Unused lines in the .clr file

As far as I can tell, the following lines from the .clr file are not used on the GO 720. I have all of these set to a garish color and have yet to see this color on any map.

23 // Motorway text
28 // major road text
33 // Secondary road text
38 // Connecting road text
44 // Local road text
46 // Destination road text
49 // Ferry text
55 // Arrows border (road direction)
60 // NavView: status/safeview panel background (default:dark blue)
61 // NavView: status/safeview panel borders (default:blue)
62 // NavView: status/safeview panel text (default:white)
63 // NavView: status/safeview panel dim text (default:lightblue)
64 // NavView: next highway background
65 // NavView: next highway border
66 // NavView: next highway text
67 // NavView: next highway EXIT background
68 // NavView: next highway EXIT border
69 // NavView: next highway EXIT text
70 // NavView: routeplanning progressbar color
 
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Tips

Some thoughts on what I have learned while developing my first two color schemes:
  • I don't know what the "best practice" is but I have found it expedient when developing a new color scheme to plug the TomTom into it's dock and connect it to TomTom HOME. I then bring up CSE and open the .clr file I want to edit directly from I:\schemes (your device letter will probably be different). I can then just save the file and go to TomTom HOME and click "Operate my GO" to see what the colors look like for my city and neighborhood at various zoom levels. It feels wrong to develop in the "live environment," but I haven't found any particular downside to it.
  • I have found it useful to pick colors from a palette. Having 16 Million colors to choose from was overwhelming and I spent too much time fussing over trivial adjustments. I'm using a palette of HTML "named colors" in HPS PixelColor, but this is a rather arbitrary choice on my part.
  • In CSE, I number the lines from 1 to 71
  • I add the "name" of the color I assign to each field to the field description:
178,034,034 // 24. Major & international road solid - firebrick
000,000,000 // 25. Major & international road edge - black
000,255,255 // 26. International road inside - indianred
178,034,034 // 27. Major road inside - firebrick​
  • I didn't do this on my first two schemes, but if I do another scheme, I will start with everything set to a color the same or similar to the background (the background color is the very first thing to decide IMO) and add elements one at a time, probably starting with the Motorway colors and working my way down the list. As each NEW road category is added, I like to color them in some garish color (lime or magenta for example) to make them really stand out, so that I can identify which roads belong in that category.
  • Do view the map at various zoom levels. There are some weird things that can happen as the map is zoomed out. For example, in my night scheme, which has a black background, I used a black edge for toll roads. As the map was zoomed out, the toll roads disappeared! Turns out that for toll roads, which do not have "solid" and "small" colors, the edge color is used when the inside and edge colors can no longer be discretely displayed. Black on black doesn't show up very well. (-:
  • This may seem obvious, but don't emphasize features you don't care about. You don't HAVE to show every possible element on your maps.
 
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