Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

HOW TO: Make course line easier to see

Fursty_Ferret
over 2 years ago

For some reason Garmin use a thin dark purple line for guidance if you're following a course. This annoys me (not least because if you navigate to a waypoint you get a nice chunky magenta line), so I've tweaked the map theme file to fix it. This is how it looks on my Edge 530 when navigating a route:

If I get around to it I'll make a tool that lets you pick your own colours and generates a theme file for you.

You need to edit one of the MapTheme files (/Garmin/MapThemes/Classic.kmtf) and add the following lines to the <stylelist> XML category:

<style field="MPM_ACTV_CRS_CLR">
			<color>
				<primary day="#ffff00ff" night="#ffff00ff"/>
				<secondary day="#ffff00ff" night="#ffff00ff"/>
			</color>
		</style>
 

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Interesting, I use yellow as my "history" to indicate where I have been. But when it is superimposed over the pink line when I am riding a route that doubles back on itself, it is hard to see. Until I starting using this mod, the yellow history line always stood out, but not no longer. In fact the visibility of the yellow history line over pink is that bad, that I am going to have to change it to another colour.

    I wont be out for a couple of days so I cannot take a screenshot.

    Or maybe, the yellow colour that is used for the history line is one of those useless light pastel colours that activity profiles use and the yellow colour in a mod is a different shade?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to leginswal

    For me the point of using the "pink" (as per the OPs very first post in this thread) is that while you can now (with the MapTheme hack) have any color you want for the route line you can't change the thicker "calculated" line from its current "pink) therefore having them the same means you get the wider (more visible?) combined route & calculated route if you are using Turn Guidance.

    Because the Map Visibility customisations (Profile>Navigation>Map>Map Visibility>Custom) do not appear to work I have been using the Garmin OnRoad format from BBBike.org as these eliminate "Ground Cover" shading and the map is much clearer, mostly just roads. Would be good if the Map Visibility customisations worked and allowed the Ground Cover shading to be eliminated or at least only for zoomed in maps. (PS these are non Turn Guidance settings so only the Route Line without the wider Calculated line, is blue better?)

       

     

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to L.Rouge
    L.Rouge said:
    the Ground Cover shading to be eliminated

    The ground cover stuff is not helpful on such small screens. It's also that consistent in what it means or how it is applied.

    I'm not sure why the maps include it.

  • 0 over 2 years ago
    Fursty_Ferret said:
    If I get around to it I'll make a tool that lets you pick your own colours and generates a theme file for you.

    Hi Fursty, have you seen this?

    https://www.pinns.co.uk/osm/theme_editor.html

    In the last month the author has upgraded it to support Garmin Edge devices, so called "Sport & Fitness" Presentations. Only a subset of the objects supported for the Car Navigation devices seem to be supported by the Edge Devices but easier then using a Text editor, I have played with it a little and seems to work ok. I still can't find a list of what the object types mean , can infer some, still experimenting

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I got tired fiddling with hex values and XML, so I put together a simple theme editor. It uses Edge Explore 2's default themes as templates, but more can be added. 

    https://jnr.fi/garmin

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to guerrilla cheese

    Did you have a look at the software mentioned in the post one above yours?

    forums.garmin.com/.../1505043

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to L.Rouge

    I did have a quick look, yes. Seems to be quite comprehensive, if a bit "involved" to use. I don't have a Windows machine though, so I had some incentive to build my own ;-)

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to guerrilla cheese

    I added said Theme Editor's "Sport & Fitness" default values as a template, with all styles available in that software. See here. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to guerrilla cheese

    Also added: templates with Garmin's night colors (since Edges don't seem to support switching map to actual night mode). Some minor usability improvements done, too.
    Should probably add opacity controls, so that elements can be hidden.

    I sure wish I had a list of Garmin's style names with explanations, not all of them are easy to decipher.  

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to guerrilla cheese
    guerrilla cheese said:
    I sure wish I had a list of Garmin's style names with explanations

    Indeed yes, some are very cryptic and some don’t appear to make any difference, I presume some elements only use defaults within the edge FW and ignore the theme definition