SMS:User Defined Palettes

The user may define and edit a color palette for use with contours. In the Display Options dialog, on the Contours tab, pressing the Color Ramp button, opens the Color Options dialog. Inside the Color Options dialog, selecting the User defined option enables the following options:

User Defined Palettes Frame

• New Palette – Create a new color palette. This opens the New Palette dialog, which is used to define a color ramp palette. The user selects a preset palette and the initial number of colors in the palette. The palette can be fine tuned once it is created in the Color Options dialog.
• Delete Palette – Delete the selected palette.
• Load Palettes – Load palettes from an SMS defined palette file.
• Save Palettes – Save all of the user created palettes to a file using the format shown above.

Current Palette Frame

The color pallet selected in the User Defined Palettes frame is displayed. The user can select, edit, and drag colors in the Color Palette using the following tools:

• Create a breakpoint tool
  • Mouse left-click – Creates new breakpoints
• Select an individual breakpoint tool
  • Mouse left-click and drag – Changes the value associated with a breakpoint
  • Mouse left double-click – Opens the Color dialog to change the color associated with a breakpoint
  • Mouse left-click, then DELETE key – Delete the selected breakpoint

Value edit field – Change the value of a selected color. Changing a value will move the color inside the color palette window.

Edit Table – This button opens the Color Table dialog. Values and colors associated with each breakline can be viewed and edited. This dialog is useful for creating a palette with a logarithmic scale. It may be difficult to select colors very close to one another at the lower end of a log scale using the mouse left-click button, but the values can easily be specified in this dialog.

• Display Value As – Show the value of each color as:
  • Percentages (0.0-1.0) – A percentage across the palette, with 0.0 being to the left of the palette and 1.0 at the right edge of the palette.
  • Numerical Values – The actual value of each color. Each color will represent a value such as elevation.

New Palette

File:SMS New Palette.jpg

New Palette dialog

The New Palette dialog is used to create a new user defined palette. The following palette options can be set:

• Initial Color Ramp Type:
  • Solid Color
  • Intensity Ramp
  • Hue Ramp
  • Elevation
  • Ocean
  • Magnitude Difference
• Color – Only available for Solid Color and Intensity Ramp
• Number of Colors - Only available for Solid Color, Intensity Ramp, and Hue Ramp
• Palette name

Once the general options have been set in the New Palette dialog, the palette can be fine tuned using the tools in the Color Options dialog.

Related Topics

• Color Palette Files (*.pal)
• Color Options Dialog