Palette Color Map Definition Dialog Box

Use this dialog box to review and edit attributes for a palette color map, used with digital elevation models (DEM).

Data Interpretation

Select the type of data to display about the surface:

  • Height (Feet). Land elevation in feet
  • Height (Meters). Land elevation in meters
  • Value. Land elevation in other units, or other data in the file
  • Slope (Percent). Ground slope expressed as a percentage
  • Slope (Angle). Ground slope expressed as an angle
  • Aspect. Direction of ground slope
Value Distribution

This setting controls how the colors in the Range Table are distributed across the range of data values: Parametric or Custom.

Note: A parametric distribution automatically adapts to the range of values in the file being displayed; a custom distribution uses fixed data values, regardless of the range of values in the file. This difference is important if you want to save the color map and use it on multiple data files.

If you want AutoCAD Raster Design toolset to automatically set the ranges, choose Parametric, then one of these three options:

  • Equal

Each color represents an equal range of values, regardless of how many actual data points occupy that range for a given source file.

  • Standard Deviation

Six ranges are created, and the spread of each one is set to the standard deviation for the data. The upper limit of the third range is the arithmetic mean value. If the data has a normal distribution, the third and fourth ranges embrace about 68% of the data values; the second through fifth ranges embrace about 95% of the values.

  • Quantile

Each range represents an equal number of data points in the source file. Where readings are clustered around a narrow range of values, colors in that range have a small range spread; where readings are sparse, the range spread is large.

If you want to manually set the range spreads, click Custom. You can also start by clicking Parametric to generate an initial set of ranges, then edit individual range values in the Range Table. When you start editing, the Value Distribution is reset to Custom.

Palette

The name of the current palette is displayed. An asterisk (*) before the name indicates that you have edited the palette in the Range Table.

Click Import to import an existing palette.

Click Export to export a palette; this option is available only after you have finished defining a color map.

Display Enhancements

You can use these effects to change the appearance of the displayed surface.

Select Hillshade if you want to cast light across the surface from the northwest direction, creating shadows around the hills and valleys.

Set a Vertical Exaggeration level (1 to 99) if you want to make the elevation changes more extreme and intensify the hillshading.

Select Blend if you want to create a smooth transition between colors in the display.

Range Table

This table shows the details of color ranges and accepts a wide range of edits to the number of ranges, range values, colors and visibility.

Index

This column provides a reference number for each color, with 0 for the lowest value range. An asterisk (*) indicates the highest assigned range and the place where a new range is added.

Use the Index column to highlight entire rows of the table for editing. By adding or deleting rows, you can set the number of ranges for the color map. When one or more rows are selected, you can right-click to insert rows, combine rows, or change their visibility.

Range Upper Value

This column shows the upper limit of data values for each range. You can edit the numbers, but they must remain in the correct sequence in relation to adjacent ranges. You can right-click in this column to delete, cut, copy, and paste one or more upper range values without affecting the other columns.

Range Spread

This column shows the size of the range, or the difference between the range upper value in the current row and the one above. You can right-click in this column to edit values in the same way as in the range upper value column.

Color

Use this column to change the color assigned to each range. Double-click a single color to change it on the AutoCAD Select Color dialog.

You can select one or more colors in this column, the right-click to cut, copy, paste, or assign a single color to the group.