Using Echocolor

This page covers:

Installing Echocolor

Echocolor can be installed by running the Echoview installer, and selecting Echocolor from the list of utilities. The Echoview installer is available for download from the Echoview website, or on an Echoview USB drive.

Running Echocolor

To run Echocolor, select it on the Windows Start menu.

Creating and saving a color scheme

To create a color scheme:

Enter all required settings in the Palette properties dialog box.
Set the colors of the tiles on the Echocolor window.
Save the color scheme into a folder of your choice.

Note: Echoview will search for color schemes at the default location and the user specified location. The default location for color schemes is the Color schemes directory located in the path the Echoview installation created (typically located in Echoview 64-bit Edition C:\Users\Public\Documents\Echoview Software\Echoview N\Color schemes). If you save your custom color scheme into another folder, you must specify the file location on the File locations page of the Echoview Configuration dialog box. You must close and restart Echoview to use the new color scheme. See also: EVC file format.

The Echocolor window

Primary and alternate color schemes

Each color scheme file (.EVC) has a primary color scheme and an alternate color scheme. You toggle between these schemes using the Palette menu. Before editing or creating a color scheme, you must ensure the correct scheme is displayed. See About Color schemes for more information.

Setting tile colors

The Echocolor window displays the color tiles for the color scheme. Each tile represents a specific range in the overall range covered by the color scheme. The number of tiles displayed is determined by the Number of color steps setting in the Palette Properties dialog box.

You can set the color of each tile manually or set the color for a selection of tiles and let Echocolor choose the colors for the remaining tiles. Echoview selects colors by interpolating values using the previous tile and next tile for which value has been set. Tiles for which you have a set a color will have xx displayed in them. This may not be visible in darkly colored tiles.

You can copy a color from one tile to another using the Copy and Paste options on the Shortcut (right-click) menu.

Each custom color scheme can have up to 1024 distinct colors.

Note: The colors used for drawing regions, lines and grids can be specified using the Palette properties dialog box.

ScreenTips

Point at any tile to display a ScreenTip that lists the following details for the tile: the range of values that will be displayed using this color, the color definition (RGB values) and whether the color was set or interpolated.

Note: The actual range of values that will be displayed with this color in an echogram may be different, as Echoview uses the Color display minimum and Color display range defined on the Echogram Display page of the Variable Properties dialog box and not those defined on the Color Legend page of the Palette properties dialog box in Echocolor.

Tool bar

The Echocolor tool bar displays tools for New, Open, Save and Properties. Clicking the Properties tool opens the Palette properties dialog box.

Status bar

The status bar at the bottom of the Echocolor window displays the same values as the ScreenTips along with a Minimum value and Range value. Minimum and range are the Color display minimum and Color display range values defined on the Color Legend page of the Palette properties dialog box.

EVC file format

Custom color themes can be defined in a .evc file to be used in Echoview (see Creating and saving a color scheme).

All .evc files consist of a single column of values, generally based on the parameters in the Palette properties dialog box. These are all numerical except for the header "SDEVRC11" and "--- Alternate ---" lines. All color integer values are calculated from RGB values according to R + 256×G + 256²×B. The following table describes the value of each line of an example .evc file.

Value	Description
"SDEVRC11"	This must be the first line of a .evc file
5	N, the number of colors used in the range from Minimum color to Maximum color. This in turn defines the number of color panels shown in the Echocolor window.
-90	Color display minimum (dB)
-54	Color display maximum (dB)
3670016	Minimum color
-1	Colors of the individual panels between Minimum color and Maximum color in the Echocolor window. Set to -1 to automatically determine the color of that panel via interpolation. Panels that are set with a user-defined color will be marked with ** in the Echocolor window. The number of defined panel colors must equate to N-2.
-1
-1
16711680	Maximum color
0	No-data color
0	Below threshold color
16711680	Above (threshold+range) color
65535	Sounder detected bottom color
32768	Unverified line color
65280	Good line color
16711935	Bad line color
65535	analysis hatching color
8388863	analysis region border color
16384180	bad data region fill color
16384180	bad data region border color
32767	marker region fill color
32767	marker region border color
16744576	region text color
16744576	grid line color
0	grid label text color
16777215	grid label text background color
255	integration fill color
11458790	cruise track background color
11458790	track 1
65535	track 2
65280	track 3
16711935	track 4
16711680	track 5
255	track 6
16776960	track 7
11835110	track 8
2	Fish track width (positive integer ≤ 10)
0	Virtual line style (0 = dashed, 1 = dotted, 2 = solid)
"--- Alternate ---"	This line must be included.
Subsequent lines of any .evc file duplicate the above parameters, starting from N, but for an alternate color scheme.

Note:All values are mandatory and must be defined in any .evc file.