MacroSystem Columbus - Manual (Page 7)

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2. Operation
2.1 The route
A route, e.g. the course followed by a stretch
of road, is defined by positioning various way-
points and then by tracing out (drawing) a line
over a variable period of time. The starting,
finishing and key points can be specially em-
phasized and you can influence the way the line
develops.
A route comprises several elements that are
displayed and listed below:
(1) Line
The line can be displayed in various ways and
the following line properties are available:
• Various line thicknesses
• Various colors (invisible when alpha = 0)
• Various line patterns
For certain parts of the route, you can make the
line appear angular (e.g. for roads) or curved
(e.g. for air routes).
(2) Way points
Way points are used to trace out the course that
the route takes. They are only visible during edit-
ing but not in the final results.
(3) Key points
You can place key points along a route. You
can then label them in various ways, though
generally you use the same type of label for all
key points so that you can easily make global
changes. You can also define pauses in the
line‘s growth at key points. These can be simple
pauses or interruptions to the generated scene.
In the second case, you can interrupt the video
footage to display how the various route sec-
tions develop throughout the film.
(4) Starting point
The starting point for drawing the route is the
origin of the line. Other than that, the starting
point provides you with the same options as a
key point.
(5) Head
You can optionally provide the head (leading
end) of the growing line with an additional label
that moves as the line grows (e.g. an arrowhead,
hand, car, etc.). An object moving with the head
can be made to automatically change direction
to point in the direction that the line is develop-
ing.
(6) Finishing point
The finishing point represents the journey’s
destination and provides the same options as a
key point.
Various symbols positioned inside the colored
points on the route are used to represent the
above mentioned points. These symbols are
shown in the table below.
Symbol Name
è Starting point
Ÿ Way point
£ Key point
r Finishing point
Starting and finishing points
If you have not done any editing yet, the starting
and finishing points that are connected by a line
are generally displayed in a position outside the
menu bar area. The starting and finishing points
are clearly marked as such and can be reposi-
tioned and edited like any other point. However,
you cannot delete them.