Update: 8/06/09 : still not had any real time to play with Navit. for ages it has crashed everytime I plot a route. However, today in SVN-2308 seems to work much better. As such I’ve take a copy and will assess putting it up somewhere as a ‘stable’ version. For those that don’t keep up with svn changes
clearly I’m poor at updating this page. It’s hard to find time for navit stuff around everything else. Today I posted that I’ve noticed potential performance gains to be had by keeping your map files as small as possible. Investigations underway.

Thought I’d update this page again just to point to some work I’ve done getting more diagnostics from navit

I’ve submitted a trac to the navit project to get my changes added to debug on a more permanent basis. I’ll update here if it gets accepted.

23-02-09 See side bar for an RSS feed of activity on navit project, you can use this url to subscribe: http://svnfeed.com/convert?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnavit.svn.sourceforge.net%2Fsvnroot%2Fnavit%2Ftrunk%2Fnavit&x=24&y=37

12-02-09 regular svn builds should now include libgarmin support, however I’ve not seen any reports of it being successfully used yet.

Rather than bog down the navit wiki page every time I think up a new layout to try I thought I’d put a bunch here. if you follow the instructions on the page to insert

       <xi:include href="/home/user/.navit/navitOSD.xml"/>

in the main navit.xml file instead of the OSD items. then you can cut’n’paste the following into a file called navitOSD.xml

I would provide them as just file downloads, but can’t figure out how to make wordpress let me play with a useful file format.

NOTE: for some reason my blog layout crops the right hand side off the xml. but if you cut’n’paste you do get all of the information

UPDATE: adding new layouts at top

screenshot-2009-02-06-21-59-28-6873021

layout 1 my first attempt from wiki:

<osd enabled="no" type="compass"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="ETA:${navigation.item.destination_time[arrival]}nTL:${navigation.item.destination_time[remaining]}
                                    nDist:${navigation.item.destination_length[named]}nSpeed:${vehicle.position_speed}n
                                      Max:${tracking.item.route_speed}" x="10" y="-180" font_size="550" h="180" w="270" />
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="Currently Onn${navigation.item.street_name}/${navigation.item.street_name_systematic}nTurn Onto
                                     n${navigation.item[1].street_name}/${navigation.item[1].street_name_systematic}nS
                                     at:${vehicle.position_sats_signal}/${vehicle.position_qual}" x="285" y="-180" font_size="500" h="180" w="580" />
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${navigation.item[1].length[named]}m" x="-200" y="100" w="180" h="80" font_size="550"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="navigation_next_turn" x="-200" y="180" font_size="650" w="180" h="50"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="button" x="0" y="-300" command="gui.fullscreen()" src="toggle_fullscreen.xpm"/>
<osd enabled="no" type="button" x="-96" y="0" command="gui_internal_menu" src="menu.xpm"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="button" x="0" y="0" command="zoom_in()" src="zoom_in.xpm"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="button" x="-96" y="0" command="zoom_out()" src="zoom_out.xpm"/>

Layout 2 Lemmyslenders layout:

       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="Satsn${vehicle.position_sats_signal}/${vehicle.position_qual}" x="5" y="5" font_size="300" w="60" h="35"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="compass" x="5" y="45" font_size="250" w="60" h="80"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${vehicle.position_speed}" x="5" y="130" font_size="400" w="120" h="35" />
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="ETA: ${navigation.item.destination_time[arrival]}" x="5" y="-220" font_size="400" w="170" h="30"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="Left to Go" x="5" y="-185" font_size="400" w="170" h="30"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${navigation.item.destination_length[named]}" x="5" y="-150" font_size="400" w="170" h="30"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${navigation.item.destination_time[remaining]}" x="5" y="-115" font_size="400" w="170" h="30"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="In ${navigation.item[1].length[named]} " x="5" y="-40" font_size="500" w="235" h="35"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="navigation_next_turn" x="245" y="-45" font_size="500" w="60" h="40"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="onto ${navigation.item[1].street_name}" x="310" y="-40"  font_size="500" w="485" h="35"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${navigation.item.street_name}" x="150" y="5"  font_size="500" w="500" h="35"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="button" x="-80" y="0" command="zoom_in()" src="zoom_in.xpm"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="toggle_announcer" x="-53" y="95" w="48" h="48"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="button" x="-80" y="170" command="zoom_out()" src="zoom_out.xpm"/>
       <osd enabled="yes" type="button" x="-80" y="280" command="gui.fullscreen()" src="toggle_fullscreen.xpm"/>

Layout 3 – my variation on Lemmyslenders layout, basically I preferred his overall layout, but I’m not that interested in the sat information and want things a little bigger to see more clearly whilst driving.

      <osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${vehicle.position_speed}" x="5" y="130" font_size="600" w="160" h="35" align="4" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="ETA: ${navigation.item.destination_time[arrival]}" x="5" y="-220" font_size="500" w="170" h="30" align="4" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="Left to Go" x="5" y="-185" font_size="400" w="170" h="30" align="4" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${navigation.item.destination_length[named]}" x="5" y="-150" font_size="400" w="170" h="30" align="4" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${navigation.item.destination_time[remaining]}" x="5" y="-115" font_size="400" w="170" h="30" align="4" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="In ${navigation.item[1].length[named]} " x="5" y="-40" font_size="550" w="235" h="35" align="4" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="navigation_next_turn" x="245" y="-45" font_size="500" w="80" h="60" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="onto ${navigation.item[1].street_name}" x="310" y="-40"  font_size="550" w="485" h="35" align="4" background_color="#a60c0f44"/>
<osd enabled="yes" type="text" label="${navigation.item.street_name} Max:${tracking.item.route_speed}" x="10" y="5" align="0" background_color="#a60c0f44" font_size="550" w="700" h="40"/>
<osd enabled="yes"  type="button" x="-80" y="60" command="zoom_in()" src="gui_zoom_in.png"/>

<osd enabled="yes"  type="button" x="-80" y="180" command="zoom_out()" src="gui_zoom_out.png"/> 

<osd enabled="yes"  type="button" x="-80" y="280" command="gui.fullscreen()" src="gui_fullscreen.png"/>
<osd enabled="no" type="speed_warner" x="-60" y="180" w="60" h="60"/>
<osd enabled="no" type="button" x="0" y="0" command="gui_internal_menu" src="menu.xpm"/>

In addition to the OSD layouts there are many other things that you can tweak.

The default layout that navit.xml comes with, draws your route on the bottom and wider than roads. This means you can see the road and it’s name drawn, but it means you get a fat blue line underneath it. My own preference is actually not to have the blue line below, but to have it on top and the width of the road, such that it stays inside the lines.Just a personal preference.

The navit wiki explains that ‘items will be drawn on the map in the order they are defined in the layout. So the “Wood” layout will be drawn first, then the towns, then the street, and finally your track. You can change this order if you like, but remember that an item drawn on top of another may hide it. ‘

So in the Layer ‘Streets’ find all the street_route entries, set the widths to something appropriate (the below is my setup):

<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”2″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”1″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”3-5″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”1″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”6″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”2″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”7-8″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”2″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”9-10″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”4″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”11″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”6″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”12″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”7″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”13″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”12″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”14″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”15″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”15″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”16″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”16″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”35″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”17″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”64″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_route” order=”18″>
<polyline color=”#0000a0″ width=”120″/>
</itemgra>

and move them down the street section to just above the set that shows:

<itemgra item_types=”highway_city,highway_land,street_4_city,street_4_land,street_n_lanes” order=”10-18″>
<text text_size=”15″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_2_city,street_2_land,street_3_city,street_3_land,ramp” order=”11-18″>
<text text_size=”15″/>
</itemgra>
<itemgra item_types=”street_nopass,street_0,street_1_city,street_1_land” order=”12-18″>
<text text_size=”15″/>
</itemgra>

Which lemmyslender pointed out are the instructions to draw road names etc. By putting the route items above these you get the blue route line on top of the road but under the road names. Font size max is apparently 15.

regular svn builds are here : http://download.navit-project.org/navit/n800/svn/

Sometimes I will build with patched not yet in svn or be trying other things, My latest build of navit can be found: here