This release was made on 5th March 2021 and is based on mainline revision 9722. It is a major release with incompatible changes to APIs, which are detailed below.

The previous release, 6.2, was made on 5th September 2020 and was based on mainline revision 9241.

Tiled route data

The makemap tool can now split contraction hierarchy route data into tiles. Any subset of the tiled maps from a particular makemap run can be used together, and routing will work using the tiles that are present. You can load and unload maps at any time. Routing will use the tiles that are available. If you load extra tiles and recreate a route, the new route may be different because of the added route data. If CartoType can't create a route because of missing tiles you will get the 'no route connectivity' error.

To create a set of tiled maps, use the makemap option /route=ct{N} for ordinary contraction hierarchy (the same system as /route=cs), or /route=tt for turn-expanded contraction hierarchy (the same system as /route=tech). The optional value N is the tile size in degrees, the default value being 1. Legal values are 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16. 4 is recommended for most purposes.

Removal of home-grown integer types

The integer types CartoType::int32, CartoType::uint16, etc., have been removed from the C++ API because they are no longer needed. The standard integer types int32_t, uint16_t are used instead.

Internal use of exception-based error handling

Nearly all internal functions now use exceptions of type TResult instead of error codes. This does not affect the public APIs, which still use error codes. The move to exceptions makes the code more reliable, less prone to memory leaks, and easier to maintain and debug. The error codes KErrorOverlap, KErrorPathLengthExceeded, KErrorMaxTurnExceeded, and KErrorCentralPath are no longer used, and a new error code KErrorXmlFeatureNotSupported (value = 62) has been added. No existing error codes have changed.

Removal of obsolete features

  • The ability to draw maps from a tile source has been removed.
  • The image server, which was a system to draw maps using cached tile bitmaps, has been removed.
  • Support for the web map service (WMS) system has been removed.

C++ API changes

  • CBitmap has a new constructor: explicit CBitmap(MInputStream& aInputStream)
  • The result constants KErrorNone, etc., now have type TResult, not int32_t, so that when they are thrown as exceptions the type is distinct.
  • The result constants KErrorOverlap, KErrorPathLengthExceeded, KErrorMaxTurnExceeded, KErrorCentralPath, have been removed.
  • Graphics operations now return TDrawResult, not TResult.
  • CFrameworkEngine::CancelDrawing has been removed.
  • TViewState has a new constructor: explicit TViewState(const char* aXmlText)
  • The CFramework::AppendStyleSheet functions now return TResult instead of being void.
  • A new function 'TFileLocation StyleSheetErrorLocation() const' returns error location information set by the last style sheet load operation.
  • CFramework::GetHeights now returns a vector of integers instead of writing to pointers supplied by the caller.
  • CFramework::SetNearbyObjectWarning now takes an extra parameter, a reference to TResult.
  • CFramework::SetVehicleTypeWarning now takes an extra parameter, a reference to TResult.
  • CFramework::SetVehiclePosOffset is now void instead of returning TResult.
  • There is a new function 'bool CFramework::TrackIsDisplayed'.
  • The deprecated overload of CFramework::InsertMapObject taking an object type has been removed.
  • The obsolete CFindFramework class has been removed.
  • Clipping and envelope functions have been added to CGeometry, allowing geometry objects to be built from operations on map objects.

The following functions now return TResult instead of being void:

  • CFramework::License
  • CFramework::SetTurnInstructions
  • CFramework::Resize
  • CFramework::SetScaleDenominator
  • CFramework::SetScaleDenominatorInView
  • CFramework::Zoom
  • CFramework::Rotate
  • CFramework::SetRotation
  • CFramework::SetViewLimits
  • CFramework::SetMainProfile
  • CFramework::AddProfile
  • CFramework::GetNavigationData
  • CFramework::DisplayTrack

.NET API changes

  • Clipping and envelope functions have been added to Geometry, allowing geometry objects to be built from operations on map objects. They use the new ClipOperation enum class.
  • There is a new GeometryList class which is a list of Geometry objects.
  • The function Framework.SetCase has been added to provide letter-case operations in a consistent way. It uses the new LetterCase enum class.

The following functions now return Result instead of being void:

  • Framework.License
  • Framework.SetTurnInstructions
  • Framework.SetScaleDenominator
  • Framework.SetScaleDenominatorInView
  • Framework.Zoom
  • Framework.Rotate
  • Framework.SetRotation
  • Framework.SetMainProfile
  • Framework.AddProfile

Android API changes

  • Clipping and envelope functions have been added to Geometry, allowing geometry objects to be built from operations on map objects. They use the new ClipOperation enum class.
  • The deprecated functions Framework.version, Framework.build and Framework.setAttribute have been removed. Use Util.version, Util.build and Util.setAttribute instead.
  • The deprecated version of Framework.insertMapObject that took a map object type parameter has been removed. Use the new version which
    deduces the map object type from the gemoetry object passed in.
  • The function Framework.getPolygonArea has been removed. Use the new function getArea, which takes a Geometry object. There is also
    a new function GetLengthOrPerimeter which takes a Geometry object.
  • The deprecated route creation functions taking coordinate arrays have been removed. Use the versions taking a RouteCoordSet object.
  • The function Framework.profile has been added to return one of the currently active route profiles.
  • The function Framework.getHeightProfile has been removed.
  • The function Framework.useImageServer has been removed because the image server system is no longer supported.
  • There is a new function Framework.setCase to set the letter case of a string. It uses the new LetterCase enum class.

The following functions now return an integer error code instead of being void:

  • Framework.license
  • Framework.setTurnInstructions
  • Framework.resize
  • Framework.setScale
  • Framework.setScaleDenominatorInView
  • Framework.zoom
  • Framework.zoomIn
  • Framework.zoomOut
  • Framework.rotate
  • Framework.setRotation
  • Framework.setRotationAt
  • Framework.setMainProfile
  • Framework.addProfile

iOS API changes

All methods taking 'const char *' in the Objective C interface now take 'NSString*'.

Structures called CartoTypePointAndResult, CartoTypeIdAndResult, and CartoTypeAreaLengthAndResult have been added to make it possible
to return multiple results without using unsafe pointers.

  • The CartoTypeCoordSet struct has been removed.
  • The CartoTypePath protocol's point method now returns a CartoTypePathPoint directly instead of taking a pointer to CartoTypePathPoint.
  • CartoTypeMapObject now implements the CartoTypePath protocol.
  • Clipping and envelope functions have been added to CartoTypeGeometry, allowing geometry objects to be built from operations on map objects. They use a new enum, CartoTypeClipOperation.
  • There is a new method in CartoTypeFramework called setCase to set the letter case of a string. It uses the new CartoTypeLetterCase enum.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method loadMapWithTileParam has been removed because tiled map data sources are no longer supported.
  • The CartoTypeFramework methods insertPushPin and insertCopyOfMapObject now return CartoTypeIdAndResult so as to return the new object's ID without having to use an unsafe pointer.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method deleteObjectsFromMap now returns the number of objects deleted, not a CTResult.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method convertCoords now takes a CartoTypeGeometry object instead of a CartoTypeCoordSet.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method convertPoint now returns CartoTypePointAndResult so as to return the converted point without having to use an unsafe pointer.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method getHeights now takes a CartoTypeGeometry and returns an array of NSNumber.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method getHeightProfile has been removed.
  • The deprecated route creation methods taking CartoTypeCoordSet have been removed. Use the versions taking a CartoTypeRouteCoordSet object.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method getProfile has been added to return one of the currently active route profiles.
  • The CartoTypeFramework method getBuiltInProfile now returns a CartoTypeRouteProfile object instead of a CTResult.

The following CartoTypeFramework methods now return CTResult instead of being void:

  • license
  • setTurnInstructions
  • setMapWidth:andHeight
  • setScaleDenominator
  • setScaleDenominatorInView
  • zoom
  • rotate
  • setRotation
  • setMainProfile
  • setMainProfileType
  • addProfile