Custom path line style when drawing on canvas

Question

I\'m currently working on map overlay which highlights the route along specified points and I need to implement certain line style (something like on screenshot)

Answer 1

I managed to find a better solution for my problem. So I got rid of my custom path effect and started to use usual stroke. So I basically draw my path 2 times: at first I draw black line, after that I draw thiner transparent line to clear the center of previous black line.

The only trick in this approach is that I need to draw my path in a separate bitmap (using temp canvas) and when path bitmap is ready - render it to the main canvas.

Hope this will help somebody else

@Override
public void draw(Canvas canvas, final MapView mapView, boolean shadow)
{
    //Generate new bitmap if old bitmap doesn't equal to the screen size (f.i. when screen orientation changes)
    if(pathBitmap == null || pathBitmap.isRecycled() || pathBitmap.getWidth()!=canvas.getWidth() || pathBitmap.getHeight()!=canvas.getHeight())
    {
        if(pathBitmap != null)
        {        
            pathBitmap.recycle();
        }
        pathBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(canvas.getWidth(), canvas.getHeight(), Config.ARGB_8888);
        tempCanvas.setBitmap(pathBitmap);
    }

    //Render routes to the temporary bitmap
    renderPathBitmap();

    //Render temporary bitmap onto main canvas
    canvas.drawBitmap(pathBitmap, 0, 0, null);
    }
}

private void renderPath(Path path, Canvas canvas)
{
    routePaint.setStrokeWidth(ROUTE_LINE_WIDTH);
    routePaint.setColor(OUTER_COLOR);
    routePaint.setXfermode(null);

    canvas.drawPath(path, routePaint); //render outer line

    routePaint.setStrokeWidth(ROUTE_LINE_WIDTH/1.7f);
    routePaint.setColor(Color.TRANSPARENT);
    routePaint.setXfermode(new PorterDuffXfermode(Mode.CLEAR));

    canvas.drawPath(path, routePaint); //render inner line
}

So result looks like:

Answer 2

I get pretty good results with PathDashPathEffect using a "dash stamp" that's two very thin rectangles and the MORPH style option. See last and 3rd last line here:

This was drawn by modifying the PathEffects example in ApiDemos taken from the SDK:

package com.example.android.apis.graphics;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.*;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.KeyEvent;
import android.view.View;

public class PathEffects extends GraphicsActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(new SampleView(this));
    }

    private static class SampleView extends View {
        private Paint mPaint;
        private Path mPath;
        private PathEffect[] mEffects;
        private int[] mColors;
        private float mPhase = 3;

        private static void makeEffects(PathEffect[] e, float phase) {
            e[0] = null;     // no effect
            e[1] = new CornerPathEffect(10);
            e[2] = new DashPathEffect(new float[] {10, 5, 5, 5}, phase);
            e[3] = new PathDashPathEffect(makePathDash(), 12, phase,
                                          PathDashPathEffect.Style.MORPH);
            e[4] = new ComposePathEffect(e[2], e[1]);
            e[5] = new ComposePathEffect(e[3], e[1]);
        }

        public SampleView(Context context) {
            super(context);
            setFocusable(true);
            setFocusableInTouchMode(true);

            mPaint = new Paint(Paint.ANTI_ALIAS_FLAG);
            mPaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
            mPaint.setStrokeWidth(6);

            mPath = makeFollowPath();

            mEffects = new PathEffect[6];

            mColors = new int[] { Color.BLACK, Color.RED, Color.BLUE,
                                  Color.GREEN, Color.MAGENTA, Color.BLACK
                                };
        }

        @Override protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
            canvas.drawColor(Color.WHITE);

            RectF bounds = new RectF();
            mPath.computeBounds(bounds, false);
            canvas.translate(10 - bounds.left, 10 - bounds.top);

            makeEffects(mEffects, mPhase);
            invalidate();

            for (int i = 0; i < mEffects.length; i++) {
                mPaint.setPathEffect(mEffects[i]);
                mPaint.setColor(mColors[i]);
                canvas.drawPath(mPath, mPaint);
                canvas.translate(0, 28);
            }
        }

        @Override public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
            switch (keyCode) {
                case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER:
                    mPath = makeFollowPath();
                    return true;
            }
            return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
        }

        private static Path makeFollowPath() {
            Path p = new Path();
            p.moveTo(0, 0);
            for (int i = 1; i <= 15; i++) {
                p.lineTo(i*20, (float)Math.random() * 35);
            }
            return p;
        }

        private static Path makePathDash() {
            Path p = new Path();
            p.moveTo(-6, 4);
            p.lineTo(6,4);
            p.lineTo(6,3);
            p.lineTo(-6, 3);
            p.close();
            p.moveTo(-6, -4);
            p.lineTo(6,-4);
            p.lineTo(6,-3);
            p.lineTo(-6, -3);
            return p;
        }
    }
}