drawtonomy vs CARLA Map Editor
CARLA Map Editor
Section titled “CARLA Map Editor”The CARLA Map Editor is a desktop application from the CARLA project. Per its README, it loads the FBX and .xodr files produced by RoadRunner and lets you place additional metadata on them — it is an enhancement tool for existing maps rather than a tool for drawing roads from scratch.
What the CARLA Map Editor covers (per the GitHub repository):
- Loading RoadRunner-authored FBX + OpenDRIVE maps and adding traffic lights, traffic-light groups, and speed signs.
- Editing box triggers and relative transforms for detection.
- Exporting the updated data back to OpenDRIVE (
.xodr). - MIT-licensed CARLA code, built on Unreal Engine 4; currently a Linux desktop application.
For preparing a map for use in the CARLA simulator — specifically, annotating a RoadRunner map with signals — this is the tool maintained alongside the simulator.
Where drawtonomy might fit alongside it
Section titled “Where drawtonomy might fit alongside it”drawtonomy is a browser whiteboard for 2D top-down driving diagrams. It is not a CARLA map pipeline tool: it has no Unreal Engine dependency, no FBX export, and no 3D mesh. Per its exporter documentation, its OpenDRIVE 1.8 export covers a subset of the spec — lanes, traffic lights, crosswalks, basic objects — and does not yet emit junction primitives or traffic signs as <signal> entries, so it is for sketches and figures, not for production CARLA maps.
A few small things drawtonomy can add alongside the CARLA Map Editor:
- A browser-only sketch of the intended scene layout before any map authoring begins — no install, no Unreal Engine.
- A
.drawtonomy.svgeditable figure for a paper or slide that explains the scenario you are building in CARLA. - A paired OpenSCENARIO 1.3 export for a quick check in esmini on a simple version of the scene.
For the actual CARLA map, the RoadRunner → CARLA Map Editor path is the established route. drawtonomy is for the diagram of the scenario, not the simulated map.
In the same simulation ecosystem
Section titled “In the same simulation ecosystem”drawtonomy exports the same ASAM OpenDRIVE and OpenSCENARIO standards that CARLA consumes. CARLA is on the execution side of the pipeline, so the relationship is interoperation rather than competition — see CARLA ScenarioRunner for how authored scenarios are played back. Other authoring tools in the same OpenDRIVE space include RoadRunner, LaneMaker, and Truevision Designer. We work on different parts of the same ecosystem.