Google Earth to BSB / KAP

[phiggins]

Looks like depending how fast the system is I didn't give the plugin time to save the gpx file. Added a check to see it was saved before reading it.

Try V4.1.4

[phiggins]

JohnB,

I tried the chart you sent me on OpenCPN, SeaClear and Fugawi and they all load and display it ok. So I don't know why Maxsea gives an error. Perhaps you can send it to Maxsea support and ask them why it gives the error and what it means.

Is anyone else able to use charts created by GE2KAP on MaxSea?

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by phiggins

Looks like depending how fast the system is I didn't give the plugin time to save the gpx file. Added a check to see it was saved before reading it.

Try V4.1.4

Solved the problem of one French user (overjoyed, sends many thanks to you)
Waiting to hear from another (could be simply a oorexx install problem)

[phiggins]

SailorF54,

Thanks for the feedback, but working on JohnB's Maxsea problem I discovered that the scale is not correct on the charts produced. So just uploaded GE2KAP version 4.1.6 that corrcts the scale. Please try it.

JohnB,
Could you try the new version and see if the charts created work on Maxsea, maybe it got upset with the wrong scale.

www.gdayii.ca/Downloads GE2KAP

Also, I noticed a problem if you have the OpenCPN plugin active with the GE window undocked. If you turn it off and back on again and then produce a chart, its not quite correct because the GE window doesn't get maximized. Discussing this with Pavel to see why.

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by phiggins

Is anyone else able to use charts created by GE2KAP on MaxSea?

Just tried (I never realized I could !!!) No problem with release 4.1.6

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by phiggins

SailorF54,

Thanks for the feedback, but working on JohnB's Maxsea problem I discovered that the scale is not correct on the charts produced. So just uploaded GE2KAP version 4.1.6 that corrcts the scale. Please try it.

JohnB,
Could you try the new version and see if the charts created work on Maxsea, maybe it got upset with the wrong scale.

www.gdayii.ca/Downloads GE2KAP

Also, I noticed a problem if you have the OpenCPN plugin active with the GE window undocked. If you turn it off and back on again and then produce a chart, its not quite correct because the GE window doesn't get maximized. Discussing this with Pavel to see why.

The latest version works fine with Maxsea. I have produced 2 test charts and they load into Maxsea no problem at all. Thanks Paul

[JohnB]

After doing more comparisons with the "new" chart versions versus the "older" versions I think there is a degradation in the image quality when viewed in Maxsea.

Just a subjective comment but it is noticeable where I have added placemark, on a rock for example, in GE before producing a chart.

[phiggins]

JohnB,

I just tried a bunch of releases from V1 to v4 and can't see a difference but that may be just my old eyes.

Could you produce a couple of charts and send them to me. Please give them different names like V123, V416 so I can flip between them.

Thanks

[Jubilee39]

This all sounds very interesting, I loaded all the programs. Got ready to run but forgot to start google earth. It started automatically though but when I zoomed in to the area I wanted to overlay in GE my video went haywire and I ended up with the BSOD. Now it is a hardware problem but I am not sure if it was not caused by something in the programs.

[phiggins]

Jubilee39,

What a BSOD?

You might try changing the graphics mode in Google Earth... Tools..Options..3DView..Graphics Mode, then restart GE. Maybe the current one is too much for your video card.

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by phiggins

Jubilee39,

What a BSOD?
.

Phiggins, you must be very young...
Window's feared Blue Screen of Death...

BTW, GE2KAP is a real gem. I've been making a number of overlay charts recently without a hitch...

Many many thanks (to Pavel also for integrating it with OpenCpn)

[phiggins]

NEW VERSION: V5.0.0 - NO PREREQS

I've just uploaded a new version of GE2KAP that does not require any prereqs. Well you still need OOREXX, but you do not need to install ImageMagick, Tif2BSB or BSB2tif. The functions performed by these programs has been implemented in the GE2KAPFuncs.DLL.

The new version is faster than V4 and I think the quality of the images produced is better. Let me know what you think.

Please try it out at www.gdayii.ca\Downloads - GE2KAP


Acknowledgments
--------------
I would like to thank the following who have provided me code that is used in GE2KAP:
Davide Pizzolato for his CXIMAGE Class that I used to replace the ImageMagick functions.
Mark Miesfeld of the OOREXX development team that provided the code I use to type into the Google earth and OpenCPN windows.
Stuart Cunningham and Anuradha Suraparaju for the libbsb code: tif2bsb and bsb2tif code.
Also, i would like to thank all the users who have tested my code.

[sailorF54]

Both independent GE overlays on marine charts and plain GE snapshots within OpenCpn seems OK.

[phiggins]

Thanks SailorF54.

Tore has discovered that V5 is still dependent on ImageMagick to View Chart. I forgot that I issue imdisplay.exe to display the chart.

I will have to discover another way to dispplay the chart.

[Jubilee39]

Originally Posted by phiggins

Jubilee39,

What a BSOD?

You might try changing the graphics mode in Google Earth... Tools..Options..3DView..Graphics Mode, then restart GE. Maybe the current one is too much for your video card.

The problem was hardware, Dell laptop Nvidia graphics. Found and interesting fix on internet. Removed the card and baked it in the oven on hi for ten minutes. Problem solved.