Chart Titles vs Chart Numbers

[JohnV]

I seem to be the only one who has this problem, so it's probably a dumb question:
How do you know which charts to load, when the file names are the chart numbers?
Try as I might, I can't find an alphabetical index of the charts that I can download and use when I'm off line. Obviously the indexes on the NOAA website only work when you've got an internet connection. Which I don't when I'm using charts to navigate.
What have others done to solve that problem?
Thanks for any help.
John V.
Somewhere near 14784

[fgd3]

I downloaded all the NOAA charts. I put all the raster charts in one directory and all the vector charts in another. Both directories are in the path OpenCPN searches for charts. Chart quilting is on by default. When I start OpenCPN all the charts I need are right there.

I generally use raster charts because they come up faster. Once in a while I select a vector chart, which involves waiting until OpenCPN loads all the data and renders the imagery for all the charts in the viewscreen. Once the charts are displayed OpenCPN shows me what I need without any need to select a particular chart.

Fabbian

[JohnV]

So did you place the entire directory of charts in the "Active Chart Directory" dialog box?
I had just been putting a small number of individual charts, covering my immediate area, into the 'active' box, thinking that loading all of them would slow things down.
Re vectors--I too had noticed that vector charts slowed the system down, so I guess that's normal?
Thanks for the reply.
John V.

[fgd3]

I created a "Charts" directory into which I placed the following directories:

NOAA ENCs
NOAA RNCs
USACE IENCs
USACE IENCs 2.1

On my Windows Vista computer there are no further subdirectories. All the NOAA ENCs are together in that directory. All the NOAA RNCs are together in that directory. On my Windows 7 computer the NOAA ENCs got unpacked with the NOAA-assigned folders (I let W7 unpack it instead of using WinZip) and I wound up with an ENC_ROOT folder containing 887 folders (one for each chart) in the NOAA ENCs folder.

OpenCPN works with either structure. It doesn't seem to care whether you have your charts in one directory or many, so long as you point it to a directory that sits at the top of the hierarchy.

ENCs, or vector charts, are slow to load. That's normal, not just for OpenCPN, but for any of the other electronic chart display programs I've seen.

Fabbian

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by JohnV

I seem to be the only one who has this problem, so it's probably a dumb question:
How do you know which charts to load, when the file names are the chart numbers?
Try as I might, I can't find an alphabetical index of the charts that I can download and use when I'm off line. Obviously the indexes on the NOAA website only work when you've got an internet connection. Which I don't when I'm using charts to navigate.
What have others done to solve that problem?
Thanks for any help.
John V.
Somewhere near 14784

you're right.Darned hard to find a simple list...
try this:
NOAA Charts Online | SAILtheCHANNELdotCOM
the links are there..Atlantic Coast,Gulf Coast,etc
Here's the Atlantic coast
http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/OnLineVi...iewerTable.htm

right click,"save page as" .htm or click-drag then copy-paste to text file...

[JohnV]

Thanks to both of you.
Fabbian, that solved the problem. I did essentially what you did with your Windows 7 computer and it works. Anywhere I put myself, the relevant charts are open and quilted. For some reason I had assumed that I had to select individual RNC's, depending on the area I wanted to cover.

H.S., that's the kind of list I'd been looking for, though by using the
Active Chart Directory correctly, I eliminated the need.

But not until I'd gone to the trouble of copying the NOAA website's list of charts, pasting it into Word, then using the database tool to order the titles alphabetically. I tried to upload it (in case the folks at NOAA needed it) but it the file was too large. Not hard to make, though.
John V.