Drawing Tools Under OpenCPN

[manuprenlair]

Firstly thanks for all people who develop OpenCpn !!
I start to use it 18 month ago, now I use the beta version and I could see the exceptional work who has been done on it !!

I just came back from Corse (I live in France) and I use OpenCpn beta version without problem!

But there are some tools that I didn't found untill now on OpenCpn and I will be glad to exchange with other user to know if it could be usefull for a future release:

The first of all, would be a drawing tools. Actualy I use the route tool to create some line that I use like marker for tack.
(very usefull when you go upwind).
it would be nice to be able to draw directly on OpenCpn, some lines with a given angle.

What do you think about that?

Best regards

Emmanuel

(sorry for my poor english)

[Surveyor]

This is a good idea for a plug-in! Being a plug-in, the creator could be pretty creative with options. It could include an expanded set of symbols, line widths, shading etc on top of the line and figure drawing tools you mentioned.

I wish I could write code and have it actually work!

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by manuprenlair

drawing tools. ...
it would be nice to be able to draw directly on OpenCpn, some lines with a given angle.

Yes, I would love that!!

Mark

[Kudalufi]

There are several types of "drawings" I would like to see in OpenCPN:

1) Manual chart corrections/updates (several primitives like line, area, and points)
2) Clearing lines
3) Relative maps (like ARPA maps)
4) Fixing points

Clearing lines and fixing points should be core functionality and not as a plugin, I think. ARPA maps and chart corrections could be plugins.

[manuprenlair]

Hello,

Sorry for the delay..
Of course OpenCPN is not a drawing tool!
But I think some basic drawing tools could be verry usefull.

I am surprise that so few people came into this thread... Are we so few who need this feature??

Please let me know!

[Littlechay]

Kudalufi, I'm not sure what you mean by fixing points; but I totally agree the ability to draw clearing lines should be core functionality in a chart plotter.. Drawing lines and measuring angles is just about all you have to do in any kind of chart work.

The basic functionality is there in the measure tool, it would be great if you could draw a line that could be left on the chart, draw another line, leave that etc.. Sure this can be done with routes and waypoints but sometimes you just want a couple of lines temporarily and don't want to have to mess around deleting waypoints and routes afterwards.

The ability to click on a line and save it would be useful. For example you draw in a clearing line, find that it's useful and you'll be visiting the location again, or you want to pass on the information to somebody else.

Chris

[Kudalufi]

Originally Posted by Littlechay

...I'm not sure what you mean by fixing points...

Formal navigation (and by that I mean the type of navigation you find described in the Admiralty Manual of Navigation) requires a certain amount visual fixes even when using GPS. I can roll off a three or four point fix on a paper chart and rolling ruler in about 10 seconds, but on electronic charts it's harder unless you have pre-fabricated fixing points.

I want to be able to have clearing lines you can not only save and transfer to other people, but also export in ARPA formats so you can load them up as a fixed map in your radar.

I'm a naval officer who came to that career later in life - after having worked as a developer and project manager in IT. So I'm going to take a stab at contributing to OpenCPN to make it support formal navigation. Right now I'm kicking around what I'm going to start with.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Kudalufi

. So I'm going to take a stab at contributing to OpenCPN to make it support formal navigation. Right now I'm kicking around what I'm going to start with.

That would be great.
Give it a shot and if it doesnt work out you will have had a bit of fun, and if it does work out many people will be very grateful

[HappySeagull]

Hi,Kudalfi,

this is post759 frrom kaiviti...per parallel indexing post775 and other such...
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post678536
I bet you and kaiviti would have much in common...but there's similar good ideas in here....I wish I had the brain to implement them...