Feature Requests

[maxxflow]

I am very surprised and concerned by the number of comments regarding the legibility of the menu buttons.

+1

It should go without saying that the operation of each of the buttons MUST be CLEARLY apparent to the user at all times in good and bad conditions.
This is presently not the case and it must be addressed sooner rather than later by the development team.
The use and operation of OPCN must also be easily and clearly identifiable by users with less than perfect eyesight and in bad weather.

First, let us not forget that OpenCPN is an open source project. Development is being done in people's spare time, because they enjoy it and see a value in contributing.
Therefore, it is also entirely up to each contributor to decide what to work on, and while suggestions from the users are often more than welcome, no one has the right to place demands on what should be done.

Also, it is important to follow good development practice, and not immediately go forth and override UI-toolkit behaviour without thinking twice about it. Too many software projects have turned into unmaintainable mess after making all sorts of kludges and quick-fixes for things that should have been remedied at different level, and in my own opinion, nautical software seems somewhat over-represented.

Perhaps all has been said about this button-status issue that there is to say, so let us sit down and relax (or get hackin' on a patch) until some sort of development has taken place.

[HappySeagull]

... it's just a "request" to see if there's an interest and then to toss it about, put it down, think about what it would look like....
maybe,
Them-That-Scribble-The-Wholly-Gobbledegook ,peering ever onwardfrom their Heavenly Crowsnest, will shift their eagle-gaze to these clamourings of the rabble on deck and smile...

[HappySeagull]

..sucking up, might work.

Gee, iI just had an odd thought. Imagine if you were a major software company and you wanted to distract an open source "competitor"...you could bombard their naiive forum with peculiar requests they felt obliged to incorporate, or,at least discuss, in their misguided altruism. Sooo that's our job, rabble. Find and destroy! these termites before they get to the mast-partners!

[HappySeagull]

...Oh, and a related toolbar feature request... Keyboard Shortcuts (HotKeys) for all the toolbar components...Tracking doesn't have one...Maybe Route Manager could use one..?
I love hotkeys. A mouse is really just a nuisance. It's for Gamers

Hot Keys | Official OpenCPN Homepage

[CeesH]

I hope one day to find, in the .ini file, the option to select witch Toolbar keys are visible or not.

example;
ZoomDown="FALSE"
ZoomUp="FALSE"
ScrollDown="FALSE"
SrollUp="FALSE"
About="FALSE"

This would make my small screen more readable.



CeesH

[HappySeagull]

Ceesh, that's cool! good idea. SOME Buttons can be hid now.
(From the help file)
"These icons can be enabled or disabled from the ToolBox
Printer 'ToolBox-Settings-Show Printing Icon' to hide or un-hide.
Tracks 'ToolBox-Etc.-Show Track Icon' to hide or un-hide.
Grib Plugin. Activate in Toolbox-Plugins by first clicking the feature and then "enable".
Dashboard plugin. Activate in Toolbox-Plugins by first clicking the feature and then "enable". "
If the feature could be extended to the other buttons.. or, as in Maxxflow' post..http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post898758

[magicmoments]

If this is a duplicate request please forgive.

I would like to have 2 extra usb input's for a nema wind and depth talker.

I used to use SeaClear and that is the feature I miss most.

Thanks to everyone for your work.

[hellosailor]

Dave, I'm coming late to looking at OC and so far, damn I'm impressed. Simply tiling my charts makes me a happy camper.

But I've also been spoiled by northeast waters where there's not much to run into and bottom depths often aren't a concern.

Looking now at SE waters...Well now there's a wee bit more work to do. I used to take a pink highlighter to the paper charts, and simply add a line at the 10' contour to remind me "stay outta there" not that I draw ten feet, but that's my personal comfort zone, six feet plus some tide plus some dummy dumped some 55-gallon drums or whatever down there, if there's ten feet under me I'm a relaxed camper.

Which brings me to the feature request: Could OC churn the numbers, work the charts, maybe from the vector charts? And generate a "keep out" contour line at a fixed bottom depth? Generate exclusion zones based on bottom depths?

I did see (and try) the "Depth Settings" in the vector charts tools, but didn't see anything corresponding change on the charts. Maybe this is already there and I'm pushed the wrong buttons?

[cagney]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

......

I did see (and try) the "Depth Settings" in the vector charts tools, but didn't see anything corresponding change on the charts. Maybe this is already there and I'm pushed the wrong buttons?

There is no straight forward relation between the buttons and an immediate change in the display. To understand what's going on read Vector Chart Display | Official OpenCPN Homepage, the section "Depth Settings" towards the end.

Thomas

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by cagney

There is no straight forward relation between the buttons and an immediate change in the display. To understand what's going on read Vector Chart Display | Official OpenCPN Homepage, the section "Depth Settings" towards the end.

Thomas

That is a very useful link, and it corresponds with what I had discovered through trial and error. You have four colors available in OpenCPN's vector chart display, which highlight different depth ranges which are user selectable. I'll call the colors medium blue, light blue, medium gray, and light gray, in order of increasing depth. The three depths that you select in the settings determine the color changes that highlight the contour boundaries between the depth ranges. But those boundaries are constrained to the contours that are provided by your chart supplier - OpenCPN does not create new contours. In the case of US tidal water charts, my NOAA charts typically have contours at 6, 12, 18, 30, 60, 90, and 120 feet, with additional coutours of arbitrary depth that outline dredged channel areas. You can choose to highlight any of these contours by entering the appropriate depth in meters into OpenCPN's dialog box.

Let's say, for instance, that you want the color to go from medium blue to light blue at the 6' contour. Then you should enter 1.5 meters (or any number between 0 and 1.79) in the box under "shallow depth". Note that if you enter 2, the color change will instead happen at the 12' contour, because even though 2 meters is a very close approximation of 6', it is between 6' and 12', not between 0' and 6'. (Technically, OpenCPN uses 5.9' as the cutoff, not 6', for reasons that I suppose only NOAA knows.)

If you are entering changes and not seeing an effect on the display, your depths may not correspond to different contours. This would be especially likely if you enter depths in feet instead of meters.

I find this feature useful for de-cluttering the display. If I am at a zoom level that causes the depth soundings to be too close together, I turn off the soundings and rely on the color codes to keep me out of shallow water.

[janp391]

Is there a way to choose the NMEA sentences to use?
F. ex. I get SOG and HDG from my system (Raymarine) and there is a differens between them. So if it is possible to choose just one of them the presentation on the display will be better.

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by janp391

Is there a way to choose the NMEA sentences to use?
F. ex. I get SOG and HDG from my system (Raymarine) and there is a differens between them. So if it is possible to choose just one of them the presentation on the display will be better.

I believe OpenCPN uses HDG if it exists in the NMEA stream, otherwise it uses COG. No manual selection. Maybe add your feature request to OpenCPN::Tracker All Projects: Tasklist

In the meantime, for filtering NMEA sent to OpenCPN, I use NavMonPc. It creates virtual Com Ports ( to feed OpenCPN the NMEA data). And in "advanced routing" you can select which NMEA data you send to OpenCPN.

Dirk

[janp391]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

I believe OpenCPN uses HDG if it exists in the NMEA stream, otherwise it uses COG. No manual selection. Maybe add your feature request to OpenCPN::Tracker All Projects: Tasklist

In the meantime, for filtering NMEA sent to OpenCPN, I use NavMonPc. It creates virtual Com Ports ( to feed OpenCPN the NMEA data). And in "advanced routing" you can select which NMEA data you send to OpenCPN.

Dirk

I will check NavMonPc, but if this could be a standard option in openCPN I think that is the best solution.
Correction: My system give me COG and HDG
If I use an USB-GPS all is ok, because it deliver COG and then I have just one line infront of the boat. But I like to connect my computer to the main navigation system onboard.

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by janp391

I will check NavMonPc, but if this could be a standard option in openCPN I think that is the best solution.
Correction: My system give me COG and HDG
If I use an USB-GPS all is ok, because it deliver COG and then I have just one line infront of the boat. But I like to connect my computer to the main navigation system onboard.

Your system seems similar to mine.

I do like the way OpenCPN handles the input of HDG: At standstill or very slow speed, the COG from a GPS is random. And without HDG, the boat in OpenCPN doesn't point in the right direction.

And while moving, having the two lines, COG and HDG, helps to see set, drift, etc: COG is where you are going, HDG is where the boat points to.

If your HDG is way off, all the time, then the el. compass might need recalibration.

Dirk

[MvN]

The loading and conversion of ENC takes an incredible amount of time with the new Dutch ENCs under development (see: ftp://www.risserver.nl/ENC/zeeland/ for an example) The charts are so feature rich that it takes too much time to convert them to SENC on the fly. Is it possible to convert the charts in the background/off line once?


Maarten