Feature Requests

[one wolf]

Originally Posted by rgleason

One wolf:
Regarding http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2392557

I suggest you register on Tracker
https://opencpn.org/flyspray/index.php?do=register

and add this item to the OpenCPN task,
starting the description with RM - your description and SAVE it.

Thenmake another for WP - your description

and also reference your CruiserForm post with a link.
and select "Feature Request"
Thanks.

Understood. I created an ID and I can open the tracker... can't figure out how to create a task. I'm sure I'm stupid.

[silentwings39]

I have been using OpenCPN fairly extensively for a number of years as a backup display (to a 2005 C Series Classic C80).
Recently the screen on my C series has been periodically misbehaving (common problem) so I modified my connections to allow OpenCPN to supply NMEA data to my autopilot and follow a route.

The normal function is of course for the plotter to provide to and from waypoints for each leg of the route and provide XTE data, the autopilot then tries it's best to keep the boat on the original line between these waypoints with minimum XTE.
That is fine and correct, until you need to make a course alteration for whatever reason mid route, eg to avoid another vessel or to investigate something you have spotted or even just tacking because it's not possible to sail the original course etc.
After the deviation, it would be nice to have the option of clicking a button or selecting a menu option to RESTART XTE, to allow to to continue passage to your existing "to" waypoint effectively changing the from waypoint to the current position, therefore clearing the XTE and continuing on a direct rout to the "to" waypoint rather than the current behaviour of trying to get back onto the original track line.
This was a feature I used quite a lot in my C series but seems to be missing in OpenCPN.

Of course there would be occasions where it would be desireable to get back on the original track in which case I would simply re-engage the autopilot without restarting XTE, but in open clear waters I would simply wish to continue directly to the waypoint and RESTART XTE would achieve this.

[jongough]

Just right click on the chart (assuming a route is active) and you will find a menu entry 'Zero XTE'. Selecting this will set the XTE to zero and you will be directed to the current active waypoint from your current position.

[silentwings39]

Originally Posted by jongough

Just right click on the chart (assuming a route is active) and you will find a menu entry 'Zero XTE'. Selecting this will set the XTE to zero and you will be directed to the current active waypoint from your current position.

So it does! I must have tried just about everything else.
Next time I'm out Ill try and remember. Just come back from a 6 week cruise where this would have been useful. Would have asked during the cruise but internet access was always a problem. Out of country so roaming charges and marina wifi signals next to useless when on board.

Brilliant
Many thanks

[rgleason]

Perhaps we should add Reset XTE to the manual?

[Fuga]

In previous releases, once the serial ports are set up, they have continued to operate without further intervention on subsequent openCPN sessions.

I am now using the latest openCP under the latest Ubuntu 16.04. At each session it is necessary to go into Tools, Connections and disable each of the serial interfaces, apply, then enable each of them before applying and exiting.

This is extremely hassle causing, espectially when OpenCPN (or cpu) has dived for some other reason, and it is necessary to get it restarted while under way.

Is there a work around to pre-assign the ports during the start up script?

[reflectionsv37]

This has probably been requested before, but I'm going to ask again anyway!

It would be very beneficial if we had more standard Waypoint Icons in Opencpn. The small set distributed with OpenCPN are just not comprehensive enough to be useful in many situations. Some are so small they are very difficult to see.

I realize we have the ability to install our own UserIcons but it requires users to create the directory, find icons on their own and install them.

S/V Revelations has created a pretty comprehensive list would certainly meet all my current needs plus some. He has made them freely available on his blog site so I don't believe there would be any issues with copyrights and he would probably be proud to have them incorporated in the OpenCPN project. You can view them and download them from his site here

OpenCPN User Icons - Revelations

I have been taking some cruising guides from the Thailand/Malaysia area creating GPX files that can be installed as layers that include links within each Cruising Guide to the page where the anchorage is discussed. I'd also like to include links to pertinent information in the guides that are not linked to a particular waypoint such as sailing information, warning areas, as well as new navigation lights that have been installed that do not appear on existing CM93 charts. I'd like to make it as easy as possible to share these guides with others, but to do so I'm limited to the small selection of
standard Waypoint Icons.

Here on the northeast coast of Penang, Malaysia there is a large reclamation project where they are creating 2 islands in what used to be navigable waters. They have installed 4 yellow lighted buoys to mark off the area where the islands are being reclaimed. There is no really suitable icon in the standard set for these yellow buoys.

Another similar situation exist further south near Pangkor Island where a major channel serving an new ore plant has installed a large number of new buoys making the channel.

I'd like to see these icons just be incorporated into the opencpn.ini file so they would be available to everyone on a future update. An alternative would be to have a future update automatically create the UserIcons directory and install S/V Revelations icons making them available to all users.

Thanks!

Gene

[cagney]

Originally Posted by reflectionsv37

This has probably been requested before, but I'm going to ask again anyway!

It would be very beneficial if we had more standard Waypoint Icons in Opencpn. The small set distributed with OpenCPN are just not comprehensive enough to be useful in many situations. Some are so small they are very difficult to see.

I realize we have the ability to install our own UserIcons but it requires users to create the directory, find icons on their own and install them.

S/V Revelations has created a pretty comprehensive list would certainly meet all my current needs plus some. He has made them freely available on his blog site so I don't believe there would be any issues with copyrights and he would probably be proud to have them incorporated in the OpenCPN project. You can view them and download them from his site here

OpenCPN User Icons - Revelations

I have been taking some cruising guides from the Thailand/Malaysia area creating GPX files that can be installed as layers that include links within each Cruising Guide to the page where the anchorage is discussed. I'd also like to include links to pertinent information in the guides that are not linked to a particular waypoint such as sailing information, warning areas, as well as new navigation lights that have been installed that do not appear on existing CM93 charts. I'd like to make it as easy as possible to share these guides with others, but to do so I'm limited to the small selection of
standard Waypoint Icons.

Here on the northeast coast of Penang, Malaysia there is a large reclamation project where they are creating 2 islands in what used to be navigable waters. They have installed 4 yellow lighted buoys to mark off the area where the islands are being reclaimed. There is no really suitable icon in the standard set for these yellow buoys.

Another similar situation exist further south near Pangkor Island where a major channel serving an new ore plant has installed a large number of new buoys making the channel.

I'd like to see these icons just be incorporated into the opencpn.ini file so they would be available to everyone on a future update. An alternative would be to have a future update automatically create the UserIcons directory and install S/V Revelations icons making them available to all users.

Thanks!

Gene

Have a look at this page in the documentation https://opencpn.org/OpenCPN/info/usericons.html .

Thomas

[reflectionsv37]

I am fully aware of the functionality of the UserIcon directory. Many of us are now sharing more than just waypoints, we're sharing new information and also making use of layer files to build waypoints and other information derived from Cruising Guides and using the link feature of waypoints to provide a quick, clickable link to the relevant section of the cruising guide. These would include warning areas, specific sailing instructions for a certain area, information on fuel, water, restaurants, marinas, haul out locations and other types of information. The current Icons available are extremely limited and do not provide enough variety to accommodate these needs. Some of the default Icons are so small and difficult to see that they are essentially worthless.

This does not represent a major programming change. The functionality is already in place. Incorporating a more extended list of icons, which are readily available, would ensure that all Opencpn users would have available the more comprehensive standard set of extended icons so anyone sharing information on waypoints and other pertinent locations with another OpenCPN user would already have those icons in their system. As it is now, if you want an icon to represent a marina, you have to distribute that icon with instructions on how to create the folder and copy the icon to folder. If all of us are distributing our own custom icons to other users it will eventually become unmanageable.

Please click on the link I provided above and review the icons in S/V Revelations file. They are pertinent and could be very useful. I'd like to add a few to that list for a Marina, Haul Out symbol and a Yellow Caution Buoy. We should be able to implement some method of easily requesting and adding additional icons if they serve a valid purpose.

[transmitterdan]

The existing system is pretty darn easy. No programming is required. I don't know how to make it easier to add your own icons. It is simply copying files into a folder. Why is that too complicated?

[reflectionsv37]

It's not the difficulty in setting up the directory and copying the icons. The issue is a lack of standardization of very common symbols.

I agree! it's a very simple thing to do! Why not have OpenCPN deliver a more robust set of icons so no one has deal with it? Seems much easier to do it once so everyone benefits.

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by reflectionsv37

The current Icons available are extremely limited and do not provide enough variety to accommodate these needs. Some of the default Icons are so small and difficult to see that they are essentially worthless..

I agree with this comment. I share waypoint information (anchorages, dangers, power cables, current, etc.) with over a hundred cruisers. I have also found the default set of icons to be a limiting factor.

Hopefully this will be taken to heart.

Terry

[bdbcat]

ReflectionSV37...

Sound's like you are volunteering...

So, how about starting another thread and leading a discussion of new and improved icons for O?
Come up with a consensus list and some image files, and I'll get them into the next release of OCPN, no problem.

Good Luck
Dave

[reflectionsv37]

Hi Dave!

It will be my pleasure!! I'll have something put together in the next day or two!

Gene

[CapnRon47]

I am new to the Forum (I think - so old I don't recall if I have belonged here before!), my request has to do with instrument display. I would like to be able to name a group of instruments and call that group up as its own display, much like the dashboard. Someone tell me if this is already possible. I would like to be able to organize the selected instruments, in this display, as I choose. So I can have true wind direction, true wind speed, apparent wind direction and maybe depth, as a quad display (2x2 instead of just linear vertical and horizontal) as an example. That grouping can be named and called up by name and I can have multiple group names. Some instrument displays would be used for just cruising and some might be more appropriate for racing, is my thought.

Does any of this already exist and how would I begin to start to make this happen if I can figure out how to program in C++ or JSON?

thanks,
Ron