Help with creating KAP from TIF and HDR

[autumnbreeze27]

I've got some old charts on CD that I'm trying to convert for use with OpenCPN.

I was successful in modifying the pcx2tif to work with my folders and generated a bunch of TIF/PNG files of my charts.

What I'm having issue is with getting them into KAP files.
I tried MapCal 2 on my Windows 8.1 notebook, but it was unstable. So I put together a Windows XP virtualbox and it runs good in there.
I get the CHARTCAL.DIR file and run "mc2bsbh CHARTCAL.DIR"
I then take the chart.HDR file over to my Ubuntu virtualbox and run
"tif2bsb -c 127 CHART.hdr chart.tif chart.kap", I get no errors and a kap file, but this KAP file doesn't do anything in OpenCPN.

Could somebody point me in the right direction? I've been pouring through all the threads I can find but am now stalling so close to the finish.

Do I need to roll my own HDR files by hand?

[autumnbreeze27]

I knew I'd figure it out as soon as I posted.

I got my hands on imgcalkap and that seems to work.

Is it possible to take all my Mexico charts and make a CM93 type where they change as you zoom in? Is that quilting or ???

[cagney]

Good.
There is a lot of info on this subject in Chart Conversion Manual | Official OpenCPN Homepage.

Be careful with those old charts for Mexico. Some of them are known to be very inaccurate for GPS Navigation. Many of them do not have a chart datum.
A typical example here

This means that it's impossible to say where a GPS plotted position will be, and that the error may be large and not uniform over the area.
OpenCPN will show this chart, as long as the Geodetic Datum, GD, isn't empty. GD= UNKNOWN, will be shown as a WGS84 chart but with a warning, for example.

A chart like this should only be used with non GPS, navigational methods.

Thomas

[autumnbreeze27]

Thanks for the response. I haven't seen any that have that verbage on them, so far all of mine have a datum and say that GPS marks can be plotted on it. So far they're all WGS-84 or North America 1927 datum... I'm guessing I can put a waypoint on the chart and then compare it to other charts to see if it's accurate?

[autumnbreeze27]

What do I do with the North American 1927 datum charts? I only have WGS84 and WGS72 available in imgcalkap

[DeborahLee]

Check out Mapc2map. I've used it pretty easy and quick.

[autumnbreeze27]

Originally Posted by DeborahLee

Check out Mapc2map. I've used it pretty easy and quick.

I tried the demo but had video graphics issues on my Win 8.1 notebook, so I think I'll stick to the freebie packages for now.

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

What do I do with the North American 1927 datum charts? I only have WGS84 and WGS72 available in imgcalkap

If you don't have known-good charts of the area with a similar scale to compare to these "NAD27" ones, I would get an up-to-date lightlist of the area and make some "wpts" from it.This will give you an idea of the correction required...IF it is required. It may not be, as I have reason to know on my old charts...the stated datum may not be how the charts were calibrated....it is really easy to see this if the lightlist agrees with the chart using brick and mortar lighthouses though even they get rebuilt if the chart is really old...

OpenCPN opens NAD27 with NO correction, as though they are wgs84 so, if these charts have lines of latitude and longitude "inked" on them, and if a waypoint-mark edited to be where they cross (ie" 20N 20W") DOES match the inked lines it is indeed calibrated to NAD27. If the waypoint mark DOES NOT sit on the crossing, the charts have probably been been calibrated to wgs84 despite what it says about NAD27...until someone like you! disproves it, I believe that they had gps and WGS84 before they converted these old paper charts to digital charts so why would they calibrate them to NAD27? The NAD27 is simply to explain why the inked lat-long doesn't match the gps...
whatever, If they are in fact calibrated as NAD27, rebuilding the chart with corrected calibration is the best way to go. NAD27 corrections are very specific to the area.