Making Charts

[nigelmercier]

I'm not an OpenCPN user, but my chartplotter can use a range of charts, including GeoTIFF. I'm considering using some scanned images to make a few charts for areas where the existing charts are poor.

Any suggestions on Windows software to do this?

[nautical62]

MapMaker is one I've used to create land based maps. but should work fine for Charts as well. You can start with a satellite image, trace it and then plot GPS coordinates which can be downloaded directly from a handheld GPS.

[nohal]

Nigel,
MapCal II from the SeaClear package & libbsb and imgkap are your friends for chart calibration (If KAPs are in the range of the charts your chartplotter can use.)
Chart Conversion Manual | Official OpenCPN Homepage is mostly usable on Windows as well.
There are tons of info in the various threads in this forum - good place to start is this HappySeagulls's post in http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post726373. This subject is actually a bit too complex to describe in a single post, you will have to go through the resources already available and ask a bit more specific questions if you encounter problems.

Pavel

[nigelmercier]

Thanks for the replies. As far as I know, my chartplotter can handle:

Livechart
S57 data (Primar & UK HO)
HCRF format
ARCS
Seafarer
NZ Mariner
BSB
Maptech PCX
GeoTIFF

The OpenCPN guide seems to start with a GeoTIFF, I want to end up with one.

[nohal]

Nigel...
That's a little confusion, I'm afraid. If you refer to the chart conversion manual, it starts with a TIFF image, not a georeferenced GeoTIFF.
But it does not matter, as your plotter supports BSB (aka KAP) which is what we all produce, so it looks like you can use the same workflow like all the people doing calibration here. If you really want GeoTIFF, the help we can provide is pretty limited.

Pavel

[nigelmercier]

Originally Posted by nohal

That's a little confusion, I'm afraid... But it does not matter, as your plotter supports BSB (aka KAP) which is what we all produce...

It doesn't take much to confuse me, especially if I don't read something properly! Good news about BSB, many thanks.

[sinbad7]

Hi Nigel..

I would suggest you try 'Chartconvert',a great and easy program to use.
You can also use GE2KAP to convert Google Earth images to .kap charts.
What areas are you particularly looking for?

Tore

[nigelmercier]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

I would suggest you try 'Chartconvert',a great and easy program to use.
You can also use GE2KAP to convert Google Earth images to .kap charts.
What areas are you particularly looking for?

Thanks Tore. Do you have a link for 'Chartconvert'? I like easy to use, especially on software I don't use often.

The areas I interested in are the Canary Islands. I have some paper charts and harbour plans of a few small areas, so I figured I would try to add them to my chart portfolio.

[sinbad7]

Nigel..

You will find the conversion utilities here:
4shared folder - Useful programs

Tore

[nigelmercier]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Nigel..

You will find the conversion utilities here:
4shared folder - Useful programs

Tore

Thanks Tore, do I just need Chartconver.rar, because I seem to be lacking a DLL: VisualC V7 Runtime I think.

I also noticed that the RAR file has a ZIP file inside, with the same contents, and another inside that! Recursion?

[nohal]

Nigel...
Get the DLL from Internet and place it to the same folder as the application: msvcr70.dll - Google Search
I'm not using this tool myself, but you will still need the calibration data - that's where MapCal or manual procedures come to play.
As the contents of the archive go, really looks like recursion and you can probably throw the zip away.

Pavel

[nigelmercier]

Originally Posted by nohal

Nigel...
Get the DLL from Internet and place it to the same folder as the application: msvcr70.dll - Google Search
I'm not using this tool myself, but you will still need the calibration data - that's where MapCal or manual procedures come to play.
As the contents of the archive go, really looks like recursion and you can probably throw the zip away.

Pavel

Hi Pavel, thanks. I found the file in \system32, so I made a copy in the folder. Microsoft say not to register it anymore.

[sinbad7]

Nigel..

Chartconvert uses facilities from several programs you have to download and install.

See attachment...

Tore

[nigelmercier]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Nigel..

Chartconvert uses facilities from several programs you have to download and install.

See attachment...

Tore

Thanks again Tore.

[Acedude]

Quick (possibly foolish) question:

Is there a method that will let convert SENC (*.snc) charts to BSB (*.kap)?
Or is there a plugin that will let me open SENC (*.snc) file types?

I searched the threads and saw a thread where people were rebuilding the charts from images off of NOAA and NGA, but having a bunch of SENC style files on my computer and would just prefer to convert them. Unless I am missing something intuitively obvious to the untrained eye.....

Running Open CPN 2.5