mc2bsbh - MapCal Template to BSB Template Conversion

[dacust]

Compare the two. Yours first. (I added spaces to make them line up):

11461.tif   TIFF  8320x6720  8320x6720+0+0 4-bit PseudoClass  16c 3.489MiB 0.000u 0:00.000
11402_1.tif TIFF 12429x9358 12429x9358+0+0 8-bit PseudoClass 256c 5.577MiB 0.000u 0:00.31

Your image is 4-bit color for 16 colors, where mine is 8-bit for 256 colors. I think that is probably the issue.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but just for kicks, try converting to .jpg, then .gif > .tif.

You might post a question on the ImageMagick forum. It was a person in there that suggested the .jpg > .gif > .tif that finally worked for me. ImageMagick is powerful, but so far it appears to me that it does a lot of things automagickly that, at least for me, makes it unpredictable.

Or maybe someone else in here that know a little more about graphics can help.

-dan

[Zpex]

OK Converted the tif in gimp to 8bit 256 colors. ran tif2bsb with the new tif and whohoo! you were right it worked.
I'm supprised how color depth would make such a big difference
Thanks Dan and Marco

[dacust]

Originally Posted by Zpex

OK Converted the tif in gimp to 8bit 256 colors. ran tif2bsb with the new tif and whohoo! you were right it worked.
I'm supprised how color depth would make such a big difference
Thanks Dan and Marco

Cool. Welcome to the chart-making club!

FYI: We are always on the lookout for places to download images. Marco has written KapGen which facilitates downloading and making charts. The calibration is stored in a CHARTCAL.DIR along with the URL for download. Then all someone has to do it run it with the chart name and it downloads it and creates the chart. It uses wget, convert, mc2bsbh and tif2bsb under the covers.

So, if you have any to contribute, we'd love them.

-dan

[Zpex]

Cool, I have tons. the med., caribbean, bahamas. well OK not tons but quite a few. some are older but with NTM are still usable. problem is they are in the old maptech format. But now that I have successfully converted one of them I'll work on a script to automate the conversion. but the bottleneck will be doing all the calibrations with mapcal

[GPS-Marco]

Zpex, I received the gif. I converted the gif in tif. Since this gif map only uses 10 colours, you don't need any color conversion. You can use GIMP to just open the gif and save in tif (use LZW compression).

then I ran:

tif2bsb 11461.hdr 11461.tif 11461.kap

It worked at the first shot. Note: don't use -c 127 since the map is alredy using 10 colours only.

Ciao, Marco.

[Zpex]

Here is a quick and dirty script to create gifs of charts on the old maptech chartpack cds. you will need to copy the cd to a folder on your hard drive and copy this script to that folder you will also need imagemagick.

Of course you will still need to calibrate these using mapcal and create the kap using mc2bsbh and tift2bsb using instuctions for mc2bsbh

[Zpex]

BTW the command is: cscript cimg.vbs
And Found a bug already, here is the new ver. told you it was quick and dirt

[sinbad7]

I think someone mentioned it before but what is required in the header of a tif2bsb conversion to make the .kap chart readable by MapCal,SeaClear and others?

This is the header I am using but it does not display anywhere but in OpenCPN:
(the dashes just indicates spaces here)

!Copyright 1996, NDI. Created by mc2bsbh-0.00.01 - Use at your own risk!
VER/2.0
BSB/NA=Aruba approach
---NU=,RA=1280,712,DU=0
KNP/SC=500000,GD=WGS84,PR=MERCATOR
---PP=0,PI=UNKNOWN,SP=UNKNOWN,SK=0.0
---UN=METERS,SD=LAT,DX=198.39,DY=198.39
REF/1,585,290,12.614430000000,-70.052490000000
REF/2,713,671,11.931853333333,-69.819948333333
REF/3,120,434,12.356100000000,-70.907595000000
PLY/1,13.1233137827616,-71.1159333906195
PLY/2,11.8664851347077,-71.1206765033973
PLY/3,11.8678647367129,-68.7878857328333
PLY/4,13.1246866941513,-68.7831426200555
DTM=0,0
IFM/7

[sinbad7]

This thread seems to have gone dead.. are you using an alternative?

I have done a couple of conversions from OpenSeaMap via a screen dump and in the conversion process,a unwanted grid or patchwork is produced in the final .kap which is not present in the original bitmap,at least not visible. Can anyone explain?

[sinbad7]

A final conversion of Bergen harbour with today's traffic.

This time I managed the conversion without the unwanted grid.
I found that the bitmap screendump must be done BEFORE any zooming or alterations are done. The minute you change scale,the grid appears,even trying to view in full screen modus brings back the grid. Obviously a fault in OpenSeaMap or incompatability with Vista.

In several areas,light houses are missing and I can find no way to add them from the provided list of sea markers. Also no way to add marinas or other interesting features.

[sinbad7]

I found that the bitmap screendump must be done BEFORE any zooming or alterations are done. The minute you change scale,the grid appears,even trying to view in full screen modus brings back the grid. Obviously a fault in OpenSeaMap or incompatability with Vista.

Well,actually,it seems it is a problem with my Opera browser. When I used Mozilla,the Open SeaMap did not produce the grids..

[kerrydeare]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

A final conversion of Bergen harbour with today's traffic ...

Good work. Why no soundings?

[sinbad7]

Originally Posted by sinbad7
A final conversion of Bergen harbour with today's traffic ...

Good work. Why no soundings?

I guess at the moment the OpenSeaMap basis is more for general information than for navigation. I believe they are working on a way to also show depths.

[kerrydeare]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

I guess at the moment the OpenSeaMap basis is more for general information than for navigation. I believe they are working on a way to also show depths.

I am having a little trouble keeping up with the several chart-related threads, but many of the charts you are positjng also have no soundings, and at least for me have little navigational significance. So what exactly is their utility? Please understand that I am quite happy that you are proceeding with all this work. No question. It's just that NOT hitting rocks is of significance to me and my small plastic boat.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by kerrydeare

I am having a little trouble keeping up with the several chart-related threads, but many of the charts you are positjng also have no soundings, and at least for me have little navigational significance. So what exactly is their utility? Please understand that I am quite happy that you are proceeding with all this work. No question. It's just that NOT hitting rocks is of significance to me and my small plastic boat.

You are exactly right. But what you are seeing is a proof-of-concept. So if/when they get OpenSeaMap showing depths, then you can have charts from there with depth.

I think mostly the last few conversion charts you are in here are just playing. I, for one, have no interest in taking screen prints and creating rasters for my navigation. I AM, however, very interested in the possibility of being able to download the (almost) S-57 charts and having them directly supported by OpenCPN. There again, it STILL won't be of much use until they have depths. But, I bet that will happen over time.

So, people are just exploring possibilities. Might be a while before there is any useful product from it all. But, in the last several months these threads have already produced the mc2bsbh and kapgen utilities, so who knows what will happen next.

-dan