Need help using USACE Bouy Overlay for IENCs

[Frank999]

I can't figure out how to do it.



Can someone help?


Thanks.

[.Paul.]

Frank999,

You need to download both the USACE IENCs and the Buoy Overlay. The Chart Downloader can be used to download both the IENCs and the Buoy Overlay. The instructions in the OpenCPN User's Manual tell you how to configure the chart downloader to add different kinds of charts if you have not downloaded them yet.

There are many USACE IENC charts for the various river segments. This screenshot shows the chart boundaries in green on the right side of the screen.



There is a boat position (target) near the center of the right panel. The large green rectangle is the boundary for the buoy overlay. The one overlay covers all of the rivers. The left panel is zoomed in on the boat position. It shows the waterways with the buoys in place. The USACE maintains the inland waterways with dredging, dams, locks, surveys and more. They also produce the IENC charts. The US Coast Guard maintains most of the buoys on the rivers just as they do for coastal waters. The USCG does not produce charts, but they do provide the position and markings of the buoys to the USACE. The buoy positions are changed frequently depending on the river stages. USACE provides an updated overlay about weekly. The river charts are not all updated that frequently, but there are some updates to IENCs almost every week.

How do you make the Buoy Overlay work? It is very simple, download the IENCs and Buoy Overlay into OpenCPN, and OpenCPN will show the IENC detail with the buoys when you zoom in. You must zoom in more than you do with coastal charts.

Paul

[Frank999]

My problem is that I can't figure out how to "download the ... Buoy Overlay into OpenCPN." I have the IENCs set up in the chart downloader, and they work fine. When I go to the Buoy Overlay Web page, I see four links, three for the Buoys Overlay in various formats, and one for the Bouys Overlay Metadata. I can follow the link for S57, and I get a zip file containing a folder named 3UABUOYS that contains two files, 3UABUOYS.000 and CATALOG.031.



Is there some way I can have the chart updater download the Buoys Overlay and and update the files OpenCPN is using? If not, will I need to download each updated Buoys Overlay manually and do something with the contents of the zip file? I I need to do it manually, what is it that I need to do?


Thanks.

[nohal]

Simply use the chart downloader

[Frank999]

Thank you!