New Standard Waypoint Icons For OpenCPN - Input Requested

[svrevelations]

Originally Posted by rgleason

I like the new icons in 4.6.2 and have a few suggestions for additions if others think they may be useful.

Racing
Committee Start Boat
Tetrahedron Mark 1
Tetrahedron Mark 2
Tetrahedron Mark 3

Weather
Triple point (a dangerous point where two fronts meet).
an Icon which represents a warm front if repeated.
an Icon which represents a cold front if repeated.
These two icons could be used by the IAC Fleet plugin at some point.

Service
Service-Pumpout
Service-Pumpout Boat
Environmental No Discharge Zone

I already designed the above "racing" and "pumpout" icons.
However, I need more info on what is required for the weather icons.

[svrevelations]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Dear Revelations,
and Reflections37

Would you mind explaining the entire process for creating this ................................................. for moving this forward.

Best
Rick Gleason

See PM.

[svrevelations]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Other Icons

Wind Turbines?
Fishing Nets?
Lobster String?
Aquatic Farm? Oyster, fish, etc.

What is a Lobster String?

[rgleason]

Revelations -

Near Block Island, RI there are four wind turbines which show up in the ENC charts. They might serve as an example? See attached please.

I call a Lobster string, one of those lobsterman's markers on a pole with a 8" radar reflector on top, it could be a Fisherman's pole with a reflector. These are used frequently to mark the pickup end of a string of pots that might be a mile long or more.

It would also be useful to have a mark intended for Aquatic Farming or Fishing nets. Maybe use the same marker? For example for about 10 years we had a large area of oyster farm outside the Stonington Breakwater. These were submerged cages in a rope grid at about 10' down and they were marked by frequent white floats.

The other weather indicators:

Warm Front: Red, 1/2 circle
Cold Front: Blue, with triangle
Triple Point: Circle with a "3" inside with lightning coming from it.
see below, or it could be the Occluded front.
Occluded front

Main article: Occluded front



A guide to the symbols for weather fronts that may be found on a weather map:
1. cold front
2. warm front
3. stationary front
4. occluded front
5. surface trough
6. squall line
7. dry line
8. tropical wave
9. Trowal




An occluded front is formed during the process of cyclogenesis when a cold front overtakes a warm front.[25] The cold and warm fronts curve naturally poleward into the point of occlusion, which is also known as the triple point in meteorology.[26] It lies within a sharp trough, but the air mass behind the boundary can be either warm or cold.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_weather_analysis

Maybe weather symbols are too much for this purpose?

[reflectionsv37]

Speaking for myself, I have no problem with the large number of icons. In fact, the more the better when it comes to sharing GPX files with others! However, I do agree that we need a method to allow each user to make a more manageable list. I'll probably never use more than 10% of these icons, but I like knowing that if I use an icon, and I transfer that GPX file to another user, that they will already have that same icon available on their machine.

Proposed solution that should make everyone happy: Keep all the icons and add 100 more if you like. But we should allow each user the ability to customize the list so his favorite icons appear first in this list. I propose a very simple system where we can have a star at the end of each Icon description. Click it to make the Icon a favorite and it turns gold. The next time you pull up the list for icons, the ones you have starred will appear at the top of the list. Click again and it reverts back to a normal icons. The remaining icons will appear further down the list if you ever need a new one. This would satisfy cruisers, racers, fisherman and any other group.

Temporary Conditions Icons - People will use waypoints for purposes other than bringing a chart up to date. In the case of Dredging, I currently had a need to mark an area where dredging is taking place and the dredging will continue for several years into the future. An Icon for that to identify dredging is appropriate. I might want to email a fellow cruiser the location of a dredging operation. Using the proper icon makes it that much easier to see and understand.

Weather Icons - On at least 5 different occasions I have built routes to track the position and forecast of tropical storm systems. Every time I've done this, I wished I had the icon for a hurricane or tropical storm. I would like to see the symbols added to indicate the forecasted position of a cyclone or tropical storm, perhaps the same symbols, only in black and white. I would probably never use any other weather symbols, but others may want to use them and I'm all for adding them.

UserIcons - I still believe there is a good use for the Usericons. Of course you can still use it to make and use your own personal icons if you choose, but I think it's greater purpose would be to override what you see on your system for a particular icon. If you find you don't like the Anchorage icon and you'd rather see a great big Pink Anchor you can copy the Icon to the UserIcon folder and give it the same name as the standard Anchorage Icon. When the Anchorage Icon is displayed on your system you'll see a big pink anchor. If you transfer that waypoint to another user, they will see the standard icon. This would allow each individual to customize what they see on the screen, yet preserve the same icon name so it can be shared with others.

I also agree with the suggestion that Icons from the UserIcons folder have a prefix of Usericon, to distinguish them from the standard icons.

Additional Icons - There have been some great suggestions for new icons. Those which are of particular interest to racers and fisherman should all be created and added. AS much as this community has in common, we are also a very diverse group whose boating interests and needs vary. We should try our best to accommodate everyone.

Keep the icon suggestions coming!!! The more the better!!!

This is going to be a very nice improvement to OpenCPN!

[mrm]

Just a thought. Icons were so far used mostly as markers for _points_ of some interest, or small areas (e.g. anchorages). In such use, placing an icon at some coordinates is sufficient. However, meteorological fronts are _curves_, plotted conforming to actual front shape. They also tend to span significant distances. Without introducing some Bezier curve plotting functionality into OpenCPN, plotting fronts with proposed icons will be awkward to say the least, imho. Aren't we mixing two distinct use cases here?

[rgleason]

Mrm, Admittedly the weather front icons might be too advanced. The IAC Fleet plugin simply plots out line segments and it works fine, not curves, but the IACFleet plugin has other ways of creating these symbols, so perhaps it is not needed.

[rgleason]

There are two icons I think we should have.

- Dinghy Dock
- Dock or Dockage (different than a Marina)
- Public Landing (any kind of public access)

[rgleason]

Started a new Icons page here to explain the system

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...r_manual:icons

I can make "known" users "Editors" if you would like. We should get some graphics for illustration into this page.

[svrevelations]

Here are the additional icons as requested.

I haven't done any weather icons. I don't think it will function properly as the icons needs to be huge (spanning vast area's), the infinite angles of weather fronts and the need for Bezier curves.
.

[rgleason]

These look great to me. Thank you!

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by Revelations

Here are the additional icons as requested.

.

I don't think a nuclear sign is appropriate for a quarantine area. Why not the traditional 'Q' flag? After all, that's usually why you are in a quarantine area, to obtain clearance from your display of practique.

Terry

[bcn]

Originally Posted by yachtvalhalla

I don't think a nuclear sign is appropriate for a quarantine area. Why not the traditional 'Q' flag? After all, that's usually why you are in a quarantine area, to obtain clearance from your display of practique.

Terry

+1

in case with a Q embossed onto the yellow flag..

[svrevelations]

Originally Posted by yachtvalhalla

I don't think a nuclear sign is appropriate for a quarantine area. Why not the traditional 'Q' flag? After all, that's usually why you are in a quarantine area, to obtain clearance from your display of practique.

Terry

I inserted the wrong icon in the image above.
Here is the correct quarantine icon which will be available in OpenCPN.

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by Revelations

I inserted the wrong icon in the image above.
Here is the correct quarantine icon which will be available in OpenCPN.

Sorry but that's even worse! Has nothing to do with a quarantine area.

What do you have against using a 'Q' flag?

Perhaps you are thinking about a disaster quarantine area instead of a nautical one that would be familiar to sailors.

Terry