OpenCPN

[raisin56]

Dave Yes, I was referring to S57 Enc charts, the raster charts are what they are. As to the tabs... that is going to be the challenge. Lets see if I can describe it better. It is a flexibility issue, to start with the display screen is divided into multiple windows that are user sizable. In each window the user can choose what is displayed, be it charts or instrument data. To further muddy the issue you can have multiple screens (tabs), its like using a tabbed internet browser if you familiar with them. Maybe easier just to use their free download at NavGator Marine Charting and GPS Navigation and look at it. Thanks for listening to my personal opinions, I do think the depth issue will increase product use in the USA. Dan

[RBEmerson]

I loaded up my chart collection from Coastal Explorer (all US RNC's and ENC's) and moved to the Morehead City area. Scaling in, at some point, triggers a crash. Since the same chart set works with CE, I guess I've uncovered at least a nit if not a bug.

BTW, loading (adding the appropriate root directories and watching OpenCPN run with the change) all of the ENC and RNC charts from NOAA took well over an hour to complete on a passibly fast Centrino Duo laptop.

[bdbcat]

RBEmerson...

Sorry for the crash at Morehead. Is this reproducible?
Which chart was active at the crash?

Also, I'd like to look at your log file to see why the load took so long. I know that most of the time would have been spent decoding ENCs, to get the chart boundaries. This is programatically tedious. But one hour seems to me to be excessive....


The log file is called opencpn.log (creative, no?), and will be somewhere in Documents and Settings, depending on your system.
Try "Documents and settings\{user}\Application Data\opencpn"....
You may need to search for it.

I would appreciate it if you could email attach the log file to me at

bdbcat@yahoo.com.

The log file may shed some light on the crash, too.
I'll get back to you asap.

Thanks
Dave

[RBEmerson]

Done - "you've got mail!".

[bdbcat]

RBEmerson:

Thanks for the log file.
I found the bug. Only appears if the ENC_ROOT directory is anywhere other than the C: drive. Easily fixed.

The fix will appear in Opencpn 1.2.8 due for release next week.
Meanwhile, you may use opencpn with RNCs, as they should not be affected by this bug. Or move your ENC_ROOT to C:\. I'd wait a week if it was up to me...

Still studying the long ENC_ROOT load time.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dave

[RBEmerson]

Yep - no worries with the RNC's by themselves.

[kit]

Hello Dave,

This is Kit, s/v Victoria in Rhode Island. I was wondering, once I have planned a route in OpenCPN, is it possible to export it to my hand-held GPS? I usually have the hand-held out in the cockpit and the computer down in the Nav station, and it is great to have the identical route on both.

Thanks, and merry Xmas!!

Kit

[bdbcat]

Opencpn Version 1.2.8 was released on 25 December, 2008.

This is a maintenance and feature release containing several bug-fixes and optimizations as follows:

Mac OS X Support, including installable application bundle (OpenCPN.dmg), GNU/gcc compatible system build files, and XCode project files.

Garmin USB GPS device support for Windows platforms.

Miscellaneous bug fixes and user optimizations.


Here is a link to the sourceforge download.

Enjoy!

Dave and the OpenCPN Team.

[bdbcat]

Kit...

Thanks for your interest in OpenCPN.

Export of routes to handheld GPS is a popular request, but not yet implemented.
It is definitely on the list of features expected in the next major release.

Quick question: What type of handheld GPS do you use? Garmin, or other?
Reason I ask is to help prioritize device support. There are so many brands, not all mutually compatible.....

Poll to other users as well.
What type of handheld GPS is most often used for waypoint transfer from a computer ECS?


Thanks for your input
Dave

[bdbcat]

Forgot to mention....

OpenCPN 1.2.8 now "does the math", so that S57 ENCs may display depth soundings in the units of choice, either feet, meters, or fathoms. Check the "Settings" dialog, "S52 Options".....

Have fun...
Dave

[kit]

Hi Dave,

I have an older model, a Garmin GPS 48, and actually I have two of them because I like this model so much.

Thanks for releasing the new version of OpenCPN on Christmas, and for the quick response!

Kit

[RBEmerson]

I suggest supporting the NMEA RTE and WPL sentences, for route and waypoint transfer, first. This should enable a wide range of NMEA-capable GPS receivers.

[scotte]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Quick question: What type of handheld GPS do you use? Garmin, or other?
Reason I ask is to help prioritize device support. There are so many brands, not all mutually compatible.....

Best way to do this (for direct device support) is by calling out to gpsbabel to do the lifting for specific device communication - then all you have to do is produce some common format (GPX file is an excellent choice) and let gpsbabel do the rest. I took this approach when I wrote some GIS software, and it works really nicely.

[RBEmerson]

That's a good solution for those receivers that will only take proprietary data streams. It also avoids the problems inherent in trying to support those formats (let GPSBabel do the heavy lifting). However, odds are one or more formats will require licensing, at the least, and that rather closes out the "open" in OpenCPN. Starting with WPL and RTE will give some feel for the percentage of potential users excluded from this approach, and that percentage may be surprisingly low.

[cagney]

Thanks to "East Asia Hydrographic Commission" for releasing 4 ENC:s covering South China Sea. What impressed me most was the motivation for releasing these charts for downloading without charge.

"Realizing that official and high quality small scale ENCs conforming with the established IHO standard were not available for the SCS, the EAHC MSs decided to cooperate closely and resolve the situation so that mariners could use most up-to-date chart information for voyage planning and enhancing safety of navigation, rather than resorted to some commercially developed electronic products which were either prepared in proprietary formats, or containing unofficial data with very infrequent updating."

EAHC homepage and download here:East Asia Hydrographic Commission

Hopefully EAHC initiative will be followed by other IMO members.
EU could, for example, apply the logic behind the release of these charts, to issue a similar chart for European coastal waters.

These charts works fine with OpenCPN, although there are some error messages and the charts always start minimized.

Thomas