OpenCPN

[Stillraining]

Jeez Guys... I have read about 4 pages of this stuff and decided to go back to paper charts,a sextant and long math...I havent a clue what you all are talking about in all this computer speak but when you get it all down to pushing one button or two let me know and I will give it a go.

[Rhoel_Asia]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

4. There is no entry level documentation for opencpn, yet.
I formally renew the call for an experienced technical writer to step up and take a real, trackable swing at this. Any format will do, the content is what matters. I am not a writer, for me it is hard work, and the results are disappointing, to me at least. Any takers?

Oops... part of the day job is writing tech users manuals.

I am happy to contribute to this. I'd suggest the source material be written in rft format - its clean and can be imported into any DTP packages/ HTML editor etc without all the nasty word code.

One thought: There are a number of parallel threads now running, AIS, Routing/Tracks, Chart editors, etc. Is it time to set up a dedicated site to OpenCPN: I know there is a developer forum we use over at sourceForge, but Topsy is growing and might need to be moving into her own home. OpenCPN.org, OpenCPN.com and OpenCPN.net are all taken - registered via an Amsterdam registrant. The .org is running a blue water blog called Cruising Knots, but the .net and .com are parked. Whether the Dutch registrant can be persuaded to release the dot.org to us is debatable. : Is this site controlled by folks here?

I'm happy to donate server space and set the site up, including building the CMS back-office to allow online page editing - made enough of them, can't see any problem in making another for us.

But a dedicated site would be able to support the documentation, a phpBB3 type forum for the different AIS, Routing and Chart making threads. In the long term, a separate dedicated site will be good for the program. The developer forum on SourceForge will continue to coexist as its specialized and linked to the cvs.

Originally Posted by bdbcat

8. Finally, updatable CM93: Good idea. This could be done as an overlay, user switchable. Perhaps KML file format for input? Rhoel_Asia, are you there?
This sounds like an opportunity for third party collaboration...
Dave

RA reporting in: Up for collab, though my C++ is rusty. Its how I started with WebGIS - learning from the other programmers - my current mapfile is a tad short of 5000 lines of data, built from a team members core original template of just 75 lines. Amusingly, it actually works (though I have a nice collection of pink tiles I created along the way).

From my viewpoint, the suggestion of an overlay layer is best - it means if the base chart is updated, the data you created will remain intact. it may compliment, conflict or whatever: it won't disappear. And KML/GML seems the logical way forward.

At the moment, I am setting up the CVS on my Vista machine, and regretting it: I've spent 10 frustrating days trying to get all the elements up and running. I loaded Visual Studio only to discover it's misbehaving badly (like open file... crashes the program and if I'm really lucky, to blue screened the machine as well). My copy of Borland C++ uses an installed which Vista says is not a Win32 program (which it obviously is): I have watcom installed but when I tried to make the wxWidgets library, it bombed with a message

..\..\src\regex\regcustom.h(32): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'stdio.h'
..\..\src\regex\regcustom.h(33): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'stdlib.h'
..\..\src\regex\regcustom.h(34): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'ctype.h'
..\..\src\regex\regcustom.h(35): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'limits.h'
..\..\src\regex\regcustom.h(36): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'string.h'
..\..\include\wx/msw/gccpriv.h(41): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'w32api.h'
..\..\include\wx/debug.h(18): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'assert.h'
..\..\include\wx/debug.h(20): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'limits.h'
..\..\include\wx/wxchar.h(21): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'stdio.h'
..\..\include\wx/wxchar.h(60): Error! E1055: Unable to open 'stdarg.h'
etc

looks like path errors but I'll open this as a ticket on the sourceforge forum. We'll get there eventually.

Right now I am looking at how to reuse the nav icons from OpenCPN (why reinvent the wheel and introduce new errors). They seem to be kept in a RLE file which I have no idea how they are constructed/opened for display. Once i have a handle on how it's constructed, I can list all the objects it contains, including sae140 wind-farm request. Building xpm files is easy, it's what graph paper was invented for.

A questions arises on how people are obtaining their geo-positioning information. Feedback will be helpful: How do you know if things are in the right place.

The construction of the land, drying, sea layers seems of no major problem. Constructing lights is: Or more specifically, constructing segmented lights is an issue - unlike buoys and other fixed graphic point data, lights look like complex objects, constructed of active elements/layer components which describe the arc and colour segments; Some lights (mainly lighthouses) have all-round white location sectors which are interrupted by red sectors guarding isolated rocks, and sometimes a green vector to mark a safe fairway. From memory, The Needles lighthouse (Isle of wight, UK) has such safety vectors. Building a window which constructs this kind of light icon is going to be fun. I need to look at S-57 examples and reverse engineer the data.

Dave, how do we progress on documentation/OpenChartmaker.

Rhoel

[Viking Sailor]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

3. opencpn does not show speed and heading . Leaves more room for charts.

Hi Dave,

I was just wondering - if the GPS RMC message is available, would it be possible to display the speed over the ground (SOG) and track angle (COG) on the status bar?

Thanks,

Paul

[Zoef]

Originally Posted by Jeff Millar

CM93 CHART database, can I download an old copy of this, or can you email an old copy

Hi Paul,

I found a Norwegian site (no p2p or newsgroup) from which one can download the May 2009 data base. Pretty fast as well.
Any objection in posting the address?

Klaas

[oddysea]

Hi Guys

Does anyone know if it is possible to use Garmin Blue Charts with CPN?

Mike

[Viking Sailor]

Originally Posted by oddysea

Hi Guys

Does anyone know if it is possible to use Garmin Blue Charts with CPN?

Mike

Mike,

Garmin Blue Charts do not work with OpenCPN. Sorry!

Paul

[Zoef]

Hi Mike,

I tried it some days ago and no, openCPN can't handle the Garmin Bluechart maps. To use these maps on a PC the (free) nRoute software from Garmin is not a bad choice.

Good luck, Klaas

[washakie]

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know I've successfully installed from source OpenCPN on Ubuntu 9.04 64bit.

It seems to run a bit slow, I'm not sure why this is. It finds the gpsd, but the update to location takes at least a few minutes. I'm happy to help participate in the project and contribute as time permits. If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me.

Lastly, are there sources for KAP files outside of the US? I am interested in charts for Greece and Norway.

Regards!

[Zoef]

All,

Can someone please indicate where I can download the latest Mac version of openCPN?

Thank you

[cagney]

Originally Posted by Zoef

All,

Can someone please indicate where I can download the latest Mac version of openCPN?

Thank you

You will find the Mac version of 1.3.0 here.
Scroll down towards the bottom.
Alternatively here is a direct download link.

Thomas

[cagney]

Originally Posted by Zoef

Hi Paul,

I found a Norwegian site (no p2p or newsgroup) from which one can download the May 2009 data base. Pretty fast as well.
Any objection in posting the address?

Klaas

The link to the Norwegian site has already been published in this thread.
However, the moderators of this forum deleted that post.
Draw your own conclusions.

washakie:

Lastly, are there sources for KAP files outside of the US? I am interested in charts for Greece and Norway.

Very few unfortunately. "Dacust" maintains a page, that list charts that are publicly available , and works with OpenCPN -- here.

Thomas

[bdbcat]

RA....

I think the idea of online Wiki style documentation is great for those here actively on this forum, and other gear-heads. However, I also feel the need for a useful helpfile or linked PDF/HTML document to be distributed with the binaries.

I get many, many private emails from first time users needing the basics of chart directory setup, GPS interfacing, screen navigation, etc.

I want to be able to say "RTFM"

I will start an outline, stream of consciousness, to get us going.

Regarding Vista development setup, talk to phiggins. He persevered through the weeds and succeeded in getting a good Visual Studio build and debug environment. Helped find a low-frequency seg-fault, too. Thanks again, Paul.

More later
Dave

[GDD]

Hi everyone.

I think a website to allow user updates to cm93 is a brilliant/fascinating idea. But what about quality assurance?

I have been using the very handy cmwfw program to compare the 2009 to 2006 versions and have noted a few places where the 2009 is missing charts, but I have also noted a few places where 2009 really has been updated. I was going to resolve the issue by swapping in the missing/corrput 2009 files with the same ones from 2006 to make a hybrid edition, but I'd obviously focus on my local area. Getting more people involved would be brilliant, especially if people know how to actually update the files.

Also, I must put in my vote for Speed over Ground and Course over ground on the status bar by where the cursor co-ordinates show up.

When i'm using the program underway the most useful information is bearing and distance to cursor location, and my own speed and heading.

Thanks, and keep up the good work.

[hanschristian38]

Hi All -

Does anyone know if you can do a temporary goto with OpenCPN?

Sonetimes I need a quick way to get from my current location to a point on the chart similar to the "goto curser" on a Garmin. This is great in all of the fog we have had in Maine this summer.

[cagney]

From post by David:

3. opencpn does not show speed and heading . Leaves more room for charts.
There is some discussion about a separate application to function as a sort of console for generic NMEA data coming into the system. Opencpn can co-exist with such an app using gpsd to share the NMEA data. Maybe we can get some activity going on this? There was once a "Frontend" application, written in Visual Basic (sorry, linux) that looked nice. Status? Maybe a linux port?

Well, Linux already has a kind of basic front-end. If you have "gpsd" installed, you also have "xgps" on your system. Maybe something to develop further??

Thomas