OpenCPN

[chris blair]

Dave,

I tried to send this earlier and the connection wasn't too good. Looks like it didn't make it so I'm trying again from the anchorage in Georgetown SC. The system is xp pro, build 911. It seems to happen when I'm zoom in all the way or just zoomed out one click of the wheel. My $.02 on the normal icon is it's way too big. Something around 1/4 the size would be great for me.

Hope this helps and thanks for what you do.

Regards,
Chris
SV Toucan Dream

[blubaju]

Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and Positions
above link leads to an ais page with mostly >10,000 ships created by a Greek University (in English), I like their way of displaying the icons, the icons themself, the properties of ships with associated links (left mouse) and the measuring tool (right mouse), have a look ;-)

Do not know how it is programmed, but maybe sections/ideas of it are allowed to be used?

P.S. They link to a very comfortable upload program "aisdispatcher"(win & linux versions), whats nice, it includes a NMEA data dump

[LeaseOnLife]

Dave,

When an AIS alert is active (including a silenced alert) the hot keys for working with the chart don't work. = When the AIS alert window is active, the AIS windows does not capture the keys needed to work with the charts.

For example, F2 (toggle auto follow), +/- (zoom), F10/F11 (scale in/out) and the cursor keys ought to work during an AIS alert. I don't think acknowledging the alert to be able to work with the chart is the right way.

One CAN use the mouse during an alert and the on screen buttons do work. My cockpit is mouse-less though.

See screen-shot below, I would like to find the AIS target on the chart, without loosing the alert screen, by just using the keyboard, no mouse.

PS: Time to think about a central "input event handler" used by all windows, gauges, consoles, alerts....

[sinbad7]

For a program with a more 'business-like' appearance I'd suggest Siitech's Web VTS Lite which cover large areas of the world with an average of some 6000 targets. The software runs on-line with nothing to download,comes in REAL-TIME ON A 24/7 basis,and what's more, it's FREE!! You can also buy upgrades to several very comprehensive versions if you prefer. They offer various simple map options but also have installed BSB charts where possible. Like the Greek program,it is an AIS browser and not a navigations program.

Take a look!! Login

I apologize if I am offending anyone with a slightly off topic subject but it can be useful on board for planning in the marina or for boats with long range wireless internet.

[LeaseOnLife]

1. I would like to see a feature to turn all "North-Not-Up" charts to have North Up. When cruising, as arm chair sailor, along the US coast, every so often the chart selected by opencpn is a "North-Not-Up" chart. Suddenly the "cursor down" key is not going South anymore, really screws with my mind. I can't even imagine going down the ICW with all their strip-charts, not having a N up, every chart has a different orientation.
2. I love the embossed depth "Feet / Meter / Fathoms". Can we get something similar for showing where North is?
3. Having all charts with North up would be just fine with me. But I do know a few sailors having the chart plotters set to COG up or HDG up. Be prepared....

[LeaseOnLife]

On the discussion on how to display AIS targets.

I would love to have a distinction of type of vessels like marinetraffic.com so I know what to look for on the horizon. Since we color code the AIS targets already (green, yellow, red), maybe shapes would be better to show the type of target.

To learn from but also criticize the web sites mentioned above:

The siitech site is very simplistic. I can't even make out whether a target is moving or moored (dangerous or not to me...)

The marinetraffic site displays moored and moving targets, it shows types of vessels.

On both websites I am missing a xx min length of a course predictor to show how fast and where the target is going. I don't think Rate-Of-Turn is shown on any of these websites. Opencpn has all that already.

One beef I have with opencpn target display of moored targets: They all show North Up. I'll be passing NYC Harbor in a few days, done that before, it is NICE to see which direction a moored target is pointing.

[blubaju]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

For a program with a more 'business-like' appearance .....

The competition is not who got the best AIS site on Internet, the competition is, where to steal the best features for openCPN.

What is special on an iPhone? No single feature, but maybe all together ;-)

[manimaul]

Originally Posted by chris blair

I'm using XP and the stretched icon seems to happen when I zoom in with raster and vector charts. Also, my $.02 is that the icon is way too big. Something 1/4 the size would be adequate for me.

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Your icons are great and a far cry from the original 'tank ship', BUT, why not make it the same size as the AIS icon? That seems to be just about right in most scales.

Chris and Sinbad ... see Post #1250

[sinbad7]

Manimaul...

Ok,thanks, so they are coming in the next build I guess?

LeaseOnLife..

It is just the 'simplistic' and orderly interface I like with Siitech,not like a busy games page. It already has a button at the top where you can configure the icons to any thinkable vessel type and color. Having selected your target,full information is displayed at the bottom. The speed is shown by the lenght of the velocity vector pointing to COG.

What is more important,Siitech's network is in 'real-time',which is NOT the case with most other free AIS browsers where there are delays up to 2-3 hours. The majority of the data sources used by the Greek site is shared from Siitech's network. Check it out..

[idpnd]

g++ -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_VERSION=\"\" -DPACKAGE_STRING=\"\" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"\" -DPACKAGE=\"opencpn\" -DVERSION=\"0.1\" -DINSTALL_PREFIX=\"/usr/local\" -I. -I././include -I././src/nmea0183 -I/usr/X11R6/include -I././src/mygdal  -I/usr/lib/wx/include/gtk2-unicode-release-2.8 -I/usr/include/wx-2.8 -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGE_FILES -D__WXGTK__ -Wall -g -DocpnUSE_GTK_OPTIMIZE -DUSE_S57 -DUSE_GLU_TESS  -Wall -g -fexceptions -fno-stack-protector -I/usr/include/gtk-2.0 -I/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/include -I/usr/include/atk-1.0 -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng12   -MT chcanv.o -MD -MP -MF .deps/chcanv.Tpo -c -o chcanv.o `test -f 'src/chcanv.cpp' || echo './'`src/chcanv.cpp
src/chcanv.cpp: In member function ‘void ChartCanvas::ShipDraw(wxDC&)’:
src/chcanv.cpp:1632: error: ‘_img_ship’ was not declared in this scope
make: *** [chcanv.o] Error 1

Make does not complete on ubuntu 8.10 as of today..

[LeaseOnLife]

Sindbad

I believe we are discussing different topics here. I am only interested in features to be added to opencpn. I don't want to discuss which AIS website is better.

[sinbad7]

LeaseOnLife

Sorry,yes I guess I misunderstood... but you can pick up good ideas from any of the vessel navigation sites,including this one,topic closed..

[MajorPeabody]

Just downloaded the program, looks great. I'd like to help. Please point me to the FAQ / Developers guide (what do I need to compile in a Windows environment?) Leaving work in 2 weeks to head to Mexico onboard my sailboat. Hope to have some time to do some coding or Tech Man work, and give a little back to the "Freeware Community".
One additional question - I see an option for Radar Rings, is the Sytex RadarPC supported?

Harold Miller
SV Sea Bear
C&C 39 Landfall

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by MajorPeabody

Just downloaded the program, looks great. I'd like to help. Please point me to the FAQ / Developers guide (what do I need to compile in a Windows environment?) Leaving work in 2 weeks to head to Mexico onboard my sailboat. Hope to have some time to do some coding or Tech Man work, and give a little back to the "Freeware Community".
One additional question - I see an option for Radar Rings, is the Sytex RadarPC supported?

The code is hosted at opencpn.sourceforge.net. Compilation instructions for win should be in the README.

It's free software as opposed to freeware

The radar-PC protocols are all proprietary, and as I can see it's not possible to have it on any third-party software.

[MajorPeabody]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I'll spend some time playing with the program, and then perhaps I can take a look at working with the users guide. Is there a document I can use as a starting point? Preferred style? Target audience?

Harold