OpenCPN Beta Version 3.3.2330 Released

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

...How about making the compass symbol blink when not in north up mode, or at least another colour to differentiate rotated and draw attention to where you can click to change it.

On my Win7 computer, the arrow is red when it's course up, and blue when it's not. If it's not rotated, then the blue arrow points up. If it's rotated, the blue arrow points at an angle to north, showing the rotated status very clearly. Clicking on the arrow immediately returns to course-up (red), and clicking again gives north-up (blue, no rotation).

It seems to me that it's very intuitive as-is. I'm not sure that blinking is really going to tell the user anything more. So instead of people coming here asking "Wow to I turn off rotation" they'll be asking, "Why is this #&*$^ thing blinking?" Either way it is a user training issue. Perhaps you could add in information box on a hover event, like there is for the toolbar icons.

[Hakan]

A strange shift between vector and raster charts.
WinXP, OpenGL=on(see log for details), Beta 3.3.2330 incl. commit “Revert "Consistent install locations for plugins"
Charts: CM93 and KAP files.
For the actual area is beside CM93 one KAP chart visible.
Debug method:
Zoom in and click the KAP chart bar. Zoom out and click the CM93 bar, zoom in again.
Observations: See the four attached screen shoots.

1. CM93 and the KAP file square in the middle.
2. Zooming in
3. Further zoom, KAP is now shown but CM93 suddenly disappears in favour of the Background chart.
4. Zooming out and CM93 is NOT recalled, only the background chart is shown

I’ve to click the CM93 chart bar to view CM93 again.
My expectations would be that in picture 3 the KAP and CM93 is shown and for picture 4 only CM93. I’ve seen this behaviour before in areas where more raster charts are available and then also shown but in this example with only one raster chart the behaviour is clear. Any comments??

The log of the zooming seems for me strange: (The complete log is attached, please discard the .pdf extension.)

09:28:15: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/C/04380048.C
  09:28:39: Chart cache purge
  09:28:39: Initializing Chart C:\Charts\KAP_SE\HG-DEMO_1.KAP
  09:29:02: Chart cache purge
  09:29:02: Initializing Chart C:\Charts\CM93_2012\
  09:29:02: CM93Composite Chart Root is C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\
  09:29:03: Loaded CM93 Dictionary from C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\
  09:29:03: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/B/04200030.B
  09:29:03: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900060/B/04200060.B
  09:29:18: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/C/04380048.C
  09:29:19: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/D/04440054.D
  09:29:19: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/D/04470054.D
  09:29:22: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04460055.E
  09:29:23: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04460056.E
  09:29:23: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04470055.E
  09:29:24: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04470056.E
  09:29:30: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/F/04460055.F
  09:30:00: LOGBOOK:  2014-12-09 08:30:00 UTC  DR Lat   58.09270 Lon   11.73100
  09:30:15: Initializing Chart C:\Charts\KAP_SE\HG-DEMO_1.KAP
  09:30:23: Chart cache purge
  09:30:24: Initializing Chart C:\Charts\CM93_2012\
  09:30:24: CM93Composite Chart Root is C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\
  09:30:24: Loaded CM93 Dictionary from C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\
  09:30:24: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/C/04380048.C
  09:30:26: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/D/04440054.D
  09:30:27: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/D/04470054.D
  09:30:29: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04460055.E
  09:30:29: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04460056.E
  09:30:29: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04470055.E
  09:30:31: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/E/04470056.E
  09:30:42: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/F/04460055.F
  09:31:41: Initializing Chart C:\Charts\KAP_SE\HG-DEMO_1.KAP
  09:37:37: Chart cache purge
  09:37:37: Initializing Chart C:\Charts\CM93_2012\
  09:37:37: CM93Composite Chart Root is C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\
  09:37:37: Loaded CM93 Dictionary from C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\
  09:37:37: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/C/04380048.C
  09:39:17: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/C/04380024.C
  09:39:17: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/C/04380036.C
  09:39:18: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\03900000/B/04200030.B
  09:39:23: Loading CM93 cell C:\Charts\CM93_2012\\...............................................

[Mollymawk]

Originally Posted by RhythmDoctor

On my Win7 computer, the arrow is red when it's course up, and blue when it's not. If it's not rotated, then the blue arrow points up. If it's rotated, the blue arrow points at an angle to north, showing the rotated status very clearly. Clicking on the arrow immediately returns to course-up (red), and clicking again gives north-up (blue, no rotation).

It seems to me that it's very intuitive as-is. I'm not sure that blinking is really going to tell the user anything more. So instead of people coming here asking "Wow to I turn off rotation" they'll be asking, "Why is this #&*$^ thing blinking?" Either way it is a user training issue. Perhaps you could add in information box on a hover event, like there is for the toolbar icons.

I agree, I think probably the main necessary tweaks are:

- In rotated mode, clicking the icon should revert to north up rather than switching to course up.

- In rotated mode, neither Course Up nor North Up should be checked in the Navigate menu.

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by Mollymawk

I think it's obvious that the chart is rotated... the problem is, if the user has accidentally pressed [ or ], how should they know how to get back to "normal", and that the rotation is a 'feature' and not a bug?
If we reset it to 0 when closing, at least a restart of OCPN would be a "clean slate" from this point of view.
I'm not sure what the intended use for arbitrary rotation is... would this interfere with it?



Makes me think, O should probably not claim to be in "North Up" mode when the chart is rotated.

We need some brainstorming on the UI here.
At the moment O is always in either North Up or Course Up mode, yet clearly neither is appropriate in this case.

Caesar

Yes there's a good logical argument there.
Do any keyboard shortcuts need to be persistenton a restart?
There's ,what,45 keyboard shortcuts? Does anyone remember them all?

and, Are Duplicates needed? (my F keys are small and hard to see between F5 and F6 so I'd swap them for a single letter if I could. Next, the two-handed ones, like CTRL [g]..why not just [g]? etc.

[Hakan]

Hi, a good health report if you like?
Talking about memory leaks I think Dave is still working on.
I've again used GDIView even though I'm not fully aware of what I'm seeing.
In WinXP and 3.3.2330 including commit; -Revert "Consistent install locations for plugins"- the "Total GDIs" are over time more or less constant. Some of them, Pen, Bitmap, DC, increases when I touch something, like zooming, but they are released after a while. The "totals" are around 500 and "Detect Counters" close to 1700 in more then five hours. My guess is that the "detect counters" are how many was used over time and since the "totals" are nearly constant those not needed are well destroyed after use? Nevertheless shows the GDIView as such a significant difference to my last report concerning this issue.
I'm still running OCPN plus a portable instance. The VDR is playing GPS and more, all broadcast via UDP. Also a simulated BR24Radar was connected now and them.
Please advice if I can do more tests.
Thanks for your effort/
Håkan

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by Mollymawk

I agree, I think probably the main necessary tweaks are:

- In rotated mode, clicking the icon should revert to north up rather than switching to course up.

- In rotated mode, neither Course Up nor North Up should be checked in the Navigate menu.

Compass/gps status icon is an option. it's Not always there
setting Course Up OR NortUp them should reset tilt to 0.

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by HappySeagull

.............. Does anyone remember them all?.........

Nope, but them I use. And they are apparently not the same as yours and others?
Håkan

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by Hakan

A strange shift between vector and raster charts.
WinXP, OpenGL=on(see log for details), Beta 3.3.2330 incl. commit “Revert "Consistent install locations for plugins"
Charts: CM93 and KAP files.
For the actual area is beside CM93 one KAP chart visible............

If anyone would like to test with the same KAP here's a download link to a demo chart. I've use only the KAP-file included.
http://www.hydrographica.se/images/BSB-demo.zip
A WP to the chart:

</wpt>
  <wpt lat="58.965416667" lon="18.563981667">
    <time>2014-12-09T16:13:37Z</time>
    <name>Hydrographica_demo</name>
    <sym>triangle</sym>
    <type>WPT</type>
    <extensions>
      <opencpn:guid>7708ffff-8fa3-4f54-a044-ba596ca5ffff</opencpn:guid>
      <opencpn:viz_name>1</opencpn:viz_name>
      <opencpn:arrival_radius>0.050</opencpn:arrival_radius>
    </extensions>

Håkan

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by HappySeagull

Yes there's a good logical argument there.
Do any keyboard shortcuts need to be persistenton a restart?
There's ,what,45 keyboard shortcuts? Does anyone remember them all?

and, Are Duplicates needed? (my F keys are small and hard to see between F5 and F6 so I'd swap them for a single letter if I could. Next, the two-handed ones, like CTRL [g]..why not just [g]? etc.

I still think that, as a general design principle, all keyboard shortcuts should have a way to accomplish them without keyboard. The shortcut is just a quicker way to do it with the keyboard. But it should not be the only way, especially in a world with keyboard-less tablets.

[HappySeagull]

all keyboard shortcuts should have a way to accomplish them without keyboard.

yes, it's odd there's no way to use the dim controls without a keyboard. That'd be my first choice to add into Toolbox /Display....I mean, even quilting has a slider control...
And it'd be an oportunity to underline or highlight the keyboard shortcut, where it is simple enough to do so (RANT: and it should be)...as in the control's name ...DIM or just Dim. Brightness,Night Display, whatever.

[bdbcat]

Håkan...

On your printout garbled problem, are you using OpenGL?

Thanks
Dave

[rgleason]

Visual Sign for Skewed charts...
I think there should be a visual sign near the north and course up (when checked), that unskews the chart when clicked. Maybe it is a Red cross or something.

[rgleason]

I reported:

I compiled Opencpn 3.3.2330 yesterday. Today I find out that
Options > Charts Display > Advanced > Graphics OpenGL is Grayed out.

I can no longer used Opengl on the NVIDIA graphics board.
Have I not done something?

The answer apparently was to reboot the computer, not sure why, but Opengl works now. The selection is no longer grayed out.

No longer a problem. sorry.

[fgd3]

Originally Posted by Hakan

There is, in config file set "FogOnOverzoom=0"
Håkan

I tried turning off this "feature". I edited opencpn.ini. I changed "AllowExtremeOverzoom=1" to "AllowExtremeOverzoom=0" because I didn't remember "FogOnOverzoom". Of course, that didn't work. I reread this thread and added "FogOnOverzoom=0" at the beginning of the .ini file. That didn't work. I moved it to the end of the file. That didn't work. "Aha!" I thought, "I need to change 'AllowExtremeOverzoom=0' back." I did that. Still no luck. Furthermore, "FogOnOverzoom=0" was gone from the end of the file. I put it back and tried again. No luck, and it was deleted from the end of the file again.

Finally I added "FogOnOverzoom=0" to the line immediately after "AllowExtremeOverzoom=1" and everything worked. So yes, YOU CAN TURN IT OFF, as dacust said a time or two, but no, it isn't foolproof. I don't know how restrictive the placement of "FogOnOverzoom=0" is but you can't put it just anywhere in opencpn.ini. Now that I've learned how YOU CAN TURN IT OFF I'm happy enough with how it works for me.

Now that I've experienced the blurring I have to join MarkJ, colemj, and others in abjuring it. If you're going to change OpenCPN to NannyCPN (sorry, I couldn't resist) and you don't think "Overzoom" in huge letters is enough of a warning you need something that works better than blurring. I like the idea dacust suggested "After zooming to max scale, treat it like a raster. Just take the max zoom image and enlarge it. Let the lines, words, images, etc. all get larger together." That's usually all I'm looking for anyway, when I zoom in--a larger image.

Fabbian

[nohal]

Fabbian...
Don't worry, you can change it in the GUI in the current master. And yes, it is treated "like raster" as well.

Pavel