OpenCPN Version 2.1.0 Beta

[idpnd]

75. Pavel made major enhancements to the S52 symbolization library. Lots of new symbols, especially useful in Europe. Simple things like green nun buoys, which are not found in North America, so were not in the rule set..... Thanks, Pavel!

These make opencpn for Europe much prettier, thanks Pavel!

There are still some odd-looking ones (black wireframe)
Lighthouses and similar land based features:
BCNSPP
TOWER
BOYCARs (cardinals - see screenshot)
Red BOYLATs also have a weird wireframe square topmark, not sure what that is about

Mani's quilting interface looks exciting, quilting itself is improved on CM93 as well, impressed!

[nohal]

Originally Posted by idpnd

There are still some odd-looking ones (black wireframe)
Lighthouses and similar land based features:
BCNSPP
TOWER
BOYCARs (cardinals - see screenshot)
Red BOYLATs also have a weird wireframe square topmark, not sure what that is about

I didn't have a look into anything land-based and the spar buoys yet. Basically everything "ugly" is a vector symbol and everything "nice" is a bitmap symbol.
You should see a big improvement in BOYCAR, BOYLAT, BOYSPP and BOYSAW symbolization (if it's not a spar, of course) and in IENC symbology handling, which was the original point of looking into it.
I have written a GUI (=something I hope is easy to use) tool for editing the RLE file and now am just waiting if someone discovers any breakage it's done.
If none appears, it will be made publicly available for you guys to use, as wandering on the map and painting buoys is not exactly the most productive thing I can do to make OpenCPN even better
The topmarks are on my short-list as they will maybe need some additions to the code of the symbolization procedures for proper handling of inland charts. Generally the same as for the "big" symbols applies to them - that they are very simple vector drawings and the symbolization code doesn't anti-alias them implies that they are not looking good.

[manimaul]

Wow, this is an exciting bit to test here. Dave, I hope you are having as much fun creating Opencpn as we are using and playing with it.

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Notes:
72, Big change in quilt control, courtesy the designs of Will (Manimaul) I'll let him explain these features. More coming....

The chart bar in quilt mode allows you to control what is displayed on the quilt similar to "layers" in photo editing software. This solves the problem of a smaller scale chart with less detail eclipsing the chart you want to view.

Hovering your mouse over the chart rectangle in chartbar will give you specific chart details.

Hovering your mouse over the eye in the chart rectangle will highlight the chart in quilt.

@Dave:  Sometimes it might be hard to get your mouse right on the "eye".
I think the chart highlight could happen along with the chart detail tooltip.
Perhaps a on hover highlight then 1.5 second pause then tooltip.

Its hard to quickly distinguish between a hidden(greyed eye) or
shown(blue eye).  We'll have to do something here.  Also, more charts 
(that were previously eclipsed) appearing in chartbar after hiding forward 
layers is confusing.  Perhaps we should show totally eclipsed charts in chart bar.

[bdbcat]

Will....

Not sure what to do about the case where the quilt contents change if a larger scale chart is made invisible.

Take this typical case:
1. All patches are visible.
2. There are patches meeting the scale criteria that are completely invisible, so there is no bar entry for them currently.
3. The patches in (2) may become visible if one or more visible patches are clicked to invisible. So, we get a new bar set.
4. However, if we include a bar entry for patches of type (2) always (even if completely covered in the default all visible state), then it may be more confusing since the viz/inviz button does nothing for this patch if all other patches are visible.

Another icon, implying "This patch is currently hidden by larger scale charts. Hide some large scale charts to see this patch" ???

Ideas?

Other things:
I'd rather not have a time-out effect on the chart highlight. Already too many one-shot timers in the code for my taste. These things are tough to test and validate for all processor speeds.... Maybe a bigger and more distinctive "eye" icon?

Anyway, Nice job Will. Thanks!

Dave

[surfjoe]

Hi,
there is something mystery in the route manager. See the attachement. Only one Route is named in the overview list box. When looking to the proberties, boths routes have a name. In addition the list box shows not the rigth proberties.

regards
Joe

[cagney]

Originally Posted by hoosiercanuck

Downloaded the new version and still had the "grayed out" problem with my NOAA Great Lakes Vector charts. Downloaded the RNC files for the Great Lakes and quilting works perfectly. When I zoom in extremely close on one of the grayed out charts eventually they show up but once I zoom out it is grayed out again. Will be copying all my files to a memory stick and trying a different computer tomorrow to make sure it's not something screwy on my laptop. Has anyone been able to duplicate the problem?

Yes, I can confirm your findings.
S57 Chart US5IN11M.000 refuses to quilt at all. Comes up gray at all zoom levels.
US5IL21M.000 only quilts at certain zoom levels.
No change with latest beta.

Thomas

[cagney]

Dave, thanks for all your work.
Another great beta to test.
Unfortunately linux printing is still not working for me, actually still the same as before the latest beta.

Thomas

[idpnd]

On 426 @ ubuntu 9.10, I can print to file (havent actually got a printer attached), with the following result

Edit: Just realised its a 4 mb file, won't bother uploading it here, looks like it worked anyhow.

[cadlard]

bdbcat

Great work thanks. Latest CVS works without black areas with CM93_10 and also compiles on Ubuntu 10.04 rc

Chris

[cagney]

Dave
Crash, when loading a lot of raster-charts in quilt mode(cm93 +raster), and at the same time pressing "F9" (quilt/unquilt).

Change in treatment of tmerc:s!? Don't really participate in the quilting anymore. Compare dump below with with the dump in this earlier post.

Thomas

[manimaul]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Will....

Not sure what to do about the case where the quilt contents change if a larger scale chart is made invisible.

Take this typical case:
1. All patches are visible.
2. There are patches meeting the scale criteria that are completely invisible, so there is no bar entry for them currently.
3. The patches in (2) may become visible if one or more visible patches are clicked to invisible. So, we get a new bar set.
4. However, if we include a bar entry for patches of type (2) always (even if completely covered in the default all visible state), then it may be more confusing since the viz/inviz button does nothing for this patch if all other patches are visible.

Another icon, implying "This patch is currently hidden by larger scale charts. Hide some large scale charts to see this patch" ???

Ideas?

Instead of adding more confusing icons perhaps we can use what we already have:
In single chart mode bsb charts are either light blue or dark blue, s57 light green or dark green, cm94 brown or yellow.

So...
"Eclipsed" charts have : dark blue / dark green / brown
"Hidden" charts have: closed eye + dark blue / dark green / brown
"Shown" charts have: open eye + light blue / light green / brown

What do you think?

Other thoughts...

Do we need a quick way to change chart types to be quilted? (bsb, s57 or cm93)

[janp391]

This may be an impossible question to answere, but I make a try. I have a computer in my sailing boat running on 12 VDC and a not so powerful CPU (500 MHz) and 512MB RAM. I have TinyXP as OS, this OS is stripped to use less resources. When I install openCPN the computer hang. I am running other nav programs and other programs without any problems I have tried both open CPN 135 and 210 with the same result. Any ideas??

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by manimaul

Do we need a quick way to change chart types to be quilted? (bsb, s57 or cm93)

Couldn't the chart tab bar buttons be switchable, i.e. on/off by type?

I agree with your assessment that a lot of buttons and config options are being added all the time, at this rate we'll end up with a piece of maxseaesque dinosaursoft

[bdbcat]

hoosiercanuck/cagney:

Confirm problem with ENC quilting around Chicago.
Working on a fix that won't impact performance too much.

TMerc/Merc:
Forgot to mention this in release notes. Current strategy for 426 Beta is to quilt the canvas in a single projection only. The canvas takes the projection of the largest scale chart available at this viewpoint.

So, in cagney's screen shot, the "missing" chart has been eliminated from the quilt by design.

This strategy avoids the problem of trying to reproject a chart on-the-fly, which would be prohibitively costly in memory and cycles.

I plan to add an icon to the chart bar indicating that this chart is a TMerc projection, just not done yet.


Dave

[bdbcat]

Manimaul...

Color scheme for eclipsed charts sounds OK, I'll try it out.

What were you thinking of regarding fast way of selecting quilt chart types? Something easier than Toolbox->Settings check boxes already there?

Maybe some little blue/green/brown check boxes near the right-hand side of the chartbar?

I agree that we need a stronger "eye" icon effect.

Thanks
Dave