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Old 12-08-2012, 15:29   #1
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Possible To Change Boat Color ?

I've been using OpenCPN for several weeks now. Was using MaxSea before that. I usually run the boat from an outside helm, and the laptop with the nav program is sitting inside the boat at the inside helm. I'm looking in through an open sliding hatch to watch the navigation. I sometimes have a difficult time picking out the boat icon, since the red boat blends in with the green land forms in the Explorer Charts I'm using. It would be great if there was some way to pick the boat icon color, other than it being arbitrarily a color that 15% of the population can't tell from green. In my case, bright yellow would be a perfect color for the boat. Black would also work. Red....not so much

Is there any way to change it?
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Old 12-08-2012, 22:00   #2
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Re: Possible to change boat color?

you can make your own boat icon any colour you like.

info here:
User Icons | Official OpenCPN Homepage

xnview, Greenfish Icon Editor or The Gimp (and other programs too) can help you make one easily.


Name:   yellowownship.png
Views: 823
Size:  923 Bytes

Here's a yellow boat I made- download and rename "ownship.png"
works for me.
(I see when it's posted that there's some gobbledegook after it but it's something to do with the CF forum maybe..because previewing the post looks ok)
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Old 13-08-2012, 07:38   #3
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Re: Possible to change boat color?

Ah, Thank you. Just perfect. Now I'll be able to see where the boat is on the laptop screen while looking into the open window from outside. muchas gracias.
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Old 17-08-2012, 08:51   #4
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

not that easy. . I was hoping for a simple menu item, like Change Boat Color. That's not the case.

I guess I need someone with more programming skills to do it
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Old 17-08-2012, 09:45   #5
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

mmm. but then you likely would be limited as to boat shapes....I really enjoy being able to make a fancy boat icon...


Name:   wing-on-wing.png
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Old 19-08-2012, 10:30   #6
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

Canibul,

You probably already know this but if you do not have a gps antennae hooked up and a position OpenCPN will grey out your "boat" no matter what color the original is.

You can use any png image by the way. It doesnt even have to be a boat! As long as the file is named "ownship.png". You can use a xpm file too but that is another topic.

The image you use should be about 50 pixels x 50 pixels, more or less.

To use a custom image, you want to make a sub-directory called "UserIcons" where your opencpn.ini file resides. To do this easily, search your C; drive for the opencpn.ini file. Go to that directory and make the sub-directory called UserIcons. Place your custom ownship.png in the UserIcons sub-directory.

Now restart, or start, OpenCPN and your image will now be the boat!

I use this image for times when I need to see it from afar;


You could even use a picture of Dudley the Devious!
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Old 20-08-2012, 05:27   #7
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

thanks, but just doesn't work. Apparently there is no file called opencpn.ini on this computer.
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Old 20-08-2012, 05:35   #8
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

On Windows 7 it is in a folder called c:\ProgramData\opencpn
ProgramData is by default a hidden folder, so you need to show it first.

See Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Forums
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Old 20-08-2012, 07:13   #9
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

Okay, thanks. I found that c:\ProgramData\opencpn folder, but am still unable to find an opencpn.ini file in it using the search function.
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Old 20-08-2012, 07:18   #10
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

So what files do you have in that folder then?
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Old 20-08-2012, 09:24   #11
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

Okay, I managed to draw an icon I like for the catamaran, using the Paint program. That looks like this:



It's 50x30 pix, so that should fit.

With my in-house computer software geek ( La Gringa) telling me what to do, I made a sub folder in openCPN. Named it UserIcons. Inside that folder, I saved that icon as ownship.png.

Right so far?

But when I open opencpn, the boat icon is still the same grayed out monohull. I don't have a GPS input here at the moment, but shouldn't the boat icon be my new ownship.png icon, just grayed out?

Is there someplace I need to tell OpenCPN to stop using the old icon and use the new one in the new subdirectory?
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Old 21-08-2012, 04:18   #12
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

I have just tested your scenario a few times, including using your icon.
The change is instant, on next start.
I can only guess that you had more than one instance of OpenCPN running. The only other alternative is that you still have "UserIcons" in the wrong place.

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Old 21-08-2012, 05:36   #13
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

Thanks for trying. This is what's in my opencpn directory:




And in the UserIcons folder is one file, which is that icon, named ownship.png.




Pretty much baffles me. I even went down to the boat yesterday and brought one of the USB GPS pucks home to test with. No difference. My OpenCPN still uses the original 'yacht' icon. In fact, here it sits on my patio:




Any help greatly appreciated. This is a bad color combination for me. I checked Task Manager, and there WAS two openCPNs running, but not any more. This image was saved after I shut them both down, and re-opened OpenCPN with just one running now.
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Old 21-08-2012, 05:59   #14
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

Canibul...
Recheck the name of your custom icon. From the screenshot it's obvious that you have Windows set to hide the extensions for the files of known types (I really don't know which genius in Redmond invented this feature) so make sure the filename really is ownship.png and of course that it really is a PNG bitmap.
You may also have a look into the logfile (opencpn.log - on your screenshot it's the last one with type Text document)
If there will be a line like
Code:
14:53:29: Error: Image file is not of type 9.
your image is not what it's filename suggests.

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Old 21-08-2012, 06:04   #15
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re: Possible To Change Boat Color ?

Hi Thomas,

never used the ownship feature and now trying no luck - W7 and XP.
The directories are in the right place, the png has been created by Gimp and to try a second source with Inkscape, opens fine in Irfanview, but does not appear in O on start-up. No, no second instance running.

In the log there is the following entry:
14:54:12: 2012-08-21
14:54:12: -------Starting opencpn-------
14:54:12: Version 3.0.2 Build 2012-07-07
14:54:12: MemoryStatus: mem_total: 2013 mb, mem_initial: 9 mb
14:54:12: SData_Locn is C:\Archivos de programa\OpenCPN\
14:54:12: Error: Image file is not of type 9.
14:54:12: Error: Image file is not of type 9.
14:54:12: Using existing Config_File: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Datos de programa\opencpn\opencpn.ini

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