Weather Routing

[rgleason]

Good points Sean. How about using wave period seconds? and relate it somehow to the WL of the boat?

Sean can you explain to us under
Weather_routing_pi > Configuration > Boat > Edit
what the following items are or do?

1. VMG tab - Optimize tacking button - I don't get it.

2. Hull tab under Drag
Frictional says 17 (what are the units and range? how/when should we use this?
Wake says 95 (what are the units and range? How/when should we use this?
"Value of 0 means no wake and 100 is heaviest displacement" also mention of waves
The "Recompute" button seems to do both Friction and Wake. What is happening when you hit recompute? Is it using displacement and WL? Maybe I did not do something here right.

3. Sail Plan we have "Initial Plan" then eta 0.250 with max point angle 15. There is an Eta slider. How is that useful? I think I am missing something.
I am not quite sure what this all does. can you explain a little?

4. Statistics is pretty self explanatory, but I have keep resetting the boat width to 11 and it keeps changing it back to 8'! Why isn't this saved in the boat.xml file?

5. Plot Details I see you have two slots for Sign wave ht and Wave Period that are greyed. Are those for something you have planned?
On this Tab there is an Open which I don't think people understand is for the "Boat.xml" file. Also sometimes they don't have it in the directory as needed and get confused about picking open and finding the Boat.xml or making one by hitting Save. Is there some way to make this a little self explanatory?

6. Polar File Tab - When the Filename shows <computed> the program is doing VPP for the polar and making one internally. When the Filename shows <Shannon38-opencpn-Ted.csv> for example then it is reading a file.
- I have a difficult time knowing when the other settings in the various tabs are being used by the program when a polar file is loaded.
- If I change the Wind speed steep to 4 or 5 and I have the polar file set with 6 knot increments does that screw something up? What does it do?
--Same thing for the Wind degree step? Say I have things in the Polar file recorded every 15 degrees and I set this on 45. what happens?
--Lastly there is an "Open" and "Save" which are to Open and Load a "Boat.csv" polar file, or to "Save" to a <Boat>.csv polar file. Is there some way to make this more intuitive? Also I think users are not getting their boat.xml and boat.csv in the expected directories and they do not know that have to point the this area of the plugin to a file. ---What happens when these files do not exist? Does it lock up and bomb? Or does it simply ask the user to browse to the <boat>.xml file or the <boat>.csv Polar file, while giving some suggestions? --Might be helpful.

Thanks for making such a great full depth plugin. Maybe if I understand some of these items a little better, I'll get better results.

Rick

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Good points Sean. How about using wave period seconds? and relate it somehow to the WL of the boat?

ok, how exactly?

Sean can you explain to us under
Weather_routing_pi > Configuration > Boat > Edit
what the following items are or do?

1. VMG tab - Optimize tacking button - I don't get it.

This is explained in the information file (Help->Information>

2. Hull tab under Drag
Frictional says 17 (what are the units and range? how/when should we use this?
Wake says 95 (what are the units and range? How/when should we use this?
"Value of 0 means no wake and 100 is heaviest displacement" also mention of waves
The "Recompute" button seems to do both Friction and Wake. What is happening when you hit recompute? Is it using displacement and WL? Maybe I did not do something here right.

3. Sail Plan we have "Initial Plan" then eta 0.250 with max point angle 15. There is an Eta slider. How is that useful? I think I am missing something.
I am not quite sure what this all does. can you explain a little?

These are still half-baked. Basically a smaller eta is a more efficient boat. Smaller sails will therefore have a higher eta. This allows you to describe the boat's sailing characteristics with various sails. For spinnakers the eta is much lower but the max pointing angle must also be set much higher

4. Statistics is pretty self explanatory, but I have keep resetting the boat width to 11 and it keeps changing it back to 8'! Why isn't this saved in the boat.xml file?

boat width?

5. Plot Details I see you have two slots for Sign wave ht and Wave Period that are greyed. Are those for something you have planned?

yes

On this Tab there is an Open which I don't think people understand is for the "Boat.xml" file. Also sometimes they don't have it in the directory as needed and get confused about picking open and finding the Boat.xml or making one by hitting Save. Is there some way to make this a little self explanatory?

6. Polar File Tab - When the Filename shows <computed> the program is doing VPP for the polar and making one internally. When the Filename shows <Shannon38-opencpn-Ted.csv> for example then it is reading a file.
- I have a difficult time knowing when the other settings in the various tabs are being used by the program when a polar file is loaded.

The boat dialog is currently very confusing and needs to be reworked

- If I change the Wind speed steep to 4 or 5 and I have the polar file set with 6 knot increments does that screw something up? What does it do?
--Same thing for the Wind degree step? Say I have things in the Polar file recorded every 15 degrees and I set this on 45. what happens?

These is only relevant for saving a computed polar as csv.

--Lastly there is an "Open" and "Save" which are to Open and Load a "Boat.csv" polar file, or to "Save" to a <Boat>.csv polar file. Is there some way to make this more intuitive? Also I think users are not getting their boat.xml and boat.csv in the expected directories and they do not know that have to point the this area of the plugin to a file.

Yes, any suggestions?

---What happens when these files do not exist? Does it lock up and bomb? Or does it simply ask the user to browse to the <boat>.xml file or the <boat>.csv Polar file, while giving some suggestions? --Might be helpful.

Thanks for making such a great full depth plugin. Maybe if I understand some of these items a little better, I'll get better results.

Rick

I did some user interface improvements in git.. but there are still a few major bugs with the actual routing algorithm I need to work out (really hard to fix)

[rgleason]

boat width? - Sorry, I meant beam. I'm an architect, remember, did not shift gears.

Will get the Git in an hour.

[rgleason]

Thanks Sean, git wxRte and Cel_nav. MSVC unfortunately had output errors for them plus wxfax (which was leftovver from before). Have sent the output to you via email.

[rgleason]

The plugin is working.

It does not create the path
"Failed to save xml file: C:/programdata/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing_pi/WeatherRoutingConfiguration.xml" - This message appears on closing

So you have to create the path!. Then put your WeatherRoutingConfiguration.xml file in there and you will have the positions and routes previously run.

[rgleason]

Remove the doc, Unzip, then add a dll extension. Put in your plugin directory in Opencpn version 3.3.3128
Make sure you have the required weather_routing/data directory and files.
Make sure you have created the folders C:/programdata/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing_pi/
and put your weeatherroutingconfiguration.xml file in there and you will have access to your wx_routing positions and routes, otherwise the plugin will come up blank.

If you try to close Opencpn (with wx_route plugin not closed) having the above folders and the file, there will be an error. When you open Opencpn your routes will not appear, it will be blank.

[rgleason]

Images, what the heck? They aren't working. Why?

[rgleason]

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1468165

[rgleason]

I am a little frustrated now. Weather_routing is no longer working.
I have tried Opencpn 3.3.1606 with Grib from 3.3.1606
Opencpn 3.3.1414 with Grib from 3.3.1606 (runs fine)

with weather_routing_win32_pi110_ov331419_pi.dll
which is back one step - compiled with Opencpn v3.3.1419

I have used the simplest grib routing possible, no detect, no currents, just grib.
cleaned all postions and reset everything new. Loaded boat.xml and set on compute, Loaded files I knew worked before and now still come up with Compute "failed"

Is there any possibility you could set this up to compile independently with O3.3.1606 opencpn.lib? --As I have been unable to do any compiles recently with current setup.

Is there any possibility that something in the current Grib for 3.3.1606 is causing the problem?

Thanks, I have come to depend on this tool!
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[rgleason]

OK I tried two other things. I was using a Moving or Walking Grib, well I stopped that and used a static grib. Still get "failure" on compute.

Then I noticed that under WeatherRouting_pi Boat > Edit > Plot tab > Plot Type
Boat showed 0 knots for Boat, True and Apparent. I deleted Sail Plans and screwed around until they show actual speeds. {Later - It only starts showing numbers after you click on the name Initial Plan and start to edit the name, then it starts showing boat speeds.} Then I set it it Apparent rather than Boat or True. Still get failure on compute.

I feel like it might be the XML file, because it won't import any of my previously saved boat XML files, nor will it import Boat.xml which I thought was the original file.

So I am stuck, I can't use it.

[rgleason]

After doing the above, I saved the CSV file:

today-test.csv
=========
twa/tws;00;0.00
9;0.00
18;0.00
27;0.00
36;0.00
45;0.00
54;0.00
63;0.00
72;0.00
81;0.00
90;0.00
99;0.00
108;0.00
117;0.00
126;0.00
135;0.00
144;0.00
153;0.00
162;0.00
171;0.00
180;0.00

Why do these all show 0??? I picked "Compute" so that I would be sure of having a good polar, but it does not seem to be saving the polar file out correctly now and there is no way that I know of to reset this part to get it to work.

I still think the two files are confusing, but then I am using an earlier version still because I cannot compile the most current one configured for mingw compiler.

Anyway maybe I should try git weather_routing_pi again, and see if anything has changed by trying to compile it again.

This is the file that I saved for XML
today-test.XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<OpenCPNWeatherRoutingBoat version="0.10" creator="Opencpn Weather Routing plugin">
<BoatCharacteristics displacement_tons="6" lwl_ft="38" loa_ft="38" beam_ft="8" />
<BoatDrag frictional_drag="0.0099" wake_drag="0.5754" />
</OpenCPNWeatherRoutingBoat>

--Also the 8 foot beam never seems to stick. I keep having to change it from 8ft back to 11ft for this 38' boat and when I save it out, it always says 8 ft which is sort of a pain. But that is not the real problem.

[rgleason]

I deleted the ....plugin/weather_routing_pi and from the plugin directory did:
git clone git://github.com/seandepagnier/weather_routing_pi.git
Then from the ..opencpn-git/build directory cmake .. and cmake --build .

The plugin did not compile in fact I got many errors for all the plugins that previously compiled, probably because I was compiling the latest and greatest 3.3.3.1606 I do not know why that would affect a plugin with plugin API 1.10 and it is kind of disheartening not to be able to compile the others either. See attached.

I haven't heard any response (positive or negative) to my idea of having a library of various historic OPENCPN.LIB for developer and compiler reference? Just to make it easier when compiling older plugins with the independent system Sean has been working on. See

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1529498

Also
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1529511

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1529512

[seandepagnier]

The grib plugin in master broke weather routing. I blame pitzef. In any case, I fixed it for the my optimum branch.

I updated weather routing build files from watchdog so it should compile, but possibly not.

[rgleason]

Sean, thank you for doing this. I have git weather_routing to both the Standalone setup and to my typical MSVC plugins and compiled for both

From the standalone version (after adding opencpn.lib from opencpn3.3.1606) and running:
===
git clone https://github.com/seandepagnier/watchdog_pi.git

Copy <YourOpenCPNSourceDir>\build\release\opencpn.lib to the watchdog plugin's build directory ...watchdog/build/
The opencpn.lib has to be from the oldest possible OpenCPN version supporting the plugin api 1.11, which is actually the current 3.3 beta

cd watchdog_pi
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build . --config release

copy the resulting DLL into your plugin directory (of a release version of OpenCPN).
===

There seems to be a problem with cmake seeing tinyxml. See the attached output file please.

Also the output from MSVC++ Build is included, because the standalone output was too big and cmake --build . ran out of memory and only kept the

[seandepagnier]

I made a small change.. maybe it works now?