Weather Routing

[mikedefieslife]

That quick test shows that it creates a blank weatherrouting directory.

None of the example files that plugin ships with are in there nor are there any folders such as boat, polars, etc..

While you can create a new configuration, you can't do anything until you have a boat.xml file and polar. The instructions in the wiki leads one to believe that these example files should be copied over too.

[stelian]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

That quick test shows that it creates a blank weatherrouting directory.

None of the example files that plugin ships with are in there nor are there any folders such as boat, polars, etc..

While you can create a new configuration, you can't do anything until you have a boat.xml file and polar. The instructions in the wiki leads one to believe that these example files should be copied over too.

Yes, the files should be copied. How did you install the plugin ? From here: https://opencpn.org/OpenCPN/plugins/weatherroute.html ?

[mikedefieslife]

Yes from that link and ended up with package 1.10.1 and installed into OpenCPN v4.8.0.

Running MacOS Sierra 10.12.6

[stelian]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Yes from that link and ended up with package 1.10.1 and installed into OpenCPN v4.8.0.

Running MacOS Sierra 10.12.6

I have just looked at the dmg contents on that page and this is an old version, it doesn't contain any boats !

Pavel (who said earlier it worked for him) probably compiled locally a newer version, maybe he can put it for download somewhere ?

Anyway someone needs to modify the download page !

[nohal]

I am getting puzzled here.
Did the following 5 minutes ago:

Downloaded the installer from opencpn.org, installed, ended up with exactly 135 polars in
/Applications/OpenCPN.app/Contents/SharedSupport/plugins/weather_routing_pi/data/polars/ as expected.

Everything seems to work. I did not have to create any folders, Boat.xml file is created by clicking in the plugin windows, there is absolutely no need to download it from anywhere or edit it manually (Nor any other XML file).

So the question is: Everything does work, what exactly do I have to do to make it not to?

And yes, we should do a new release of this plugin as the current one on the page is pretty outdated, once Sean says it is ready.

Pavel

[stelian]

Originally Posted by nohal

So the question is: Everything does work, what exactly do I have to do to make it not to?

And yes, we should do a new release of this plugin as the current one on the page is pretty outdated, once Sean says it is ready.

Pavel

Pavel,

I am not sure what is the source for the macos binary on the download page, since WR lacks proper git tagging. Looking at VERSION.cmake, 1.10.1 is from June 2016.

The latest version (once again from VERSION.cmake) is 1.11, from December 2017. This version contains (among other things) a default configuration giving the newbie user some default boats and configuration to work with. He (the user) just has to click compute to have a working setup.

In this latest version, the polars/boats/xml from /Applications/OpenCPN.app/Contents/SharedSupport/plugins/weather_routing_pi/ are read-only (as it should be) and the plugin doesn't try anymore to write to (which was giving errors in the older versions). On the first invocation, if the user directory does not already exist, the polars/boats/xml file gets copied into the user directory, so he will be able to modify those at will from the GUI.

So yes, 1.11 is the latest "stable" version from Sean (it would be even better if he tagged the release at the same time as modifying VERSION.cmake though). This should be the version available from the download page.

As should be the case for Windows, which is not the case either, the download page points to Rick's page, which has more recent (and possibly enhanced by other commits) versions.

The main problem is that, if we do not offer the same version for everyone, it will cause confusion because different version will behave differently. The current discussion about filenames and paths is the result of such a confusion !

Stelian.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by stelian

Pavel,

I am not sure what is the source for the macos binary on the download page, since WR lacks proper git tagging. Looking at VERSION.cmake, 1.10.1 is from June 2016.

The latest version (once again from VERSION.cmake) is 1.11, from December 2017. This version contains (among other things) a default configuration giving the newbie user some default boats and configuration to work with. He (the user) just has to click compute to have a working setup.

In this latest version, the polars/boats/xml from /Applications/OpenCPN.app/Contents/SharedSupport/plugins/weather_routing_pi/ are read-only (as it should be) and the plugin doesn't try anymore to write to (which was giving errors in the older versions). On the first invocation, if the user directory does not already exist, the polars/boats/xml file gets copied into the user directory, so he will be able to modify those at will from the GUI.

So yes, 1.11 is the latest "stable" version from Sean (it would be even better if he tagged the release at the same time as modifying VERSION.cmake though). This should be the version available from the download page.

As should be the case for Windows, which is not the case either, the download page points to Rick's page, which has more recent (and possibly enhanced by other commits) versions.

The main problem is that, if we do not offer the same version for everyone, it will cause confusion because different version will behave differently. The current discussion about filenames and paths is the result of such a confusion !

Stelian.

Well, I do know (As I did build that package). It comes from the tagged sources of 1.10.1 as present on github.

And I am honestly lost in Seans versioning. Is 1.11 what there is at this very moment? Was it what was there a week ago? Or is it what there will be tonight? Does it even work with O4.8.2 and it's grib plugin at this very moment?
From what I can see at least translation updates are still missing for a release. And of course a tag.

[stelian]

Originally Posted by nohal

Well, I do know (As I did build that package). It comes from the tagged sources of 1.10.1 as present on github.

So it's from June 2016. Way too old, should be dropped.

Originally Posted by nohal

And I am honestly lost in Seans versioning. Is 1.11 what there is at this very moment? Was it what was there a week ago? Or is it what there will be tonight? Does it even work with O4.8.2 and it's grib plugin at this very moment?
From what I can see at least translation updates are still missing for a release. And of course a tag.

I already gave my opinion on this, but I think it would be better for Sean himself to clarify the situation. Sean ?

[kevinvh]

Originally Posted by stelian

If this is the case then it is a genuine bug. It would be nice if some other MacOS users could reproduce this.

Even you, you can try again by just:
- close opencpn if running
- rename temporarily <username>/Library/Preferences/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing to something else (or move it out of the way)
- relaunch opencpn and click on the WR icon
- see if the directory has been recreated.

(after the test you can put again your directory back into place in order to not lose your changes, but don't forget to close opencpn before !)

Thanks !

OK - did what you suggested. Archived the <username>/Preferences/opencpn and deleted the old.

Opened OpenCPN and it came up as a clean install, except the additional polars (weatherRouting PI and climatology PI) were in Options/Plugins, but were disabled.

I loaded the GSHHG base maps and enabled the Grib, Climatology and WeatherRouting plugins and then exited OpenCPN to check what had changed in <username>/Preferences/opencpn. Nothing had been added - no new folders, just the original three files chartist.dat, navobj.xml and opencpn.ini.

Checked in the Applications/OpenCPN.app/Contents/SharedSupport/plugins/weather_routing_pi/data, and sure enough, the full list of Polars was under the "polars" folder and the test boat configurations were in the "boats" folder.

Now here is the issue. After selecting a Grib file in OpenCPN and then opening the WeatherRouting window (window was empty of positions and configurations), I created two weather routing positions (right click on chart) and then configured a weather route. I could not select a boat file because there was no weather routing data in <username>/Preferences/opencpn.

I tried to select a Boat.xml file, but Finder would not allow me to access <username>/Preferences/opencpn or Applications/OpenCPN.app/Contents/SharedSupport/plugins/weather_routing_pi/data. I had to manually create the folders in <username>/Preferences/opencpn and copy the relevant files across from Applications/OpenCPN.app/Contents/SharedSupport/plugins/weather_routing_pi/data before weather routing would work.

By the way, I did a full clean install of OpenCPN last night and had to do the manual transfers to get weather routing to work.

[stelian]

Originally Posted by kevinvh

OK - did what you suggested. Archived the <username>/Preferences/opencpn and deleted the old.

You need a newer build, see above.

[nohal]

You do not "select" boat.xml. You simply click on that Edit button and create one.

[rgleason]

@Stelian
I can revert back to the previous version of the wiki if necessary, quite easily.
I will check the wiki again. I do not believe there is old instructions in the main page, but will check. I will also check the Irma page.


What I wonder is if the wxrte plugin has been update to be current!
I have been compiling the most current Windows version here
https://github.com/rgleason/weather_routing_pi/tags
Pre-release

• 1.1109d-beta
• 8e7a92d

https://github.com/rgleason/weather_...g/1.1109d-beta


MacOS has opencpn.navnux.org/plugins/weather_routing_pi/Weather_routing-Plugin_1.10.1.pkg
which is earlier.

I think this is the problem.

Also the plugin and artifacts should be completely removed before installation of the new version. See this cleanup description:
https://github.com/rgleason/weather_...tag/1.1106beta

To have all the initialization files copied from the System files ProgramFiles (x86) folders to User Files ProgramData
you must "Clean" your opencpn files of all weather_routing files and folders or the initialization that is required will not occur.
For windows users, from:
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.8.0 ---> Run Uninstall Weather_routing.exe as administrator.
C:\ProgramData\opencpn ---> Open opencpn.ini in Notepad++ and remove all lines for weather_routing and weatherrouting, including the order of plugins "weatherrouting" reference.
C:\ProgramData\opencpn\plugins ---> Remove the Weather_routing directory.


Stelian, you are of course correct. So Sorry for not having realized this problem, KevinH! I think we need to update the downloads page for MAC first! Continuous Integration will help eventually.

So I think the problems come from the fact that:

• either the WR plugin is not the latest version
• or the WR plugin was installed in an unclean environment.

The basic instructions, for newcomers to WR, should be, on ANY OS:

• remove the old program data: the whole directory
  • <username>/Library/Preferences/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing (on MacOS)
  • C:\ProgramData\opencpn\plugins\weather_routing (on Windows)
  • /home/<username>/.opencpn/plugins/weather_routing (on Linux)
• launch the plugin
• click compute
• everything should work immediately without any kind of editing.

If it does not, please fill a bug report, and let us fix it instead of documenting it.

[kevinvh]

Originally Posted by nohal

You do not "select" boat.xml. You simply click on that Edit button and create one.

I am using OpenCPN_4.8.2.dmg and Weather_routing-Plugin_1.11.0.pkg. Click on the Edit button and you get a message that the boat file does not exist. There is no way of selecting polars because Finder will not allow access to Library folders and files or the OpenCPN.app/Contents folders and files.

[kevinvh]

Originally Posted by kevinvh

I am using OpenCPN_4.8.2.dmg and Weather_routing-Plugin_1.11.0.pkg. Click on the Edit button and you get a message that the boat file does not exist. There is no way of selecting polars because Finder will not allow access to Library folders and files or the OpenCPN.app/Contents folders and files.

OK, I will leave it to you techies to sort out. If I can be of any help by testing etc, let me know.

[Subtandard]

I am trying to use this excellent plugin but,,, It fails to load any polar file I try, including the ones that came with it. I am on linux. Am I missing something?