Weather Routing

[AedanC]

Originally Posted by sshow bob

I think I'm just missing a setting, but I cannot find it: when I run the weather router it calculates the route (with only one polar file loaded, for reference in that dialogue) but does not display the route calculated unless I select export. On my last laptop the plug in worked properly for a while, then displayed the same behavior.

Windows 10 Home, 64 bit.
OpenCPN 4.6.0
Router 1.10

What am I missing?

Is OpenGL turned on? I have a tablet that won't display the routes unless I turn it on.

Aedan

[sshow bob]

Originally Posted by AedanC

Is OpenGL turned on? I have a tablet that won't display the routes unless I turn it on.

Aedan

Good call. That did it.

[rgleason]

Aedanc l am confused, your file thingie shows the new file to use 4/4

[rgleason]

That is more current than the dwnload section on website.

[AedanC]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Aedanc l am confused, your file thingie shows the new file to use 4/4

I can see a version of weatherfax but not weather routing....... Is it one setup file with both built into it?

[DavidBurch]

Here is an example of the route finding meanders in the GS.

[Moo]

Originally Posted by DavidBurch

Here is an example of the route finding meanders in the GS.

Very impressive !

[registry]

Hi all,
From some reason, plugin reports "Polar: Failed" to any boat out of standard collection and to any gribs.

I was trying situations where start and end ports are on one line, no zero wind and still cannot route anything.

Used BAVARIA 38.txt out of standard collections and various others...

[AedanC]

Are either your start or end points in restricted locations like the entrance to a bay? That can cause routing to fail to find a route.

Aedan

[registry]

Was thinking about it. I tried with different positions of start/end. And some time ago it was working. But now i cannot make it running even with standard polars.

I was thinking that it rejects to route if wind is appros 0... so, i choose dates, where grib stable 3-4 bf has... still...
It is pity, coz weather routing is pretty useful.

[AedanC]

I've found that it works most of the time, sometimes with a bit of coaxing all right. From one point to another with no obstructions in the way and reasonable winds all the time should work. One of the things I've had to do is add values in the polar I use for zero wind. I'm using the latest windows version available on the download page. There is supposed to be a newer version on the beta file thingy but I couldn't find it when I last looked.

Aedan

[.Paul.]

registry,

I am running OpenCPN 4.6.1, Weather_routing_pi 1.10.1 and Climatology_pi-1.2 under Windows 10. This works well. Earlier today I ran a few routes using the BAVARIA_38_MATCH.txt polar file. The routes computed without problems.

If I need to avoid shoals, I use ocpn_draw_pi-1.2.0 to draw a boundary, but I did not use that today.

Paul

[rgleason]

Lately I have been doing some long routings with WR_pi, Climatology_pi and Grib_pi using various manally adjusted Polars, using a text editor (Notepad++), the plugin Polar_pi and the polar viewing feature in WR_pi. I have learned so things about how what formats are required for WR_pi and some "do not's to look for"

1. Make sure you have setup the start and destination points and that they are not the same! Which may result in an error that says "polar".

2. WP_pi will run properly with a single polar file, provided it is the correct format. [I had thought it required two, but that was because one of the polar files was not formatted properly and was not accepted by WR_pi!] So first test your polar's format by using just one Polar File! Make sure there is no "Polar" failure.

3. WP-Pi requires files that are consistent in format.

A. No vertical rows of zeros under the TWS true wind speeds, however a column of 0's is permissible at the end, for the last windspeed (0's straight down the column).

B. Also it is permissible to have all 0's in the second horizontal line TWA true wind angle, all zeros. Delete all other horizontal lines of 0's.

C. Both Polar_pi and WP_pi do some reinterpretation of polar files to adjust the format to be compatible with Opencpn, however if they do not work some manual editing is needed. They read pol, csv and txt files.

D. It would be nice to bring polar_pi and wp_pi into closer alignment. Polar_pi allows you to edit your polar. It would be helpful if we could also remove rows and columns of zeros easily. For this I used Excel or Notepad++.

E. As you learn to edit your polar files to get them working in opencp & wp_pi it would be helpful to us if you noted the small changes needed to get the format in alignment with wp_pi.

This information should be added to the WP_pi User Manual under plugins.

---

Additionally I would like to note and confirm that the setting for Wind strength % does seem to work properly with both Climatology and Gribs.

However I have noticed that simply hitting "Compute" after changing some settings does not result in a Computation. This is inconvenient and time consuming, because I have to change something else, like Climatology setting to "Average" save the configuration, open it again and then change Climatology setting back to "most likely" back to what I wanted, then run it by hitting Compute. There appears to be some logic setting dependent on incomplete triggers for changes to settings which prevents "Compute" from running properly again. I haven't figured this out completely, but I a reasonably sure it exists.

If I hit "Reset All" it resets the all of the configurations and sets Wind strength to 100% for example so I must go back and set that back at the strength I wanted etc along with checking all the other config settings. I think it should also allow "Reset of a particular configuration" by us of a highlight and right click menu which I think we used to have.

As I have stated we really must update the Weather_Routing Plugin and I need assistance from everybody using the plugin to both help with any issues and to identify how the new features actually work, and we need some new editors to help augment the documentation.

Additionally, I can confirm that Shorter Grib files and Climatology still play well together with the routing being extended by Climatology data set.

[gjorgensen]

Ok, so please help me out there. I used the Polar plugin to manually create a polar for the Beneteau 38.1 based on the published polar diagram. I've saved that as both a .pol and a .csv file in the normal area with all the sample boats. In the Weather_routing plugin, I create a new configuration, and first thing try to load a the polar. I've tried both the .pol and .csv files, but when I click Edit after loading it says the file failed to load. I've tried numerous other sample .pol and .txt files that came with the plugin and zero - none at all - will load as far as I can tell. All fail the same way. There also appears to be basically no documentation and no sample polar files to even go off of. Do they have to be xml? If so what's the format?

[ptulp]

Originally Posted by gjorgensen

Ok, so please help me out there. I used the Polar plugin to manually create a polar for the Beneteau 38.1 based on the published polar diagram. I've saved that as both a .pol and a .csv file in the normal area with all the sample boats. In the Weather_routing plugin, I create a new configuration, and first thing try to load a the polar. I've tried both the .pol and .csv files, but when I click Edit after loading it says the file failed to load. I've tried numerous other sample .pol and .txt files that came with the plugin and zero - none at all - will load as far as I can tell. All fail the same way. There also appears to be basically no documentation and no sample polar files to even go off of. Do they have to be xml? If so what's the format?

If you click on the icon with 3 dots in the new configuration window you can load the Boat.xml file. It should be there.
Then you click on Edit which will open a new window where you can add a polar on the right side. When the polar opens it will show the polar diagram on the left side.