Weather Routing Plug In - Does it Actually Work

[miyagimoon]

I have been trying out the Weather Routing Plugin, but cannot seem to get it to work. Sometimes it works, the the next time it fails. I've been trying it using the pre-installed boat data.

Am I missing something?

[seandepagnier]

It is often difficult to know why a routing fails as it can fail for many reasons. I improved the error reporting slightly, but it's not a simple problem.


When you get a route to work, what did you change that next causes it to fail?

[Neptune's Gear]

Yes, it works for me.

[AedanC]

It works for me too. It was a bit tricky to get it going but it does work.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by AedanC

It works for me too. It was a bit tricky to get it going but it does work.

I have had varied success and not sure why. Can you post an example of a route exercise that works, we would all benefit from this.

[Gilletarom]

Hello Sean d'Epagnier, Hello All,

I realize some time, an update of the French tutorial shoreline.fr. And I've been working on updating the Weather-Routing plugin page.

I managed a few times to make it work, using a polar supplied at the time of installation. But most of the time, I have a failure and the explanation provided concerns the polar.

I obviously tried to follow the explanations of the site opencpn.org. But, they are not up to date :
Weather Routing | Official OpenCPN Homepage

So ....

It is very hard, in these conditions to have confidence in this plugin. Difficult to "sell" it to French users. In addition, now, there are very good routing software, for cheap, available in French, and which, more and more, look like complete marine mapping software..

So, I'm looking for someone to propose a text explaining WR, relative:
- at the choice of the polar,
- how to safeguard the boat,
- how to take into account a boat to define the characteristics of a weather-route

Thank you in advance.

Best regards. Gilletarom.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Gilletarom

Hello Sean d'Epagnier, Hello All,

I realize some time, an update of the French tutorial shoreline.fr. And I've been working on updating the Weather-Routing plugin page.

I managed a few times to make it work, using a polar supplied at the time of installation. But most of the time, I have a failure and the explanation provided concerns the polar.

So the polar you have created is the problem? When you change to the supplied polars it is routing again?

I obviously tried to follow the explanations of the site opencpn.org. But, they are not up to date :
Weather Routing | Official OpenCPN Homepage

So ....

It is very hard, in these conditions to have confidence in this plugin. Difficult to "sell" it to French users. In addition, now, there are very good routing software, for cheap, available in French, and which, more and more, look like complete marine mapping software..

Which french software are you speaking of? How does it work better than the weather routing plugin?

So, I'm looking for someone to propose a text explaining WR, relative:
- at the choice of the polar,
- how to safeguard the boat,
- how to take into account a boat to define the characteristics of a weather-route

Thank you in advance.

Best regards. Gilletarom.

It's difficult because the user needs accurate polars.

Most users can't or won't supply accurate polars for their boat.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

It's difficult because the user needs accurate polars.

What do you call an accurate polar?

Gerhard

[Gilletarom]

Hello Sean of Epagnier,

I had managed to operate WR with the Alberg-Rassy 34 polar. Then I made other attempts, with other settings and / or other polars. All had failed. Then I had uninstalled WR and re-installed WR. As I said in my previous post, impossible to make it work again.

So, another, I just uninstalled the weatherrouting plugin. I was planning to re-install it. But after a first re-installation, I noticed that old departure and arrival points were still present. Also an old route-weather not yet compiled was also present.

So I un-installed WR again and I looked into the various folders if there were any traces of WR. All files and folders have been deleted in opencpn install folder.

But the "opencpn.ini" file has not been cleaned. All that was present, dating from my previous attempts with WR, remained in the file.

And also, the folder weatherrouting is not deleted in opencpn data folder. So all old points and old meteo-route are still present.

This certainly explains that I can not get WR to work.

Best regards. Gilletarom.

[Gilletarom]

Hello Sean d'Epagnier

I think I succeeded, after dis-installed WR, to properly clean my PC. So I set up a new WR installation.

I just created two waypoints (start and finish). I observe that at the time of their creation, no mark (green or red) appears on the screen.

B.R. Gilletarom.

[Gilletarom]

hello Sean d'Epagnier,

I partially succeeded, by chance to operate WR.

I observe that there is no default boat initially present. You have to create one. If I understand correctly, you must first add a polar then you have to save an xml file that serves as the default boat.

I used the polar of the Alberg-Rassy 35 which appears in the data gouged with WR.

After which, the compilation started but it stopped announcing error of polar ?????? ----> See Screen copy.

B.R. Gilletarom.

[Gilletarom]

Hello Sean D'Epagnier,

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

....

Which french software are you speaking of? How does it work better than the weather routing plugin?

....

There is now, here in france, some good sofware for routing. Here is a short list :
- Weather4D it run only with iOS on tablet. With charts.
- Avallon routeur it run only on AndroÏd tablet.
- QtVlm It run on PC under windows and under Androïd.
- SailGrib. It run on androïd tablet.

I have attended, for two years and this year again to the demonstration made at the nautical show of Paris in December, by the developers of these software. And many people use them. The weather-routes obtained are really good quality.
In addition, they are able to exploit the MyOcean currents in the Atlantic and the English Channel. And that, WR does not yet know how to do it.

Best regards. Gilletarom.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Gilletarom

Hello Sean of Epagnier,

I had managed to operate WR with the Alberg-Rassy 34 polar. Then I made other attempts, with other settings and / or other polars. All had failed. Then I had uninstalled WR and re-installed WR. As I said in my previous post, impossible to make it work again.

So, another, I just uninstalled the weatherrouting plugin. I was planning to re-install it. But after a first re-installation, I noticed that old departure and arrival points were still present. Also an old route-weather not yet compiled was also present.

So I un-installed WR again and I looked into the various folders if there were any traces of WR. All files and folders have been deleted in opencpn install folder.

But the "opencpn.ini" file has not been cleaned. All that was present, dating from my previous attempts with WR, remained in the file.

And also, the folder weatherrouting is not deleted in opencpn data folder. So all old points and old meteo-route are still present.

This is a problem with the installer. It doesn't remove the files the plugin creates on windows... Next time, please post thefiles before you delete them and we will have clues to why they blocked you... in theory the weather routing shouldn't get in a bad state just because of configuration options.

Originally Posted by Gilletarom

Hello Sean d'Epagnier

I think I succeeded, after dis-installed WR, to properly clean my PC. So I set up a new WR installation.

I just created two waypoints (start and finish). I observe that at the time of their creation, no mark (green or red) appears on the screen.

B.R. Gilletarom.

It is only displaying the waypoints in selected routes. What do you propose it does because there are so many waypoints? Maybe it should "import" actual waypoints instead? For example, you create a normal waypoint, then right click and a menu option to "make weather routing waypoint" ? Would it be better?

Originally Posted by Gilletarom

hello Sean d'Epagnier,

I partially succeeded, by chance to operate WR.

I observe that there is no default boat initially present. You have to create one. If I understand correctly, you must first add a polar then you have to save an xml file that serves as the default boat.

I used the polar of the Alberg-Rassy 35 which appears in the data gouged with WR.

After which, the compilation started but it stopped announcing error of polar ?????? ----> See Screen copy.

B.R. Gilletarom.

The polar failed almost always means that the polar doesn't define a boat speed in the conditions. You will see from the speed plot, or from editing the polar that the alberg35 polar doesn't define boat speed above 20 knots of wind.

Above this speed, the program doesn't know how fast the boat can sail, so it simply doesn't route.

You can see your route getting constrained well before it actually fails due to this. You need to either use a different polar, an additional polar, or edit the polar and add more data to route.

[miyagimoon]

Having played with it on and off for the last few days. I would say that WR does not work. Not unless it is designed for a one off route. The only way I can get it to work is to completely un-install it after each use. If I try to plot another route without un-installing it will fail. It comes with pre programmed Polars which only go to 20 knots which is not good enough and requires additional programming by the user.

I am not a computer boffin and want something that is simple to use , does not require additional programming and does not require un-installing after each use.

So to me OpenCPN Weather Route does not work!

[Neptune's Gear]

Again, works for me. See https://youtu.be/QdTg6T_aLRk
Using Polars I made for my boat....