No buoys on ENC charts

[CaptFarmer]

I am new to OpenCPN so I may be overlooking something but I don't see any buoys on a Tennessee River ENC chart? I am a full-time passenger vessel Captain so I definitely need to know where the buoys are. I am set to ALL and my manual says

1. Display base,
.4 indication of isolated dangers which lie within the safe water
defined by the safety contour such as bridges, overhead wires, etc.,
and including buoys and beacons whether or not these are being used
2. Standard display
.3 indication of fixed and floating aids to navigation

so I should see them.

I know they are there since I can see them with my Fugawi Viewer software.
In the attached screenshot there should be a Can neat the center of the screen.

What am I overlooking?

[transmitterdan]

Can you give a exact GPS coordinate of a marker that you know is there but not shown in OpenCPN? If you can, I will try to find out why you don't see it.

[rgleason]

I am new to OpenCPN so I may be overlooking something but I don't see any buoys on a Tennessee River ENC chart? I

Go to Options > Charts > Vector Charts
Display Category: set to Mariner's Standard and set what you want.

Suggest reading the manual, we really try to keep it up to date and it is helpful, (sorry). See opencpn.org

OpenCPN | Official OpenCPN Homepage - User Manual
TOOLBAR Buttons | Official OpenCPN Homepage - Toolbar buttons
Options Setting | Official OpenCPN Homepage - Options

There is a lot here to learn about. Find Charts and then Vector Charts...

[CaptFarmer]

The can is at L 35 56.5345 and Lo 83 56.1543 on my copy of the Fugawi Viewer (tried to attach?) I don't think this one has moved in years.

I have tried Mariner's Standard with ALL selected. In the Fuguwi jpg I tried to attach there are two nuns further down river LDB. None of the buoys are showing on OpenCPN. I have a local friend using OpenCPN and I will check with him when he gets back off of vacation.

I love your program and would like to contribute suggestions as a full-time Inland Master. I was president of a computer consulting company at one time and still do a little coding. I am especially interested in calculating CPA and TCPA on a river route from AIS.

I changed the orientation of the CPU display on the riverboat to portrait and will use look ahead mode like I do on our Simrad plotter/radar.

[bdbcat]

Capt Farmer...

Please check the lat/lon. No river there, AFAICT.

Dave

[nohal]

Dave...
That area is covered by U37TN606.000 at least in the up to date U.S. ACE chartset. The display of these IENCs has always been a bit incomplete (Never looked at the exact reason though as I have no use for them)

Pavel

[.Paul.]

The missing buoy is shown on an old (Nov 2010) edition of the chart cell U35TN606:


It is not shown in the latest (Aug 17, 2016) update of chart cell U37TN606:


I think there was mention on the USACE website of a specification change when the USACE was in the process of changing from the U35 series of ENC to the U37 series of IENC.

Paul

[transmitterdan]

There is a river at that coordinate. There are no nav objects shown. I think this is some kind of bug related to the ACE ENC encoding used by the US Army Core of Engineers (ACE).

I tried to drop a mark on the coordinate but nothing appears. The mark is in the marks database however as shown here:

MARK dialog box

This is the spot on the ACE chart:

Charted location of marker.

So I not only don't see the buoy from the chart I can't even see a mark I placed at that same location. There may be multiple issues here.

[CaptFarmer]

I have the ACE database of ALL inland river mile locations with and their L and Lo. If I can find the contact info I had for ACE in this area I will inquire abut the buoy anomaly. I don't really need this data yet. My boat and barge are not built yet and my inland cruise (Towboat Tour & Inland Barging - TowboatTour).

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions. Even experienced navigators (I teach marine electronics and celestial) need to learn to use new tools. Lack of consistent training for ECDIS systems on large commercial vessels in a serious problem right now. There have been articles in Workboat and Professional Mariner on the subject recently. Electronically ASSISTED collisions are not unheard of.

[bdbcat]

.Paul. / Dan...

This is odd. The newest iENC U37TN606 contains no "BOYLAT" features at all. But the buoy is there, by observation. And it was in the previous U35 series. So what's going on?

.Paul., do you have any link or info describing the USACE switch to U37?
I'm googling....

Thanks
Dave

[.Paul.]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

.Paul. / Dan...

This is odd. The newest iENC U37TN606 contains no "BOYLAT" features at all. But the buoy is there, by observation. And it was in the previous U35 series. So what's going on?

.Paul., do you have any link or info describing the USACE switch to U37?
I'm googling....

Thanks
Dave

I did not have anything in my files or notes describing the switch to U37. I do remember that USACE did have both the original U35 charts and newer U37 charts available for the download at the same time but with different procedures for downloading.

This morning I found this link to a USACE Encoding Guide:

http://www.agc.army.mil/Portals/75/d...deEdition4.pdf

The Encoding Guide contains this note on page 92 of 96 under the "Encoding Instructions" column heading:

C) With a few exceptions, current IENC production rules do not require buoy collection and exclude buoy placement in the IENC.

Here is a picture of that page:
[ATTACH]131867[/ATTACH

Paul

[rgleason]

Not on topic, but this is interesting
Chart of Marine Highways https://www.marad.dot.gov/wp-content...Route_Map1.png

Ports and Terminals Ports and Terminals - TowboatTour

His website M40_75 Connector - TowboatTour
showing a proposal to reduce shipping traffic on highway.

[.Paul.]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

.Paul. / Dan...

This is odd. The newest iENC U37TN606 contains no "BOYLAT" features at all. But the buoy is there, by observation. And it was in the previous U35 series. So what's going on?

.Paul., do you have any link or info describing the USACE switch to U37?
I'm googling....

Thanks
Dave

Dave,

The USACE publishes an S57 overlay containing USCG buoy data for their (ACE) Inland Electronic Navigation Charts.

Here is a link:

BuoysDownload

And a picture:



The buoy data is unzipped and added to OpenCPN's chart folders and chartbase using traditional (before Chart Downloader) steps under

Options > Charts.

Here is a screenshot showing the missing buoy on the chart. OpenCPN only displays the buoy overlay on the chart if quilting is on.



Paul

[transmitterdan]

Paul,

Thanks for figuring this out. I think there is a way to automatically add the buoys to the downloader system. I'll work on it and may have something working by next week.

Thanks,

[transmitterdan]

Here is something that can be tested for the inland waterway charts of the US.

1) In the tools->Charts->Chart Downloader click ADD to create a new chart source.

2) Make it will look like the dialog below but be sure to change the "Chart Directory" to the normal directory tree where you keep your charts. I suggest keeping the last folder name INLAND_BUOYS but it is totally up to you.

3) Click OK.

4) Find the "ACE Inland ENC Buoy Charts" in the list of catalogs.

6) Click "Update" then click "Download Selected Charts".

7) Click "OK".

8) Open tools->Charts->Chart Files and add the INLAND_BUOYS folder. Click "OK".

9) Open tools->Charts->Chart Groups and create a chart group that contains both INLAND and INLAND_BUOYS. Click "OK".

Now when you enable the chart group containing both INLAND and INLAND_BUOYS the buoys will show up.