Another Chart Download Tool

[travellerw]

I was reading a thread recently and was horrified when I seen a couple users post that they don't use OpenCPN because its too complicated to get charts. They said it was confusing to create the folder, download the charts, extract the charts, then configure OpenCPN. Yes there is a plugin for this, but people mentioned they wanted a standalone app (plugin was too hard to install).

So without further adue, I present the OpenCPN USCG Chart Setup tool (not affiliated with OpenCPN development).



Its a simple one page interface that does the work for you. The only thing you must do is go to the OpenCPN charts tab and click the "Scan Charts and Update Database" checkbox.

WARNING - This version downloads ALL THE CHARTS for the USA. These downloads are big and take OpenCPN a long time to add to the database. The up side, you should only have to do this once.

Here is the link to the executable. Super small download!
https://www.campgen.com/ChartDownload.exe

[bhcva]

Sounds good Traveller....adding an option to specify a state would make it much more usable for those with limited bandwidth....it is an enormous amount of data.

Bruce

[rgleason]

Never fear Pavel is here! Just wait for a bit, you'll have that and much more with chartdldr. Brought to you by Pavel SethDart and the backup team.

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[travellerw]

Thats my plan.. Give me a couple of days! Its pretty easy to do with NSIS and shouldn't be too much effort. I could add other features, but I would rather keep it simple.

[nohal]

travellerw...
Nice effort, but the chart updater plugin is 99% finished. Don't you want to help us with something that is not a duplicated effort? There is plenty.

Pavel

[travellerw]

Pavel,

Your plugin is great and I will use it personally.

The reason I created this app was some users can't be bothered installing charts or plug-ins. Some users simply don't know how and don't want to learn (yes it's ridiculously easy). They wanted something easy to do the downloading for them.

It's not a lot of effort and anything that helps the adoption is a good thing. I won't be adding any extra features, just a quick and dirty downloader




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[nohal]

travellerw...
No problem, but if you still won't have enough NSIS when done, let me know, we need some help with polishing the installers...

Pavel

[travellerw]

Alright.. I had a couple of hours to kill today so I updated the tool. You can now download by state.





The download link is the same. Its still super small to download.
https://www.campgen.com/ChartDownload.exe

[Andrew B.]

The link is not working for me on Windows 7 ?

And will the charts for coastal states have the coastal info, or just inland ?

[travellerw]

Can you be more specific? Can you download the .exe file? Does the file launch? Are there any errors?

I have no idea what the charts include as they are provided by the US Coast Guard.

P.S. I tested on XP, Win7, Win8 and Win10.

[Andrew B.]

I am getting "Problem loading page", and "Try again" gets the same.

[rgleason]

In an earlier post I neglected to mention Transmitter Dan who has also been a big help with Chartdldr.

As Pavel says we need some help polishing this chartdldr in the final phases, programmers would be welcome as Pavel, Sethdart and Dan have carried the load.

Travellerw I did not mean to take away from your efforts at all, because these tools build on themselves and your thoughtful efforts for new users should not go unappreciated! Thank you.

Seems like we have all identified a need...

[Andrew B.]

Thanks travellerw,

The link worked for me this AM. And I was able to select, and ADD the charts to the charts tab that I wanted. A huge thanks !!!

Now another newb ? I checked off all the coastal states and the detail looks great, but I wonder if adding some of the charts for smaller areas will give even more detail. For example the noaa interactive catalog shows numerous charts available for the Seattle Puget Sound area. Will ADDing some of these give me even more details than the Mexican Boarder to Dixon entrance does ? My favorite chart thus far btw...

A confirmation of the time it takes to download just the coastal states.
Good time to go fix breakfast, get a massage, a haircut( if your lucky enough to still have hair), and give the dog a bath...

And lastly I am in awe of how it worked once the link worked for me. Even put all of the charts in a folder, marked Charts, well duh, and stuck it in my Documents library. I started to add more charts to that folder but feared it might screw it up.

I do think I will make some notes from a newbs view for other newbs.
Just learning that simple step of putting the noaa downloads into another folder was a 'well I be damned' moment for me.

If I can do this, anyone can, but I am going to talk one of my sisters into
being my test dummy on a Newbs how to thread I want to do. She knows nothing
about sailing, and can only do pics, email, and facebook on her PC. This might be a dangerous mission !

The help and manual sections on the open cpn page are useful, but I believe How To's could be even more useful posted here on CF in a sticky perhaps ? I believe most end users probably learn of open cpn here on CF.

Originally Posted by travellerw

Alright.. I had a couple of hours to kill today so I updated the tool. You can now download by state.





The download link is the same. Its still super small to download.
https://www.campgen.com/ChartDownload.exe

[travellerw]

Thanks Andrew.. Glad it helped you out..

Just and FYI, you can dump any charts you want in the Charts folder as long as you don't get a message asking to overwrite (if you do, just say No). Then simply open OpenCPN and click the "Scan and Update" checkbox. It will pick up the new charts you added (the OpenCPN guys have done great work here).

I really hope this helps some people with adopting OpenCPN. Its a good program that many people have poured tons of hours into and we get it for free.

[Svdestiny]

What about charts for OTHER than the US? Bahamas? Western/eastern caribbean?


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