Canadian oeSENC charts for OpenCPN

[r.stokes]

Silly question, but how to check for updates to CDN Vector charts purchased through 0-charts?

[bcn]

a) from the oeSENC tab at Options|Charts click on "refresh", go to your chart set and look for available updates
b) at your account at o-charts select "my oeSENC charts" and check the status


CHS charts are getting updated fortnightly. Thursday afternoon Central European Time.


Hubert

[sv_pelagia]

Take heed to VICROD's caveats above!


Just downloaded OESENC charts for Pacific Canada -- all proceeded fine.



HOWEVER:

- These Vector charts do not include older, but official/current, charts of inlets on the west coast of Haida Gwaii (charts in fathoms, and sometimes not high detail; however, CHS Tasu sound chart IS high detail and mostly excluded in the OESENC charts)
- OESENC charts do not seem to show existence/location of submarine cables. For example, Ballet Bay, BC (where this info is important for anchoring!)
- OESENC charts do not show flood/ebb tidal current direction, max velocity, etc shown of raster charts


IS there any way to "turn on" such information? (The OCPN "vector chart" features seems turned off.)



I've only had them a few days, but am leaning towards spending the big bucks to get the CHS raster charts updated (I've had the official CHS raster charts up-to-date up to May 2020*)



When will OESENC provide CHS Raster charts (as alluded to above)?




*Apparently, during COVID-19, CHS is only updating Vector charts, and not Raster. Not sure when they will return to updating Rasters.

[sv_pelagia]

OESENC charts do not seem to show existence/location of submarine cables. For example, Ballet Bay, BC (where this info is important for anchoring!)
- OESENC charts do not show flood/ebb tidal current direction, max velocity, etc shown of raster charts


OK... SORRY... found solution for cables and currents

On "Chart Panel Options", I incorrectly had "Standard" checked. Changed to all and cables, tide direction now available.


I do not recall having this issue with CM93 charts....


(Oddly, the Vector Chart Display "Standard Objects" does not seem to work on my just-updated OPCPN v5.2... is this a bug or my installation?)

[bcn]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

Take heed to VICROD's caveats above!


Just downloaded OESENC charts for Pacific Canada -- all proceeded fine.



HOWEVER:

- These Vector charts do not include older, but official/current, charts of inlets on the west coast of Haida Gwaii (charts in fathoms, and sometimes not high detail; however, CHS Tasu sound chart IS high detail and mostly excluded in the OESENC charts)
- OESENC charts do not seem to show existence/location of submarine cables. For example, Ballet Bay, BC (where this info is important for anchoring!)
- OESENC charts do not show flood/ebb tidal current direction, max velocity, etc shown of raster charts


IS there any way to "turn on" such information? (The OCPN "vector chart" features seems turned off.)



I've only had them a few days, but am leaning towards spending the big bucks to get the CHS raster charts updated (I've had the official CHS raster charts up-to-date up to May 2020*)



When will OESENC provide CHS Raster charts (as alluded to above)?




*Apparently, during COVID-19, CHS is only updating Vector charts, and not Raster. Not sure when they will return to updating Rasters.

Turn on display category "All" and then reduce to your preferences.
Enable "show tidal stations" and "show currents" and look how good your sailing area is covered.


The OCPN manual will give you detailed information about vector charts options.



CHS will discontinue raster, question is how fast they will replace the charts for areas where raster are either the only source or are still better.

[bcn]

Not a good idea to (ab) use Inland ECDIS. Will provoke other settings like distances in meters you will not like most probably.


For "Display Categories" see this recent debate:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3231455

[sv_pelagia]

BCN -- thanks for fast reply (in between where I found the answer and thus edited my reply to not mentioning/using Inland ECDIS).


And thanks for the link to discussion about Vector Display Categories.



As for RASTER... I purchased oeSENC chart because CHS hasn't been updating raster during COVID and I was specifically focused on the West Coast of Haida Gwaii. So, of course I was taken aback to see nothing on the oeSENC charts for a few relatively well-charted inlets up there (Englefield Inlet & Security Cove; Tasu; Gowgaia). Must therefore use raster.


Interestingly (to me...), Navionics and C-MAP charts include these CHS-charted areas not in oeSENC. (However, very oddly, C-MAP has some detailed charting for some inlets on the West Coast Haida Gwaii which does not exist in CHS charts -- and for a least one inlet, this odd C-MAP charting is missing a very obvious rock (from satellite)).

[bcn]

We have discussed to include CHS raster into the o-charts portfolio.
Question of available capacities.



o-charts as part of OpenCPN is not a chart editor in the sense of merging or editing contents. Not a commercial operation neither.

Different from Garmin/Navionics or Navico/C-Map. We don't have offices in India..
What brings us to the question of the reliability of information added.
If the relevant Hydrographic Office does not publish material for a site, we will not include such material easily.
The oeRNC charts are an example of charts from sources OCPN users are convinced to be trustworthy.


Hubert

[sv_pelagia]

What brings us to the question of the reliability of information added.
If the relevant Hydrographic Office does not publish material for a site, we will not include such material easily.
The oeRNC charts are an example of charts from sources OCPN users are convinced to be trustworthy


Hubert,
I completely agree about only including charts from trustworthy sources.



Yes, I often must question the reliability of "certain" commercial charts and thus (here in Canada), always rely on/cross-reference with my up-to-date CHS charts.



(FYI: I do not think the mysteriously charted inlets on the west coast of HG in the C-MAP are "crowd sourced" , as very very few boaters would go into these. Also, these "charted" inlets are only on the C-MAP APP, not the Online Viewer nor the chart cards. But who knows....)


I hope Open Charts is able to come up with oeRNC for Canada. But I understand there might be limitations due to cost and time.



I certainly applaud Open Charts for making available oeSENC for Canada!


Thank you!


David

[Shawanaga]

The Canadian oeSENC charts from o-charts are rebranded official vector charts from the CHS. My understanding is that all the data from CHS is there - great for us recreational sailors who can't afford the pricing of the official CHS ENCs.
CHS has an interesting problem with the Raster Charts. Many of the charts in that we rely on are only available in raster form. The small craft route in Georgian Bay comes to mind. It would seem that CHS has not digitized this material into an ENC format. Although CHS would like to discontinue Raster completely (I imagine they're expensive to update), it's hard to see a path forward until they start moving some of this raster chart data into an ENC format (which would then allow publication by o-charts in oeSENC format).
I too just went ahead and bought raster charts for my area of interest direct from CHS.

[mtp553]

Originally Posted by bcn

OpenCPN closing gaps: The Canadian vector chart portfolio is now available for OpenCPN in oeSENC format.


More than 1.100 single charts in four sets
- Pacific
- Great Lakes and S. Lawrence River
- Altlantic and St. Lawrence Gulf
- Arctic


The charts are based on the actual CHS charts bringing complete up-to-date information. The licenses come with one year of updates.
The Atlantic set includes the charts for Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.
A single set costs 30CAD/20€/22.50USD


As always more details at o-charts.org


Enjoy the sailing season! And a big "Thank you" goes to our Canadian user community, who pushed us. We have to underline as well that the efficient people from CHS helped us a lot to get this running within just a few weeks.


Hubert

Whew. I must be doing something wrong here. I am a brand newby with open cpn. I am in the midst of building a pi-based back up to my primary navigation system. Encountering lots of challenges. I worked my way through getting these charts uploaded to open cpn. But when I look at them, there is very limited data on the charts. The navigation aids (buoys etc) are there and there are colour based depth contours but no depth figures and for example no place names on land for the ports etc.
Very different from the (free) US charts. I am focusing on the great lakes. Sorry to bother you with an obviously dumb question...

[bcn]

mtp553...


please read this post in the thread:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3231872
Might give you a hint.


Soundings are toggled by the "S" short cut. In many Canadian ENCs you have to zoom in quite a bit to get the soundings presented. Decision of the cartographer in charge..


Hubert

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

(FYI: I do not think the mysteriously charted inlets on the west coast of HG in the C-MAP are "crowd sourced" , as very very few boaters would go into these. Also, these "charted" inlets are only on the C-MAP APP, not the Online Viewer nor the chart cards. But who knows....)

Update: C-MAP has removed the information from their App for the "mysteriously charted inlets on the west coast of Haida Gwaii".

[r.stokes]

Agreed, and n6ted even areas like Blind Bay seem to be missing the high res charts (see screen shot)

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

BCN -- thanks for fast reply (in between where I found the answer and thus edited my reply to not mentioning/using Inland ECDIS).


And thanks for the link to discussion about Vector Display Categories.



As for RASTER... I purchased oeSENC chart because CHS hasn't been updating raster during COVID and I was specifically focused on the West Coast of Haida Gwaii. So, of course I was taken aback to see nothing on the oeSENC charts for a few relatively well-charted inlets up there (Englefield Inlet & Security Cove; Tasu; Gowgaia). Must therefore use raster.


Interestingly (to me...), Navionics and C-MAP charts include these CHS-charted areas not in oeSENC. (However, very oddly, C-MAP has some detailed charting for some inlets on the West Coast Haida Gwaii which does not exist in CHS charts -- and for a least one inlet, this odd C-MAP charting is missing a very obvious rock (from satellite)).

[bcn]

A suggestion: as CHS is migrating raster to vector, why not sending a mail asking about the scheduled process?


Of course there a priority for the commercial traffic, but the recreational flock is not small neither. Safety at sea is an argument here.


Hubert