Charts

[sinbad7]

Dan...

Have a tryout with dropbox sharing a folder:

Change the e-mail address to your own etc...

[scotte]

ActiveCaptain is a commercial and closed venture. Keeping the data open seems much more in the spirit of OpenCPN and FOSS to me...

[dacust]

Originally Posted by scotte

ActiveCaptain is a commercial and closed venture. Keeping the data open seems much more in the spirit of OpenCPN and FOSS to me...

My thought is they would host it, not own it. I still agree with you, but odds are, to find free hosting, it's going to be a company of some sort. To have someone like Active Captain host it would call for an agreement that they could link to it from their own interface all they wanted to, but they'd have to provide the non-commercial, free access for anyone that wanted it. FTP, e-mail alerts, web service, etc, all provided for free. And no registration required. And e-mail addresses couldn't be scavenged. Lots of issues. But maybe, just maybe...

But, back to the torrent idea. A peer network. If enough people are involved, there'd always be several computers on at any given time. Just need someone to host the managing system. And design it. And write the software. And... Simple, huh.

-dan

[sinbad7]

Here's Serenade of the Seas passing through the Miraflores lock. Unfortunately the Panama Canal web cams are temporarily out of action.

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by dacust

But, back to the torrent idea. A peer network. If enough people are involved, there'd always be several computers on at any given time. Just need someone to host the managing system. And design it. And write the software. And... Simple, huh.

Since we can't host the actual files due to copyright concerns, this would essentially be a repository of sources/links, and would not require much in terms of hardware..

[cagney]

Here is a new version of the chart creating utility program.
MD5 sums check implemented. Separate config file with some options. Dacust can now use his local chart tiffs. Much more about this and other options in the "readme"file.
The data bases included may only work on windows, but ... a utility to create your own is included, as is a directory with Marcos two header files to test this. You can still use the database from my last post on windows. Some may have noted that the database contains some garbage, use only those headers that start with a (chart) number.

Thomas

[GPS-Marco]

Well, after some work I'd like to submit this forum my results (sorry, for windows only so far).

The priciple has been to create a calibration map DATABASE based on MapCal standard (CHARTCAL.DIR). This gives me ability to easly upgrade calibrations (in fact this 9th november some NZ charts have been upgraded with new notice to mariners...).

I've been able to add all the information that were misssing in CHARTCAL.DIR:
1) The Map Source (internet address)
2) The MD5 of the file
3) The Coversions to the image (think to a jpg) to get a TIFF usable for conversion to BSB
4) The sub map(s) present in a main map (Es. NZ4314_1)
5) Other BSB specific data, not present in MapCal: CED/...., PP=..., SD=...

Then I helped in upgrading mc2bsbh in order to work with all those new info

Finally I wrote a batch to make the whole job. So now the process is: having a CHARTCAL.DIR with a number of charts data, just call KapGen.cmd with the name of the map to generate. The script will do it's best to arrive to a complete automatic generation of the .kap map.

Less words, more facts: I add here what you need to try. Strip away .doc then decompress keeping directory structure.

You'll have to download by yourself some other tools (if you don't have yet):

WGET NCONVERT MD5SUM TIF2BSB (from LIBBSB)

Just put all the exe in the \bin\ subfolder of the directory structure (no installation, all the stuff is "portable"). For mc2bsb.exe, use the one included in the attacment since the official one at MC2BSBH is not uptodate.

Well Just open a cmd and try

KapGen -h

This is my first beta release. Be kind with possible errors...

Enjoy, Marco.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by GPS-Marco

For mc2bsb.exe, use the one included in the attacment since the official one at MC2BSBH is not uptodate.

It is now up to date. I just finished the documentation as well.

I added a small blurb about kapgen, but I want to make it more detailed and more prominent. For people that want a chart, they should check kapgen first in case it's already done.

I have been busy catching up, so I haven't had time to try kapgen, but I will. Hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks, Marco!

-dan

[GPS-Marco]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

...
The CPH factor is something that appeared in BSB Version 3. As far as I can tell, it is used with charts having pre-calculated georef constants which cross the Intl Date Line. The georef equations are created by treating the IDL as a virtual longitude 0. Longitude values generated at run time by these georef equations are then adjusted by CPH (depending on their phase) to produce the expected negative longitude for W, positive for E.
I don't think I have actually ever seen it in a chart. I simply copied the relevent code from libbsb in case it should be seen. So I am guessing.....

Anybody seen a KAP header with CPH populated (non-zero)?
...
Thanks Dave

Dave, I maybe "discovered" the CPH usage. CPH seems equal to 180.0 when a chart crosses 180° longitude.

I used a NOOA maps crossing the 180° meridian and I loaded it in MapCal-II: it handles the chart perfectly. I then deleted from the map header all the precalculated Georef, and still MapCal handles the chart OK. At last, as last parameter (apart the ones we already know), I deleted the CPH/180.0 and..., MapCal is unable to handle the chart properly.

So: CPH/180.0 must be there if a chart crosses 180° longitude. I think...

Ciao, Marco.

[cagney]

Anybody seen a KAP header with CPH populated (non-zero)?

NOAA charts
513_1.KAP
514_1.KAP
530_1.KAP
all have this line

CPH/180.0000000000

Thomas

[GPS-Marco]

Here we are. This is an update version of KapGen. Changes are regarding directory structure, usability, bug correction. Download the attached file, strip away .doc, unzip keeping directory structure. The tool in bin you downloaded for the previous version can be used with this one with 2 exceptions:

new version of mc2bsbh shall be used
delete md5sum.exe and download md5sums.exe

Note that if you just copy from beta01 bin/ to beta04 bin/ all tools execpt mc2bsbh and md5sum, KapGen will be able to download automatically missing tools.

The most important improvment is the readme. It contains all the specifications to make a KapGen compatible header. This is the core of the process.

I've 2 request for users: comments and calibrations. Please, send me comments about the tool, the specifications, etc. Please, send me your calibrations (of freely available maps) if you want me to include them in the data base (note, I defined the databese free for non commercial use). My idea is to heve in future KapGen written in C++ or having a KapGen.sh written in bash.

If we want to calibrate the whole NZ chart portfolio is better not to do twice the same chart. Tell me which charts would be good to have first (apart frome the ones already in the data base) and I will try to add them (of course help is MUCH welcome...).

Moreover, I added the KapGen tool on my very rough web page. If you want a full version (just you don't need to download any tools), go Here.

Ciao, Marco.

[GPS-Marco]

This is the list of maps already in the Data Base

NZ22           Kermadec Islands to East Cape
NZ51           Tauroa Point to Cape Brett
NZ82           Tonga
NZ512          Cape Karikari to Cape Brett
NZ4314         Manukau Harbour
NZ4314_1       Manukau Harbour - LPG Terminal
NZ5323         Auckland Harbour West
NZ5323_1       Kauri Point Wharf
NZ5323_2       Chelsea Wharf
NZ14051        North Pacific Ocean, Southeastern Part
NZ14605        New Zeland to Fiji and Samoa Islands
NZ14638        Fiji to Kermadec Islands including Tongatapu
NZ223F         New Zeland & Adiacent Ocean Areas
NZ21           Norfolk Island to Cape Egmont
NZ53           Bream Head to Slippers Island including Hauraki Gulf
NZ5215         Whangarei Harbour
NZ5215_1       Whangarei Harbour - continuation to town basin

I've finished right now the following

NZ41           North Cape
NZ52           Cape Brett to Cuvier Island
NZ54           Cuvier Island to East Cape

I attach the new CHARTCAL.DIR (please strip .doc and decompress. Put new CHARTCAL.DIR in Calibration/ folder of KapGen)

Ciao, Marco.

[MechMan]

Marco,

Thanks for your effort in providing this tool to convert the NZ tiffs. I'd really like to get my head around converting these tiffs so I can use them in OpenCPN.

The NZ5323 is one I could have used today, but I can't get it work. I am not good with dos. Any idea what's going wrong for me. The nz5323.tiff file is in the Img folder.

Cheers,

Cam in Auckland

[GPS-Marco]

Hi.

I really don't know what is going on. 'findstr' is a command available from windows 2000 onwards.

What version of windows are you running?

Try to open a CMD and type just findstr.

you should get the error like FINDSTR: the command line has an error.

if you get the error that findstr is not recognized at all (as the first 3 rows of errors in the KapGen) than there is something that precludes windows to access this command.

Let me know.

If you think you can contact me via private mail, than we will write in the forum the results of our "investigation"...

Ciao, Marco.

[Psyches]

Actually findstr.exe was available from WinME on, and was in the Win98 resource kit - and is freely available. It should be in %windir%\System32 in all systems from W2K on...not sure about earlier location. Since he's running cmd.exe, we know its W2K or later, so it should be there (C:\WINDOWS\System32 or WINNT\System32). So it looks like the cmd.exe path isn't set up properly. Just my guess, hope this helps.