External Drawing API? - Beginner to Plugins Intro

[eubalaena]

Hello All!

I'll introduce myself as someone who regularly uses this forum (and OpenCPN) in my sailing life and have found it to be an immensely valuable resource. In another world, I am involved as an engineer at a non-profit and am currently working on a project with the goal of reducing conflict between local fisheries and the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales. My technical background is mostly in embedded systems, linux, and python. I'm a little bit out of my element in this large C++ desktop application, especially pertaining to the plugin architecture.

I thought I would reach out to the knowledgeable and supportive community here to get pointed in the right direction.

What I am trying to do is relatively simple. I'd like to be able to draw some objects automatically on the chart. For now, it looks like the features of OpenCPN Draw should meet my initial requirements.
1. Draw polygonal zones on the map
2. Draw points connected by line segments
3. Remove or move either of the above

If I have a program that decides what objects need to be drawn and when, what is the easiest way to integrate with OpenCPN? Here are some ideas I have:
1. Generate a GPX file, load into OpenCPN (this currently appears to require user intervention to refresh which is not desirable)
2. Write or modify a plugin to accept a socket connection from my program and handle drawing and managing the objects in OpenCPN
3. Does Open CPN already support some kind of interprocess communication that could achieve this? Are there NMEA or SignalK messages I could commandeer for this purpose?

If I go down the plugin path, what are the communities thoughts about having a plugin that simply exposes the ODAPI over a socket connection to external processes? From my perspective, it would be great for me to be able to have my Python app just send a few JSON messages in order to manipulate objects on the chart plotter. Perhaps this could be useful for other people? I know a lot of peripherals already communicate over defined message interfaces such as NMEA0183, NMEA2000, or SignalK. This could provide an interface for prototyping or more experimental applications without needing to define new messages in those interfaces.

I would be grateful to any of the gurus on here if they could point me to a particular entry point or relevant examples in the source code.

Thanks!

[nohal]

Doesn't https://github.com/jongough/ocpn_draw_pi already do everything you need except providing the socket? You can have a look at https://github.com/jongough/testplugin_pi to see how it manipulates the Draw plugin's objects externally, exposing a socket that would relay the JSON messages from and to the OpenCPN's plugin API is a few line of code job then.

If your answer to the above is "not good enough", we can have a look at what exactly is missing to cover your usecase and how to do it.

[eubalaena]

Originally Posted by nohal

Doesn't https://github.com/jongough/ocpn_draw_pi already do everything you need except providing the socket? You can have a look at https://github.com/jongough/testplugin_pi to see how it manipulates the Draw plugin's objects externally, exposing a socket that would relay the JSON messages from and to the OpenCPN's plugin API is a few line of code job then.

If your answer to the above is "not good enough", we can have a look at what exactly is missing to cover your usecase and how to do it.

Yes, it essentially does. As you say, exposing the socket is just a few lines of code. I am just trying to get familiar enough with the project to be able to write them and compile and include the minimal plugin.

Thanks, I'll take a look at testplugin_pi as a starting point.

[nohal]

Basically all you need to do except creating the socket is to hook up to https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/b..._plugin.h#L466 to receive messsages from the API to relay over the socket and call https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/b..._plugin.h#L772 when you want to send one that you received from the outside over it.

[Rasbats]

Originally Posted by eubalaena

Hello All!
working on a project with the goal of reducing conflict between local fisheries and the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales.

https://github.com/cynsky/ais-areano..._imo_001_22.py

Have you thought of generating an AIS area notice? OpenCPN is able to read these directly.

[eubalaena]

Originally Posted by Rasbats

https://github.com/cynsky/ais-areano..._imo_001_22.py

Have you thought of generating an AIS area notice? OpenCPN is able to read these directly.

So I've finally had a chance to mess around with this again and took a look at this approach. Only the circle areas appear to be working for me. I've tried digging through the OpenCPN code and haven't yet been able to verify whether the lines or rectangles should be working. It very well could be an error on my end in generating the messages.

Do you have any personal experience using either the rectangle or polyline area notices?

[Rasbats]

eubalaena ...

You are correct. Only the circle is working in OpenCPN 5.8.4. My PR has been accepted for 5.9.x which draws a rectangular area notice.

https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/pull/3656

The PR contains a VDR file for testing rectangles.

Work is still needed for lines and polygons.

If you could PM me with your email address I can send a link to a recent Windows build of OpenCPN 5.9.x that can demonstrate a rectangular area notice.

Mike

[Rasbats]

eubalaena ...

Wrong - polygons are working in both OpenCPN 5.8.4 and OpenCPN 5.9.x.

Remove the .pdf from the attached for a file to use with VDR_pi.

The polygon starts at 54.5N, 4.25E.

Mike

[nohal]

One note to this. The area notices are a mess as there is documentation and samples for both the in-force 8/1/22 IMO format (https://www.e-navigation.nl/content/area-notice-0) and deprecated 8/366/22 US format (https://www.e-navigation.nl/content/area-notice-1)

OpenCPN supports only the former.

[eubalaena]

Thank you for your help with this. Your polygon example indeed works with my copy of 5.8.4

I'll make sure I can also generate working AIVDM messages for the polygons.

If I'm understanding the code here correctly: https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/b...c/ais.cpp#L361

The polyline option does not appear to draw anything in itself but is used in conjunction with the polygon to draw the polygon. Is that correct? I had thought maybe I could use it to draw a line. But that isn't necessary. A polygon or rectangle are equally suitable.

[Rasbats]

Originally Posted by eubalaena

The polyline option does not appear to draw anything in itself but is used in conjunction with the polygon to draw the polygon. Is that correct?

No ... the polyline is a separate type within ais8_1_22 (sub-area type 3). With this your lines can be drawn.

We have been updating the base code for 5.9.x to cater for this and add the sector type (2) as well.

Mike