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[Jon Hacking]

We've been making a TON of mbtiles, now that v5 supports them. But these files are BIG, often >1GB. At present, v5 defaults to waking up with the mbtiles selected & active. This is a bit silly, especially when I have multiple (sometimes overlapping) mbtiles loaded, as I don't even know which one I'm looking at.

Is there any way to tell v5 to wake up with just the CM93 files visible & the mbtiles Xed out? TIA

[cagney]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

We've been making a TON of mbtiles, now that v5 supports them. But these files are BIG, often >1GB. At present, v5 defaults to waking up with the mbtiles selected & active. This is a bit silly, especially when I have multiple (sometimes overlapping) mbtiles loaded, as I don't even know which one I'm looking at.

Is there any way to tell v5 to wake up with just the CM93 files visible & the mbtiles Xed out? TIA

Just change to CM93 before you close OpenCPN. Best is also to close O in an orderly fashion, not just turning off your computer.

Thomas

[bcn]

Use chart groups - what you will probably do already - and close with a group that does not contain mbTiles.
Or apply a template at recover a "clean" screen at start.

Hubert

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by cagney

Just change to CM93 before you close OpenCPN. Thomas

Thanks, Thomas. I think that's how OpenCPN is *supposed* to work, but it doesn't (at least, not on my system). Have you tried it yourself?

Hubert, that would add several clicks & a lot of time (since the Options menu now takes forever to wake up) to the shutdown procedure. And then I'd have to go back into the Options menu (waiting again) in order to use OpenCPN with my mbtiles. While your solution would "work", there's gotta be a better way.

I'm hoping there's a switch in the .INI file (or something) that makes mbtiles default to OFF.

Personally, I think mbtiles should ALWAYS default to off. Loading up a bunch of KAPs doesn't make them active immediately - you have to turn them on manually with the piano keys. Why are mbtiles handled so differently? Loading up a bunch of mbtiles (or just starting OpenCPN) turns them ALL on, even when they're overlapping. This causes a fair amount of grunt in my i7 processor (not to mention being severely silly).

Please tell me I don't have to make this a feature request...

[cagney]

Jon

I see what I said when I start O, every day..........
But...I do use chart-groups at all times.

Once groups are set up you also have access to the through the right-click menu.
Also as an alternative....are you aware of the numerical keys shortcut to chart-groups? "0" -> group All, "1"->your first chart-group etc, etc?
I think that you may have to split your MBTiles on several chart-groups, for best performance.
Give it a try!

I can't find any settings in opencpn.conf(ini) for MBTiles.


Thomas

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

Thanks, Thomas. I think that's how OpenCPN is *supposed* to work, but it doesn't (at least, not on my system). Have you tried it yourself?



Hubert, that would add several clicks & a lot of time (since the Options menu now takes forever to wake up) to the shutdown procedure. And then I'd have to go back into the Options menu (waiting again) in order to use OpenCPN with my mbtiles. While your solution would "work", there's gotta be a better way.



I'm hoping there's a switch in the .INI file (or something) that makes mbtiles default to OFF.



Personally, I think mbtiles should ALWAYS default to off. Loading up a bunch of KAPs doesn't make them active immediately - you have to turn them on manually with the piano keys. Why are mbtiles handled so differently? Loading up a bunch of mbtiles (or just starting OpenCPN) turns them ALL on, even when they're overlapping. This causes a fair amount of grunt in my i7 processor (not to mention being severely silly).



Please tell me I don't have to make this a feature request...

Jon,

O saves it’s current state (chart group, position, etc.) into the configuration file when it shuts down. It reads that file when it starts and comes back up with same chart groups and position as when shut down. If your system does not do that something is wrong.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Jon, O saves it’s current state (chart group, position, etc.) into the configuration file when it shuts down. It reads that file when it starts and comes back up with same chart groups and position as when shut down. If your system does not do that something is wrong.

Thanks, TDan. This is the way I'd think OpenCPN should work, but it doesn't on my system (ergo my post). My mbtiles (all 5 of them) always wake up turned on.

What can I do to get OpenCPN to work the way it's supposed to?

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by cagney

Jon, I see what I said when I start O, every day. But I do use chart-groups at all times.

Once groups are set up you also have access to the through the right-click menu. Also as an alternative, are you aware of the numerical keys shortcut to chart-groups? "0" -> group All, "1"->your first chart-group etc, etc? I think that you may have to split your MBTiles on several chart-groups, for best performance. Give it a try!

I can't find any settings in opencpn.conf(ini) for MBTiles.

Thanks for this, Thomas. I don't generally use chart groups & didn't know about the shortcuts. My KAPs & mbTiles are big enough that OpenCPN can take significant time parsing through them, so I don't generally load it up with more than 1) where I am, & 2) where I'm going next.

Does putting big charts into (not currently visible) groups save load-time? I'm finding that OpenCPN can take almost 30 seconds to wake up, even on my i7 4x w/16GB & SSD. O'course, I'm loading 4GB of KAPs, & at least 2GB of mbTiles for the New Georgia Group of the Solomon Islands. I don't really want it to have to load up more charts or take more time.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

Thanks, TDan. This is the way I'd think OpenCPN should work, but it doesn't on my system (ergo my post). My mbtiles (all 5 of them) always wake up turned on.



What can I do to get OpenCPN to work the way it's supposed to?

Put your mbtiles in a group. Or if you like put each mbtile it it’s own folder and group. Then create an empty group. Select the empty group before shutting down O. Tell us what happens when you start O again.

If you have no group selected at all then O assumes you want to see all charts. Maybe that is where you go aground?

[cagney]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

Thanks for this, Thomas. I don't generally use chart groups & didn't know about the shortcuts. My KAPs & mbTiles are big enough that OpenCPN can take significant time parsing through them, so I don't generally load it up with more than 1) where I am, & 2) where I'm going next.

Does putting big charts into (not currently visible) groups save load-time? I'm finding that OpenCPN can take almost 30 seconds to wake up, even on my i7 4x w/16GB & SSD. O'course, I'm loading 4GB of KAPs, & at least 2GB of mbTiles for the New Georgia Group of the Solomon Islands. I don't really want it to have to load up more charts or take more time.

An example......
I have a lot of charts.......Using "ALL" (chart group "0") looks like this for NW Europe


If I try to zoom or pan it takes a long long time for O to even react.
Hitting "1" directly takes me to CM93, which is as zippy as ever.
Without chart-groups I would be forced to do a major cleanup.
Now I can continue to be lazy

Thomas

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Put your mbtiles in a group. Or if you like put each mbtile it it’s own folder and group. Then create an empty group. Select the empty group before shutting down O. Tell us what happens when you start O again.

If you have no group selected at all then O assumes you want to see all charts. Maybe that is where you go aground?

TDan, it seems you're saying that OpenCPN does NOT always wake up in the state it's shut down in? That I HAVE to use groups to get OpenCPN to wake up with only CM93 showing?

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

TDan, it seems you're saying that OpenCPN does NOT always wake up in the state it's shut down in? That I HAVE to use groups to get OpenCPN to wake up with only CM93 showing?

I am not sure about what you mean by “state”. But if you don’t use groups then all charts are available all the time. So mbtiles and all other charts are loaded at startup regardless of “state”.

[bcn]

Jon,

closing OpenCPN it will return on restart with the same viewport and the same chart group.
In case of no group applied on closure with "all active charts".

Btw.: did you try the Australian vector charts for the the Solomons and are you able to give feed back about the quality? AHS does edit and issue the charts for that region and the charts form part of the Australia oeSENC (called oeEVC in this case) set.

Hubert

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

I am not sure about what you mean by “state”. But if you don’t use groups then all charts are available all the time. So mbtiles and all other charts are loaded at startup regardless of “state”.

By "state" I mean that it will wake up looking the same as when it was shut down. What I think you're saying is that this is only true if I use Chart Groups, & select a group withOUT mbTiles before I shut down.

Getting OpenCPN to remember various parts of its state (width of columns, sort order, size & position of dialogs, etc) is something I've been fighting for for some time. It's getting better, but only slowly...

But there's a larger issue here with mbTiles. They can put a considerable load on the graphics system, especially with several loaded. IMHO, if OpenCPN doesn't want to remember their individual on/off states, then they should default to OFF, & the user can then turn them on as needed. This jumping through a Chart Groups hoop is ... a slightly ridiculous hack, IMO.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by bcn

Jon, closing OpenCPN it will return on restart with the same viewport and the same chart group. In case of no group applied on closure with "all active charts".

Btw.: did you try the Australian vector charts for the the Solomons and are you able to give feed back about the quality? AHS does edit and issue the charts for that region and the charts form part of the Australia oeSENC (called oeEVC in this case) set.

Hubert

Hubert, I didn't know these existed. I've been using (fairly ancient) CM93 vector charts (now supplemented with Navionics & CMap mbTiles). How can I get these? Can I download them? Is there a cost? Do they have them for PNG as well? Thanks!