OpenCPN

[dacust]

Originally Posted by dacust

Can I change the SENCFileLocation below, copy the directory over to the new location? I have a terabyte on secondary drives, but only 40gb on C:.

Will it confuse things if I make it a subdirectory of the G:charts directory that OpenCPN gets all my other charts from?

Nevermind. I did it. It works. Haven't tried to re-discover charts to see if having them in that directory will cause problems.

[GPS-Marco]

Hi all, this is my first post here. I discovered OpenCPN few days ago and I found it very interesting. Great Job!

Now, I've a possible improvement to submit to you (apologize if already proposed): it should be possible, at a specific zoom level, to select the next more (or the previous less) detailed CM93 chart.

It happens that some areas (mainly large harbors) are totally greyed in the lower scaled chart, but are fully detailed in the more detailed chart. Well, OpenCPN sometimes choose the next detailed chart too late during the zooming.

It's up to you how to implement it: Garmin uses the "detail" parameter (normal, more, most, etc.) that changes the relation between the zoom level and the scale of the shown chart. Otherwise some more "dynamic" solution might be more appropriate (Scale in/Scale out might work for CM93 in a relative manner by adding a +1 +2 / -1 -2 to the relation between the zoom and the selected chart scale.

Let me know what you think about this possible improvement.

Ciao, Marco.

[HamIII]

There are two icons that increase and decrease the scale of the charts. So there are four buttons that control the charts size and selection. Two control the zoom and the other two control detail ie which scale chart you are using.

Hope that answered your question GPS-Macro.

In the 911 build there does appear to be a problem with unscaling but only from the scale before the world chart to the world chart. If any chart is selected then picking a larger scale doesn't shift back to the world chart. I first have to center the screen where there is no chart ( select the world chart before zooming out more ), but the scale will not shift back to the world chart. For the other charts the same logic is applied to the buttons for scale compared to zoom level but you can get around it (except the most detail charts when zooming in) by picking the scale for the charts at the botom chart bar, but there is not chart bar entry for the world map outline. This comment is for build 911.

Also an example of why the zooming should be allowed to any level is the BSB Cape Hatteras to Straights of Florida. It's intended as a large scale map but on my laptop I can't zoom out enough to see more than half the map at a time.

[dacust]

Actually, I don't think that was what GPS-MARCO was going for.

The scale button does nothing more than what successively clicking on the chart buttons at the bottom of the screen would do.

What I'd like is, in CM93s, to be able to choose the scale level of the charts. But the way Marco explains it sounds a little better. An adjustment to when OCPN chooses to change. Personally, I don't see the need for the scale buttons since the bottom tray does that. I'd vote to have those buttons change the scale only in CM93s (since there is no auto-select on the other chart types).

And, Marco: Welcome to the fray! Good first post!

-dan

[manimaul]

1. decreased ship size to 19x45
2. simplified icon for better gtk rendering
3. changed colors to match gps status bar ... green gps, red no gps
4. patched & tested chcanv.cpp for red and green switch

todo:
a. make ship dim with chart dimmer?

gps
no gps

chcanv.patch, icons.cpp, icons.h

updated full icon sources: opencpn_icons.zip

[sinbad7]

If it is not possible to let the boat icon follow the chart scales,perhaps a compromise like this would be adequate? Reducing the present icon to 33% of the present size.

[LeaseOnLife]

Dave, Manimaul

I find the COG predictor too thin for my eyes. Since COG is where the boat is going, I would like to see the predictor line a little thicker and possibly a color, I vote for red.

The thickness and color for the heading can stay as slim as it is.

New boat icons: fine with me, don't make em too small!

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by manimaul

2. simplified icon for better gtk rendering

I much preferred the more three-dimensional-KDE-iconish boat was it really harsh on performance?

[GDD]

Hi everyone,

I've seen request for support for HDR charrts mentioned a few times throughout the forum, but haven't seen any repsonse. Is it possible to add support for HDR charts to opencpn?

Also, for the sailors out there, does anyone know of anything like opencpn for calculating optimum routes using polar files, wind ,and current data? The market software seems like a lot of over priced bloat-ware, plus they all depend on having a paid grib file subscription service to get grib files with enough resolution to be useful.

I would LOVE to tell a simple program like opencpn what I think the wind and current are doing over an area and have it calulate optimum routes for me.

George

[GPS-Marco]

Originally Posted by dacust

Actually, I don't think that was what GPS-MARCO was going for.

The scale button does nothing more than what successively clicking on the chart buttons at the bottom of the screen would do.

What I'd like is, in CM93s, to be able to choose the scale level of the charts. But the way Marco explains it sounds a little better. An adjustment to when OCPN chooses to change. Personally, I don't see the need for the scale buttons since the bottom tray does that. I'd vote to have those buttons change the scale only in CM93s (since there is no auto-select on the other chart types).

And, Marco: Welcome to the fray! Good first post!

-dan

First: thanks for welcome...

Yes, the issue is only for CM93, since the map scale to show up is choosen automatically by OCPN.

Let me try to attach some pictures to show the issue. The 4 pictures are 4 consecutive zooms of the Brindisi harbor. As you can see the scales choosen by OCPN are 1/100000(3x), 1/20000(1x), 1/20000(3x), 1/7500(2x)

well, the 1/7500 chart covers the whole harbor (see the map contour on the first picture) and whould be very nice to see it on screen one or two zoom level before, otherwise I just see the empty "grey" harbor up to a too deep zoom level. There are other cases around similar to this one. Hope I've been able to explain...

Ciao, Marco.

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by GDD

Also, for the sailors out there, does anyone know of anything like opencpn for calculating optimum routes using polar files, wind ,and current data? The market software seems like a lot of over priced bloat-ware, plus they all depend on having a paid grib file subscription service to get grib files with enough resolution to be useful.

For free grib files, use zygrib, it downloads the files free and straight off the NOAA server. Grib file support on openCPN is an existing feature request.

Regarding routing, there is a free routing software implemented for the volvo ocean racing game. The developer made up the code himself, apparently it wasnt overly complicated. Upon request, he said he would be prepared to contribute the logic to an a real-life implementation.

This software seems to be free.. With these projects around, I think we can expect some of that know-how to spill into the free software area eventually.. Undercutting severly expensive proprietary software packages.. For now, its commercial solutions for you.. or trusting your intuition

[ColdFusion]

Originally Posted by GDD

Also, for the sailors out there, does anyone know of anything like opencpn for calculating optimum routes using polar files, wind ,and current data? The market software seems like a lot of over priced bloat-ware, plus they all depend on having a paid grib file subscription service to get grib files with enough resolution to be useful.

I would LOVE to tell a simple program like opencpn what I think the wind and current are doing over an area and have it calulate optimum routes for me.

I'm sure there is no open source software available for doing this. Maxsea is excellent but very expensive. Sailplanner is pretty good but once the trial period ends you can only continue to use it with very limited basic polars, or pay $89 for a 12 month subscription to enable you to use your own. You can import your own polars at first but you eventually get a nag telling you they can no longer be used unless you subscribe.

If route planning could ever be incorporated into OpenCPN it would be even more awesome than it is now.

[ColdFusion]

Originally Posted by idpnd

Regarding routing, there is a free routing software implemented for the volvo ocean racing game.

From the above website: "Using it in the real world would require a bit more data points too, like currents, tides, waves, real boat polars and so on."

So I assume you can't import polars? You can with SailPlanner. Even with the free version I was able to import my own polars but then they stopped working after 30 (or was it 60?) days. Also, as above, the routing takes no account of currents or tides.

[GDD]

Thanks COldFusion and Idpnd for the comments. I didn't know about any of those programs except maxsea.

Like all the other free grib servies, Zgrid seems to use the Noaa GFS world model which has 0.5X0.5 degree resolution and is apprently only accurate out at sea. It doesn't deal with land so well ( i hear). There are other more accurate models, including the NAM 12km from Noaa, which covers my area and sounds like (since its from Noaa) should be free. But I haven't found a way to download for free, yet....Sailflow.com and others will sell it to you though.

Anyways, what i was talking about is a program that specfically does not require extra inputs like grib files or tide statation data. My hypothetical program would let me draw current and wind vectors on top the chart, then do some math to use my input values to estimate wind and current across a given area. Then you would have a grid of points each with wind and current data. Then you load a polar and a start and end postion and it calculates optimum route.

Maybe other programs do this already....maybe some of them don't cost an arm and a leg too. I only started thinking about this a few days ago while travelling for work and very far from the sea. I expect i'll have to contine using my intution for some time to come.

[GPS-Marco]

Hi all. Me again...

I noticed some mis-alignement switching between maps (mainly CM93 vs BSB/KAP). I guess this may deal with the map datum used by the BSB/KAP charts for georeferencing (calibration). I think OpenCPN fails in translating the datum used by the chart into WGS84.

For example a BSB/KAP map referenced in European Datum 1950 (ED50) is displayed by OpenCPN as if it were referenced in WGS84 (and this leads to a mis-alignemt of hundreds of meters).

So the question is: Map Datum conversion is just a missing feature in OpenCPN or something goes wrong with a specific BSB/KAP map?

Ciao, Marco.