OpenCPN General

[bdbcat]

This thread is reserved for uncategorized comments, off-thread links, and anything else that you think opencpn users might like to talk about.

I will be browsing this thread casually.

Have fun...

Dave

[bvimatelot]

Hooray - a thread for Techno-Cretins or Blonde Air Hostesses!! Maybe simple English will be used?

So: Firstly - Thanks for a great program: I've used it for a few months now, notably on a trip from BVI to Chesapeake via Bermuda and it was great.

Simple Question: A. What Version are we at now?
B. I downloaded 1.3.2 some time ago and then had 2 OpenCpn icons on my desktop (one had "beta" with it so that was the one I used): interestingly, one has since disappeared so the problem appears to have gone away. However, in the event of having 2 icons, which one do you hit?

best to all, Tony

[LeaseOnLife]

Per Dave, we are very close to get a release of 1.3.4. With 1.3.2 you have the latest released version. There have been beta versions in between, latest is "build-917". But as of writing, the download location is unavailable right now. Send me a private message with your email, I send you the latest beta. Filesize ~2.2MB. Disclaimer: It has known bugs, check the other room: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...cal-30929.html

[bvimatelot]

Many tks - pm on the way! T

[sinbad7]

bvimatelot..

Simple Question: A. What Version are we at now?
B. I downloaded 1.3.2 some time ago and then had 2 OpenCpn icons on my desktop (one had "beta" with it so that was the one I used): interestingly, one has since disappeared so the problem appears to have gone away. However, in the event of having 2 icons, which one do you hit?

The latest version according to MY 'About OpenCPN' is 1.3.3 build 917

If you have two OpenCPN start icons on your desktop,just delete one of them as either should work. I normally re-name the icon to 'OpenCpn 917' Every new version just overwrites the present opencpn.exe file in your original opencpn directory.

For your info,I seem to be lucky enough to not having ANY crashes in this version and I am running Vista Home version.

[LeaseOnLife]

I have a couple of chart books and can access a decent scanner.

Does anybody know a free (possibly open source) tool to geo-reference these scans?

I know Fugawi has a "calibration" tool, but only stores the results as a Fugawi specific file.

SeaClear comes with MapCal, which I haven't tried that yet. It seems to export to "WCI" format

It would be great to find a tool to create charts from graphic files, compatible with opencpn.

[sinbad7]

LeaseOnLife..

Doesn't exist I'm afraid.. I did the same research for a conversion of raster .jpg format to BSB and the only company with such software is Fugawi but they only sell it to accredited dealers who has approval from the patent holders of the BSB format. The only accredited dealer Fugawi recommended was a company in Sweden and they were not allowed to do this type of conversion either.

I have used both Fugawi Marine ENC,Sea Clear and Shipplotter who all have their own conversion formats which are not compatible with anything else, and absolutely not the C-Map format.

I asked Dave some time ago whether there was a possibility in the future,making OpenCPN also compatible with scanned raster charts.

[sinbad7]

Oziexplorer has an interesting map merge facility where raster maps in various formats can be merged into ONE large map in the scale of your choice. They also have a good night display option using the colors of red,blue or grey in various intensities.
However,the merged map can only be used in Oziexplorer. I am mentioning this just as examples for future versions of OpenCPN

[barnakiel]

Cool. Good luck!

b.

[blubaju]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

...

Does anybody know a free (possibly open source) tool to geo-reference these scans?
.....

It would be great to find a tool to create charts from graphic files, compatible with opencpn.

I am still hunting this as the original link is dead:
SevenCs’ s ENC Chart Capturing Tool turns Freeware
SevenCs GmbH today announced that its popular ENC digitizing software is available as freeware by the End of January 2008. First introduced in 1997, the ENC Designer is in use by more than 40 hydrographic offices. It is considered the most effective software on the market to quickly generate ENCs from survey sheets and paper charts....
The ENC Designer software can be downloaded from www.enctools.org

found in Deutsche Hydrographische Gesellschaft e.V. (DHyG) - SevenCs’ s ENC Chart Capturing Tool turns Freeware

[cagney]

There was a press release at the end of 2007 regarding these free ENC Tools. 7Cs was supposed to make money through support contracts, a traditional free software business model.
The whole thing has obviously been silently buried by their new owners (since 2005) -->>

SevenCs and its subsidiary company ChartWorld GmbH are wholly owned by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO.)

"Whois" indicates that the domain "www.enctools.org" is owned by 7Cs, no surprises here.

I think that this is a dead end.

The way forward, I think, is through an open non proprietary chart format. A discussion along these lines between Rhoel and Dave is in the "monster" thread.
Another interesting idea popped up at the SSCA:s OpenCPN thread.
If a lot of us had a depth sounder connected to a gps and collected data as we sailed, for later uploading and processing with purpose designed program, interesting developments would appear over time, specially if we also had access to "free" charts.

Thomas

[blubaju]

Originally Posted by cagney

The way forward, I think, is through an open non proprietary chart format. A discussion along these lines between Rhoel and Dave is in the "monster" thread.
Another interesting idea popped up at the SSCA:s OpenCPN thread.
If a lot of us had a depth sounder connected to a gps and collected data as we sailed, for later uploading and processing with purpose designed program, interesting developments would appear over time, specially if we also had access to "free" charts.

Thomas

O.k. UKHO is a promise for sealed, locked and expensive, better a thousand dead sailors than they loose a single penny.

Hoped that at least one copy made it to any download server. Seems UKHO was in a big hurry to purchase them, maybe it was a fake anyway to be bought faster and a better price. But a genius like Dave reading cm93 could easily develop an openENC creating program, anyway, one day he must indulge himself in cm93v3, and that is encrypted ENC ;-))

I wonder if the CMAP charts level A and B could not be considered free already as they come with almost everything, think I got at least 4 copies, the world coast line is free too and high resolution, a few decades ago every average sailor would have been very happy with that.

I know, there is a project to extend the OpenStreetMap to the water, OpenSeaMap - Start, another Seekarte FreieTonne - Herzlich Willkommen (German only), hope somehow usefull to prevent the invention of the wheel again

I think the goal should be the possibility to generate own ENC from various sources and to correct them by on board means in a standard way so corrections maybe downloaded from a public server too.

[LeaseOnLife]

I found at least one promising lead: gvSIG supposedly can geo-reference Raster formats, like a scan of a paper chart.

An extract from the FAQ:

What formats does it support?

• Formats supported in reading mode
  • Vector data:
    • .shp
    • .gml
    • .kml
    • .dgn v7 (no v8)
    • .dxf (texto)
    • .dwg (2000, R14, R13 and R12)
  • Raster (georeferenced or no) :
    • .ecw
    • .tiff (geotif, tfw)
    • .jpg, .png, .gif
    • MrSID
    • .img
    • .jpeg2000
    • .bmp
• Formats suppported in writing mode
  • .shp
  • .gml
  • .kml
  • .GeoTIFF
  • ECW (only in Linux kernel 2.4)
  • JPEG (georeferenced)
  • JPEG2000 (georeferenced)
  • dxf (version 7)
  • Postgis

Has anyone tried gvSIG? From one of the output formats we would need to convert it to a format opencpn can read.

I have a slow download link and give this program a try at a later date.

Don't get me wrong, the idea of creating ENCs with layers and users can share their additions and correection is great. But it is also too far out (in time). I just want to scan a paper chart and make it work in opencpn. Hopefully gvSIG is a first step.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

I found at least one promising lead: gvSIG supposedly can geo-reference Raster formats, like a scan of a paper chart.

An extract from the FAQ:
Has anyone tried gvSIG? From one of the output formats we would need to convert it to a format opencpn can read.

I have a slow download link and give this program a try at a later date.

Don't get me wrong, the idea of creating ENCs with layers and users can share their additions and correection is great. But it is also too far out (in time). I just want to scan a paper chart and make it work in opencpn. Hopefully gvSIG is a first step.

I am playing with it now. The PDF manual is over 400 pages! Better too much information than not enough, but it is time consuming wading through all they got.

Looks promising for creating world file referenced .tif and .jpg.

I'm starting with some .tiff images of New Zealand marine charts. 166 charts at 660mb. Good collection if we can get them veiwable in OpenCPN.

-dan

[barnakiel]

Yeah, those NZ charts can be gotten of the web. Some NZ areas, Tonga, Coral Sea, etc.. But man they are HUGE files (meant for print). What do we do with them first - degrade the res?

Can someone give me a tip - what format raster is supported by OpenCPN? Bmp, jpg, tiff ?

THX
b.