opencpn mexican, west coast south america charts

[bfloyd4445]

anyone know if any compatible charts are available?

[nohal]

Mexican govt sells charts in BSB3 and S57 formats: Hidrografía Both are fine.
Chillean govt sells ENC charts just in S-63 at Servicio Hidrográfico Oceanográfico de la Armada de Chile so no joy with OpenCPN at the time being.
Peru - S-57: https://www.dhn.mil.pe/index.asp?pag=cartografia

Pavel

[bfloyd4445]

Originally Posted by nohal

Mexican govt sells charts in BSB3 and S57 formats: Hidrografía Both are fine.
Chillean govt sells ENC charts just in S-63 at Servicio Hidrográfico Oceanográfico de la Armada de Chile so no joy with OpenCPN at the time being.
Peru - S-57: https://www.dhn.mil.pe/index.asp?pag=cartografia

Pavel

thanks. do they work with opencpn?

[bcn]

S-57 and BSB3 are ok - S-63 we are working on, so not yet.

Just what Pavel said

bcn

[nohal]

To make the list a bit more complete: Colombian charts are available from various VARs in S-63 format as said at CIOH - Cartas Náuticas Electronicas
But their website contains a pretty high-res version of all their paper charts at Cartografía for the less lazy of us.
Ecuador has no apparent info about ENC availability on INOCAR - Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada -, but you can have a look what they produce at INOCAR :: Plan Cartogrfico Nacional :: and perhaps contact them and ask.

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by nohal

To make the list a bit more complete: Colombian charts are available from various VARs in S-63 format as said at CIOH - Cartas Náuticas Electronicas
But their website contains a pretty high-res version of all their paper charts at Cartografía for the less lazy of us.
Ecuador has no apparent info about ENC availability on INOCAR - Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada -, but you can have a look what they produce at INOCAR :: Plan Cartogrfico Nacional :: and perhaps contact them and ask.

Re Colombia
You can make .kap chartlets from the pics without too much hassle...

[bfloyd4445]

Originally Posted by sailorF54

Re Colombia
You can make .kap chartlets from the pics without too much hassle...

Thanks. I can always get some printed ones but I wont need them for a few months yet anyway.

[sailias]

Originally Posted by sailorF54

Re Colombia
You can make .kap chartlets from the pics without too much hassle...

Bout time I learn how to do this......tutorial pls???

Best and kind regards

/ch

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by sailias

Bout time I learn how to do this......tutorial pls???

Best and kind regards

/ch

Will teach me not to open my big mouth...
Here we go

You need
1 - A python interpreter
Download Python
(The window 3.3.2 installer makes it very easy)
Get it and install it.
(Python 3.3.2 Windows x86 MSI Installer for 32 bit computers;
Python 3.3.2 Windows X86-64 MSI Installer for 64 bit computers)

2 - The following zipped folder that contains
-the imgkap app
- my very verbose English python script that activates imgkap to create a kap chartlet from a georeferenced chart image (most usual formats are supported; jpg, tif, bmp, gif etc...)
Free - Envoyez vos documents
Bundled with it is a jpg chart image sample (French Brittany NW coast), and a text file with the necessary information (in the right order) that you will be prompted to enter when launching the script. That should start you right away...
This folder can be put anywhere convenient.
Start the script by double clicking on it and type in the requested info...

You make your own chartlet, you need
- A chart image
- the pixel size of the image
- the X/Y pixel positions of two reference points, one near the top left corner of the chart (not necessarily the top left corner itself), the second one near the bottom right corner (ditto), and the precise latitude/longitude of these two ref points.
(I use Xnview, where the status bar gives you the pixel dimension of the chart image and the coordinates of the cursor when you place it on the reference points; see pic)
XnView Software · Software for reading, organizing and processing images

Reference points: Very often, the lat/long of two or more corners are printed on charts. You can also use the lat/long grid marks to select reference points.
If making charts from internet map servers, you may place markers that come with their lat/long information, jot the values down, then make a screen copy...

The lat/long values must be in degree and decimal minutes

Feedback welcome

[sailorF54]

PS 1 Do not type the ° symbol when entering the degree value...

PS 2 If you find the script text (i.e. strings) unclear to you, or too verbose, it is very easy to change it. Just open the script with a word editor (Wordpad is great), make changes, and save the file. The String syntax is elementary...