Piano Keys Merge Into One

[yachtvalhalla]

When I have multiple piano keys displayed and zoom in the keys merge into one long one.

[rgleason]

You've missed. What OS, and Version of O?

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by rgleason

You've missed. What OS, and Version of O?

Sorry. Windows 11 and O5.12.4.

[SoggyPaws]

This problem was created in about v5.8 or 5.10, when there were changes to what displayed in the piano keys when you first looked at a chart that had lots of small MBTiles. It was a great change for those of us who prefer making only the mbtiles that really make a difference. (Ie, one z14 or z15 satellite overview chart, and then individual z17 or 18 chartlets for the harbors and anchorages, meaning lots of individual mbtiles).
However, it meant that those people who prefer to make detailed mbtiles of huge areas (Jon Hacking, Bruce on Migration), it didn't display their piano keys properly. So during that release, another change was made, to display every blinking mbtile with a piano key within the window, no matter what the zoom level of the view, and the relative zoom level of the mbtile.
What you are seeing, Terry, is not one big piano key, but an attempt to display ALL the piano keys for all the small mbtiles in your big area displayed. This has been in effect since, I think 5.8, or maybe 5.10. I don't like it, but didn't report it, because I could work around it.

However, a NEW FEATURE (??!) has been introduced in 5.12.4, that is--when you hover over a piano key, it does not pop the small info window that gives the chart name and location (and other information). This is a big issue when we are trying to track down errant mbtiles. This was not like this in 5.12.2. Has this been reported?
O 5.12.4, Windows 11
Sherry

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by SoggyPaws

1. This problem was created in about v5.8 or 5.10, when there were changes to what displayed in the piano keys when you first looked at a chart that had lots of small MBTiles. It was a great change for those of us who prefer making only the mbtiles that really make a difference.


2.However, it meant that those people who make detailed mbtiles of huge areas, it didn't display their piano keys.


3. So another change was made, to display them all. What you are seeing, Terry, is not one big piano key, but an attempt to display ALL the piano keys for all the small mbtiles in your big area displayed.


4. This has been in effect since, I think 5.8.


5. However, a NEW FEATURE (??!) has been introduced in 5.12.4, that is--when you hover over a piano key, it does not pop the small info window that gives the chart name and location (and other information).


6. This is a big issue when we are trying to track down errant mbtiles.


7. This was not like this in 5.12.2.


Has this been reported?
O 5.12.4, Windows 11


Sherry

Sherry, I don't find anything titled "piano key" under issues https://github.com/notifications?aft...22Piano+Key%22


I think you and others should investigate further, determine what exactly is happening and is missing and then report in a fully detailed manner under github Issues.

[SoggyPaws]

I went back through closed issues in GitHub, and found this one:

https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/issues/3746

Dave has recently made improvements to Chart Status Bar to improve
display and operation of the piano keys in the instance of many tiles.
The manual needs to be changed to reflect these improvements.

I believe that this is referring to the change I am talking about. Making it nicer if you have tons of small charts, as Valhalla shows. During that beta, (at least, early on), if zoomed out, the "Chart Status Bar" would only show the piano keys appropriate to that zoom level. You had to zoom in more to see the piano keys for more detailed (usually smaller in chart size) charts.

However, this caused some big issues with the charts that were large area but covered very detailed zooms. It would not show those charts (I think that was the exact issue). So, during the beta, it was changed again, to show in the Chart Status Bar, ALL the charts in the chart window. Hence, on Valhallas (and mine) screen, when zoomed out, the piano keys just merge. You have to zoom in, in order to pick out individual piano keys, representing a single chart. This ain't great, but it's manageable, if there's no better way.

The new issue is that hovering over a "piano key" (aka chart bubble) in the Chart Status Bar, no longer pops a small window with info about the chart. I will create an issue today for that problem, as I don't see anything open about it.

Sherry

[rgleason]

Sherry, Thank you!


Is this representative of what actually happens or do we need some editing?


https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...face:chart_bar


Please review and check

Staged Chart Bars

OpenCPN 5.9 implements a Staged ChartBar scheme to reduce the number of Chart buttons thus avoiding flooding the Chart Bar area with many tiny chart buttons. When zoomed out, similar charts are grouped into a single Chart button, or “group” button.

• To see more Chart Information about each chart, the user zooms in and then ChartBar buttons change to “single” chartbar buttons and also “group” buttons.
• When the a Chartbar button is clicked “group” buttons show summary information and “single” chart buttons show more detailed chart information. This system works well, providing access to Chart information across many charts.

and other sections.

[SoggyPaws]

Yes, that is the way it WAS in 5.9. But I believe was backed out by the time that 5.10 was released, as it caused issues with the "huge chart area with great detail" chart making people.

If anyone in the future wants to re-address that problem, and try to solve it for both types of chart setups, we (Jon Hacking and I) can give you representative charts to play with. (mbtiles).

Also, here is a screenshot of the missing pop-up window. It is not caused by my upgrade to W11, because I re-installed 5.12.2, and the pop-up window, with my new W11 install, works fine in 5.12.2

As I mentioned in the Github issue, my screen does flash near the chart bar in 5.12.4, as I mouse over the piano key, but the small window doesn't display.

https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/issues/4823

Sherry

[SoggyPaws]

I just installed the v5.13.0 built last night on Cloudsmith, and it appears to have solved my issue, and maybe has tried to solve Valhalla's issue.

On my system, with lots of tiny harbor charts, and a few mbtile sat charts covering larger areas, at about 1:6.7M zoom level, my chart bar turns solid purple. Zoomed in more than that and they are at least distinguishable as tiny but individual items. But zooming out further, at 1:19.1M zoom level, it doesn't show the tiny zooms, and turns into 4-6 of the least zoom level mbtile piano keys. Not sure if this is new, or I've just not ever paid that much attention to it.

[rgleason]

Yes, that is the way it WAS in 5.9. But I believe was backed out by the time that 5.10 was released, as it caused issues with the "huge chart area with great detail" chart making people.

Sherry, that was the way what was in 5.9? Please explain in more detail exactly what you think was "backed out"? We need to confirm that it was backed out and why, and also correct the documentation!

[rgleason]

On my system, with lots of tiny harbor charts, and a few mbtile sat charts covering larger areas, at about 1:6.7M zoom level, my chart bar turns solid purple. Zoomed in more than that and they are at least distinguishable as tiny but individual items. But zooming out further, at 1:19.1M zoom level, it doesn't show the tiny zooms, and turns into 4-6 of the least zoom level mbtile piano keys. Not sure if this is new, or I've just not ever paid that much attention to it.

I believe it has been this way all along.

[rgleason]

Has this been reported? Not that I know of. Would you report it? You have more juice with the developers than I do.

Sorry, but I am pretty busy and don't know much about mbtiles action and am not going to spend time on it... You'll all have to contribute to an Issue on Github. We need your knowledge and use perspective about mbtiles.


If you want the Wiki manual changed or improved, I can help.

[rgleason]

If you want the Wiki manual changed or improved, I can help.
I hope that you all can turn the thread in Navigation about MBtiles into a healthy and active discussion and learning environment, that draws other long distance sailors in. https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...es-296955.html
This is where MBtiles should be focused I believe, and do participate in github issues please.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by yachtvalhalla

When I have multiple piano keys displayed and zoom in the keys merge into one long one.

Terry, you raise a valid point that needs to be understood & dealt with appropriately. But I have an alternative that might appeal to your users, as I don't like having to muck with multiple piano keys if I can help it.

I will often chart (download) data for many different islands, but rather than publishing individual mbTiles for each of them, thereby creating a hoard of piano keys, I merge them into a single mbTiles file. You can do this using the Merge mbTiles function of Sat2Chart.

Yes, this creates a larger mbTiles file, & all of your mbTiles have to have the same zoom levels (I think), but your files are so small anyway that this is actually a blessing. Your users end up with fewer piano keys at the bottom, & as they zoom in, your mbTiles will automagically appear in OpenCPN.

The effort is only slightly higher for you, as instead of grouping a bunch of mbTiles files when you zip them for download, you first group them by map-type. They should group this way in Explorer anyway, if you use a [country].[area].[anchorage] file-naming format, with Sat2Chart adding [map-type].[zoom-levels].mbtiles to the end of the filename. Then you send those mbTiles of a given map-type to Sat2Chart to merge them, before you zip the resultant merged mbTiles files (for different maps) & publish that.

In fact, I think you could merge all of your anchorage mbTiles for much of a country (or all of a country, depending on how many chartlets you have). This would make your mbTiles much easier to manage in OpenCPN, as your users wouldn't have to turn each individual file on or off.

Also, this would make it MUCH easier for your users to separate your mbTiles into Chart Groups (which I think are wonderful). OpenCPN does not allow multi-select when adding or deleting files from Chart Groups, so it's a pain to put a bunch of small mbTiles into each group. Merging your mbTiles would make this operation much easier for your users.

Merging your existing mbTiles into a single, larger mbTiles file, that only needs to be turned on once, would limit the number of piano keys your users (& OpenCPN) need to deal with, make it simpler for them to turn those fewer piano keys on & off, as well as making it easier for them to put your mbTiles into Chart Groups.

Just a thought...

[rgleason]

Two Discussion Areas on Github


Chartbar Buttons - Actual operation vs Wiki description ( Enc and Mbtiles) #4828


How MBtiles work with Chartbar Buttons #4827