Rookie questions - boundary circles; exporting options; GPX files

[fredgmeyer]

Hi all,

New to OpenCPN - I just downloaded the software to a computer to test out for use on some upcoming research cruises (I work as a fisheries scientist for NOAA).

Is there an option, either through the main software or a plugin to do the following:

* Use nautical mile as the distance unit and fathoms as the depth unit (we work with fishermen a lot).

* Generate a boundary circle of a user-defined radius around a mark? Consider the mark the GPS coordinates for a sampling station where we need to conduct all sampling operations within a 100 yd radius of that station.

* Import marks into OpenCPN from a .xlsx or .csv file. We work with a lot of statistics and other software that output data such as stations and position in spreadsheet form, and being able to directly input stations along with their corresponding lat/lon information directly into our navigation software from a spreadsheet would be immensely helpful.

* Assuming there's no ability to import directly from a .xlsx or .csv or some other standard delimited format, is there any software out there that works directly with .GPX files and can convert to those type of standard formats?

* Exporting marks and tracks in some fashion other than "one at a time" or "everything at once". Seems like those are the only 2 options - select one and you can click "Export Wpt...", or you can "Export All Visible". What about highlighting 2 or more (but not necessarily all of them) and just exporting those highlighted ones?

Thanks - standard boilerplate about forgiving dumb questions from a newbie.

Fred

[nohal]

Fred...

Originally Posted by fredgmeyer

Hi all,

New to OpenCPN - I just downloaded the software to a computer to test out for use on some upcoming research cruises (I work as a fisheries scientist for NOAA).

Is there an option, either through the main software or a plugin to do the following:

* Use nautical mile as the distance unit and fathoms as the depth unit (we work with fishermen a lot).

Yes, NM is default (and only changeable in the 3.3 beta, fixed in 3.2), you can set fathoms as depth unit in Vector chart properties in the toolbox.

* Generate a boundary circle of a user-defined radius around a mark? Consider the mark the GPS coordinates for a sampling station where we need to conduct all sampling operations within a 100 yd radius of that station.

Perhaps you can use the anchor alarm functionality to some extent, although it's not exactly what you are looking for. Anchor Watch | Official OpenCPN Homepage

* Import marks into OpenCPN from a .xlsx or .csv file. We work with a lot of statistics and other software that output data such as stations and position in spreadsheet form, and being able to directly input stations along with their corresponding lat/lon information directly into our navigation software from a spreadsheet would be immensely helpful.

No.

* Assuming there's no ability to import directly from a .xlsx or .csv or some other standard delimited format, is there any software out there that works directly with .GPX files and can convert to those type of standard formats?

GPSBabel: convert, upload, download data from GPS and Map programs or write a VBA macro to generate a GPX file form your excel or write a simple shell script to convert CSV into GPX (something like https://github.com/nohal/OpenCPNScri...s_buoys2gpx.sh)

* Exporting marks and tracks in some fashion other than "one at a time" or "everything at once". Seems like those are the only 2 options - select one and you can click "Export Wpt...", or you can "Export All Visible". What about highlighting 2 or more (but not necessarily all of them) and just exporting those highlighted ones?

You can select and export multiple in the 3.3 beta, in 3.2 only one or all.

Pavel

[Rasbats]

Hello fredgmeyer,

Quote

* Import marks into OpenCPN from a .xlsx or .csv file. We work with a lot of statistics and other software that output data such as stations and position in spreadsheet form, and being able to directly input stations along with their corresponding lat/lon information directly into our navigation software from a spreadsheet would be immensely helpful.

Unquote

This sounds similar to work I did for the VisitMyHarbour Tidal Streams plugin. I translated a large .csv file to XML and read positions and other data from that. If you send me a sample file I would enjoy playing with a plugin to meet your situation! I will PM my email address if you want to try this out.

Regards,
Mike

[fredgmeyer]

Thanks Pavel and Mike for the feedback - very helpful.

Fred

[fredgmeyer]

Mike - got your PM; will email you with a csv file and explanatory info shortly.

[EDIT: disregard question below...I didn't read the "fine print" about setting an anchor watch. The vessel needs to be within 1 nm of the mark in order for the anchor watch option to be available.]

Pavel (or others) - the anchor watch function looks like it might work. However, I don't see an option for it when right-clicking on a mark. In the manual, it shows "Set Anchor Watch" as a the last in a list of 6 options, however when I right-click, the list of available options is a little different, and there is no option for anchor watch. FYI, I am using v 3.2.2.

Thanks again!

[Rasbats]

Hello Fred,

To help your evaluation I made a small plugin. This takes an xml file of positions and data and converts it to what OpenCPN calls a layer (the Fisheries.gpx.gpx file which is attached. This can be opened as a temporary layer and viewed on the chart.

If you want to edit the data points you need to export the layer as a GPX file. Then import the GPX and the waypoints produced can be modified (Fisheries_edit.gpx.gpx).

The plugin needs OpenCPN 3.3.1606 minimum (the last published beta). Remove the .doc extension from the plugin and xml files attached.

The plugin can be modified to take data in a different form if needed.

The website I use for conversion of csv to xml:

Free online CSV to XML converter

Regards,
Mike