First, it is some
work to load them into OCPN. The publisher chose to disseminate these 4 cells as separate reissues, plus periodic (monthly or so) update sets that include corrections for the cells affected in the given period. All this follows S-57.
An S-57 reissue (as opposed to new edition) means that the base chart (file .000) contains the cumulative effect of all corrections up to date, but without resetting the update counter, ticking on from the last edition. So one cell (XXX) in the reissued set will expect the first next update as - say - no. 36, and another (YYY) - as no. 41. Both updates (file XXX.036 and YYY.041) will be packaged in a file numbered e.g. ZZZ.046, where 46 happens to be the sequential number of the update set issued.
OCPN expects all updates to start from .001, and looks for them in the same directory as the base chart (.000).
So one needs to 1) move all individual cell updates to the right directories 2) renumber them to sequence 001, 002, etc. for each cell. Not dramatic
work, but prone to errors. Or am I missing some helping tools?
The base
charts load OK w/o quilting, the updates give some errors for two of the cells. Log attached. It is not clear to me if updating stops at first error.
It would be nice if OCPN could show more info on last update number in the chart information panel. The date is not quite sufficient.
Also, recording the successful and unsuccessful update numbers in the log would help (actually it is a requirement for ECDIS).
This may become more important, as more S-57
charts with updates become freely available.
Anyone with similar or different experience with South
China Sea?
The charts are available from East
Asia Hydrographic Commission as described in the OCPN Manual (Chart Sources). A simple
registration is necessary.