Thanks !

[jimbim]

I just want to tell you all how seamless and pleasurable my switch over to OpenCPN has been. It is just a treat to use and my thanks go to all you guys who have put so much of your time and effort into this project.

In the part of world where I am, I can't begin to express my relief at being able to easily switch between vector and raster charts, to compare their accuracy and somewhat relieve my stress when following a cmap track in the middle of the night that takes me across an island or the mainland. Just because someone else did it doesn't mean I can!

It reads cmap charts better than the software I was using, which in difficult areas will often offer you a blaze of red and make use near impossible in areas still navigable, and often make tracks invisible, forcing you to zoom out until the red disappears.

Now if I could just figure out how to convert all the WCI charts I've collected over time to a format OCPN can read (the manual says it can be done)... and to enlarge the position information at the bottom of the screen and darken some depth fonts on cmap charts so these old eyes can more easily read it... and figure out what I have done when it crashes, though that rarely happens and the program is easily restarted... but I'm learning.

Please resist temptation to add every feature under the sun and bloat OCPN so it no longer zips along on my little netbooks. And we can only hope that a reasonable commercial product comes along that will display OCPN while using very little power (assuming someone hasn't already).

Anyway, cheers, and thanks again for this marvelous program and your ongoing efforts.

[Totobeloeil]

I think mapcal_2 can read your WCI files.
If it does, then you may have to use mc2bsbh / nconvert / tif2bsb.
Part of this is beta software. So, it may require some programing skills.
The whole procedure has been described here :
MapCal Utilities
For more information, you can see also the following threads :
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/mc2bsbh-mapcal-template-to-bsb-template-conversion-32337.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/charts-31346-19.html#post359624
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/problem-with-ply-and-ref-points-when-georeferencing-bsb-charts-36659.html#post405832
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post404878

Depth fonts can not be easily changed for now. Neither position information, but there is a discussion about this point, and some work around customisation.

Jean-Pascal

[dacust]

Originally Posted by Totobeloeil

I think mapcal_2 can read your WCI files.
If it does, then you may have to use mc2bsbh / nconvert / tif2bsb.
Part of this is beta software. So, it may require some programing skills.
The whole procedure has been described here :
MapCal Utilities
For more information, you can see also the following threads :
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/mc2bsbh-mapcal-template-to-bsb-template-conversion-32337.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/charts-31346-19.html#post359624
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/problem-with-ply-and-ref-points-when-georeferencing-bsb-charts-36659.html#post405832
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post404878

Depth fonts can not be easily changed for now. Neither position information, but there is a discussion about this point, and some work around customisation.

Jean-Pascal

I don't think the MapCal Utilities link gives all the needed instructions. The gaps are:

MapCal should read the WCI charts just fine. The question is: can you save the config to CHARTCAL.DIR with them? As an example I can load a .jpg in MapCal, but I can't get it to save the config. I have only been able to save the config with .png and .bmp. But I haven't tried /wci. Might work. Might not. I kinda bet it will work.

The next trick is to find something that can convert .wci to .tif so tif3bsb can handle it. I haven't looked. Could be that nconvert or imagemagick can do it. I kinda bet it will.

So, my bet is, given the above differences, it should be relatively easy.

I think someone in here has already done it. The links Jean-Pascal posted to other threads probably has the answers buried in there somewhere.

-dan

[Totobeloeil]

Hi Dan,

I think mapcal_2 generates a CHARTCAL.DIR information when creating a BMP file from only a WCI file (because geroref information is inside the WCI file).

I tried the following :
(1) File -> OpenImage -> my_WCI_file
(2) Tools -> Convert -> Current WCI to BMP -> my_BMP_file

But perhaps it is not what we need here :
If some WCI files do not contain georef information, we have to recalibrate them;
And perhaps mapcal_2 can't read all WCI files.

I agree it would be fine to have a wci2tif or wci2bmp utility for not having to do this one file after the other. I have been searching for a while ... Anyway, we don't have to do this very often.

Jean-Pascal

[cagney]

Originally Posted by dacust

I don't think the MapCal Utilities link gives all the needed instructions. The gaps are:

MapCal should read the WCI charts just fine. The question is: can you save the config to CHARTCAL.DIR with them? As an example I can load a .jpg in MapCal, but I can't get it to save the config. I have only been able to save the config with .png and .bmp. But I haven't tried /wci. Might work. Might not. I kinda bet it will work.

The next trick is to find something that can convert .wci to .tif so tif3bsb can handle it. I haven't looked. Could be that nconvert or imagemagick can do it. I kinda bet it will.

So, my bet is, given the above differences, it should be relatively easy.

I think someone in here has already done it. The links Jean-Pascal posted to other threads probably has the answers buried in there somewhere.

-dan

jimbim and dan

I think that it would be relatively easy to expand existing tools to convert WCI files.

In MapCal open a .wci file. Then Tools =>Convert =>Current WCI to BMP . This creates a .bmp picture file and a CHARTCAL.DIR file.
The bmp is easily converted to a tiff, the usual way.

darken some depth fonts on cmap charts so these old eyes can more easily read it...

jimbim

In Tools=>Vector charts => Lower left corner => Depth settings. To get rid of gray depth figures is a question of setting "Safty Depth" deep enough. All figures less than this value shows up in black, all figures greater than the same value in gray. Works for both CM93 and S57 charts.

Thomas

[dacust]

Originally Posted by Totobeloeil

(1) File -> OpenImage -> my_WCI_file
(2) Tools -> Convert -> Current WCI to BMP -> my_BMP_file

Cool, that should work.

Originally Posted by Totobeloeil

And perhaps mapcal_2 can't read all WCI files.

I may be mistaken, but I was under the impression the WCI format was created specifically as an internal format for SeaClear, and created by the same author. I thought I remembered him saying he created it to avoid the copyright and patent problems of other formats. If I am right, you'd expect that it should be able to read them all, unless someone else has adapted the format for another use.

Originally Posted by cagney

jimbim and dan

In MapCal open a .wci file. Then Tools =>Convert =>Current WCI to BMP . This creates a .bmp picture file and a CHARTCAL.DIR file.
The bmp is easily converted to a tiff, the usual way.

Thanks. I knew someone had done it.

-dan

[idpnd]

Got a bit of an expert panel on chart conversion going there!

[jimbim]

Cagney, thanks for the tip about darkening the depths on vector charts. Worked like a dream.

Thanks also to you and others for the advice on converting WCI files. Will play with it when I get a chance.

cheers, Jim

[Totobeloeil]

Originally Posted by jasonsmith092

Now if I could just figure out how to convert all the WCI charts I've collected over time to a format OCPN can read (the manual says it can be done)...

Maybe this beta version of mc2bsbh can help : mc2bsbh-beta-10

Jean-Pascal