Weather Routing Plug In - Does it Actually Work

[stelian]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

stelian

The reason for the funny routes is that your destination forced the router to pass through land.
[...]
For now I disabled landfall detection for the final propagation, I think the result is better...

Thanks, I tested the latest git and indeed it looks much better now !

Next time I'll choose a better destination

[stelian]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

This is a common complaint, and a lot of people think it should just use the highest wind speed. Other routing programs silently do this, and sometimes the complaint is that the plugin dosn't work when the other program does.

I understand all this, but I still think a bug may be hidden here.

I've added a 100 kts wind speed to my polar, and I do get a polar failure using the below grib and data:



http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/wr-screencap.png
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/boat_dufour31.csv
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/dufour31.xml
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/WeatherRou...figuration.xml
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/GFS20170426084702630.grb

[rgleason]

Maybe for higher winds there should be a popup option to route around the higher winds if possible?

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by stelian

I understand all this, but I still think a bug may be hidden here.

I've added a 100 kts wind speed to my polar, and I do get a polar failure using the below grib and data:

http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/wr-screencap.png
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/boat_dufour31.csv
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/dufour31.xml
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/WeatherRou...figuration.xml
http://popies.net/tmp/WR2/GFS20170426084702630.grb

I cannot get the grib file (forbidden)

The boat_dufour31.csv does not contain a 100knot column, rather you added a 0 row (for going direct into the wind) that is the same speed at 150 off the wind.

Originally Posted by rgleason

Maybe for higher winds there should be a popup option to route around the higher winds if possible?

It has always done this. If you want to route around winds that the polar _does_ define, then you can set the max wind constraint.

[stelian]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

I cannot get the grib file (forbidden)

Sorry, fixed now

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

The boat_dufour31.csv does not contain a 100knot column, rather you added a 0 row (for going direct into the wind) that is the same speed at 150 off the wind.

Did you get the .csv from the WR2/ folder ?

This is its contents:

twa/tws;6;8;10;12;14;16;20;100
52;4.3;5.3;5.7;6;6.2;6.3;6.4;6.4
60;4.6;5.6;5.9;6.2;6.4;6.5;6.6;6.6
75;5;5.7;6.2;6.4;6.5;6.7;7;7
90;5.2;5.9;6.3;6.6;6.8;6.9;7.1;7.1
110;5;5.8;6.2;6.5;6.8;7.1;7.5;7.5
120;4.7;5.7;6.1;6.4;6.7;7;7.5;7.5
135;4.1;5.3;5.8;6.2;6.5;6.8;7.3;7.3
150;3.5;4.5;5.4;5.9;6.2;6.5;7;7

[seandepagnier]

It works for me, I cannot reproduce. Are you sure the files are correct?

[seandepagnier]

I don't see any high winds anyway. Maybe you can try with 50 knots instead of 100 to be sure?

[stelian]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

I don't see any high winds anyway. Maybe you can try with 50 knots instead of 100 to be sure?

I double checked my files, and I do reproduce the issue.

Make sure you set the start date/time for the routing at 01/05/2016, 9.00h, other dates give successful routings.



Also, when I said "higher winds" I meant higher than 20 kts, which was the higher wind in my polar. And if you look at the route at the location and time where it fails, the wind is at 28/29 kts.

Changing the 100 kts with 50 kts doesn't change a thing.

If you cannot reproduce the problem you can give me instructions on how to get more information for you, I'm confortable editing the source code, adding traces, whatever.

[seandepagnier]

I still get a correct routing. Could you post the weatherroutingconfiguration again? the one you posted doesn't match thsi start time.

When I switch to the boat without the 100 knot column the route fails, but succeeds with it.

Are you set to local time in view->settings?

[stelian]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

I still get a correct routing. Could you post the weatherroutingconfiguration again? the one you posted doesn't match thsi start time.

When I switch to the boat without the 100 knot column the route fails, but succeeds with it.

Are you set to local time in view->settings?

You are correct, the configuration didn't have the correct start time, but the issue is not there. Here is the current configuration file, with the correct start time:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<OpenCPNWeatherRoutingConfiguration version="1.10" creator="Opencpn Weather Routing plugin">
<Position Name="perros" Latitude="48.81916" Longitude="-3.41071" />
<Position Name="Scilly" Latitude="49.93930" Longitude="-6.31109" />
<Configuration Start="perros" StartDate="01/05/2017" StartTime="09:00:00" End="Scilly" dt="3600" Boat="/home/stelian/.opencpn/plugins/weather_routing/dufour31.xml" Integrator="0" MaxDivertedCourse="180" MaxCourseAngle="180" MaxSearchAngle="120" MaxTrueWindKnots="100" MaxApparentWindKnots="100" MaxSwellMeters="20" MaxLatitude="90" TackingTime="0" WindVSCurrent="0" AvoidCycloneTracks="0" CycloneMonths="1" CycloneDays="0" UseGrib="1" ClimatologyType="4" AllowDataDeficient="0" WindStrength="1" DetectLand="1" DetectBoundary="0" Currents="0" InvertedRegions="0" Anchoring="0" FromDegree="0" ToDegree="180" ByDegrees="5" />
</OpenCPNWeatherRoutingConfiguration>

In View->Settings, local time was not checked (so this is 9:00 UTC).

But even if I check the local time checkbox, then change the routing to occur at 11h localtime, it fails as before.

[rgleason]

Set the grib to your start time or the first record of grib. Then set wxroute to grib time. Always Always do this until you know the system.

[kubek]

Hi,

I used several times Weather Routing plugin to estimate long trips on s/y SelmaExpedition several time with success (previous version of OpenCPN & WeatherRouting). But now with new plugin I could not making it to work. Always I have an error "Polar:Failed". Maybe now I don't understanding a new logic, but as you can see on attached picture I have created my own polar for SelmaExpedition it looks OK for me but doesn't work.

What I did wrong?

Kubek

[stelian]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Set the grib to your start time or the first record of grib. Then set wxroute to grib time. Always Always do this until you know the system.

Well, in this particular case, the first record of the grib makes the route complete successfully (as do the vast majority of other start dates).

But, on May 1st the wind become stronger, and I suspect this is causing the failure.

[rramsey]

As far as I can tell, the polar will fail if the wind in the Grib is stronger than the strongest wind in the polar. The supplied polars go up to 20kts so if winds are stronger it fails. Add lines for stronger winds.

A polar is made with a .pol text file table. By clicking "save boat" (which doesn't always seem to work) a .XML is created that points to the .pol file. A bit iffy though.

Also sometimes a configuration seems broken and cannot be made to work again. Delete it and start with a fresh configuration, works for me. This specifically if the computation succeeds but the route is totally weird.

Lastly I have discovered that "export" converts the weather route into a track. Convert the track into a route and all is great - waypoints and all. So kudos to the developer there - real easy to use. I export it to .gpx, airdrop it to my iPad where iNavx automatically picked it up and displays it. Cool!

[stelian]

Originally Posted by stelian

Well, in this particular case, the first record of the grib makes the route complete successfully (as do the vast majority of other start dates).

But, on May 1st the wind become stronger, and I suspect this is causing the failure.

I managed to reproduce the bug again, this time starting the routing with the first record of the grib. If fails just before reaching the destination, when the winds are bigger than 20 kts:



Here are the files:

http://popies.net/tmp/WR3/boat_dufour31.csv
http://popies.net/tmp/WR3/dufour31.xml
http://popies.net/tmp/WR3/GFS20170428194107053.grb
http://popies.net/tmp/WR3/WeatherRou...figuration.xml
http://popies.net/tmp/WR3/wr-bug.png