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phiggins · 05-01-2011, 08:32

OK I am just about finished updating GE2KAP to allow you to overlay a BSB/KAP chart. I need to test it with charts from various parts of the world. Could someone please send me a .KAP chart from Europe, South America, Africa, Australia or New Zealand, England (one that goes acoss the prime meridian would be nice), one across the international dateline.

If you know the chart is not correct please tell me.

my eamil is phiggins()gmn-usa.com (replace the () with you know what)

Thanks

cagney · 05-01-2011, 10:46

Paul
I had the opportunity to try your program today.
Good stuff, I really like it. Thank you so much.
I found a few small things ......
Around line 41 - 42 in all the kap files(~15) I generated, these two lines appear:

Quote:

BSBHDR CED/SE=2005,RE=43,ED=2009
BSBHDR KNP/SD=MEAN LOW WATER SPRINGS,PP=-23

OpenCPN for example ignores these lines because it don't know the meaning of a line starting "BSBHDR".
Does Google publish a date for the original images, so that can be incorporated? Otherwise maybe the kap files creation date could be included in CED.
On the second line, I doubt that PP is 23S for most pictures. If the scale refers to the actual picture seen, then PP ought to be the mean latitude.
Earlier in the header SD is set to UNKNOWN, which is reasonable.

I found it a bit messy with all the files generated in the directory where the pic files are saved. Generally I would only be interested in the kap files, unless there was a problem with a conversion.
I did a small cleaning up scrip, but maybe this sort of thing is better done by the program itself.

Thomas

sinbad7 · 05-01-2011, 11:55

Paul..

I've re-installed oooRexx but when I run GE2KAP.rex the window tells me Imagmagic convert.exe is not installed.
If I copy convert.exe to the GE2KAP directory and run, the program aborts. I have previously copied tif2bsb.exe to this directory.

Any ideas?

Tore

phiggins · 05-01-2011, 15:37

Tore,

Try reinstalling ImageMagic. Just having the convert.exe is not enough.

Thomas,

Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the extra files, I have been thinking of a way to clean them all up. I'm wondering if anyone actually use the .BMP file and the chartcal that I produce. It seemed like a good idea first but now I wonder if they are needed.

As for the BSB header fields , does anyone have of a good explanation for the fields (besides what is in libbsb - read/write/convert BSB images - Browse Files at SourceForge.net ). I'm guessing a lot of them. I'm actually using the PWX and PWY fields in the overlay logic because those fields seem to have the upper left corner latitude and longitude but not sure if it is in all cases.

cagney · 06-01-2011, 03:30

Bsb headers. GPS-Marco has quite a bit about this in his documentation for KapGen MCE66 - Software.

A quick guide for version 3, I made for myself from different sources looks like this:

Code:

                         
   RECORD         FIELD      NAME                       
     VER                     Format Version                
     CRR                     Copyright Record              
     BSB                     General Parameters
                   NA         Chart Name                 
                   NU         Chart Number             
                   RA         Image Width Height          
                   DU         Drawing Units             
     KNP                     Detailed Parameters
                   SC         Scale                      
                   GD         Geodetic Datum Name       
                   PR         Projection Name           
                   PP         Projection Parameter      
                   PI        Projection Interval       
                   SK         Skew Angel                 
                   TA         Text Angle                   
                   UN         Depth Units               
                   SD         Sounding Datum            
                   DX         X Resolution                 
                   DY         Y Resolution   
				   SP			?Specifies the coordinate system in the plane and the
								range in feet.Angle distortion - specifies the angle of?
     CED                     Edition Parameters
                   SE         Source Edition             
                   RE         Raster Edition               
                   ED         Edition Date               
     NTM                     NTM Record
                   NE         NTM Edition Number           
                   ND         NTM Date                   
                   BF         Base Flag                   
                   BD         Base Date                    
     OST                     Offset Values Section         
     IFM                    Compression Type              
     RGB                     Default Color Palette      
     DAY                     Day Color Palette          
     DSK                     Dusk Color Palette         
     NGT                     Night Color Palette        
     NGR                     Night Red Palette              
     REF                    Reference Point Record        
     CPH                    Phase Shift Value. Set the Map Crosses 180 flag?
							if crossing +/-180 = > CPH/180.0, else CPH/0.0

     WPX                    Polynomial L to X              
     PWX                    Polynomial X to L               
     WPY                    Polynomial L to Y               
     PWY                    Polynomial Y to L               
     ERR                    Error Record                     
     PLY                    Border Polygon Record          
     DTM                    Datum Shift Record 
							Datum shift, in *seconds* (floating point), to apply to REF/ points
							to bring them into line with WGS84.
							DTM/<latitude shift>,<longitude shift> for ex DTM/0.0,0.0"

Note that tif2bsb automatically calculates the RGB and IFM values.
I made a hack to the source code of tif2bsb to extend RGB to DSK and NGT palette. As far as I know, nobody has yet compiled this on windows, but it works nicely for me on Linux.

OpenCPN, for example, just uses a few of these.

PWX & PWY are used, together with the other polynomial factors, in OpenCPN. Check the code in "chartimg.cpp".

Google translate a Brazilean document to this:

Quote:

These
coefficients can be used to convert the system,
geographic locations (latitude and longitude) to
image pixel coordinates and vice versa, through
polynomial expression. Developers can use these
points to calculate its own coefficients
processing, or use the available values WPX,
WPY, and PWX PWY.

We don't know all the fields in the official version, but we do now what one chart-plotter, OpenCPN, is doing. Your program shows just how far it's possible to go, and now you're going even further...
Good Luck.

phiggins · 07-01-2011, 03:39

Thanks Thomas.

phiggins · 08-01-2011, 07:42

Ok my new beta version of GE2KAP is ready for testing. This version allows you to overlay a .KAP chart on the GE picture. It also has a viewer so you can see the chart produced. It will automatically size and position the chart. You can download it from my website: www.gdayii.ca

If you already have the old version working, the only additional prereq you need is the bsb2tif.exe which will be in your libsbsb or you can downloaded it from libbsb - read/write/convert BSB images - Browse Files at SourceForge.net

Please read the README_GE2KAP.TXT

There is one restriction: The chart must have north up (SK=0 in the BSB header). I'm trying to think of way to fix this.

Let me know if you have problems but I will be sailing soon.

Cheers

sinbad7 · 08-01-2011, 11:18

Paul..

OK,here we go again.... downloaded your new version of GE2KAP and a fresh version of Imagemagic and installed again.

All works fine with the creation of the various file extensions except .kap is empty and I get this error message: see attached.

What am I doing wrong?

Tore

sinbad7 · 08-01-2011, 11:45

Paul...

Since the bsb2kap conversion step seems to be the problem I tried to execute the command 'bsb2kap Ubatubaporto.kap' from within the LIBBSB directory through the CMD module window as you see from the attachment.

The Ubatubaporto.kap file was also copied over. Still did not work. I just re-installed a new LIBBSB I downloaded.

Tore

phiggins · 08-01-2011, 11:46

Tore,

Did you copy the bsb2tif.exe into the directory where you have GE2KAP.REX?

I just updated the download to check if that prereq is there so you probably should download it again from my website: www.gdayii.ca

sinbad7 · 08-01-2011, 11:53

Paul..

As you will see from my #68 attachment,all the required files are present.
I have done new downloads/innstallations as recommended by you.

bsb2tif.exe does not even work within it's own directory?

Tore

phiggins · 08-01-2011, 12:08

Tore,

Could you send me the KAP file you are trying to overlay and also when you find a good time, try rebooting and try again.

my email is: phiggins()gmn-usa.com

GPS-Marco · 08-01-2011, 12:55

Tore,

maybe the problem I see in your #68 is the folder F\CHARTS\BRASIL\BSB CHARTS\... that has a space in it. Maybe bsb2kap called by GE2KAP fails since it does not get right the 2 requested parameters (input.kap and output.tif).

Ciao, Marco.