Feature Requests

[pa36651]

Originally Posted by pa36651

I bought my Hanse 342 in UK last year and sailed it to Gothenburg/Sweden (635NM/106hours).
We used OCPN 1.3.6 with CM93/2009 in a HP nw8000, XPSP3, with a USB GPS, USB nasamarine AIS, iPhone via USB as modem for GRIB and a nasamarine USB navtex. All USB devices connected to the PC with a USB hub.
OCPN worked perfect the whole trip. The only issue was the iPhone sometimes messing up the COM-port numbers in the PC.

In OCPN 1.3.6 the "CM93 detail level" setting was on the mouse button right click menu, much used and with easy access. In OCPN 2.x.x the "CM93 detail level" setting is in the Vector chart setting only.

One example where the "CM93 detail level" setting is adjusted/used very much is the south coast of Norway.

Since the "CM93 detail level" setting is not any more on the right click menu, there are reasons. My proposal is, if possible, to have this function on the right click menu as a yes/no setting parameter.

Thank you for a very nice SW.

/Petter

Found it! My requested function was already there!
Sorry /Petter

[petermoree]

I agree with you that this would be a very nice option
I missed the CMap slider also.

Peter

[dacust]

The subject of transparent overlays has come up from time to time, so I added a FlySpray entry for transparent overlays.

FS#342 : Transparent and/or Intelligent Overlay

Details
Transparent and/or Intelligent Overlay.

I think a prerequisite for this would be the user defined chart categories - ( FS#138 : Chart Categories - user maintained )

So, I'm going to describe how I think overlays could be used in conjunction with user defined categories.

Transparent Overlay:
Let's say you are looking at "Raster" charts. I'd like to overlay these charts with "Aeriel Photographs". I would choose overlay chart type , then choose a transparency percentage. This would probably be best implemented as a slider, and should be available (user configurable) on a toolbar. This would work exactly the same if the base charts were ENC.

Intelligent Overlay:
For a base chart type of vector only, it could work exactly as above, but with the additional option of have the overlay only cover land areas.

[sinbad7]

Dave..

Would a "View full page" be a possibility in OpenCPN?

Or even better,could a vector map area larger than the screen be defined and saved at a selected scale by entering the geo locs of two diagonally opposing map corners?

This would be very useful for the creation of soundings and nav. info. from CM93 to be used in overlays with transparent areas on GE maps.

Tore

[dacust]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Dave..

Would a "View full page" be a possibility in OpenCPN?

Or even better,could a vector map area larger than the screen be defined and saved at a selected scale by entering the geo locs of two diagonally opposing map corners?

This would be very useful for the creation of soundings and nav. info. from CM93 to be used in overlays with transparent areas on GE maps.

Tore

If we had on-the-fly transparency in OpenCPN, I wouldn't bother creating static transparent overlays n a chart. You could use ge2kap to create ge charts, put them in a user defined category, then use them as an overlay. Much more versatile and less work (for me, not for Dave, et. al.)

But your idea has more uses than just overlays. It could be used for people that would like to print out charts for paper backup.

Full Page View is another good idea.

-dan

[sinbad7]

Dan.. 'Great minds think alike!'

I am particularly interested in the GE - CM93 combination simply because everybody have access to them, and with a little manipulation,their combined resources becomes a useful .kap chart for detailed harbor and innshore navigation. Also very handy in areas where you have no other charts.

Of course,you are right,this would also enable people to print out larger paper charts.

Perhaps the whole thing could be created as a plug-in to OpenCPN?

The attached .kap chart can be zoomed in further and cover a much larger area than the screen.

Tore

[Viking Sailor]

If OpenCPN is going to be doing the processing why generate a .kap file at all. Since both GE and CM93 charts are vector formatted why not just pick and combine the desired layers from each.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

If OpenCPN is going to be doing the processing why generate a .kap file at all. Since both GE and CM93 charts are vector formatted why not just pick and combine the desired layers from each.

That could be another good feature request. That ability to natively display from the GE cache file, maybe?

You might want to add that to FlySpray.

-dan

[sinbad7]

In addittion to my previous suggestion for a FULL SCREEN button,would it be possible to stop the green triangle panning utility abour 1/2 inches from the screen limits as it is almost impossible to put a placemark in the screen corners withour moving the screen.

Tore

[CGirvan]

This may have been already suggested but I couldn't find anything with the search function, I apologize if it's been brought up before.
I was thinking a really useful program would be an electronic log that saved a record automatically on the hour with ships position, average speed and course, average wind speed and direction etc.
Not sure how difficult this wold be but most of the info is being supplied to OpenCPN from the GPS already. Just a thought.

[champ8242]

Originally Posted by CGirvan

This may have been already suggested but I couldn't find anything with the search function, I apologize if it's been brought up before.
I was thinking a really useful program would be an electronic log that saved a record automatically on the hour with ships position, average speed and course, average wind speed and direction etc.
Not sure how difficult this wold be but most of the info is being supplied to OpenCPN from the GPS already. Just a thought.

you might want to see if the manual has the has the content you are looking for!

[CGirvan]

Originally Posted by champ8242

you might want to see if the manual has the has the content you are looking for!

You're correct it does already have a tracking feature but I was thinking more along the lines of something similar to this About CrystalShip Software but possibly not as complex.

[SergeyKr]

Hi!
It will be good to have ability for OpenCPN to insert GPS antena position and dimentions of the vessel to get real shape of ship on the chart. It will be very usefull for channel navigation and mooring.

[Down2TheC]

Turns out my current workaround wasn't really working. Once activated, a route with the MOB endpoint was really activating the first mark (originally the "1 mile" deal generated when you hit the MOB.) If you advance to the other mark, it will deactivate once you approach. So the workaround only works once. And that makes it useless if you have to move the mark (which requires deactivating the route.)
So please read carefully and consider this easy change. I haven't used C++ in 14 yrs or I'd knock it out. Thanks either way.

Originally Posted by Down2TheC

Hey folks... Loving 2.3! I searched and think I have a unique request that is a tiny-minor change.

We do mostly daysailing in the local waters and I'm using CPN to replace our now defunct LORANC unit that was set to the harbor entrance 95% of the time. It fed bearing and range to the autohelm display at the helm so I could always time returns well. So I'd like to set a point or route and leave it. But even with a tiny two point route at the entrance, each time we pass it the rout deactivates. Current workaround with 2.3 is to make it a MOB mark so the route stays active.

Current behavior: Unless a two point route ends with a MOB mark, the route deactivates when you get close enough to the final mark.

Real Current Behavior: Any route other than a an MOB that has just be generated and activated automatically deactivates itself when you get a certain distance from the final point.

Requested behavior simple fix: Give routes a property "persistent" with maybe a checkbox. If checked, no auto deactivation occurs at the last mark.

Complex: Allow for single point routes ("Activate Mark location" perhaps?) that stay active and give bearing/range to a mark indefinitely until mark is deactivated. XTE could be set to zero, TTG would be straight line distance at latest SOG.

Essentially, I'm just looking to replace "go to waypoint" on any basic GPS unit (LORAN in my case). They continue to give you bearing and range until you tell it to do something else.

[fgd3]

Originally Posted by Down2TheC

Turns out my current workaround wasn't really working. Once activated, a route with the MOB endpoint was really activating the first mark (originally the "1 mile" deal generated when you hit the MOB.) If you advance to the other mark, it will deactivate once you approach. So the workaround only works once. And that makes it useless if you have to move the mark (which requires deactivating the route.)

I haven't experimented with the MOB function but I was surprised to discover it creates a two-point route. I wonder what the logic is there. Why would I want to be lead away from the man overboard for ten or fifteen minutes before turning around to make the recovery? I expected it to drop a mark and go to that mark, as my GPS does.

Originally Posted by Down2TheC

Essentially, I'm just looking to replace "go to waypoint" on any basic GPS unit (LORAN in my case). They continue to give you bearing and range until you tell it to do something else.

My GPS continues to give bearing and range to a waypoint but it doesn't behave that way with a route until the final route point. The whole idea of a route is that when you get close enough to one route point the GPS automatically directs you to the next route point.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think what you would like is to have an option that routes remain active until explicitly deactivated and automatically reverse when the final route point is reached. For example, after you run a route from A to B to C to D it automatically becomes an active route from D to C to B to A. Is that the behavior you're looking for?

Fabbian