Feature Requests

[rgleason]

Happy Seagull, thanks, found Toolbox/Etc/ "Lock all waypoints unless a waypoint property dialogue is present." - I do not know if this will prove to be cumbersome but will try it.

- I would have expected "waypoint/mark" location locking to be a property of each waypoint/mark, and still think it should be so. Also why wouldn't waypoint locking appear under Route Manager / Properties, perhaps as a lock/unlock for each mark, just like the eye/no eye in the Route Manager?

- It appears that the dialogue box for Mark/Waypoint right mouse click which has a check box to show names, is not accessible from Route Properties dialogue box. It seems to me that individual waypoints listed in Route Properties should when clicked, pop up the Mark Properties dialogue.

- Also it makes sense that the user be able to select a number of waypoints from the Route Properties dialogue to be able check the "Show name" box.

Would still like Range and Bearing tools, which create RBL notations on the chart, more fully featured than "measure"

Have found mouse highlight Mark, right click, select "Mark/Waypoint properties".
Would like the properties to be expanded to include:
1. Range rings - user selected distance in NM, feet, meters, etc
2. Range ring color - user select
3. Range ring weight - 1,2,3 etc
4. User selection to turn it into an alarm (like the anchor alarm) but with a selection of "None, inside, or outside"

Then would like a button for "New/Add Mark" which would utilize the new mark properties for Range and add an Arrow and line for bearing. The range and bearing arrow should be adjustable visually from the chart by hover and left mouse button, same for the location of the RBL, I think.

I appreciate the more direct nature of the interface, and perhaps this is a philosophical aspect of software interface design that I should not get into.

However there are some features that would be very useful.

[rgleason]

Dear Cagney,

Tried the link, ended up registering and confirming, however tracker, all projects, shows nothing listed right now, for me.

[cagney]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Dear Cagney,

Tried the link, ended up registering and confirming, however tracker, all projects, shows nothing listed right now, for me.

Due to spammer activity, you are required to be logged in, to see anything.

Thomas

[rgleason]

I made some changes as follows:

- Lock-unlock position toggle - I would have expected "waypoint/mark" location locking to be a property of each waypoint/mark, and still think it should be. Also why wouldn't waypoint locking appear under Route Manager / Properties, perhaps as a lock/unlock for each mark, just like the eye/no eye in the Route Manager? I realize that the Route Manager shows Legs, but such a lock/unlock toggle would be for the starting waypoint of each Leg listed.

- Show Names Toggle - It appears that the dialogue box for Mark/Waypoint right mouse click which has a check box to show names, is not accessible from Route Properties dialogue box. It seems to me that the first waypoint listed for each leg in Route Properties should have a show name toggle, also when a leg is double clicked the Mark Properties dialogue box should pop up. - ok?

[rgleason]

Sorry for double post.

Tried the link, ended up registering and confirming, however tracker, all projects, shows nothing listed right now, for me.

- Now I tried logging in again, and flycatcher (?) works

[yachtvalhalla]

In route properties the distance between waypoints is shown. A very useful addition would be a column showing cumulative distance waypoint-to-waypoint along the route.

Terry

[HappySeagull]

I second that! (Valhalla's)
I'd love to have a sum of the route as well as the leg! especially on the "Hover-Help " (seen when the mouse cursor hovers on the charted route, in case that's not plain) I've wished for it many times...

[JesperWe]

Originally Posted by HappySeagull

I second that! (Valhalla's)
I'd love to have a sum of the route as well as the leg! especially on the "Hover-Help " (seen when the mouse cursor hovers on the charted route, in case that's not plain) I've wished for it many times...

Your wish has been granted.
(for next beta release and onwards)

/jesper

[HappySeagull]

"You must spread some Thanks around before giving it to JesperWe again"
But to heck with that!

Thanks, jesper!

[Singingdrum]

I'm really enjoying experimenting with OpenCPN. One feature I would like to see is an alarm (and maybe a boxed message as well) signifying that you have reached each waypoint on a route. I know we are supposed to be watching our screens as we progress on a route, but sometimes on long stretches we might get sidetracked long enough to miss a waypoint and end up off course and not where we want to be (hopefully not on a rock!). I was surprised not to find this feature, unless I've missed it.

as I put a little more thought into this, it would be really great to have an audible sound and/or message if you have the sound turned off that tells you that you are approaching a waypoint--a certain distance or length of time before you reach it. I think that would be equally important as a message that you have reached the waypoint.

Thanks and keep up the great work. A fantastic addition to my boat!

[Stingo]

This may have been suggested before, but reading through 58 pages of posts is just not going to happen.

Not sure if it would be possible, but could you program a flashing light that flashes with the correct characteristics and display it in the Object Query? Perhaps just to the right of the characteristics description?

[Stingo]

p.s. Perhaps one of the clever programmers can create a plugin to do the above, where the user selects the colour, pattern and adjusts the timing.

[Stingo]

p.p.s and range, which could be linked to the boat's GPS position giving reciprocal bearings to and from the light, plus the distance. An indicator showing if it is within visible range or not would be nice too.

[rgleason]

I'm wondering how hard this programming is to do. If we had more people who could do it, we'd be able to get some of these features faster. I have programmed and Basic and Unix (college, years ago) , and most recently in Pascal for CAD macros. I am unfamiliar with Linux.

What language is used? I get the impression that the program is actually modular with different people responsible for different aspects of the programming. Is that correct? If so, is there a place to read about this, the structure and languages being used, and possibly learning more?

Thanks.

[nohal]

rgleason...
OpenCPN is written in C++. There's no fixed list of developers assigned to certain tasks - everyone can work and works on stuff he considers fun, important and necessary. Of course it's pretty wise to discuss what you want to do in advance to avoid duplicating the work of someone else.
If you want to start on something easier to understand, the plugins are the way to go - there's quite a few of them you can use as samples (source linked from PlugIns | Official OpenCPN Homepage) and you will not have to crawl through that much source code. We really try to help anybody who wants to implement something and maintain some minimal docs for developers at Developer Manual | Official OpenCPN Homepage, but you can't expect a "cookbook" - there simply currently is not enough manpower to create one.

Pavel