Help with Open CPM on a Mac

[Mariellec]

I am new to this forum and hope it is Ok to start a new thread - I could not find the help I needed in the threads I saw. I have downloaded OpenCPM onto my Macbook and some raster charts from NOAA. I have used the toolbox to select the folder with the raster charts, and clicked OK, but all I have is a black screen with continents outlined in blue and the red chart outlines...and a big yellow star in South Carolina. But no matter what I do I cannot get a chart to appear. I have followed the instructions in the user manual, but cannot get anything different. Can someone please help me - I am pretty computer savvy and figure that there must be a toggle somewhere, but I am completely baffled about why everyone else can get this program to work but me???

[HappySeagull]

Mariellec, assuming it's the same on a mac as a windows or linux install,
First,
click on one of the red chart outlines. This should roughly centre it in your screen...

Second,
zoom in using the + on the toolbar....or the + on your keyboard.



PS-the "yellow star" is just a guess OPCN has made for your boat's position, until you or your gps tell her otherwise. As you zoom in, it'll change to a boat shape.
PPS- it's nice to have a small scale chart that covers the area of all the large scale charts .You'll seldom see the black screen if you have all your cruising area covered with some kind of chart!

[Mariellec]

Thanks for the response. I have tried your suggestion and it does not work. when I first installed it, I followed the manual instructions to select the CM93 folder (and only that folder), and all I got was the black screen with no red outlines. If I added the CM folder, I could see the continents in colors, and red outlines but still nothing worked. When I added the BSB root folder (NOAA charts), then those NOAA charts were outlined and when I click on the purple bar at the bottom of the screen, one of them opens. There is a yellow bar but when I click on that, I just get very angular continents, no chart. Also, when I have a chart open from NOAA, clicking on the - or + key only works to a point.

I cannot understand why the CM93 charts do not open. Any help from anyone would be so appreciated.

Also, frequently the toolbar often disappears - I know it is supposed to disappear and be transparent, but it truly DISAPPEARS - I roll over every area of the screen and it never reappears. I have tried reinstalling (I was desperate) but still the same issues.

[HappySeagull]

Mariellec, you're moving the goalpost and I haven't a mac, but anyways, try this- goto toolbox, Vector Charts tab and be sure that the stuff on left has some boxes checked...clicking Mariner's Standard in OPCN2.5 fills em all in, I recall..2.6 betas need you to fill some in...
The raster charts are limited as to zoom. Weirdly, if you have cm93 charts installed, IT'S zoom is limited too, by the Rasters until you get a long way away from them...so be sure you have a small scale Raster or none at all of the area you are looking at to use a lot of zoom positions in cm93...

[Mariellec]

Thanks again, Happy SeaGull. I understand about the zoom - I think I just need to play with that and get a better sense of the application. It's working just fine with the NOAA charts, but, sadly, I still can't make the CM93 work. So I am wondering if the files are corrupted somehow. I did copy another set of CM93 from a friend and tried them just to see if mine were corrupted. Hers are working fine on her PC, but they would not work on my mac - I don't know if hers are different for the PC. Sigh!

I also did check the boxes in the vector chart tab and they were checked like the manual tells you to...

Thanks for trying!!!

[HappySeagull]

I feel your pain.

Can you find the log? O writes a log every time she gets out of her bunk. The vector charts are one of her favourite subjects.
Your friends' cm93 aren't going to be any different unless the mac does things to it in the transfer....I'm clueless on macs (or ideas about this!) but I know Macs can read fat32 file format for sure and that Macs don't like the newer NTFS...so just maybe, put known working cm93 folder on a usb stick and try....
But I begin to fear you'll have to scratch around on the specific OPCN Mac thread for a missing library or something...
Also, I need say though you likely know, just direct OPCN to a cm93 folder- she'll open everything including subfolders in it...

[Mariellec]

Hooray! Success! I showed my friend with the PC the problem and she said "just zoom in on the spot you want. The chart will show up." I had been looking for red chart outlines like the NOAA charts have, but apparently the CM charts don't have red outlines....all I needed to do was zoom and zoom and VOILA! They were there all the time. So now I am HAPPY MARIELLEC!!! Thanks so much though for all of your attempts to help.