Imgkap - kap File Converter Tool

[MdJ]

Originally Posted by cagney

That is, imgkap is inserting todays date, and in the wrong US format.
Todays date is 07/02/2011 in US format - don't blame me for the logic, but that is the convention.
So when the user is suppling the header file, just copy the values, please.

Thomas

Thank you very much for your help Thomas

I change my home and I have very little time to answer questions.

Actually in imgkap, I wrote the date, voluntarily ED in European format, I have to change this, check with the BSB written by SHOM in France and find one solution.

Thank you again, I would suggest a correction soon.

M'dJ

[Gear]

Excellent, thank you very much. I've been searching for weeks to find a way to get a kap file from my scanned chart. I was also trying SeaClear out but it would only make a wci and I prefer to try OpenCPN. All this to say I actually converted my image file to a working kap. Where I did get stuck for a few minutes was on the command line for the KAP header. It was not clear where that file came from. I used mapcal to make a cal file, then KAP-File utility to make a BSB header, renamed that from .bsb to abc.kap, tried the command for the 10th time and amazingly out popped a fine Kap file.

Sorry for the long post but to other new members, I wanted to say this works.
Gear

[HappySeagull]

Gear,
Good oh!
By the way,you can name the header file ".txt" now ,in the newest version.This saves confusion.And,If you find time,please make a description of your own particular process here to help others...

[HappySeagull]

PS to gear...imgkap1.11 can read MapCal's output via mc2bsbh...rename the hdr file to .txt.
Windows command lines:

imgkap chartimage.bmp mc2bsbhheader.txt

name of kap will be bmp name or...

imgkap chartimage.bmp "the mc2bsbh.txt" your_choice-of-name.kap

replace bmp with png if that's the case...
MapCal only calibrates pngs and bmps for me and bmps work better when larger.

note the quotes around "the mc2bsbh.txt" This is because it has spaces in the name.Underscores and dashes are another workaround more agreeable to cmd line (as are shorter names to bad typists like me!)
you can simply edit and paste the above,into the Windows cmd window.

[HappySeagull]

Note to M'dJ?
NOT a big deal I hope and..
I'm may be a whiner but I still have a palette issue...Charts mostly go fine in OpenCPN but in Kapview(Cagney's Windows viewer) AND in OziExplorer...the palette will come up in blacks.I haven't any other apps except OZI installed anymore but there's something amiss.

The original image here was 16mil colour tif but I have had the same trouble in other image formats no matter what I try(previous color reduction in irfanview OR GraphicsMagick, etc...)Some WILL do display like this even in OpenCPN...

[HappySeagull]

..M'dJ more info for THIS image BUT ignore .Stay sailing ,turn off your computer!
per
tiffinfo
LIBTIFF, Version 3.8.2
Copyright (c) 1988-1996 Sam Leffler

D:\KEEPERS\Navigation\BSBconversion\MAPCAL+MCBSBH SYSTEM>tiffinfo D:\MAPS\CANADA
_TOPOS\062(aroundFARM\toporama_062f13.tif
TIFFReadDirectory: Warning, D:\MAPS\CANADA_TOPOS\062(aroundFARM\toporama_062f13.tif: unknown field with tag 33550 (0x830e) encountered.
TIFFReadDirectory: Warning, D:\MAPS\CANADA_TOPOS\062(aroundFARM\toporama_062f13.tif: unknown field with tag 33922 (0x8482) encountered.
TIFFReadDirectory: Warning, D:\MAPS\CANADA_TOPOS\062(aroundFARM\toporama_062f13.tif: unknown field with tag 34735 (0x87af) encountered.
TIFFReadDirectory: Warning, D:\MAPS\CANADA_TOPOS\062(aroundFARM\toporama_062f13.tif: unknown field with tag 34737 (0x87b1) encountered.
TIFF Directory at offset 0x8 (8)
  Image Width: 4500 Image Length: 3600
  Bits/Sample: 8
  Sample Format: unsigned integer
  Compression Scheme: None
  Photometric Interpretation: RGB color
  Samples/Pixel: 3
  Rows/Strip: 1
  Planar Configuration: single image plane
  Tag 33550: 0.000111,0.000069,0.000000
  Tag 33922: 0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,-102.000000,50.000000,0.000000
  Tag 34735: 1,1,0,5,1024,0,1,2,1025,0,1,1,2048,0,1,4269,2049,34737,6,0,2054,0,1
,9102
  Tag 34737: NAD83|

not sure if it's useful. DON'T reply at all if you are on La Cote d'Azure!!!
I'm just dropping this here for reference...!

[HappySeagull]

No,the above is a red herring to do with Canada Topo tifs ...because I'm getting black palettes from the NGA charts too...I've tried several ways via Irfanview and GraphicMagick,
Firstly,only resized 50% to BMPS(that was so MapCal can use em)That didn't work inimgkap so I
Then reduced colours to 256...and so on through pngs and tiffs.
Well,if no-one else is having this,that's a clue!

Later...aha.Colours fixed!Got an older version imgkap1b.This works.Go figure.
The old version needs header.kap..can't use a txt file but just renaming the mc2bsbh ".hdr" to ".kap" also works fine

http://www.dacust.com/inlandwaters/i....00/imgkap.exe
Thanks,Dacust for keeping these!

[HappySeagull]

If there's ONE thing that leaps out at me,it's that my old CHS kaps and the US charts all start their colour values in tha kap file as

RGB/1,0,0,0..RGB/2,255,255,255

!Copyright 1995-1997, BSB Electronic Charts.  All Rights Reserved...VER/2.0..BSB/NA=CAPE BLANCO TO CAPE FLATTERY,NU=1651,RA=8213,10655,DU=254..KNP/SC=736560,GD=NAD83,PR=MERCATOR,PP=46.00,PI=60.000,SP=,SK=0.0000000..    TA=90.0000000,UN=FATHOMS,SD=MEAN LOWER LOW WATER,DX=73.66,DY=73.66..CED/SE=16,RE=03,ED=09/18/1993..OST/1..IFM/4..RGB/1,0,0,0..RGB/2,255,255,255..RGB/3,209,221,239..RGB/4,244,232,193..RGB/5,219,181,

imgkap (and tiff2bsb ),do not.

[r.fairman]

I was getting a black pallete until I used the -n switch in imgkap I first converted to png Reduced the size by 50% then used imgkap to convert to a kap file using an header file created by mcbsbh I assume the -n switch reduces the color palettte

richard

[HappySeagull]

Thanks,Richard.I'll try that exact recipe...but using the just -n switch didn't work and is anyways supposed to be gone in the newer versions...
Have you tried your kaps in other apps outside of OpenCPN?(wherein my black ones work fine!it's Ozi,Kapview and whatever else they don't...)

per my theory post#143...of course I found an exception...

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by r.fairman

I was getting a black pallete until I used the -n switch in imgkap I first converted to png Reduced the size by 50% then used imgkap to convert to a kap file using an header file created by mcbsbh I assume the -n switch reduces the color palettte

richard

Thanks,richard-That works...the -n switch.(see below though)
What also works are 256 bmps,127 colour tifs.Why now?

It seems important to NOT reconvert from any previously converted image... I think I did this in the mess I made in the attempts...-n switch didn't help in these.I'm still puzzled,you see.

The Canadian geo -tiffs pictured above(-that's what they were !)were not helping....I'll work on these next...
Are you testing yours outside of OpenCPN?

[HappySeagull]

can anyone help with this batch script?

@echo 
@echo a batch script to make kaps with MdJ's imgkap 1.11

FOR %%I IN ("*.tif","*.txt") DO (imgkap -n "%%~nI.tif" "%%~nI.txt") 
@pause

it works ok but it runs through twice or thrice before stopping...hmm

[HappySeagull]

@echo  @echo a batch script to make kaps with MdJ's imgkap 1.11  FOR %%I IN ("*.tif") DO (imgkap -n "%%~nI.tif" "%%~nI.txt")  @pause

there,that works better...oh,and can replace tif with png or bmp just fine.

[aart]

Originally Posted by dacust

The Windows executable can be downloaded as a single un-zipped object here:

==> imgkap - Download

It also has the imgkap.c source code.

This site will be updated sometime from a coupla hours to as much as a coupla days after a new version is posted here.

If you want the newest version right away, download the attachments posted in the post above and follow the instructions.

BUT, if you want it to be a little easier, you can download 7-Zip, and yuse the convert.cmd at the link above that will rename, combine and un-zip all at once. Just put the downloaded objects in the same directory as the convert.cmd and double-click the command.

When I get home tonight, I'll modify the page to show the date/time and link to the post of the version that was last downloaded, so it'll be obvious which one it is.

-dan

Great Job!!! Today I downloaded imgkap.exe v 1.11 and found that it did NOT work on my Win XP computer. (error message: imcap is no valid win32 program) So I tried version 1.1 and after 1 minute I had my first working .kap file for OpenCPN. It showed op nicely in OpenCPN!
Many thanks to Dan for preserving the old files and MdJ Merci Beaucoup!
Aart
(Holland)

[HappySeagull]

That's odd.imgkap1.11 worked just fine.You can rename it,substitute it and try...?