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seandepagnier · 26-03-2013, 05:30

I have been testing NEW_GRIB and I am finding it mostly adds:

1. email support
2. cloud cover, wind gust, rainfall
3. much nicer display in lower left with black on yellow than before
4. removes item from main display if you don't want them to save space

I found it does not update the numeric data in the panel (boxes are always blank). Has anyone else experienced this?

I fixed several bugs I found in the original grib, mostly dealing with rendering, I noticed these are not fixed in NEW_GRIB, and I also added support for messaging (for weather routing) as well as a bunch of other stuff.

That being said.. I think it would be easier for me to do the merging, adding the above features to grib_enhancements.

Jean,
Please let me know if there are any other features added, and let me know when you are done with them so I don't miss anything.

As a side note.. maybe we should all vote on the combo box or tree view for gribs. The tree view makes it much easier to switch between files but it takes up more space. Maybe a third better option?

Ptizef · 26-03-2013, 13:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

I have been testing NEW_GRIB and I am finding it mostly adds:

1. email support
2. cloud cover, wind gust, rainfall
3. much nicer display in lower left with black on yellow than before
4. removes item from main display if you don't want them to save space

I found it does not update the numeric data in the panel (boxes are always blank). Has anyone else experienced this?

I fixed several bugs I found in the original grib, mostly dealing with rendering, I noticed these are not fixed in NEW_GRIB, and I also added support for messaging (for weather routing) as well as a bunch of other stuff.

That being said.. I think it would be easier for me to do the merging, adding the above features to grib_enhancements.

Jean,
Please let me know if there are any other features added, and let me know when you are done with them so I don't miss anything.

As a side note.. maybe we should all vote on the combo box or tree view for gribs. The tree view makes it much easier to switch between files but it takes up more space. Maybe a third better option?

You have done a big work on the rendering .
My willing was more to work on the user interface .
Personally I prefere the combo-box and button than tree. I found tree less efficient and I wanted to save place on my small 10' screen.
It was the main raison to start the project.
In fact in navigation I don't look at many files , Saildocs, Zygrib ... give the same data.... But having the current file at the right time always available with only one click is a plus.

There is no features to be added at the moment (at least nothing important )

The panel without data have been reported on a Debian device .
I have no negative report at that time for windows

Jean Pierre

rgleason · 26-03-2013, 14:08

Jean Pierre, I understand your desire for a small display window, yet Sean's plugin has need for more controls in the first window, particularly when doing frames / play as video. Maybe the display could expand and contract when we hit a button or something?

Then the values on the bottom would expand and contract with amount of data in grib, and when we play video type, the window expands to show the controls? Or is this too complicated.

Would like radio buttons for selection of data types to be greyed out if that data does not exist in the file, if possible.

AISEAG · 26-03-2013, 14:23

Hi Jean Pierre,

Well done,

When I want to send a query (last tab) to saildoc, this error message "OpenCPN failed to logon, please verify your email environment" is display on my screen,

what is the procedure to configure my email?

Serge

Ptizef · 26-03-2013, 14:34

Serge ...
Thanks for your report
Normally you should have a valid eMail system ( Outlook , Thunderbird ... )
I mean you can send eMail with it and you have to be sure it is declared as the main eMail system.
What OS ans what eMail do you use?
Regards
Jean Pierre

seandepagnier · 26-03-2013, 16:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgleason

Jean Pierre, I understand your desire for a small display window, yet Sean's plugin has need for more controls in the first window, particularly when doing frames / play as video. Maybe the display could expand and contract when we hit a button or something?

Really just the timeline slider and play/stop button (icon would be nice). It doesn't need to take much more space.

Quote:

Would like radio buttons for selection of data types to be greyed out if that data does not exist in the file, if possible.

Maybe they should just disappear in this case. Then you know the data is not in the file and it doesn't take up space.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ptizef

You have done a big work on the rendering .
My willing was more to work on the user interface .
Personally I prefere the combo-box and button than tree. I found tree less efficient and I wanted to save place on my small 10' screen.
It was the main raison to start the project.
In fact in navigation I don't look at many files , Saildocs, Zygrib ... give the same data.... But having the current file at the right time always available with only one click is a plus.

I don't know which is best, and I don't really care about the tree view that much myself, so it would be good to hear from other people about what they think.

Quote:

There is no features to be added at the moment (at least nothing important )

The panel without data have been reported on a Debian device .
I have no negative report at that time for windows

Jean Pierre

This is easy to resolve anyway, I looked at the source differences so I should be able to merge everything. I'll probably get to this in a few days

AISEAG · 27-03-2013, 14:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ptizef

Serge ...
you should have a valid eMail system ( Outlook , Thunderbird ... )
......

Hi Jean Pierre,

Everything has been done to use Outlook Express.

An Email has been sent to Saildoc (via the plugin) - seems OK.

Wait and see

Thanks
serge

Hakan · 28-03-2013, 02:34

All..

Quote:

maybe we should all vote on the combo box or tree view for gribs

Quote:

Personally I prefere the combo-box and button than tree. I found tree less efficient and I wanted to save place on my small 10' screen.

My vote:
-I do agree with the combo-box arguments just to make the grib window as small as possible.
-I don't miss the slider function since I use to: Tick ones on the right arrow beside the combo-box. Move the mouse cursor to my position of interests and hit <Enter> repetitive to increase one time step and see all data for that position.
-I appreciate the weekday indicator in the grib window. (I don't always know what day of the week it is. That's a function of retirement

)

Håkan

rgleason · 28-03-2013, 05:49

Since Håkan has voted, I am going to vote and explain why.
However I don't think this is a question of one or the other. I think it is more a matter of finding the right format to be inclusive, so that we can have the best of both grib setups. There is one thing both grib plugins could benefit from, and that is to become more "data-aware" about the file being loaded, and to not present data selections that do not apply or exist. Also I would like the plubin to "turn on"" at least one existing data layer or type when the grib is loaded so that we can find it without trouble.
I agree with the idea of not taking up too much real estate with the control window, but I would like the necessary controls on the first menu and I would like to have full controls for display and play on the second menu. I really like Sean's Grib_Enhancement plugin's ability to control and save display settings for each type of data and how that stays.

Grib-Enhanced Menus

Main Menu
Grib file directory, Browse, Config
Controls Play/Stop Slider
Grib selection window
Grib Data at Cursor
Checks and data windows

Config Menu
Playback Controls (supports interpolation!)

Interpolate check
Loop Mode check
Slices per Update (Controls for slower machines)
Updates per Second
Slices per hour
(Question, to speed this up or slow it down what do we do?)
(Question to reduce computing horsepower needed what do we do?)

Display
Data Type (Wind, wave, currrent, seatemp)
Units (MPH, M/S, KPH, Knots)
Then you are given control over all the display parameters for the selected Data Type. These controls are saved as a default for that data type. This is excellent. For example, Seatemp really has no Barbed Arrows or vector data or need for direction arrows. However it does use Overlaymap, colors (seatemp, current, generic, etc) and it does use Numbers and spacing, and Isobars could be useful and Units of course.

I would like this menu to simpler so that it configures Sea Temp (less generic) User is presented with only the display characteristics for Sea Temp. It simplifies things. Then hit apply and save that configuration.

Same for Wind, Wave, Current and Pressure, which all have vector or direction data, so all of the display settings would apply.

OK, Cancel, Apply.

Generally, I really like Grib_Enhancements controls because they are so thorough and extensive. You can configure for your preferences. What I would really like is the plugin to become more "Data-aware" of what type of data the particular grib file contains, and perhaps only show those data types in the "Grib Display Control - Grib Data at Cursor" With a radio button.

To be clear, the "Configuration" Menu would still be accessible and would still show all of the data types because they all need to be configured at some point. Configuration would not be data sensitive to the grib file loaded. I like this system because of the control over settings and the playback. It has improved significantly and it plays gribs without much fuss because it has been optimized and bug tested and fixed.

New-Grib Menus

Main Menu - I like:

Name of the grib being used in the upper blue menu bar.
Translated name of the main grib in the lower right yellow area (that is what it is isn't it?)
The immediate grib frame with data and time in the menu.

This menu is quite compact, yet shows data at the cursor too. The menu should expand and contract based upon the amount of data that the user selects to be shown via the Display Data check boxes in the second menu and there should be no limit on the number of data positions it will present.

The icons are fine because they are compact, but there should be a pop-up menu name when you hover over them for a second. This will help people while getting used to the screen.

I guess I don't mind putting the file browser in the background to save display space, particularly when there is a dropdown selector, although Sean's file list is quite quick and direct and offers some advantages for browsing.

What we need here is some controls for stop and start of play, and perhaps a small slider bar.

I am very puzzled by that button after the right arrow in the main menu. I have clicked on it and I can''t figgure out what it does.

I really like the Saildocs email button and it works well for me. I would like to see this become expanded more so that the user can put in a Description and urls and ftp sites for gribs, with particular files to download, when they have internet access. Also a box selector for area would be helpful. I see that the email function under modify has a dropdown for Saildocs Noaa_Coamps, Noaa-GFS and Noaa_Rtofs this is excellent and very useful. I think users will want to be able to expand this and configure it for their areas and services. I think this area has the potential to develop more with the Saildoc email becoming a Data-Gathering button, which provides an area for users to set up various types of requests and downloads.

I notice that the email allows you to specify data type and resolution as well which is good. It assumes wind and pressure are needed which is also good, but some chart types rtofs does not have that type of data.

Data Display Preferences
Numerical Data to show in Panel

This is a nice quick way of selecting what you are interested in. The main menu will adjust to fit that data automatically.

Grib Data to show in Map
These are fine as far as they go, but I would like to have Sean's controls over the way each type of data is displayed, with the settings saved when you hit apply, so we need Grib_Enhancements features here.

Play Control - I have added this because it is missing in this grib. We would want Grib_Enhancements features and menu for this.

So that's it. I think we can have the best of both worlds here and I vote

for both of them! I trust that both Sean and Jean Pierre will continue developing parts of this after Sean merges it, because they both have a tremendous amount to offer. My thanks to both of them for their work. I am sure I speak for all users of Opencpn! Merci Beaucoup!

Rick

yoruk · 29-03-2013, 01:01

Congratulations and thank you
W7 64 b: no problem
Download zyGrib, 3G without problems
Download Saildocs G Wifi: no problem
Michel

The French tutorial # 1: update

Bravo et merci
W7 64 b : sans problème
Téléchargement zyGrib, 3G : sans problème
Téléchargement Saildocs G et Wifi : sans problème
Michel

The French tutorial # 1: updatePlugin Grib OpenCPN

rgleason · 29-03-2013, 04:43

Is Zygrib better than Ugrib? It appears to include more types of data and access to more data locations.

Thanks for the write up of NeW_GRIB Here is a translation to English.

rgleason · 29-03-2013, 05:11

It appears you can email zygib with requests too.
Zygrib Email formats for requests.

NEVERMIND · 29-03-2013, 07:05

There is a bug on this plugin.
Unable to display the wind in knots.
In the preferences, it's not possible valid the node knots, it's remains inactve.
Only data Km and m/s can be display.
JP

rgleason · 29-03-2013, 07:38

Re: Zygrib. It is better than Ugrib. Its based on Qt and its controls and look and feel are much like qtVlm. Zygrib has extensive controls for display of data, which is very nice, but I find grib_enhancements controls better and clearer.

Also the left side controls appear to be just like NEW_Grib except the left and right paging arrows are together on the right (which I like better).

Play Movie: Zygrib has a button (rocket) at the top which opens a 'movie' window with all the play controls. Perhaps that is an approach to take with the next merged version? - I haven't thought about this too much....