Weather Routing

[rgleason]

Sherry, thank you for your report, please see comments interleaved:

Originally Posted by SoggyPaws

1. The initial copy of polar files from AppData to ProgramData fails after about 30 files, crashing OpenCPN, consistently (did it twice before I worked around the problem). Therefore, most of the polar files are missing, and the WeatherRoutingConfiguration.xml file is missing.

This problem seems to be reoccurring, I am going to have to dig into it further.

Originally Posted by SoggyPaws

2. The Sample Routes in the WeatherRoutingConfiguration.xml file reference boat files who reference polar files that are not there (someone has tweaked them, but not updated the Boat folder to match the current setup of Example Polar files).

The only file that does not seem to have the necessary "Examples/" folder in the path is "boat.xml" My mistake. Please download boat.xml.docx and remove the docx and place in data/boats/ and give it a try. I decided it was easiest to repopulate the original "boats" xml files and rename to new examles with "SS" for "SailSet", thus aligning with the plugin's documentation.

Originally Posted by SoggyPaws

3. The initial population of Climatology data on first run appears to only populate half of the data.
Then it recovered on initial install by downloading from internet (Sean's Github), but subsequent startup of Climatology logs a bunch of errors every time. See and 15:16:41.461 in Log File #3
This should be fixed. The errors are apparently not real errors, they are red herrings.

Climatology, automatically downloads the 30 years of data files from an archive folder on Sean's github. There are a number of compressed files that need to be downloaded. To complete it may take several trys on a bad internet connection. The files may also get corrupted with a bad internet connection. These problems you're reporting are the result of a bad internet connection, I believe. Can you advise after using a good solid internet connection, if it persists? Once they are downloaded properly, you do not need the internet connection again.

Originally Posted by SoggyPaws

4. Confusing: On starting a new configuration in WR, the Time field is populated with current LOCAL time. But the default time scheme is UTC. This is confusing. If the default scheme is UTC, the initial setting of this time in the New Configuration window should be UTC, not local.

I will have to look into this further, but when you write "But the default time scheme is UTC." - Is this for OpenCPN? I don't believe there is any link between the main program and WR for this setting, and there is no way presently for the plugin to "know" the OpenCPN Time setting, as I believe the API does not have that value. WR is standalone in that respect, but I will have to take a more complete look.

Originally Posted by SoggyPaws

5. Weather Routing load still results in this error, every time:
15:46:25.740 ERROR filefn.cpp:1183 Directory 'C:\ProgramData\opencpn\\plugins\weather_routing\\ boats' couldn't be created (error 183: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.)
15:46:25.740 ERROR filefn.cpp:1183 Directory 'C:\ProgramData\opencpn\\plugins\weather_routing\\ polars' couldn't be created (error 183: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.)
This does not appear to block the plugin from working correctly, but is a real red herring when trying to track down other problems.

We will try to fix this.

I was hoping to next update squiddio, climatology and celestial navigation, but I will try to get these WR issues in between. Some of them I will need some programming help!

[rgleason]

Sherry there is something else wrong with boats xml files. Don't test yet. I am working on it.

BTW, I confirm this entry in log file after I had removed all weather_routing entries from
%localappdata%/opencpn/plugins and programdata/opencpn/plugins (including the wr dll) and cleared programdata/opencpn/plugins/cache of all weatherrouting.

10:47:15.069 ERROR filefn.cpp:1183 Directory 'C:\ProgramData\opencpn\\plugins\weather_routing\\ boats' couldn't be created (error 183: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.)
10:47:15.069 ERROR filefn.cpp:1183 Directory 'C:\ProgramData\opencpn\\plugins\weather_routing\\ polars' couldn't be created (error 183: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.)
10:47:21.016 MESSAGE pluginmanager.cpp:591 PlugInManager: Using data dirs from: C:\Users\Rick\AppData\Local\opencpn\plugins;C:\Pro gram Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.5.0\plugins

[rgleason]

Polar file problems copying from

%localappdata%/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing_pi/data/polars
to

programdata/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing/data/polars

1. All polar files after Arcona_340 are not copied.


Note: Polar/Example folder and files are copied.
Evidently we cannot have a part of a path in the name field of the boat xml.
We are going to have to flatten this arrangement and change the boat xml files accordingly.
On top of that the boat polars don't seem to open.

[rgleason]

Ok, It appears we can have a sub-directory under Polars for Examples.


I had the backslash wrong. There are some other fixes needed.



Once this is done and updated...

There is one additional action needed by the user to reset full pathnames in the Weather_routing configuration file (both the polar full path and the contours full path).


The user must open the first Weather_routing menu and double click on a configuration or highlight the configuration and pick "Configuration > Edit" or Ctrl-E
Then pick "Boat" "Edit" to bring up the various polars being used.
Then pick "Save Boat"


This then creates the necessary contour files and sets the full pathnames in the configuration file.


Then you should be able to "Compute" a full routing without having a "Polar Fail"

[rgleason]

After some work - Summary for Soggy Paws

1. Copy of all polar files not resolved. - Please enter under Issues.
2. WRConfiguration.xml Example routings should be fixed
3. Climatology is running just as one would expect
4. Time: Local vs UTC - There is no setting for this in WR Plugin.
- RFE Request for Enhancement. Enter under Issues..
5. Not seeing these error messages now.


Will be adding to Plugin Alpha branch and pushing up to PIM plugins as v1.13.30.1

[SoggyPaws]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Climatology, automatically downloads the 30 years of data files from an archive folder on Sean's github.

So the Climatology plugin, when first installed, doesn't already have all the data it needs? That's pretty surprising.

Originally Posted by rgleason

4. Time: Local vs UTC - There is no setting for this in WR Plugin.
- RFE Request for Enhancement. Enter under Issues.

There IS actually a Local Time option already in WR. View/Settings, at the bottom of the scrolling checkbox part of that window is a checkbox Use Local Time. This item is really minor, though, as I think it only happens on the very first run, and if you click either Current Time or Grib Time it resolves itself.

Also, regarding the Polar files, I used the St. Lucia to Provincetown sample route who's boat is Boat-Climatology.xml, and had to make several corrections to make that work... one that I remember referenced 06-24.pol, and the actual polar file in the Examples folder was named 6-24.pol (no zero). But there was another one or two on that Boat file that needed tweaking.

Thanks
Sherry

[rgleason]

Climatology plugin, when first installed, doesn't already have all the data it needs? That's pretty surprising.

No it does not.

There IS actually a Local Time option already in WR. View/Settings, at the bottom of the scrolling checkbox part of that window is a checkbox Use Local Time.. if you click either Current Time or Grib Time it resolves itself.

Yes, that's right. Forgot about that. Useful.

Also, regarding the Polar files, I used the St. Lucia to Provincetown sample route who's boat is Boat-Climatology.xml, and had to make several corrections to make that work... one that I remember referenced 06-24.pol, and the actual polar file in the Examples folder was named 6-24.pol (no zero). But there was another one or two on that Boat file that needed tweaking.

I think these are fixed now in the new version.


Copy all the polars needs to be fixed.

[rgleason]

@sherry Salty_Paws

Before installing the new version 1.13.30.2 (V1.13.30.1 has two small glitches)
you should uninstall or remove all the other WR Plugins and data directories.

%localappdata%/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing_pi/data
     also remove the directory weather_routing_pi  and the weather_routing .dll

programdata/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing/data
    also remove the directory weather_routing and the weather_routing.dll

Also in programdata/opencpn/plugins/cache
     remove all tarballs for weather_routing.

Then start opencpn and update and install the new version.
Then close down OpenCPN again and copy the following:

1. Polars/Examples
2. WeatherRoutingConfiguration.xml

from %localappdata%/opencpn/plugins/weather_routing_pi/data
to Programdata/plugins/weather_routing/data

Then start Opencpn and try it.



SUMMARY

The plugin needs to be fixed so that:
1. all polar files are copied
2. weatherroutingconfiguration.xml is copied
3. data/boats is copied
4. data/polars/Examples is copied
from %localappdata% to programdata

[SoggyPaws]

NEVER MIND, I figured it out...
Rick thanks, where do I get the updated plugin from?
I tried both the Master and Beta catalog, and no new updates.
I think there's a CloudFlare (??) location somewhere, but can't seem to find a reference to it for an exact link.
Sherry

[SoggyPaws]

@rgleason

OK, I manually downloaded the updated plugin and installed it (after cleaning out vestiges of the previous version). I can confirm that the file copy bug is still there, and that manually copying the files from the AppData folder to the ProgramData folder fixes that problem.

I tried the sample routes that didn't work before, and they work.

I created a new Boat file for my boat with my polars, and ran the routing. Everything worked as expected.

HOWEVER, there's one more bug, I think. I like to see a lot of columns on my resulting screen, so the window is very wide. To see the chart, I have to move the WR window off to the side, so it is only 25% visible on the right side. When I do this (a) OpenCPN starts taking a huge amount of CPU time (b) I can't move the chart, it's frozen.

If I move the WR window back so all 4 corners are visible, then I can manually drag the chart around. And OpenCPN goes back to minimal CPU usage in Task Manager.

Interestingly, it seems that this ONLY happens if I move the window to the right. It doesn't happen if I move it to the left. Crazy! See screen shot attached.

Sherry

[rgleason]

Sherry did you use the Alpha Channel, by adding to opencpn.ini after [plugins]

catalogexpert=1


or did you use Opencpn Plugin cloudsmith repository and download the tarball?


https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn/repos/

[rgleason]

@SoggyPaws

Is this with charts showing? Which ones?
What happens when you reduce the number of fields shown?
I tried this with normal number of fields 5-6 and no charts on and it is not a problem.

Do you have a free opensource account at github.com?

https://github.com/

You can get one and then you will be able to post Issues here under weather_routing issues.. and other plugins

https://github.com/rgleason/weather_routing_pi/issues

Thanks

[rgleason]

@SoggyPaws
Does this adequately describe the remaining issue with copying?
https://github.com/rgleason/weather_...g_pi/issues/75


You can add your Issue as a bug.

[rgleason]

WR v1.13.30.2 still has some bugs see these Issues in particular, this one

Looking for a PR from a programmer, that will fix this.

[SoggyPaws]

Re: Can't move the chart in the chart window if WR window offscreen to the right.

Originally Posted by rgleason

@SoggyPaws
Is this with charts showing? Which ones?
What happens when you reduce the number of fields shown?
I tried this with normal number of fields 5-6 and no charts on and it is not a problem.

I have a CM93 chart set loaded, and a set of mixed KAP and mbtiles also loaded. I have tried this on 2 different computers and it behaves the same way, though not always. I reduced the number of columns down to 5-6 and maybe it happens less frequently, but it still happens frequently.

I do have a GitHub account and I will add an issue on your Issues page.