NOAA BSB/RNC Charts

[NoOp]

On 03/08/2009 06:22 AM, Geff Lampshire wrote:
> Thanks for bringing it up - I do RC in the Annapolis area, and use the 
> charts also - now I'll tryto make use of the cpnscreen too!
> 
> --Geff

You'll like opencpn, it's a very cool program & once you learn to use it
you can easily set course marks w/labels on the map. Only issues that
I've found so far w/limited experimentation are: 1) I can't print from
the linux version[1] - using it with Win2KPro from a VirtualBox works
great, 2) the zoom scale factors are too large (needs the ability to
zoom scale using mouse wheel) so you have to take the zooms as they are
(or dig into the code & modify), and 3). I also had issues with ENC in
linux (Win2KPro OK) - RNC no problems. It has actual navigational
features (you can tie it into your gps etc., and is very well worth
tinkering with & participating in the project IMO.

Qgis works well for scaling (mouse wheel granularity works well) and
picks up the .kap file(s) without issue. However I've apparently not
tuned my version well enough as I found the on-screen display fonts not
very clear. I suppose that can be fixed (I use 1.0.1-Kore) by setup
options, but I've not bothered to dig deeper.

Coastal Remote Sensing Program:
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/chartreproj.html
Works as advertised. I converted 18649 to a tiff file (7.9MB) and can
open with Qgis, Gimp, Inkscape, etc. Gimp goes wild & consumes the
processor & CPU for quite awhile, but Inkscape opens it very fast. Note:
the resulting tiff is the actual paper chart size - approx 4x3 feet. I
did not try Chart View (yet):
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/products/chartview/ or try to calibrate a chart:
http://smittypaddler.com/chartview/tutorial/calibrate.htm

Along these lines, NOAA has a neat new service that offers charts in PDF
that you can download & print in booklet form. The site is:

http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/BookletChart.html
For your region select Atlantic Coast
http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart/AtlanticCoastBookletCharts.htm
and select the chart that works best for your area (12283 10,000
Annapolis Harbor?) right click and download. These are ideal for
visiting racers that are not familiar with the area (for instance high
school or college sailors that come to sail the Baker, Mallory etc).

[1] The screen fonts/features on OpenCPN are clear enough that you can
use a screen shot in linux to easily print. Errors that I receive when
trying to print in linux are along the lines of:
(opencpn:26541): GnomePrint-WARNING **: Could not create filter from
description 'GnomePrintFilterSelect': filter 'GnomePrintFilterSelect' is
unknown

(opencpn:26541): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(opencpn:26541): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data:
assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

(opencpn:26541): GnomePrint-WARNING **: Could not create filter from
description 'GnomePrintFilterClip [ GnomePrintFilterMultipage ]': filter
'GnomePrintFilterClip' is unknown