DJM Questor Software
Host: Club Cruceros, La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico
Base: DJM Questor Software
MarinePlotter Version-5 Release History
See also: Known Problems.
Released program versions:
To determine the version of your installed copy, select the program "Help" menu "About" command.
The About Dialog will display the version number.
Windows XP not supported
The MarinePlotter now uses Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5+ and will not run on Windows XP based computers.
MarinePlotter 4.0.13 and earlier used .Net 4 and will run on XP machines.
Version 5,8,9
- Added a CopyFolder program to copy the Charts folder to or from a backup external hard drive.
The program and help file are located in the MarinePlotter installation folder.
- Fixed a HttpDownload cross thread error at the call to EnableAutomaticDownload(false) after a download RETRY failure.
The error caused the program to hang.
Version 5,8,8
This release PASSED the Windows 10 Certification test and is now licensed to display the compatibility logos for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.
Reference: Windows Application Certification Kit Report.
This release fixes some tile download and management problems introduces by the changes of the prior releases.
- Fixed several Tile Cache Manager problems.
- Revised the Command options to fix several errors that resulted from the addition of the extended MarinePlotter COPY.
The program downloaded or deleted tiles for the current plot scale even though the scale was not in the Trace range.
The program did not clear the command option after a Trace and this caused
the program to perform automatic downloads even thought the Automatic download option was not enabled.
- You can now use any of the Command options in a Trace to download, update, or delete tiles.
- Fixed the Delete method.
The program deleted all visible tiles.
The program now deletes only the tiles of your selected Source.
Also, if you select the tiles with the Rectangle option,
the program will delete only the tiles within the rectangle.
- Changed the Display menu Current alarm method so it first tries to fit the proximity and CPA alarm objects to the view.
If the plot scale is greater than the minimum scale specified in the Display menu Auto-scale settings form,
then the program will rescale the plot to the minimum scale.
The program will center the plot between the two objects.
This change also applies to the Display button of the alarm popup message form.
- Changes made for Windows 10 Certification to succeed.
When you close the program and if you made setting or file changes, the program will ask if you want to save the changes.
This behavior would prevent Windows shutdown until you closed the MarinePlotter.
Windows shutdown requires programs to close within 5-seconds of the shutdown request.
To meet the Certificate requirements, the following occurs:
- If you shut down Windows before closing the MarinePlotter, the MarinePlotter will exit without saving changes.
- If you use the Task Manager to End process, the MarinePlotter will exit without saving changes.
Version 5,8,7
The plot orientation feature is not available for the Windows Vista OS and might not work with some graphics devices or drivers.
Although the MarinePlotter program will run in the Windows Vista OS, the program is no longer supported for Vista.
- Changed the CPA Alarm form:
- Added a Draw option.
If checked and the CPA is enabled,
the program will draw an orange circle with a faint fill around your vessel to indicate the CPA scan area.
This option is to help you to determine the CPA scan radius for different plot scales.
- Added a T and D (Time and Distance) option.
If checked, the program will raise an alarm condition if both the time to CPA and the distance to CPA are less than the minimum required values.
Otherwise, the program will raise an alarm condition if either value is less than the minimum alarm value.
- For more details, refer to the CPA Alarm form Help topics.
- Once again, fixed the RNC chart file reader so it corrects for East to West spanning charts.
- Fixed the chart folder selection so it saves the current selection in the System Registry.
The program thought it was preventing the MarinePlotter COPY from saving the information.
Version 5,8,6
Apparently, since 5.7.0,
new installations of the MarinePlotter would start,
show the splash screen,
and then exit.
The program was expecting the location of the 'MarinePlotterData' folder.
For a new installation, the folder location was not defined until later in the startup.
To fix the problem for a new installation, the program will display the splash screen and
will prompt for the needed folder location.
- Fixed another blocking condition caused by the AIS simulator when a large number of vessel positions were repeatedly updated.
The blocking condition caused the program to stop responding.
It was necessary for you to use the Task Manager to End the MarinePlotter process.
Version 5,8,5
- Fixed a blocking condition caused by the main program and the COPY trying
to read the values from the World Magnetic Model (WMM) at the same time.
- The MarinePlotter COPY no longer displays the WMM magnetic variations.
Version 5,8,4
Added North-Up, Course-UP, and Headng-Up plot orientations to the program.
Tile download methods are disabled in the Course-Up and Heading-Up plot orientations.
- Added the Run COPY command to the Help menu.
- Added the MarinePlotter COPY command to the View menu.
If not already running, the command will start the MarinePlotter COPY.
- Changed the Follow vessel default mode to Centered.
Version 5,8,3
- Removed the HOST label that hide the AIS com-port selection.
The label is supposed to be visible only in the MarinePlotter COPY.
The only way to select the port was with the Find option.
Version 5,8,2
-
Changed the Running Multiple Instances of the MarinePlotter.
- When you close the copy, it saves
- the form size and location and
- the plot center and plot scale.
When you re-open the copy, the program will restore the prior view.
- When viewing the copy,
- you can optionally display GPS data and
- you can optionally display AIS data.
The main instance of the MarinePlotter shares the data with the copy.
For more information, see the revised help topic: About Multiple Running Instances.
Version 5,8,1
- Fixed a long standing but rarely occuring error in the plot [ZO] zoom-out method.
The program restored only the prior overlay image but did not restore the prior master image.
When the program created a new overlay from the invalid master image, the resulting new image was invalid.
If noticed, the work around was to click the [R] (redraw) plot tool bar button.
Version 5,8,0
This release is signed with the David Miller code signing certificate.
This release contains hundreds of cleanup changes that might effect previous program behavior.
Not all changes have been thoroughly tested.
If you encounter problems with this release, please contact me.
- NOAA changed the developmental tile service to the official web-site "http://tileservice.charts.noaa.gov".
Reference: "http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/news/2015/chart_tile.html".
The MarinePlotter installer will replace the NOAA RNC 50000_1.attribution file in
../Program Data/DJM Questor Software/MarinePlotter/Application Data/Attributions folder.
This change will enable you to download NOAA nautical chart tiles directly
using methods similar to those you use to download GoogleMaps tiles.
- Changed the MCG Editor so that selected objects use highlighting instead of blinking.
- Changed the MCG Editor form item edit selection highlighting display in the MarinePlotter's plot window.
- Fixed the Test all charts form non-funtsioning Stop button.
- Fixed the Tracer point selection and the Insert menu command.
- Changed the Route menu Insert command so that you can insert successive points.
- Fixed the Tiles -> NCV -> Display NCV local tiles command.
The command was accidentally disabled in an earlier version.
- Changed the MarinePlotter Ownship and AIS vessel positions drawing behavior:
The plotted positions are not drawn when the Object Information Picker form is visible
because the drawing updates would cause the plot to flicker.
The behavior applies only to vessel position redraws:
The program will continue to record the vessel's actual position.
To resume the normal drawn position updates, close the information picker form.
- Changed all ToolStrip objects to ToolStripEx to use Click through.
Some forms required you to click the button to get focus and then to click the button again to activate the method associated with the button..
Click-through causes the button method to immediately activate the attached method.
- Changed hundreds of tests for empty text values
to a more thorough test for a null, empty, or white space.
- Reviewed and changed hundreds of plot bitmap creation, display, and deletion methods to fix some memory leaks caused by non-disposed bitmaps.
- Fixed a non-fatal indexing error in the Coastline drawing method that caused a lot of error messages in the error log.
- Fixed an error that caused the program to draw waypoints twice during a plot window refresh.
- Fixed an "out of memory" error caused by a mis-timed plot refresh when an invalid (lat,lon) value occurred.
- Fixed errors in the computation of the OwnShip and AIS rate of turn (ROT) vector lengths and curvature.
- Fixed the closest point of approach calculations for distant targets.
The calculation took too much time and caused the MarinePlotter to become non-responsive.
- Removed a delay in the GPS signal processing that caused the program to miss several position updates per minute.
The program will now display a number in the green receiving box in the GPS input form.
If the number appears, then the program is falling behind in the processing of the input data.
The lag can occur if the program is interrupted by other computer activity.
- Removed a delay in the AIS signal processing that caused the program to miss several position updates per minute.
- Removed the inaccurate average vessel position distribution plot from the GPS Fix Data form.
Version 5,7,2
- Fixed an internal version error that caused the update checker to report the the version as 5,7,0 when it was actually 5,7,1.
- Fixed an NCI Tile Editor stack overflow error that caused the program to crash when filling an area with the transparent color.
Version 5,7,1
This version contains the addition of an NCI Tile Editor.
The editor preserves the areas of transparency and optionally saves files as 8-bit or 32-bit PNG-files.
- Created the NCI Tile Editor form.
- Added the Tile edit command to the Tiles -> NCI menu of the MarinePlotter form.
Version 5,7,0
Computed rate of turn vector drawing.
The primary addition to this release is the option to draw curved projections of Ownship and AIS vessel positions based on each vessel's rate of turn.
The alarm to detect the closest point of approach (CPA) is changed to work with the new curved projected positions.
For more information, search the program MarinePlotter Help for C-ROT topics.
The rate of turn vector drawing is experimental.
I am not able to test the addition with my vessel "under way" and have only verified the method with the program's GPS and AIS simulators.
Please contact me and let me know if the C-ROT options are useful or faulty.
- Fixed the AIS Simulator form Stop command for socket inputs.
- Fixed broken links in the Help HTML files.
- Fixed the broken Downloads command in the Help menu.
- Added the Draw average static position option to the GPS Fix Data form.
Use this option to check the GPS reported position against a known fixed position.
- Fixed the COG editor in the AIS Filter. If the COG cell in the table contained no value,
it was not possible to orient the stationary AIS object.
- Added Dusk and Night color brightness to the NCI tile image display.
Refer to the Plot brighness control in the MarinePlotter information bar below the menu bar.
- For Night brightness, the program will draw the white pixels as black and the black pixels as white.
- For Dusk brightness, the program will draw the white pixels as gray pixels.
- Fixed the GPS Clock form so it reports the system and GPS times when the Enable clock setting control is not checked.
If the time setting option was unchecked ad the system clock was more than 1-second different from the GPS clock,
then the program did not display the times.
- Added a C-ROT compute rate of turn method to the Vessel Settings form.
- Added an AIS C-ROT computed rate of turn method to the AIS Filter form.
- The CPA calculations now work with the vessel's projected location along the C-ROT curve.
- Fixed an AIS ROT (rate of turn) signal processing error.
The vessel's direction symbol did not always appear when the ROT value was non-zero.
Version 5,6,6
- Found and fixed a fatal undefined object error that occurred when the MarinePlotter program was run the first time.
The program was trying to use an object that had not yet been created.
The error prevented the program from initializing the Splash Screen and from displaying the program's main window.
Version 5,6,5 limited test release
- Added new program startup error exception catching statements to help identify the source of isolated initial installation problems.
Version 5,6,4
This release contains additions to the NCI NOAA Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) download methods.
- Fixed the tile color palette error.
The error was primarily visible when viewing New Zealand chart tiles.
The program displayed a mosaic of different colored tiles for 8-bit per pixel palette based matrix tiles.
The program does not support the Day, Dusk, or Night chart brightness modes for tile based images
because the different source tiles do not use a standard color palette index schema.
I had inadvertantly copied some chart brighness changing code from the RNC methods for the NOAA RNC Tiles methods.
This is a topic the International Hydrographic Organization should address so that nautical chart matrix tiles can use
the standard Day, Dusk, and Night pixel color palettes.
- Fixed a tile download indexing error that caused the program to not download some tiles and to place some tiles in the wrong folders.
- Fixed the Download tiles menu Update and Replace commands that were erroneously changed in a prior version.
- Added color options and tile identifier text to the Tiles menu Draw locations command.
NOAA RNC Tile related fixes, additions, and changes.
- Fixed the Show chart information method that was skipping some charts.
- Changed the Download NOAA RNC Tiles command to NOAA RNC Tiles
because the NCI NOAA WMTS form does more than just download tiles.
Reference: The Tiles menu NCI commands.
- Added options to the Plot rectangles command to plot all chart rectangles,
to plot selected chart rectangles, or to plot the chart rectangles of a selected level.
- In the NCI NOAA WMTS form, changed the Options menu Pause download command to Pause.
The command will pause a chart download or a chart slide show.
- Added the Start slide show command to the Options menu of the NCI NOAA WMTS form.
The method is similar to the Xtools menu Test all charts command.
- The Show chart information command now draws a highlighted red rectangle when the mouse cursor moves over the rectangles of the Plot chart rectangles command.
In addition to displaying chart information, the program displays and highlights the chart in the NCI NOAA WMTS form.
Version 5,6,3
This release contains additional fixes to the NCI NOAA Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) download methods.
In this release, you should use any prior release NOAA RNC Tile download resume files.
Version 5,6,2
This release contains additional fixes to the general tile download method
and to the NCI NOAA Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) download methods.
- Added new menu command options to the NCI NOAA WMTS form. See the form Help topics.
- Fixed a memory leak in the NCI NOAA WMTS download methods and reduced the chart tile download time.
- Changed the NCI NOAA WMTS form table layout so the important information is to the left.
- Fixed the NCI NOAA WMTS form.
If the table data was modified, the program did not prompt to save the changes when the form was closed.
-
Fixed the NCI NOAA WMTS form.
If the Tile Cache Manager form was not set to download the NOAA RNC Tiles by chart,
the program downloaded the wrong tiles (usually the GoogleMaps tiles) and saved them in the current chart folder.
- Changed the NCI NOAA WMTS form tile download method so it used the Tile Cache Manager form Rate setting.
- Removed "http://www.EarthNC.com" tile service from the attributions and download methods so that the
MarinePlotter downloads tiles from the NOAA source instead of from another NOAA client.
Version 5,6,1
Fixed errors in the NOAA RNC Tile download methods and revised the NCI NOAA WMTS form Help topics.
- Removed the NOAA RNC Tiles.attribution file from the program's Attributions folder.
You can programmatically create the attribution files needed using the NCI NOAA WMTS form.
- Removed the download All tiles for all levels command from the Options menu of the NCI NOAA WMTS - Chart Tile Service form.
- Added to the NCI NOAA WMTS - Chart Tile Service form an option to programmatically create chart attribution files.
- Fixed the tile download method of the NCI NOAA WMTS - Chart Tile Service form.
The program derived the wrong tile indexes from each chart rectangle.
- Split the Options menu Update table command into Update table -> Chart tile count and
Update table -> Chart tile levels.
- Added a Set resume check point to the Options menu of the NCI NOAA WMTS form.
If checked, the program will stop downloading tiles after completing a chart and
will prompt for permission to continue with the next chart.
If you select No, the program will stop downloading chart tiles.
The program will resume the download at the check point when you restart the download process.
Version 5,6,0
This MarinePlotter release introduces the
NOAA RNC Tile download service.
This service is similar to the New Zealand RNC Tile download service introduced in an earlier release.
One purpose of the service is to provide GoogleMaps compatible United States of America
raster nautical charts for off-line use.
This is an Evaluation release:
The links to the NOAA servers are temporary and will change when NOAA moves from
the service evaluation phase to the public release phase.
I will provide updated links following the public release.
I request you try this new MarinePlotter feature and provide feedback to me at "DJM_Questor_Software@Yahoo.com".
For more information, in the MarinePlotter Help document, refer to the NCI NOAA WMTS form Help topic or
search for "NCI tile" or "RNC tile" related topics.
Uploaded revised copies of USA ENC and RNC tile based chart image zip-files to the on-line
TileCache.
The tiles of version 5,1,1 did not process non-Mercator charts and produced invalid RNC based tiles.
Also, due to an invalid chart selection scale table, the program did not process all charts.
The RNC samples are from an alternate method of creating and disseminating RNC Tiles.
This version implements changes in the allowed pixel colors in the MarinePlotter generated NCI tiles.
The goal is to create PNG8 palette based tiles with standard pixel color indexes such that,
by changing the palette, the program can display one set of tiles for
Day, Dusk, or Night brightness.
The first step is to remove transparent colors and edge smoothing because the features produce numerous color combinations.
- Added the menu command Download from &NOAA WMTS... to the Tiles -> NCI menu.
The command opens the NCI NOAA WMTS form that downloads NOAA RNC tiles by chart from the new NOAA Web Mapping Tile Service (WMTS.)
- Added the NOAA RNC Tiles.attributions file to the folder:
..\ProgramData\DJM Questor Software\MarinePlotter\Application Data\Attribution.
The file is required to download and view the NOAA RNC tiles.
- Verified that NOAA RNC Tile download and viewing methods work the same as those used for GoogleMaps images and New Zealand's RNCs.
- Added user definable chart region clipping polygons to RNCs and IMG charts.
To create the region clipping polygons, use the Xtools menu Test all charts command to open the chart testing form.
The form contains the Make region clipping polygon option.
- Fixed a tile image memory leak that caused the System Handles count to increase over several hours.
The leak caused the MarinePlotter to become less responsive over time.
The leak became apparent during the many hours of processing required to create NCI tile caches.
- Removed a tile pixel color comparison method that used 75% of the NCI tile creation process time.
In addition, NCI color palette table entries that exceed the 256 color limit are now classified with the NODTA color.
In general, valid nautical charts use less that 32 colors, but geo-referenced pictures can contain 16,777,216 colors.
If you make a bitmap copy of a paper chart to geo-reference, do not use image smoothing:
The smoothing option will add colors in order to visually remove jagged edges.
- Removed transparency values when creating NCI tiles from ENCs or MCGs.
- Removed an arc smoothing code from the ENC based NCI tile creation method because it generated non-standard chart colors.
- Added the RNC Reprojector command to the Xtools menu.
Use the reprojector to convert non-Mercator RNC charts to the Mercator projection.
Refer to the RNC Chart Reprojection help topics.
- Changed the chart catalogues Area entry in the table to a floating point value so small areas will not appear as "0".
- The chart catalogue Area data is no longer saved in the catalogue because it is computed from the chart rectangle.
Ideally, the area would be computed from the region clipping polygon mentioned above.
- Removed the thumbnail image form, image creation, and viewing options from the chart catalogues and from
the Test all charts form. The program will no longer process thumbnail *-TN.* image files.
- Added the TSEZNE01.PAT file to the symbolization file set.
When creating NCI tiles, the program uses this file pattern to fill a traffic separation zone for ENC or MCG based tiles.
Normally, the traffic separation zone is a semi-transparent magenta but the tiles do not support transparent colors;
therefore, the program uses a magenta pattern to simulate semi-transparency.
The program does not use transparent colors when creating NCI tiles because the transparent color plus the underlying color produces a new color.
Many combinations are possible and the result is a 256 color table limit overflow.
Older NCI tilesets use a solid bright magenta color.
Version 5,5,1
Uploaded sample NCI tiles made from all U.S.A. ENC charts (July, 2015) from level 0-to-20 as zip-files.
Download the zip-file here.
To unzip and install, use the TileGroupUnzipper application
here.
- Fixed problems with the Download basic tiles in the tile Cache Manager form.
If the program exceeds the download limit or the server becomes unavailable, the program will stop downloading tiles.
If you click the Stop button while downloading tiles, the program will not stop downloading.
- Added check box values to the saved file of the MARINER'S object display category in the Object Display Filter form.
The program will use the text and sounding check box states in the new NCI tile making procedure (below.)
- Removed the ENC object attribute error messages "CATFOR not processed" (category of fortification)
and "NATCON not processed" (nature of construction.) These attribute values are not drawn.
- Added a new procedure for making NCI tiles from ENCs, MCGs, RNCs, and IMGs.
For more information, see the help topic for the NCI Tile Cache Manager form Select menu Chart list procedure command.
- The program now clears the Loading coastline data message after load completion.
- Fixed an error in the NCI Tile Cache Manager tile Create method.
The program was putting the NCI tiles in the GoogleMaps tile cache; and,
the program was not processing all selected tile locations.
The errors were caused by prior changes made to the NCI tile cache selection method.
- Added a check for Internet connection for the source attribution links.
- The program now hides the tile cache Source button in the plot window when GoogleMaps and NCI tiles are not displayed.
- Fixed the broken Display menu GoogleMaps command.
Version 5,5,0
Changed GoogleMaps tile processing. There are now two basic tile download sources:
- GoogleMaps ... zero or more satellite image tile cache references.
- NCI tiles ... zero or more non-GoogleMaps image tile cache references for Nautical Chart Image (NCI) tiles.
When you select a downloadable tile source, the program will automatically enable the plot to display the same tile source.
However, when you select a tile source to plot, the program will not automatically select the downloadable tile source.
This is because not all viewable tile sources can be downloaded using the XYZ protocal of GoogleMaps.
You can set the program to display GoogleMaps images at the same time you are downloading chart images from a different source.
You can set the program to view chart images at the same time you are downloading GoogleMaps images.
You just have to pay attention to the selections in the Tiles menu command for displaying the tiles;
and the separate menu selections for downloading the tiles.
- Changed the program's processing of the GoogleMaps tile cache.
You can now create and view specialized GoogleMaps satellite image tile caches instead of putting all tiles in one satellite tile folder.
The "GoogleMaps" is still the default reference to the "..\TileCache\GoogleMaps\Satellite" tile cache folder.
For more information, refer to the Source topic in the MarinePlotter Tile Cache Manager form help.
- Removed the Folder command from the Tiles -> Basic ... GoogleMaps menu.
The folder command is in the Tile Cache Manager form and is used to associate a source-attribution with a tile cache folder.
- Added a drop down list to the Tiles -> Basic ... GoogleMaps menu.
You use the list to select the GoogleMaps tile cache you want to view
- Reorganized the Tile Cache Manager form layout for tile downloads.
- Fixed several omissions in the Tile Cache Attribution form changes from 5.4.0.
- Added a Delete blank tiles button to the Tiles menu Scan tiles form.
Some tile servers return a blank tile instead of a "Not found (404)" error code.
The blank tiles are misleading, waste disk space, and take extra time to load and draw.
If you have downloaded the New Zealand tiles, you should scan the tile caches and remove the blank tiles.
- Revised the tile download method so it does not save blank tiles.
For the MarinePlotter, a blank tile is one in which all pixel transparency (alpha) values are zero for all 32-bit (alpha, red, green, blue) pixels.
Version 5,4,3
- Once again, fixed a error in the Attribution Links form that was missed in the 5,4,1 update.
The web-page link was in correctly set when a list box entry was double clicked.
Version 5,4,2
- Fixed an error in the Tile Cache Selector form related to the changes in 5,4,1 and 5,4,0.
The error caused the program to crash because the table scroll bar did not get updated properly after an increase in the number of table rows.
Version 5,4,1
- Fixed a error in the Attribution Links form.
The error caused the program to always link to the EarthNC web-page regardless of the tile-level owner.
Version 5,4,0
This version changes the tile downloading and viewing methods.
The program no longer provides an NCI Folder root menu command.
To select an NCI tile cache to view,
select the Tiles menu NCI image and Select tiles to view command.
For additional information, refer to the help topics on NCI tile cache selector.
- Changed the attribution link in the lower left corner of the plot to a Source button to handle multiple attributions.
Click the button to open an attribution list form.
Click a listed entry to go to the related web-page.
- Added the new form NCI Tile Cache Selector, changed the Tiles menu NCI image commands,
and revised how the program processes NCI tiles.
- Fixed the Tile Cache Attribution form so new attribution files can be defined.
- Fixed the NCI tile creation method modified in 5,3,0.
The program did not create some tiles because it did not wait for all the steps of the multi-threading method to finish.
- Moved the Basic, NCI, and NCV Show tiles not found check boxes to the related Tiles menus;
and, removed the check boxes from the related tile cache managers.
Version 5,3,0
This release contains access to the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Data Service.
Using the service, the MarinePlotter can download NZ RNC charts as tiles using the same methods to download GoogleMaps satellite image tiles.
From this site, you can also download free Raster Nautical Charts of NZ waters.
See the MarinePlotter Tile Cache Manager form LINZ help topics.
- Fixed "Object reference not set . . ." error in the Object Display Filter form.
The error occurred sometimes during program exit.
- Fixed the Route menu Plan command so it is now enabled only for a new or opened route.
- Modified the NCI tile creation method to use multiple threads to reduce processing time.
Version 5,2,0
- Fixed an error in the route file format for Alternate routes.
If you created a route with alternate routes, you will need to recreate the route or edit the route file.
See How to edit an alternate route file.
- If you click the mouse left-button on an alternate route link,
the program will toggle the enabled state and redraw the route with the new path.
- Changed the Tiles menu Basic -> Display tiles command to Display satellite tiles.
The correction is a consequence of the removal of Roadmap and Terrain tiles in version 5,1,0.
- Removed the Auto reverse option from the GPS Simulator form to prevent alternate route processing problems.
- Fixed the Download tiles menu Type selection list box.
The box listed Satellite more than once.
The box now optionally lists GoogleMaps (for satellite tiles) and EarthNC for chart tiles.
Refer to the Tile Cache Manager form help topics Source, Satellite, and Chart.
- Fixed an error in the drawing of MCG files with data that crosses 180E to -180W.
When the plot scale and center focused on the right-side of the World and the left-side was not visible,
the program did not draw the cell because the program skipped a data shift operation.
- Fixed an error that prevented some CM93 cell conversions to MCG files for AttributeChanged("HEIGHT", "ELEVAT", value).
The wrong value was assigned to the change.
Version 5,1,0
The MarinePlotter no longer downloads GoogleMaps Roadmap and Terrain image tiles.
The GoogleMaps API uses a new Roadmap and Terrain image tile request format not compatible with the MarinePlotter.
This is fine with me because the MarinePlotter (in the interest of "safety at sea") focuses on nautical charts
and satellite images relavant to nautical charts.
If you do plan to use a prior MarinePlotter version,
you can delete the Roadmap and Terrain files and folders
(for example: delete ../GoogleMaps/Roadmap and ../GoogleMaps/Terrain.)
To use Roadmap or Terrain images with the MarinePlotter,
you need to create a screen copy of the web-browser view from GoogleMaps; and then,
you need to geo-reference the image so the image will work as an IMG (image) file
in the MarinePlotter.
- Removed from the MarinePlotter all Roadmap and Terrain references and updated the Help topics.
- Fixed the Tiles menu Scan all tiles method for EarthNC tiles.
The program did not draw the tile locations correctly because the tiles
use a bottom-up instead of a top-down tile indexing scheme.
Version 5,0,4
- Fixed an initialization error that caused the program to fail to start in Windows 7.
- Added an "O>" selection to the Draw corner options of the Route menu Line Style form.
The program will optionally draw a direction mark 'o-' at each route leg turn point.
- Fixed the Unselect row context menu command of the Named Locations form.
- Added an additional fix to the disabled Tiles menu Basic -> Display tiles command.
The command was disabled by changes to the Tile Cache Manager form when the Charts button was added to the form.
- Fixed the Named Locations form so that it saves the Display named locations and Display country names settings.
When you restart the program, the program will draw the names if you had previously checked the menu items.
- Added the Folder root menu command back into the Tiles -> Basic menu.
I accidentally deleted the command when I added the "Roadmap, Satellite, Terrain" selection list to the menu.
- Changed the "alternate route" section element name "rtept" to "arpnt". The program will save route files containing "alternate routes" with this change.
You can manually edit version 5,0,3 created route files to change the "rtept" name in the "alternates" section to "arpnt".
Older versions of the MarinePlotter will be able to read the newer route files but will ignore the "alternate route" data that uses the "arpnt" elements.
- Changed the coastline display method for levels 0-to-4 from a bitmap image to line a drawing.
The change produces a sharper coastline image and it works better with the Day, Dusk, and Night settings.
Version 5,0,3
The new routes that contain "alternate routes" cannot be used with MarinePlotter versions before 5,0,3.
- Added a Great Circle route drawing to the [R/b] (range and bearing) control.
The program draws the rhumb line (orange) and the GC line (red.)
It is not clear if the GC is drawn correctly.
The purpose of the drawing is to give an indication of the approximate GC route and difference between the two routes.
The implementation is derived from "http://williams.best.vwh.net/avform.htm#Intermediate".
To prevent distortion, the program limits the longitude range to less than 160 degrees.
- Added alternate route linking to routes. Refer to the Route linking help topic.
- Added to the Waypoint Alarm form separate voice and sound audio check box options for waypoint arrival, change course, and destination arrival.
- Added a Start time and an ETA column to the Route Report form.
The ETAs can be optionally updated via the GPS input to reflect a route point actual arrival time and departure time.
The program will then use the route point departure time to recompute the subsequent route point ETAs.
Version 5,0,2
- Fixed the disabled Tiles menu Basic -> Display tiles command.
The command was disabled by changes to the Tile Cache Manager form when the Charts button was added to the form.
- Fixed some Route information display errors.
If you select a route point, the program will select the related table entry in the Route Report form.
If you reverse the route, the program now updates the plan to reflect the change.
Added an option to disable the AIS and GPS when editing a route plan.
Version 5,0,1
- Moved the Internet connection check to the Download tiles menu to eliminate unnecessary checks.
- Added a tile download Stop button for when the program is waiting for the server to respond.
This is intended for manual downloads that cause the program wait for tiles that do not exist.
- Fixed the Select menu Chart tile locations command of the NCI tile Cache Manager form.
The method did not computer all the tile locations if the chart spanned East-to-West across the 180 longitude.
- Added the Draw span twin command to the RNC and IMG menus.
The program will enable this command when creating NCI tiles;
otherwise, use of the command is optional.
Version 5,0,0
The tile download method is changed to support Internet based chart tiles.
The tile download methods now depend upon your correct selection of the tile source.
This MarinePlotter version contains trial methods to download and display Raster Nautical Charts (as NCI tiles) from "Earth and Sea".
The methods work the same as the GoogleMaps tile download methods.
This EarthNC feature is experimental and is being used to test methods to download RNC based tiles from NOAA.
NOAA plans to make the RNC tiles available for testing about October of 2015.
Hopefully (in the interest of safety at sea), other countries will follow the NOAA example and provide a free chart tile download service.
MarinePlotter 5.0 might not correctly load a vessel track created with MarinePlotter 4.0.13 or earlier.
You might need to create a new vessel track.
- Fixed the MCG drawing methods to draw the ICEARE (ice area) fill and (ICARE04) pattern.
- Fixed a null bitmap error that occurred when at startup the MarinePlotter re-opened ENC charts.
- Added tile view type selection lists to the Tiles menu Basic and NCI display commands.
- Added tile download type selections to the Tile Cache Manager form Source selection list.
- Fixed a drawing error that caused the NCI tile creation process to randomly generate invalid tiles.
Tile creation started before the drawing completed.
- Added a NCV -> Delete command to the Tiles menu because the tile Delete command in the Download menus does not apply to NCV tiles.
- Added the Charts 4 button to the GoogleMaps Tile Cache Manager to enable the downloading of RNCs as NCI tiles from EarthNC.
- Fixed errors in the download Rate control method and limited the number of multiple tile download requests to groups of 10.
The prior versions could request up-to 50 tiles at a time and at a high rate. The tile servers would eventually issue a 403 (forbidden) error or the program would time-out waiting for a backlog of tile downloads.
- If the follow vessel [Fv] comand is enabled and the automatic download [A] command is enabled,
the program will no longer wait for tile downloads to complete.
This is to prevent lengthy downloads or download time-outs from delaying the program from updating the plottered vessel position.
- Fixed the Tracer tile download method.
It was skipping many downloadable tile locations.
I recommend you run the tracer a second time after reversing the tracer.
To reverse a tracer, select the Route menu Reverse command.
- Changed the Waypoint Arrival Alarm form.
You can preset and use Ocean, Coastal, Approach,
Harbour, Local, and Default radius values.
- Added the Track command to the Display menu.
When selected, the program will scale and center the vessel's track to fit the plot window.
- Added the Message display command to the Alarm menu.
If checked, the program will display the Alarm popup message box; otherwise, the program will hide the popup message.
- Fixed a missed cross track error condition.
- To simplify the form and to correct a track generation error,
I removed the Step size and deviation options from the Vessel Settings form.
The program will add vessel location points to the vessel track current line segment
if there is 1-degree or more change in the COG; otherwise, the program will extent the length of the current line segment.
- Removed the PowerModeChanged methods that did nothing useful.
- Fixed the Display menu Follow vessel command so that the program will restart with the same follow vessel settings as when you closed the program.
If you close the program when the program is following the vessel and later restart the program,
the plot will automatically shift to the new vessel position and resume following the vessel.
However, the program will not resume a simulation, resume following a route, or resume a waypoint "Go to".
If you put the computer to into Sleep mode and later awaken the computer,
and if the vessel moved through a turn point when the computer was asleep,
the program will (optionally) activate the departure alarm.
Update/Release history version-4.