You are on page 1of 76

OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.

org/book/export/html/31

OpenCPN User Manual


Table Of Contents

OpenCPN User Manual


Getting Started
Installing OpenCPN
Installing Charts
Chart Formats
Chart Sources
Setting Up GPS
GPS Status
NMEA Sentences
Basic Features
Toolbar Buttons
Right-click Menu
Zoom In & Out
Scaling Charts
Chart Quilting
Status Bar
Auto Follow and Display Orientation
Tides and Currents
Ship Track
Man Over Board
Toolbox Settings
Change Color Scheme
Advanced Features
Hot Keys
Anchor Watch
AIS
Routes and Marks
The Route Manager and Data Import/Export
Planning Data
Vector Chart Display
CM93 Offsets
Chart Conversion Manual
Conversion Using Linux
libBSB
FAQ
License and Authors

Getting Started
Welcome!

Getting started using OpenCPN consists of 3 basic steps:

1. Installing OpenCPN
2. Installing Charts to be read by OpenCPN
3. *(Optional) Setting Up GPS to "talk" to your computer and OpenCPN

Completing these 3 steps will get you started and allow you to check out the program. Later, after exploring the program, you may
want to read through the Basic Features and Advanced Features sections to really get a good grasp of what the program offers. If you
still have questions or would just like to get in touch with other OpenCPN users, there is also a fairly large community behind
OpenCPN. You can find us in this Cruiser's forum.

Installing OpenCPN

Windows (98/ME)*/2000/XP/Vista/7

Download the installation package for Windows from opencpn.org/download.


Use the stable release for navigation en route, or if you just started using OpenCPN.
Run the downloaded installer.
If upgrading from a previous version of OpenCPN, there is no need to uninstall the previous version. Simply install the new

1 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

version and it will upgrade OpenCPN, saving all your existing configuration and preferences.
If this is a new installation, click on the Toolbox icon and configure your GPS source, chart directories, and other settings.
If your installation goes well, but OpenCPN don't start as expected, try to download and install these runtime components.

* up to version 2.1.0 (from beta version2.2.1026, Windows 98 and Windows ME are no longer supported)

Linux

32/64 bit Ubuntu/Debian Distributions

32 bit Fedora / Cent OS

If you are installing OpenCPN for the first time on a computer with Ubuntu, or any other Linux flavour, you have to go through a
few steps to make sure that all dependencies are met. Ubuntu uses "deb" packages and Fedora uses the "rpm" packages.
On Ubuntu, start "System->Administration->Synaptic". In Synaptic go to "Settings->Repositories" and tick the box
"Community-maintained Open Source software (universe)". Close Synaptic.
Download the correct .deb or .rpm from opencpn.org/download.
Use the stable release for navigation en route, or if you just started using OpenCPN.
Click on the downloaded package. An installation manager will guide you on most Linux distributions. All dependencies should
automatically be installed. If you have problems with dependencies, run the recommended command line in the next paragraph.
sudo gdebi <downloaded_opencpn_file.deb>. The command "gdebi" will automatically install the dependecies for you.
It is also possible to install the package via dpkg or rpm, on the condition that all dependencies are met.To make sure that this is
the case on Ubuntu, open a terminal window to get a command line, (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and copy and paste
the following line: sudo apt-get install libwxgtk2.8-0 libwxbase2.8-0 wx-common libglu1-mesa libgl1-mesa-glx zlib1g bzip2
gpsd gpsd-clients. Then proceed with the commands below
For Ubuntu: $ sudo dpkg -i <downloaded_file.deb>
For Fedora: # sudo yum install --nogpgcheck <downloaded_file.rpm>

The binary will be installed to /usr/local/bin/opencpn.


If this is a new installation, click on the Toolbox icon and configure your GPS source, chart directories, and other settings.

Other 32 and 64bit Linux Distributions and the BSD operating systems.

Currently other distributions requires compiling the source. This will involve resolving various dependencies and is for folks
comfortable with developing on Linux.
Download the source from from opencpn.org/download or directly from the Git server. The SourceForge link for this project
is sourceforge.net/projects/opencpn/.
Interested in maintaining a package for your favorite Linux distribution? Follow the SourceForge link above.
This also includes the different BSD distributions. Report your experiences back to the forum.

Mac OSX
A beta version of the 2.3.1 release for Mac OS X can be download from here. Unzip the download and drag it to your
Appications folder.

Different versions of OpenCPN

Use a "stable", official release for actual navigation. The latest stable release is always available at the top of the download page
or from Source Forge.
Beta releases are snapshots of the development process, and may contain errors or temporarily be unstable. Show stoppers are
normally fixed very quickly however. This is where the latest features first are seen. Most of the time the beta releases are quite
stable and the OpenCPN team appreciate it if more experienced users test the releases and report back. The place to report bugs
and suggest features is the Tracker. To reach the Tracker from the OpenCPN Web pages click on the "Tracker" tab at the upper
right (above the blue bar).
To see what version you are using either look in ?->about or at the top of your display. A lot of information is also available in
the log file. See below.

2 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Location of Important Files. Log and config files.

It is important to know the location of the log file and the configuration file, opencpn.conf or opencpn.ini, on your computer. If
you ask questions on the forum, there is a fair chance that you will be asked about the content in these files. Once you get
familiar with OpenCPN, have a look at the files!
The configuration file is where all data, that needs to be persistent between sessions, is stored. In the same directory as these files
is the SENC directory, where all the processed S57 ENC vectorfiles are stored in a local format.
To find the location of the log file go to the ToolBar click on "About OpenCPN", the button furthest to the right. Look at the
bottom of the "About" Tab, highlighted below. The illustration is from a WinXP. A quick way to view the logfile is to copy the
full file path and then paste this into the address field in a web browser.

On Linux the "opencpn.log" is in your home directory.


The "opencpn.conf" is in a hidden directory, called "opencpn", also in your home directory.
For a quick way to view the files you can try these commands.
$gedit `echo $HOME/opencpn.log`
$gedit `echo $HOME/.opencpn/opencpn.conf`
Of course you can swap "gedit" for your favorite editor.
On Windows 2000, XP and Vista and Windows 7 the two files, opencpn.log and opencpn.ini are in the same folder. So to find
the location of opencpn.ini just go to the folder where the log is. Note that some folders in the path to the log and ini files may be
hidden. Change settings to be able to view hidden and system files. .

Installing Charts
To install charts OpenCPN must be pointed to a directory containing recognized Chart Formats. Don't point OpenCPN to individual
charts. You must specify the directory that contains the charts. Download some charts (see Chart Sources) and organize them in a
fashion that suits you. You may want to consider storing them in a directory where they will not be tampered with or moved
accidentally.

Open the Toolbox by clicking . You are sent to the first tab "Settings". Tick the box "Show Chart Outlines". That will help you
visualize the loaded charts.

3 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Then click the tab "Charts".

Under "Available Chart Directories" navigate to your chart-directory. Above we have found the NZ charts in the /opt/Navigation
/Charts/BSB3 directory. When clicking the button "Add Selection" the selected chart directory appears in the box "Active Chart
Directories". The screen-shots are from Linux, but this process works similarly on all platforms. All that remains is to click the "Ok"
button. OpenCPN will then process your selection. You can now start using your charts.
Note that in OpenCPN you must add directories (folders) containing charts, not individual charts.

Start using your charts.


You can click and drag the chart with your mouse. The scroll wheel zooms in and out. Right clicking brings up a menu with useful
actions. Exactly what the menu contains depends on the circumstances. Read the rest of the manual for a full explanation.

If you are running OpenCPN for the first time you may see a black background instead of the charts you installed. That simply means
OpenCPN is pointed at a location that is not on any of the charts you installed. Scroll to a location on one of your installed charts as

4 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

descirbed under "A few hints" below.

Starting with vector charts?


If you are new to vector charts on OpenCPN follow this quick-start guide:

1 Go to ToolBox ->Vector Charts and copy the settings below for the Display Category.

2 Press this button in the ToolBar to toggle text display.

These are not the perfect settings, but you will see most of what you expect from a vector chart.
As soon as you have made yourself reasonably comfortable with OpenCPN and before using Vector Charts for actual navigation, make
sure you understand all the settings in the ToolBox-> Vector Chart Tab by reading this page.
Loading Vector Charts
When using a vector chart for the first time OpenCPN has to process the data, and transform the information to an internal display
format. This can take some time, depending on your computer. This internal SENC charts are then saved for future use. The created
files are quite large, but is in a format optimized for quick loading. The SENC files are saved in the SENC directory in the same place as
the opencpn.conf file -opencpn.ini on windows.
You probably do not want to build SENCs for all of your loaded S57 ENCs unless you plan to actually go there....
Updating Vector Charts
Publishers of Vector Charts, such as NOAA and EAHC issues regular updates. OpenCPN updates the created SENCs automatically.
The chart itself, the basechart, is named "name".000 , the first update is "name".001 and so on. As a user you only have to make sure
that the update files are saved in the same place as the basechart. In the case of a new edition of the chart a new "name".000 file is
issued. Just replace the old file with the new file and OpenCPN will update the SENC file.

CM93 Charts

5 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

CM93-version2 Charts are different from the S57 vector charts and has it's own data structure consisting of a number of folders and
files. To load these charts in OpenCPN just add the top directory to the list of "Active Chart Directories"
The CM93 top directory contains a number of (144) subdirectories named from
"00300000" to "04501020", as well as six other files. These sub directories each cover a geographical area of 40° x 40° . The first four
numbers describes the latitude and the last four, the longitude of the SW corner of the area covered.
The key to understanding the numbers is to realize that CM93's coordinate system
of the world starts at the South Pole or to be exact at lat -90° long 0° and from there
proceeds North a East with a factor of 3 for each degree of lat and long.
The tile 00300000 hence has the SW corner at lat from -90° + 0030:3 = -80° or 80°S to
and longitude 0°E , and covers the area from 80°S latitude to 40°S and from 0° longitude to 40°E.
Looking at 04501020 it brakes down to lat -90° + 0450:3 = 60° and long 1020:3 = 340° subtracting 360° results in -20° or 20°W. So we
have he SW corner at 60°N and 20°W .
One more example, the tle 03900840 has the SW corner at 40°N and 80°W.

Each of these sub-directories in turn contains directories with the individual charts. Ordered in scale from smallest to largest they are
Z,A,B,C,D,E,F and G. Where Z contains overview charts and G contains harbor plans. Note that, generally, not all of these are present
in each subdirectory.

Z covers 40° x 40° deg area and OpenCPN typically uses 1:3.000.000 scale
A covers 20° x 20° deg area and OpenCPN typically uses 1:1.000.000 scale
B covers 10° x 10° deg area and OpenCPN typically uses 1:200.000 scale
down to
..
G covers 20' x 20' and OpenCPN typically uses 1:3500 scale.
The individual chart tiles in these directories have the same logic in the naming scheme as described above.

A few hints.

6 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

If all is just black, with maybe some blue lines, you are viewing the background world vector shoreline chart. You must move to
the geographical position of the charts you just loaded. As you come close you will see the outlines of your loaded charts, in red
for raster charts and in green for S57 vector charts. Click in the rectangle created by the outlines, to activate, and view the chart.
If you ticked the "Show Chart Outlines" box under the "Settings" tab the loaded charts will be outlined in red for raster and green
for vector charts. In CM93 the charts will be outlined in purple. The smallest scale charts in CM93, the Z scale and A scale
charts, will not be outlined. Neither will all available charts be visible as outlines at the same time. The reason for this is
computing speed and clarity. Generally the next level or two of larger scale charts are shown. When large scale plans are
available directly from A scale charts, with no intermediate charts, the outline of the larger scale charts will be visible from a
zoom level between 1.5 and 2.0. Generally in areas where only A or Z scale charts are available, expect potentially dangerous
omissions. Warning, do not use CM93 small scale charts alone for navigation without referring to other sources.
Be aware that it is possible to "Over-zoom" charts in OpenCPN. A warning will appear on the display. Please respect that
warning. It is recommended to not zoom more than a factor 2, for safe navigation. The actual zoom-factor appears in the lower
right-hand corner of the display.
It is safe and reasonably efficient to put all your charts except the CM93 database in one large directory, and set that directory in
Toolbox->Charts. The CM93 database contains its own file and directory structure. The top-level directory only, of this database
should be loaded, as described above, into OpenCPN.
If you do a lot of chart downloads, updates, etc., then it will be faster to break the charts folder into smaller groups, and specify
them individually in the Toolbox->Charts dialog.
The option "Force Full Database Rebuild" is mainly aimed at users converting or correcting existing charts, in a situation where
minor changes are made to the geo-referencing or outline of the chart, or other attributes in the kap file header section.
OpenCPN, supports Mercator charts, Transverse Mercator Charts, Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) charts and
Polyconical Charts (used in parts of US and Canada). Charts using other projections will be displayed as if they were Mercator
charts, but they will not be used for quilting. Most charts are using Mercator projection, so this limitation is not too bad.
Other projections, such as Gnomonic, are mainly used in older larger scale BA charts, for smaller areas, for example harbor
plans, in scales larger than 1:50,000.
The errors introduced in OpenCPN by treating these charts as Mercator are generally small, but be aware of this limitation.

A Linux/Unix Note
These operating systems have a problem handling chart names containing spaces and non ASCII characters. A typical example is
Swedish chart names. To sort this out use the utility program detox. Detox changes the file names so space becomes "_"; "(" and ")"
become "-"; and "å","ä" and "ö" become "a","a" and "o", etc.

To see what "detox" suggests to do, try a dry run first, like this:
detox -n File_with_swedish_charts > outfile

Chart Formats
OpenCPN supported chart formats:
BSB / RNC / KAP Versions 1, 2 and 3, with Chart files ending with ".KAP".
BSB Version 4 , with Chart files ending with ".CAP", works with a non free plugin. See this forum thread.

NOS/GEO Version 1, with Chart files ending with ".geo". (Subsequent versions are probably supported but need to be tested.
However, this format is obsolete for new charts.)

CM93 Version 2.
(C-map Version 3, and later, is in a preprocessed proprietary SENC format and is not supported.)

S57/S52 (ENC), with Chart files ending with ".000" or ".s57".


If a chart is said to be a S57 Vector chart, and has a different ending, it is likely to be an SENC file in a proprietary, plattform specific
format, that OpenCPN can't handle.

Formats, that with some effort, can be used.

Generally chart pictures in gif, jpeg, pdf, png, tif, bmp and other formats can be used, when properly geo-referenced, to generate KAP
file (BSB / RNC) that OpenCPN can display. For the details about this process see the chart thread in the forum. Also, make sure to
browse around the forum as there are a handful of other interesting chart related threads.

WCI charts generated with SeaClear and MapCal can also be transformed to BSB charts and used by OpenCPN. The key is to open a
WCI chart in MapCal and convert it to a BMP picture, and then transform this picture to a tiff file, using for example ImageMagic.
More about using MapCal, a part of SeaClear, for chart conversions, is available here.

OziExplorer charts consisting of picture in one of the standard formats, together with a georeferencing ".map" file, can be converted
to a bsb kapfile. A Ruby script for this conversion is available here. Ozi charts of the ozfx2 or ozfx3 format can not be converted with
this tool. These Ozi formats are not documented and proprietary, and cannot be displayed in OpenCPN.

7 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Before Maptech started to produce BSB charts the HDR format was used in the late eighties to mid nineties. These charts consists of
many picture tiles in pcx format, more than 100 tiles is not unusual. The tiles can be merged to one picture and then used as any other
picture to make an OpenCPN compatible chart. For details on this process see the Chart Conversion Manual and this post and the
following posts in the forum. A script for merging the pcx tiles to one picture is available here.

The HDR format is from an era when computer-memory and processing power were less powerful than today, as a consequence these
charts are not of the same quality as more modern charts. Furthermore, most of these charts are not using WGS84 as reference datum.
These charts should not be the first choice, but can be useful if nothing else is available.

Other formats that are not supported.

S63 Encrypted ENC is not supported. This is the format for the majority of newly produced vector charts from many national
hydrographic offices. S63 charts are exactly the same as S57 except the they are encrypted to keep them from being illegally
distributed.

The Hydrographic Chart Raster Format, HCRF, used by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Offices' ARCS (Admiralty Raster Chart
Service), Australian Hydrographic Services' Seafarer products and the NZMariner, New Zealands Official charts, are not supported.
This is also due to proprietary encryption algorithms and copyright issues.

Mapmedia's, Navionics and various other chart formats are not supported, for the same reasons as for the other proprietary charts.
NV Verlag´s charts with the format bsb/eap, are not supported.

Chart Sources

Where to find free charts


To get you started quickly, here are three sample raster charts from Puerto Rico:
25640, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands,
25664, Fredriksted Road, and
25666, Ensenada Honda.
Right click and use "Save Link As", or similar. Just clicking shows you the actual file as a text file (this is an advanced subject, to
be treated later). Don't use these charts for navigation. Download their current versions from NOAA's Web site.
For those interested in U.S. waters, raster charts and S57 vector charts are now available for free download from NOAA. Find all
NOAA charts, both raster (RNC) and vector (ENC) charts, for your region through NOAA OCS Website at:
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/charts.htm.
Official Inland Electronic Navigation Charts (IENC) of U. S. inland waterways are available from the US Army Corps of
Engineers at http://www.agc.army.mil/echarts/inlandnav/.
Links to a wide selection of ENC's for U.S. inland waters and other countries are available at : http://www.dacust.com
/inlandwaters/index.html.
Brazil publishes free raster charts (RNC) for their whole coast and new charts for inland waters are published regularly.There is
also coverage for part of Antarctica. Here is a direct link to the download page: Brazilean Charts. Don't miss the link to CARTAS
DE RIOS at the bottom of this page.
The East Asia Hydrographic Commission provides free offshore S57 vector charts for the South China Sea area at:
http://scsenc.eahc.asia/main.php. The motivation for releasing these charts is well worth reading.

Realizing that official and high quality small scale ENCs conforming with the established IHO standard were not available for
the SCS, the EAHC MSs decided to cooperate closely and resolve the situation so that mariners could use most up-to-date chart
information for voyage planning and enhancing safety of navigation, rather than resorted to some commercially developed
electronic products which were either prepared in proprietary formats, or containing unofficial data with very infrequent
updating... It was the view that if the SCS ENC could be freely and widely available to mariners, it would further enhance the
safety of navigation in the region. This in turn could reduce the chances of environmental damage from grounding and oil
pollution, which have tremendous cost impact. The EAHC decided to provide the SCS ENC to users free of charge.

Colombia and Australia publish sample S57 single charts.


New Zealand publishes high quality tiff pictures of almost all their charts. From a start in the last few months of 2009 the work to
create OpenCPN compatible charts from these pictures has quickly matured. For the latest on this subject, check the "New
Zealand Charts" thread in the Forum. All NZ charts are now available for OpenCPN here.
Many European countries publish free S57 ENC charts for their inland waterways:
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Hungary
Netherlands (charts are still under development)
Romania

8 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Serbia
Slovakia
Switzerland
The US Pilot Charts, are available as BSB charts, on the OpenCPN.org download page.
The OpenSeaMap project publish raster charts in many formats (including KAP which work with OpenCPN). This project relies
on mariners to survey their local waters and upload their data using the OpenStreetMap database and editing tools. This project is
still in its infancy, so only a few areas have been mapped to any extent. Currently only seamarks are displayed, but it is planned
to include depth & other data in due course. For the maps, go to: map.openseamap.org/map/

Setting Up GPS

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7

Note that the extensive use of the cheap gps mouse BU-353 as an example below, should only be seen as an illustration, not a
recommendation. As a matter of fact, many users have problems when using BU-353 on Windows 7, so this combination is not
recommended for now.

To use OpenCPN with a GPS, a GPS receiver is needed.

There are a variety of possible choices for a GPS receiver:

A computer, such as a Sony Vaio P has a built in GPS receiver


A NMEA Expander to amplify a nmea stream to multiple listeners
A handheld GPS receiver
A dedicated GPS receiver

The remainder of this section describes using OpenCPN with a dedicated GPS receiver, however, the instructions for a dedicated
receiver will be similar for any serial/USB connected NMEA data stream.

A Dedicated GPS Receiver

There are several companies making dedicated GPS receivers. The Supplementary Hardware section for GPS devices lists several
manufacturers.

NMEA has traditionally been implemented as a serial protocol and therefore, even if a USB connection is used, there needs to be a USB
to Serial Port conversion. The specific driver for the each GPS receiver will handle this conversion.

Configuring BU-353

It is not necessary to use the installation disk to setup the BU-353. Following the steps listed below will result in the latest driver being
installed.

1. Download the latest driver from Prolific - http://www.prolific.com.tw/Eng/downloads.asp?ID=31


2. Unzip and install the driver
3. Plug in the BU-353.
4. Start -> (Right Click) My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware ->Device Manager
or Start->Run devmgmt.msc
5. Expand Ports
6. Look for the “Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port” and note the com port number (e.g., COM4)

9 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

7. Right click on the “Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port”. Choose Driver


8. Select 4800 bits per second, 8 data bits, None parity, 1 stop bit, and None for Flow Control

9. Start OpenCPN
10. Click on the ToolBox Icon
11. Select GPS
12. Under NMEA Data Source select the Com port noted in #6
13. Choose OK
14. Select Auto Follow to center the map over your GPS location

Troubleshooting

There is a small LED located on the BU-353. If the LED is off there is no power being received. Check the connection.

If the LED is solid it indicates the BU-353 is searching for a GPS signal. Try moving the GPS receiver to a clear location.

If the LED is flashing it indicates the BU-353 has a position fix and is transmitting data.

1. Try viewing the NMEA data stream in OpenCPN. Choose ToolBox->GPS->click Show GPS/NMEA Data Stream Window
2. Alternatively, a diagnostic program is included on the installation CD called GPSInfo.exe. Launch this program to install the
diagnostic utility.

If it appears that the NMEA data stream is being received, the most likely issue is that OpenCPN is not centered over your location.

10 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Click AutoFollow to center the map at your GPS location.

Known Issues

If you change the USB port for the GPS receiver Prolific will reassign the COM port number. This will require repeating steps 4-12
above.

On some computer / GPS receiver combinations when the computer resumes from Stand By the GPS receiver will no longer transmit its
NMEA data stream, and only garbage instead of ASCII characters will be visible in the NMEA Data Stream Window. The red indicator
led will not work.

To change back to NMEA mode search for and download SIRFDemo.exe.


Unpack and start. Set correct Baud rate and and com port as above.
Click connect to data source button. Action -> Switch to NMEA protocol, then exit.
There are many more settings available in SIRFDemo.exe

An alternative workaround for this issue is provided by using a COM port splitter such as XPort http://curioustech.home.insightbb.com
/xport.html

1. Download XPort.
2. Unzip it to a folder of your choice
3. Double Click XPort.exe
4. Set the Baud Rate to 4800
5. Under Enable Ports add an entry for COM10
6. Click “Find GPS”. The port returned should match the port identified in Step #6 in the Configuring BU-353 Section
7. Select Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port in the check box section
8. Return to OpenCPN
9. Click on the ToolBox Icon
10. Select GPS

Under NMEA Data Source change the Com port to COM10

Linux

Two methods are available, direct connection or through gpsd.


We start with gpsd.

Install the gpsd and gpsd-clients packages


$ sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients
Go to Toolbox-->GPS and select "Network GPSD" as your "NMEA Data Source", unless you have a gpsd version in the 2.9.x
series( Ubuntu 10.04 and other new distros). In this case choose Toolbox-->GPS --> "NMEA Data Source" -->"Network
LIBGPS".
On Ubuntu 9.10 and later, that is really all you have to do. When you plug in your gps this will trigger gpsd to start.
"xgps" is client that comes with the gpsd-clients package, and is usefull for testing that the gps and gpsd is working properly.

Direct connection.

Make sure that gpsd isn't running then connect your gps and start OpenCPN.
In the Toolbox-->GPS --> "NMEA Data Source" the port where you plugged in your gps will come up. If you plugged in BU 353
this will probably be /dev/ttyUSB0.
Choose 4800 baud, unless you know that the gps is set to something else.
The gps should now work....if not, check the NMEA data stream window. If only binary garbage is visible, the gps has to be reset
to NMEA mode, see more about this above in windows section.
To do this in Linux for BU 353 as well as many other gps:es, make sure that gpsd is running and that the package "gpsd-clients"
is installed.
The command $gpsctl -n wil put the GPS into NMEA mode.
If gpsd isn't running use $ gpsctl -f -n /dev/ttyUSB0
More information is as always available through "man gpsctl" Close down OpenCPN before running gpsctl.

None of this is normally noticed when using gpsd, as this program reads both NMEA and SIRF binary sentences.
More Linux hints
Check that you, as a user, belongs to the group "dialout". To see which groups you belong to, run the command "groups". Not all
Linux distributions add the user to this group by default.
Check if gpsd is working:
$ ps aux | grep gpsd
nobody 12338 0.3 0.1 4124 1448 ? S<s 18:31 0:00 gpsd -F /var/run/gpsd.sock

11 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

you 12356 0.0 0.0 3036 800 pts/3 S+ 18:32 0:00 grep --color=tty -d skip gpsd
This or similar responses indicate that gpsd is running. If you only have something like the second line, ....it is not running.
Run the command "$udev monitor" to see exactly, and instantly what is going on when you plugin your gps.
Run the command "$ls -lrtd /dev/*|tail -10", and see the 10 latest created device files. Run this just after plugin in your gps to see
which device was created.

Determine which device your GPS is on your linux system by checking the startup. Look for a line that says something about
GPS and /dev/ttyUSB#
$ dmesg

Or even better, after connecting a gps mouse, BU-353, we look for a dmesg by running this command.
$ dmesg | grep tty
and get this response back.
[13616.095305] usb 2-3: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Add a script to start gpsd, if this is not done by your distribution. I saved mine as startgps and set the executable attribute. Edit
line 3 to match your device, ie /dev/ttyUSB0
#!/bin/sh
sudo killall gpsd
sudo gpsd -n -D 2 /dev/ttyUSB0

Run the script:


$ ./startgps

If this is a new installation, click on the Toolbox icon and configure your GPS source, chart directories, and other settings.

Other Distributions

Install gpsd from source. More information is available here: http://gpsd.berlios.de/

Bluetooth GPS Ubuntu.

If you have a bluetooth GPS you will need to first configure it through the standard Ubuntu Bluetooth "set up new device "
proceedure. Once you have done that you will need to find what the address of the GPS is. To do that you run this command:

sudo hcitool scan

it will then start looking for the Bluetooth GPS and hopefully find your GPS. You should see something similar to:

Scanning ...
00:1C:88:10:D3:4D iBT-GPS

In this case i have a IBT-GPS at address 00:1C:88:10:D3:4D (Your GPS address will be different)

Next we have to bind the GPS address to a "virtual" device OpenCPN understands in this case rfcomm0. We do this with the following
command:

sudo rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 00:1C:88:10:D3:4D Note put your GPS address in this line

You should not have to run these commands each time your linux is restarted as it will remeber your GPS address.

Now all you need to do is go into OpenCPN Toolbox and select GPS. Now in the NMEA Data Source options select from the pulldown
menu: "/dev/rfcomm0".

Thats it - you should now have a Bluetooth GPS Connected.

Mac OSX

Attaching a GPS device to a Mac is done via one of the USB ports. Whether using a device with its own USB lead or via a serial-USB
adapter lead or an NMEA multiplexer with USB port, the appropriate OS X driver needs to be installed. Nearly all hardware uses one of
just two chip makes: those from FTDI or Prolific. Both those companies make OS X drivers available on their web sites, but
manufacturers of GPS devices usually package the driver with device.

When the driver is installed and the device connected, start OpenCPN, select the Toolbox and click the GPS tab. Open the
"NMEA Data Souorce" menu & select the the device from the list. It is not always obvious which is the correct one, but in general the

12 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

device will have a name starting: "/dev/cu." or "/dev/tty.". Some manufacturers make it obvious, like "/dev/cu.MiniPlex-99000125", but
others may be more generic, like: "/dev/cu.usbserial". Set the "NMEA Baud Rate" to 4800 and click "OK". If the correct selection has
been made, you should see the GPS status icon change from red to green.

GPS Status
The GPS staus is indicated all the way to the right in the toolbar.

No GPS or Invalid GPS data.

Active/Valid GPS data

Active/Valid GPS data + GPS reporting 0 - 4 satellites

Active/Valid GPS data + GPS reporting 5 - 9 satellites

Active/Valid GPS data + GPS reporting 10+ satellites

NMEA Sentences
OpenCPN Recognized NMEA Sentences:

1. HDM - Heading, Magnetic


2. HDG - Magnetic heading, deviation, variation
3. HDT - Heading, True
4. RMB - Recommended Minimum Navigation Information
1. Status, V = Navigation receiver warning
2. Cross Track Error, in nautical miles
3. Direction to Steer, Left or Right
4. TO Waypoint ID
5. FROM Waypoint ID
6. Destination Waypoint Latitude
7. N or S
8. Destination Waypoint Longitude
9. E or W
10. Range to destination in nautical miles
11. Bearing to destination in degrees True
12. Destination closing velocity in knots
13. Arrival Status, A = Arrival Circle Entered
14. *
5. RMC -Recommended Minimum Navigation Information
1. Time (UTC)
2. Status, V = Navigation receiver warning
3. Latitude
4. N or S
5. Longitude
6. E or W
7. Speed over ground, knots
8. Track Made Good, degrees true
9. Date, ddmmyy
10. Magnetic variation, degrees
11. E or W
12. *
6. WPL - Waypoint Location
1. Latitude
2. N or S (North or South)
3. Longitude
4. E or W (East or West)
5. Waypoint Name
7. RTE - Routes
1. Total number of messages being transmitted
2. Message Number

13 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

3. Message Mode
1. c = complete route, all waypoints
2. w = working route, the waypoint you just left, the waypoint you're heading to, then all the rest
4. Waypoint ID
5. More Waypoints
8. GGA - Global Positioning System Fix Data
1. Universal Time Coordinated (UTC)
2. Latitude
3. Longitude
4. GPS Quality Indicator
5. Number of satellites in view, 00 - 12
6. Horizontal Dilution of Precision (HDOP)
7. Antenna altitude above/below mean-sea-level (geoid)
8. Units of antenna altitude, meters
9. Geoidal separation, the vertical difference between the WGS-84 elipsoid and the geoid
10. Units of geoidal separation, meters
11. Age of differential GPS data, time in seconds since last SC104
12. Differential reference station ID, 0000-1023
13. Checksum
9. GLL - Geographic Position, Latitude / Longitude
1. Latitude
2. N or S (North or South)
3. Longitude
4. E or W (East or West)
5. Time (UTC)
6. Status A - Data Valid, V - Data Invalid
7. *
10. GSV - Satellites in view
1. Number of sentences for full data / sentence 1 of 2
2. Number of satellites in view
3. Satellite PRN number
4. Elevation, degrees
5. Azimuth, degrees
6. SNR - higher is better / for up to 4 satellites per sentence
7. Checksum
11. VTG - Track Made Good and Ground Speed
1. Track Degrees
2. T = True
3. Track Degrees
4. M = Magnetic
5. Speed Knots
6. N = Knots
7. Speed Kilometers Per Hour
8. K = Kilometres Per Hour
9. *

1. VDM - Automatic Information System (AIS) position reports from other vessels
1. Time (UTC)
2. MMSI Number
3. Latitude
4. Longitude
5. Speed Knots
6. Heading
7. Course over Ground
8. Rate of turn
9. Navigation status

*
NMEA version 2.3.added a mode indicator to many sentences to indicate what
kind of fix the receiver has. The value can be one of
A=autonomous
D=differential
E=Estimated
N=not valid,
S=Simulator.
Sometimes there can even be a null value as well.
The A and D are the only vales that will indicate an Active and reliable Sentence.
This mode character has been added to the end of RMC, RMB, VTG, and GLL sentences.
Optionally, to some others as well, including the BWC and XTE sentences.

14 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Basic Features
Let's take a look at some of OpenCPN's basic features.

Toolbar Buttons

Quick look at OpenCPN button toolbar and their functions

Right-click menu

Quick look at OpenCPN basic right-click options.

Zoom In & Out

How to zoom in and out on a chart

Scaling Charts

How to scale in and out to different charts

Chart Quilting

Explanation and use of Chart Quilting.

Status Bar
Status bar color definitions and explanations
Auto Follow and Display Orientation
How to have chart follow gps or quickly center boat in chart
Tides and Currents
How to view tides and current station data on chart
Ship Track

How to record your track history and overlay on chart

Man Over Board

Man Over Board

Toolbox (Settings)

An explanation of the toolbox ( )

Toolbar Buttons

A brief explanation is available by just hovering with the cursor over each button.
From left to right:

Zoom In (Zoom In & Out)

Zoom Out (Zoom In & Out)

Scale Next Chart Down (Scaling Charts) 1

Scale Next Chart Up (Scaling Charts) 1

Create Route (Routes and Marks)

Find/Follow Boat (Auto Follow and Display Orientation)

Launch Toolbox(Toolbox Settings)

15 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Show Text Labels on Vector Chart.(Vector Chart Display)

Show AIS Targets 2 3 (AIS)

Show/Hide Currents On Chart (Tides and Currents)

Show/Hide Tides On Chart (Tides and Currents)

Print 4

Route/Track/Waypoints- Manager.(The Route Manager and Data Import/Export)

Toggle Track On/Off 4 (Ship Track)

Adjust Screen Brightness for Dawn/Dusk and Night viewing.(Change Color Scheme)

Drop Man Over Board(MOB) marker(Man Over Board)

About OpenCPN and Help File

Show/hide the Dashboard Plugin 4 (The Dashboard Plugin)

Grib Overlay Plugin 4 (GRIB Weather Plugin)

Course Up/North Up 3 (Auto Follow and Display Orientation)

GPS status 3 (GPS Status)

Note 1: These icons are "grayed out" when only CM93 vector-charts are available, as the feature makes no sense.
Note 2: AIS button is available if an Ais Data Port is defined in the ToolBox AIS Tab.
Note 3: These icons changes, depending on status.
Note 4: These icons can be enabled or disabled from the ToolBox
Printer 'ToolBox-Settings-Show Printing Icon' to hide or un-hide.
Tracks 'ToolBox-Etc.-Show Track Icon' to hide or un-hide.
Grib plugin. Activate in Toolbox-Plugins by first clicking the feature and then "enable".
Dashboard plugin. Activate in Toolbox-Plugins by first clicking the feature and then "enable".

Right-click Menu
The right click menu is always available as long as the cursor is somewhere in the chart area. The content of this menu is context
sensitive. If you are dealing with routes, clicking on a leg or waypoint for example, your menu contains more entries than just clicking
at a random position. Below, the basic entries are explained. The context specific entries are dealt with as the concerned feature is
explained.

The basic raster chart right-click menu

16 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Max Detail Here

Displays the largest scale, most detailed chart, available in the position of the cursor.

Scale In

Displays the next larger scale chart.

Scale Out

Displays the next smaller scale chart.

Drop Mark Here

Drops a mark in the position of the cursor. Further explained on this page: opencpn.org/routes_and_marks

Move Boat Here

Moves own boats position to the position pointed at. This only works if the GPS isn't connected.

Jump to Position...

Activates a small dialog where latitude and longitude can be entered. Pressing "OK" centers the display on this position, keeping the
same scale. The values entered is kept during a session, but goes when restarting OpenCPN

Go to Here

Creates an instant active route from own boat to the position clicked. More about routes here.

Measure

Activates a "pencil". Move the pencil with the cursor. Put the tip of the pencil on a position that you want to measure from. Left-click,
a dot with a circle around is created.Move the pencil with the mouse and see the distance and bearing from the point to the penciltip in
"real time". Left-clicking again moves the start point for measuring. Right-clicking anywhere gives the option "Measure off"

17 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

AIS target list

Is not a basic entry, but is displayed in this case as an ais port is entered. More here.

The basic vector chart right-click menu

The difference compared to the raster chart is that the three first entries has been replaced with...

Object Query

Every point on a vectorchart has certain attributes, or information. This can vary from just the depth in mid ocean to much more. Here
is an example from a lateral bouy in the entrance chanel to a medium sized port.

18 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Clicking the "Light" in the left part of the dialog tells all the details about the light on the bouy. Much more about his on the vector
chart page.

Zoom In & Out


These buttons allow you to zoom in and out on the chart currently being displayed.

Will zoom the chart in for more detail, larger scale.

Will zoom the chart view out for more area, smaller scale.

Alternatively, the + and - keys on your keyboard will zoom in and out. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, it can also be used to
quickly zoom in and out.

Overzooming

19 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Overzooming

If you zoom in enough there will appear a warning "OverZoom" in the upper left part of the chart area. This means that you have
zoomed in way to far, and is using the chart
at a scale that was never intended, and that is not supported by the original survey. No new information will be seen, and the situation is
potentially dangerous
as it could give the impression of increased distance between dangers.
On a raster-chart pixelation will be seen, but on a vector chart it is not so
obvious when you have over zoomed. This is where the warning is useful.
Your first action when the warning appears should be to zoom out at least one snap.

Nigel Calder "How to read a Nautical Chart, 2003", is recommended to all users who want to know more about charts, the surveys
they are based on, and their horizontal and vertical accuracy.

Scaling Charts
These buttons will allow you to change the scale of chart you are using, unless only CM93 charts are loaded, in which case
these buttons has no effect, and are grayed out. If just a yellow bar is visible in the Chart Selection Bar, above the Status Bar, then

20 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

CM93 is the only available chart for the area.

Will scale down/out to the next chart of less detail but greater area, if available, within the current view

Will scale up/in to the next chart of greater detail but less area, if available, within the current view

Hint: Scaling down and up corresponds to available charts left and right on the Status Bar.

The scale of the displayed chart.


The chart display indicates the true scale of a particular chart at the present zoom level. Look to the far right on the bar above:
"TrueScale 22600 Zoom 0.73x.
There is also an always present quick reference visual indicator in the SW part of the display.

When the indicator is gray and orange the total length is 1 nautical mile an each segment is 1 cable.
When the indicator is gray and black the total length is 10 miles and each segment is 2 miles.

Chart Quilting
Chart quilting is a way to display parts of several charts together on the screen, redrawn to the same scale.

Limitation
Mercator charts and Transverse Mercator charts are quilted separately and don't mix. The transition from one form of quilting to the
other is seamless. Black areas can appear in Tmerc quilt in areas where there is no cover.

Quick Start
Hit F9 to get into quilting mode. Zooming in, automatically brings up larger scale charts,
if available. Panning reveals a continuous quilt of the available charts. If you started with a raster chart, only raster-charts, and perhaps
CM93, will be in the quilt. The same logic applies to S57 Vector Charts (ENCS). Make sure you are familiar with the Status Bar as this
will help you interpret all available information. The quilt, like a single chart can be displayed North Up or Course Up read more: Auto
Follow and Display Orientation.

More details
What is the use of this feature?

21 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

In single chart mode, getting near the edge of the chart there is no information outside the chart.

22 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

The situation changes dramatically when quilting mode is activated. The amount of relevant information on the screen increases.

Displaying charts

OpenCPN has two modes of displaying charts, single chart mode and quilting mode.

To activate chart quilting go to Toolbox -> Settings -> Chart Display Options and tick the box "Enable Chart Quilting", tick the box
"Show Chart Outlines" at the same time as this will help you see which chart mode is active.
Alternatively chart quilting mode can be toggled on/off with the "F9" key.

Is Chart quilting on?


When quilting is on, all chart outlines disappear.

When hovering with the mouse pointer over a chart button in single chart mode, a thumbnail of the chart is displayed in the upper left
corner of the screen. At the same time an information box pops up above the button with details about the chart. This changes with
quilting as the thumbnail is replaced with a high-lightning of the charts part in the quilt with a transparent reddish color.

The exception to the last rule is CM93 charts. When an area is only covered by CM93 charts, indicated by a long yellow chart button in
the status bar, and in quilting mode, no info-box is displayed and no reddish highlighting is taking place.

More than one chart can be displayed and active at the same time, on the picture above, for example there are three pale blue buttons,
as there are three raster-charts in this quilt. In single mode only one chart button is highlighted at a time.

Depth units that is normally shown in the upper right corner of the display, if activated in the toolbox, is only displayed in quilting mode
if all participating charts uses the same unit.
Zoom level, normally displayed on the far right on the Status bar, is not present in quilting.

Many of these features are illustrated in this screen-dump.

This is a quilt consisting of three raster charts, two that are actually displayed and one smaller scale chart that is hidden behind the
larger scaled charts of St Croix.
This is the button for the not displayed chart in the quilt.
The mouse pointer is over the middle raster chart and the chart information box is shown, together with the red highlighting of the

23 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

chart on the screen.


No depth unit is shown in the quilt as the left chart is in Feet and the right in Fathoms an parts thereof. Notice the lack of zoom level
in the status bar, a quilt , by definition, consists of several different zoom levels.

Which charts are quilted?


There are several rules built into OpenCPN governing exactly how different charts reacts to the quilting mode.
Raster charts and Vector charts are quilted separately and don't mix together. You can quilt either raster charts or vector charts, but
not both at the same time.
The exception to this rule is that CM93 ver2 charts, if available, are shown if no other chart cover exists for a displayed area, for both
raster- and vector- chart quilting.
Transverse Mercator Charts, which are all raster charts, are strictly quilted on their own. In this special case, black areas can occur
where there is no coverage.
CM93 ver2 charts can be quilted separately.

Mercator Charts are always quilted in quilting mode but don't quilt together with Transverse Mercator charts.
Polyconic Charts, are allowed in a quilt together with Mercator charts, but a warning is issued in the chart information box, for poor
geo-referencing. I other words expect lower accuracy from the chart.
Skewed Charts are allowed in the quilt as long as it doesn't deviate more than 5 degrees
from North Up.
Transverse Mercator Charts are quilted separately from Mercator Charts.

User control.
Users can control if an individual chart, is allowed in the quilt or not. Right clicking on any chart in a quilt and clicking "Remove this
chart from quilt" on the pop up menu, removes the chart from the quilt. The chart button in the Status bar changes to .
To activate the chart again right click this button an then click "Ad this chart to quilt"

Status Bar
On the bottom is the Status Bar(s). Activated from 'Tool Box-Show Status Bar'.

The top line, 'Chart Selection Bar', has the following description.
It shows all the available chart for the present view represented by one segment for each chart. The order between the segments
represents the scale of the charts. Largest scale to the left, smallest to the right. If CM93 is available, it is always furthest to the right.
The segmented color bars in the Status Bar represent:

Blue for Raster


Green For ENC's
Brown/Yellow for CM93 charts
The current chart displays as a lighter shade of its color, or if quilting is active, the charts currently making up the quilt are
displayd in lighter shade.
The Chart bar below consisting of 12 segments shows a quilt of two active charts. Five charts in the quilt are hidden, due to small
scale. CM93 is in it's place, to the right. Four charts of larger scale than the present view are available. The largest scale chart is a
Transverse Mercator chart.

Warning - Limitation
The Chart Bar handles a maximum of 30 charts(20 charts in versions before 2.3.1). The largest scale charts will be dropped first if
more than 30 chart are available on a position. Make sure that just the necessary "info" charts - pilot charts and weather charts - are
loaded when under way, otherwise essential large scale charts may not be visible.

When you hover the mouse pointer over the bar, and not in quilting mode, a thumbnail of the chart will appear under the Scaling
Charts icons and a chart information box will pop up just above the button. If quilting is on, instead of a thumbnail, the chart
represented by the button will be highlighted in a transparent reddish color. By clicking on the appropriate bar, or using the appropriate
Hot Keys, you will switch to the chart shown in the thumbnail. This feature is especially useful if you wish to view an ENC or a Raster
chart of the same area.

The bottom line starting from the left, has the position of the GPS that feeds OpenCPN (your ship or boat). SOG, COG, Cursor
(position), From Ownship and TrueScale and Zoom Factor are in other boxes. If the Zoom Factor is missing on the far right, the chart
quilting feature is activated.

24 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

The buttons are displaying a lot more information however.

These buttons shows that the two charts are Transverse Mercator.

This button indicates that the chart is a Poly Conic chart.

This button shows that the chart is skewed, and not Norh Up.

This chart is excluded from quilting because of user action. Right


click to include in quilting again.

The raster chart represented by this button don't participate in the quilt because it is hidden by other, larger scale
charts. Vector charts are represented similar.

To illustrate a lot of this, here is a screen shot in quilting mode.

The screen is a quilt of two Polyconical charts. Hovering the mouse pointer over the left chart-button highlights the lager scale chart
for Manitowoc. Two smaller scale charts that cover the area displayed on the screen are included in the quilt, but are invisible as
they are covered by the larger scale charts. To view these charts, right-click anywhere on a chart in the quilt and select "Remove this
chart from quilt", one of these charts will now be shown in the quilt.
The Brown right most button shows that CM93 version 2, charts are available for the area, but not currently displayed.
The information box shows relevant information about the chart. We can see that the chart is Polyconic, and because of this a
warning is displayed for poor accuracy. The reason is, that although Polyconic charts are allowed to participate in quilting, the
result is not totally free from errors, however small.

25 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Auto Follow and Display Orientation


Clicking the Auto Follow button will center the chart directly on your vessel's current location. If the the gps is working

own ship is red otherwise the icon is gray.

The default own ship icon can be replaced by putting a file "ownship.xpm" in the User icons shared data directory. More about
this shared directory here: Routes and Marks
The Auto Follow button useful for two different situations:

1. When you have panned the map away from your current location and want to quickly move back to your vessel.
2. When underway, this will keep the display on the chart around your vessel, with the boat at the center of the chart.

Note: Panning the chart will disable this mode. Simply click again to turn Auto Follow mode back on.
The display can be oriented two ways, normally it is North Up but Course Up is an alternative.One situation where course up
might be considered is when navigating a river or a canal.
This icon (blue color) to the far right in the ToolBar indicates that the display is in North Up mode. This is a toggle button.
Click it and ...
and it turns red for Course Up mode. These setting can also be controlled in the ToolBox -> Settings -> Chart Display
Options ->Course Up Mode
Note that both the red and the blue arrows are always pointing North.
Look Ahead! To see more of the chart in front of the boat, activate ToolBox -> Settings -> Chart Display Options ->Look
Ahead Mode. Your own boat will no longer be in the center of the screen. Instead it will be located away from the center, in the
opposite direction to your present gps course(COG).
Don't always Look Ahead! If you are at anchor, swinging on the hook produces random courses and low speeds.If Look Ahead
is on in this situation the chart rendering will constantly be redrawn, with the boat in all possible lookahead positions as the
course changes. To prevent this kind of scenario OpenCPN works like this:
*If the boat speed is less than 1 kt, then lookahead is disabled.
*If boat speed is greater than 3 kts, lookahead is enabled.
*In between 1 and 3 kts, the lookahead "distance" is adjusted smoothly.
*If the problemis still there when doing mre than 3 kts, consider using "ToolBox->GPS-FilterNMEA Course and Speed data" to
average out the "jumpiness".
Show skewed raster charts as North-up. Skewed charts are normally showed "skewed up", as it is intended. If ticking this box,
these charts are shown North-Up by default. In both cases, activating course up, works as expected, the difference is when course
up is not on.

Tides and Currents

Notes
Tide and Current predictions are not available for all areas.
As with all predictions, the displayed values are calculated using mathematical models and actual tides and currents will vary

26 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Enable Tides and Currents Display


Click the toolbar button to see tide stations.
Select to see current stations.
Important: tide and currents will not be displayed unless these toolbar buttons are selected.

Displaying Tides
Available tide stations will show on the chart as green graphs with a "T" logo:
The "T" becomes a yellow and blue vertical bar when the scale is greater than 1:500.000

The vertical bar contains a lot of information at a glance.


The tidal rise is 2.5m above the chart datum. The blue part is "water". The "V" inside he bar indicates that the tide is
decreasing towards Low Water.

Here, the tide is rising towards High Water.

Low Water looks like this.

High Water Looks like this.

Right click the middle of either icon to see the tidal graph:

27 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

The Yellow box, with the tidal rise and time, follows the cursor when hovering over the dialog. The time axis at the bottom
displays the time, in this case he timezone is "Z +01:00", which is the same as one hour ahead (east) of UTC, that used to be
called GMT.
In North America it is common to use a three or four letter acronym for timezones.

CODE UNITED STATES TIME ZONE CODES UTC OFFSET

AST ATLANTIC STANDARD TIME UTC - 4

EST EASTERN STANDARD TIME UTC - 5

EDT EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME UTC - 4

CST CENTRAL STANDARD TIME UTC - 6

CDT CENTRAL DAYLIGHT TIME UTC - 5

MST MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME UTC - 7

MDT MOUNTAIN DAYLIGHT TIME UTC - 6

PST PACIFIC STANDARD TIME UTC - 8

PDT PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME UTC - 7

AKST ALASKA TIME UTC - 9

AKDT ALASKA DAYLIGHT TIME UTC - 8

HAST HAWAII-ALEUTIAN STANDARD TIME UTC - 10

HADT HAWAII-ALEUTIAN DAYLIGHT TIME UTC - 9

28 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

SST SAMOA STANDARD TIME UTC - 11

SDT SAMOA DAYLIGHT TIME UTC - 10

CHST CHAMORRO STANDARD TIME UTC +10

Displaying Currents
Available current stations will show on the chart as orange diamonds, with arrows in the direction of the set. Note that "current"
here is the same as the UK term "tidal stream".

Arrow indicates current direction and strength - the bigger the arrow, the more current.
Right click the orange box to see current graph:

29 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

The Yelow box, with time,speed and direction, follows the cursor when hovering over the dialog.

Ship Track
Toggling the track icon turns tracking on and off. Tracking means that a record is kept of the vessels position as it proceeds. A
trail is left behind the vessel. To display the tracking icon tick the box Toolbox->Etc->Show Track Icon. Below the "Show Track icon"
check box there are two more options related to track recording. You may set how often a track point is recorded every X number of
seconds or X Nautical miles.

Recorded tracks can be imported, exported and managed using the The Route Manager and Data Import/Export.

When right clicking on a track you can select Track Properties from the menu, and a new dialog pops up. The same thing can be
achieved through the Route Manager. A record of all the trackpoint will be listed. Below we can see a trackpoint entry every minute,
due to the selection above of a trackpoint every 60 seconds. Click on either a "Leg" or "To a Waypoint" item and a blue square will
mark the position on the track.
From the right click menu the Delete track option is available as well.
For more about Tracks read about the Route Managers Track Tab in The Route Manager and Data Import/Export.

Man Over Board


Drop a Man Over Board Marker at your present position by pressing

* Man Over Board Button on the ToolBar


or hit the Keys
*Ctrl + Spacebar.

A mark, looking like the button is instantly created - the MOB mark.
The MOB mark will be called "MAN OVERBOARD at + time-stamp"

30 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

A temporary route, from a point 1 mile ahead on the current COG, and to the MOB mark is created and activated. On the screen, a
course and bearing to the MOB mark will be displayed. This temporary triangular mark is labeled "1.0 NM along COG".

The temporary route can be deleted, through the right-click menu, but no action of the user with the mouse or keyboard will move or
delete the MOB mark, except for opening the Route/Waypoint manager to delete the mark, or right click -> Mark/Wpt Properties and
select a different icon, and then delete the mark (ex mob mark) from the right click menu.

Multiple MOB marks can be deployed, and multiple temporary routes will be created. The active route will always be associated with
the last dropped MOB mark.

Be very careful when using this capability in waters with strong tide or current.
The person overboard will not be at the position of the MOB mark fort long. Both Own Boat and the person in the water will move
with the current, but OpenCPN knows nothing about this.

The MOB mark has just been dropped

Own Boat has moved on and the MOB bark is 0.65 miles in bearing 200 degrees.
One option in this situation is to drag the triangle to the Own Boats position.

A second MOB mark is dropped.

31 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Toolbox Settings

Click this icon to open the Tool Box which has the following tabs.

The Settings Tab

32 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Show Status Bar: The status bar at the bottom of the display contains a lot of navigation information. If you have this inf available
elsewhere, turning this setting off increases the available space for the chart.

Show Printing Icon: When you need to print Chartlets

Enable Char Quilting: Chart Quilting.

Disable Full Screen Quilting: By default all visible charts of an appropriate scale are used in the quilt. With this box checked only
charts that overlap the center of the screen are used in the quilt. Checking this box is easier on the system and may give a performance
boost in certain circumstances.

Course Up Mode: Auto Follow and Display Orientation.

Lookahead Mode: Auto Follow and Display Orientation.

Show Chart Outlines: The borders of the available charts are shown. Vector charts are green, raster charts are red, and on CM93
available larger scale charts are purple. The CM93 chart outlines are not on if using quilting mode. As a safety precaution, the outlines
of isolated dangers with large scale charts available, are shown in CM93 even if "Show Chart Outlines" is off, provided that quilting is
not used and the scale is large enough. At a scale of 1:200.000 or larger these isolated Islands and dangers will be shown. Hence it is
recommended not to use quilting in CM93 when on a longer passage. More on cm93.

Show Grid: Activate a latitude and longitude layer on the display. This is handy on vector charts, that normally lacks this feature.

Show Depth Units: Shows the charts depth units if available. When in quilt mode, depth units are only shown if all charts in the quilt
has the same depth unit.

Show skewed raster charts as North-up: Skewed chart are normally shown as intended by the cartographer. With this option they are
rotated to show North-Up. Skewed charts are a common feature along the US Intercoastal Waterway. More here: Auto Follow and
Display Orientation

33 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

OwnShip COG arrow predictor.....: Shows a red dashed line in front of your own boat, with present COG and ends in a dot, which
represents where you will be in the set number of minutes, with the present speed.

The GPS Tab:

NMEA Data Source: Set the source for your GPS connection. Note that you can write in this field. For example to get "Gippy" to
work with OpenCPN, this is where you write the path to the virtual GPS created by Gippy. Similar, if you know that the GPS is on
COM3, but this port does not show up in the list, just write "COM3" in the field.

Details for windows.


Due to performance reason OpenCPN by default only accepts COM ports up to 32. If this is not enough, OpenCPN will accept ports up
to 42 with the following line added to the opencpn.ini configuration file:
[Settings]
WindowsComPortMax=42
In the tab select the 'NMEA Data Source' from the choices shown in the drop-down box, and choose the port to which your GPS is
connected. If you are using a standard serial port, then choose the proper physical port number to match. If, on the other hand, you are
using a USB GPS, then you will select the virtual serial port which was created by your GPS device driver. You may need to try several
selections to find the correct port. For XP/Vista: Using the Device Manager, look for a serial port which appears and disappears
dynamically as you plug and unplug the USB GPS cable. This is your virtual GPS serial port. When the properly configured GPS is
connected, powered up, and recognized, and a show a green icon or gps status icon in the right end of the tool-bar. OpenCPN
automatically configures bits, parity, etc. These do not need to be separately specified.

Details for Linux. Connect directly to one of the available physical ports, or use gpsd. For gpsd versions earlier than 2.9, select
"Network GPSD" else select "Network LIBGPS". For Ubuntu 10.4 and later select "Network LIBGPS".

GPSD Data Server: is normally "localhost", but it's possible to have one gpsd server on a local network with many OpenCPN clients.
In this case, specify the network address of the gpsd server. With OpenCPN it's possible to connect even a Windows instance, to a gpsd
server this way.

34 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

NMEA Baude Rate: 4800 is the normal value for many devices, but some newer gps receivers require a different value. Check your
documentation.

Use Garmin GRMN/GRMN(Host) mode for Waypoint and Route uploads. Make sure that this box is ticked, if you have a Garmin
GPS. The reason for this is that Garmin units cannot accept route uploads via standard NMEA0183. This is a "design feature" of all
Garmin receivers.

Show GPS/NMEA data stream window: If you check this box you will get a window that shows the NMEA data sentences coming
into OpenCPN.
If gpsd is used on Linux, no data will be shown.
For simple NMEA data stream debugging, add the following to your opencpn.ini file:Under [Settings] add a line
DebugNMEA=1500
This will provide up to 1500 debug messages pertaining to NMEA traffic to the opencpn.log

Filter NMEA Course and Speed Data: Providing a rolling average of COG/SOG, with configurable sampling period. This feature is
useful, for example, if you find that course and speed from the gps is varying erratically due to the sea state. The Dashboard plugin is
not affected by this setting - COG and SOG are updated about once per second.

Autopilot Output Port: Connect any NMEA 0183 compatible autopilot. Select the correct serial port from the list. OpenCPN does
accept autopilot output on the main GPS input port, using the same baud rate, unless it is set to "AIS Port (Shared)".

The Chart Tab

This is treated in detail Installing Charts

Vector Charts Tab

35 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

More about vectorcharts Vector Chart Display.

The AIS Tab

36 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

More about AIS.

The Language and Font Tab

37 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Languages: The following languages are available in OpenCPN 2.3 :


Brazilian Portuguese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Italian
Norwegian Bokmaal
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Choose your language here. Make sure your selected language has the support files installed on your computer (Linux). Default
language is US English.

Font Options. Fonts can be selected for some elemets on the display.

The Etc. Tab

38 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Tracks are Ship Track.

Radar rings: These show up as red rings centered on your gps position, and can be useful in different circumstances, such as keeping
clear of dangers. The settings are, hopefully, intuitive.

Waypoint locking. Locks waypoints, and prevents accidental moving of them. This box should normally be ticked when under way.

GUI Options

Enable wheel-zoom-to-cursor: Normally when clicking on the screen, the display centers on the clicked point. The wheel zooms in/out
always using the center of the display. With this box ticked, the zooming happens at the point of the cursor. This means that as soon as
you start to zoom in the display centers on the cursor.

Preserve scale when switching charts: Normally when switching charts OpenCPN will open the new chart scaled close to it's natural
scale, the zoom factor stays the same. With this box ticked OpenCPN will keep the scale from the last chart, when switching, not
exactly, but generally of the same magnitude. The zoom-factor will increase as you switches to smaller scale charts.

Play ship bells: Every half-hour the traditional ship bell will be heard.

The Plugin Tab

39 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

The Plugin tab is treated on these pages


Plugins
Dashboard Plugin
GRIB Weather Plugin

Change Color Scheme


This Button has 4 levels corresponding to standard US raster charts built in levels.
These represents the Default level, the Daylight level, the Dawn or Dusk level and finally the Night level. Generally there is no
difference between the Default level and the Daylight level.

The way this button works differs between different category of charts.

S57 Vector Charts and the CM93 ver2 charts.


All charts display the Dawn/Dusk and Night levels. This means that there is no change when the button is first pressed, but further
pressing brings up a Dusk and then a Night palette.
US Raster Charts
These works the same as the vector-charts.
Other Raster Charts
Most other raster charts just contains a standard palette, and pressing the Button has no effect other than dimming part of OpenCPN,
except for the chart display.
The Brazilian Raster Charts includes a dusk and night palette, but the colors displayed is not what one would expect.
Charts converted with the help of libbsb and tiff2bsb, only contains one standard color scheme.

Setting up your computer for Night Navigation.

For night time navigation it is desirable to be able to dim the whole screen, not just OpenCPN. Consider the case when you have to
consult a Cruising Guide in pdf format, for example.
The solutions to this problem is platform specific.

Linux

Install the program xcalib, sudo apt-get install xcalib, or similar.


Then associate keys on your keyboard with different xcalib commands.
Note that the setting below overrides some of OpenCPN's Hot Keys.
These are only suggestions, and depends on your local installation and preference.
SHIFT + F2 -> xcalib -co 80 -a
F2 -> xcalib -clear
ALT + SHIFT + q -> xcalib -c && xcalib -co 80 -a
ALT + SHIFT + w -> xcalib -c && xcalib -co 60 -a
ALT + SHIFT + e -> xcalib -c && xcalib -co 40 -a
ALT + SHIFT + r -> xcalib -c && xcalib -co 20 -a
ALT + SHIFT + t -> xcalib -c && xcalib -co 10 -a

With this setup holding SHIFT down and pressing F2 dims the screen in steps of 20%.
Pressing just F2 clears the screen to full brightness. Not a good move in the middle of the night! The other key combinations sets the
screen to predefined dimming levels in steps of 20%, except for the last one.

Windows

New in 2.4.324
Experimental dimming through the F6 Key.
***
This is more problematic. Check if your graphic card has a control program. On many cards it is possible to control, brightness, contrast
and gamma, and get acceptable dimming of the screen.

Mac

40 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Advanced Features
Let's take a look at some of OpenCPN's advanced features.

Hot Keys

How to use the keyboard to reach common features.

Anchor Watch

How to set and clear anchor watches

AIS
How to overlay AIS target data from AIS receiver data stream on chart
Routes and Marks
Creating and using routes and marks
The Route Manager and Data Import/Export
How to import and export, waypoints, tracks, and routes in and out of OpenCPN

Vector Chart Display


Viewing and customizing vector chart symbols, labels and data display

CM93 Offsets

Correcting CM93 charts for error in Latitude and Longitude.

Troubleshooting

A few low level hints.

Hot Keys
The Hot Keys native to OpenCPN are described below.These may not work on your computer depending on other settings on your
computer.

Arrow Keys, Moves the chart view


Alt + Arrow Keys, Moves the chart view in very small steps.
+ or Ctrl + Z Zoom In
- or Ctrl + X Zoom Out
F2 Toggle Auto Follow ON/OFF
F3 or Ctrl + S Show / hide ENC Text
F4 Starts the measure tool. Escape : Stops it.
F5 Toggle Daylight, Dusk and Night mode, if it is built into the Chart.
F6 General Dimming, in steps, of the ntire Screen(Windows)
F7 or Ctrl + Left-Arrow Larger Scale Chart (Scale In)
F8 or Ctrl + Right-Arrow Smaller Scale Chart (Scale Out)
F9 Chart Quilting on/off
F11 Toggle Full Screen view.
F12 or Ctrl + O Show/Hide Chart Outlines
Ctrl + L-Arrow or F7 Larger Scale Chart (Scale In)
Ctrl + M Drop Marker at current cursor position.
Ctrl + O or F12 Show/Hide Chart Outlines
Ctrl + Q Quits OpenCPN
Ctrl + R-Arrow or F8 Smaller Scale Chart (Scale Out)
Ctrl + S or F3 Show / hide ENC Text
Ctrl +space Man Over Board, sets MOB Marker at current GPS position.

Anchor Watch

Anchor watch can be set on any mark that you have created with OpenCPN, as long as the boat is within 5 cables of this mark. This
means that the Anchor watch items, on the right click menu, will only be visible if your boat is within 0.5 nautical miles of any mark.
A maximum of two marks can have anchor watch set at the same time.

41 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

This feature can be used in other situations than just anchoring, but keeping an eye on your anchor, and making sure it isn't dragging, is
the main purpose. Below we are using the "Man Overboard" icon to mark the anchor, this is just an easy way, and not necessary for the
anchor watch to work.

To learn how it works let's make a dry run to a nice trade wind anchorage.

After circling around and exploring the bay, we know where we want to drop our anchor.
At the chosen spot we drop the anchor, at the same time we click the man overboard icon on OpenCPN to mark the point.

The wind, ENE at 15 kts let us drift back until we are satisfied with our scope. A burst in reverse convinces us that the anchor is set,
later confirmed by a leisurely snorkeling over the anchor. Time to sort out the anchor watch

42 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Right click on the man over board mark, choose properties, this brings up the "Mark Properties" dialog. We have to change a few things
here to make it worthwhile setting the anchor watch. "Mark Name" is changed from "MAN OVERBOARD" to the watch circle in
meters. In our case we have changed this to 60. We have 40 m of chain out, our gps antennae on our 40 footer sits at the pushpit, some
minor gps uncertainties and a few extra meters for our anchor to dig in, is our reasoning for this. We also change the mark icon to
something better than the life-buoy.

We right click on the mark once again, and choose "Set Anchor Watch" from the menu.
See picture above. The anchor watch is now active, and an alarm will be set off if the boat for some reason exits the circle. To
deactivate the anchor watch, right click on the mark and select "Clear Anchor Watch".

To get protection from the wind and a bit of northerly swell, we have really anchored to close to the beach. To keep an eye on this
potential danger we set another mark on the beach.

43 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

This time we set the "Mark Name" to -100, this means that if the boat comes within 100 meters of this mark, the alarm is set off.

An hour later, after a heavy squall passed, the wind goes light and flukey. The boat drifts towards the beach and the anchor alarm
sounds and comes up on our computer screen.
The alarm sound is the same as the AIS warning sound and is set in the ToolBox under the AIS tab.

44 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

This is what happens if you activate the anchor watch without changing the name, the alarm is instantly activated. Clear the anchor
watch and read from the beginning of the page.

AIS
For a general introduction to AIS Wikipedia is a god place to start.
The screendump below gives you a first feel for how AIS targets are presented and used in OpenCPN.

The Lookahead mode is activated here and our own vessel is proceeding 352 deg at 13 kts, leaving an activated track behind, and
projecting a dashed line ahead representing the course. This ends in a dot, that represents where we will be in 6 minutes, or 1.3
nautical miles ahead. We are meeting a vessel, steaming in the opposite direction following the traffic separation. This target also has
a line and a dot in-front of it representing course and where it will be in 6 minutes(user configurable). The two blue dots with a
red/yellow line between them, represents where the vessels will be at CPA - closest point of approach, or when the are nearest each
other, with present courses and speeds. The meeting vessel is red, as it is a potential danger to us.

45 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

A lot of information about the vessels that transmits AIS signals and are displayed on the chart, is available.

The cursor is on top of the the meeting vessel on a SW course. As we have not yet received full information, this can take a while, we
don't get the name but an id number, the so called MMSI number, instead. Exactly what is shown in the yellow popup is configured in
the AIS tabs Rollover heading.

This vessel is identified by name, and has a green color, as it does not represent any danger to our navigation.

46 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

If we instead of just hovering the cursor on an object, right click, the menu item AIS Target Query brings up the dialog above. A lot of
relevant information is displayed. TCPA is the time until CPA, how long before we are at the closest point to the other vessel.

Rollover:
All the bells and whistles are activated! A new target appears behind an island on our port bow, OpenCPN sounds an alarm and draws
a jagged circle around the new target. An AIS alert box with all the information about the new target pops up. We can silence the

47 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

noise but, has to acknowledge before the box disappears.

The AIS Target List

Another way to present the AIS information. The AIS target list is available through the right click menu. Click on a header in a column
to sort according to this criteria. For example, clicking "Range" sorts the targets with the nearest target on top. Click one more time to
get the target, furthest away on top.
Target Info button: Click on a target to highlight it and then click the button to display the information dialog.
Jump To button: Highlight a target an click this button and the screen will center on the target.
Limit Range: The list will only show targets with a range less than, or equal to this value.

The ToolBox AIS Tab

48 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

This tab controls the behavior of many thing in the AIS display. There are no "best" settings. It all depend on where you are, what kind
of navigation you are into and what kind of vessel you are on. It is your responsibility to evaluate this.

AIS data port: Select your AIS input port on your computer. When this is set to anything but "None", the AIS button appears in the
ToolBar. This button appears different according to the following conditions.

AIS Alive. The default AIS button. This icon appears as soon as an AIS port is active in the tool-box. It is also the normal state
with an AIS receiver working and with no targets of interest.

AIS Suppressed. This icon indicates only that target suppression is activated in the AIS tab in the ToolBox. Referring to the
picture above there are two sort of suppression:
* Suppress display of all moored/anchored targets, max speed specified in dialog.
* Suppress Alerts for moored/anchored targets.
This icon will be over-ridden with the AIS alarm button if an alarm is, or becomes, active according to the AIS tab alarms settings in the
toolbox.

AIS Alarm. A target exist that raises the alarm as defined in the AIS tab in the ToolBox. It is the three settings "CPA
Calculations", that rules if and when an alarm is raised.

AIS Disabled. No targets, if available, are shown on the screen. This button toggles with the other buttons. For example, if the AIS
alarm button is visible, click the button and it will change to the "AIS Disabled" button, and all targets, alarms etc, disappears from the
display. Click again and the original button and AIS display comes back.

49 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

CPA calculation: Rules for how and when the Closest Point of Approach- CPA (when two vessels are nearest each other) is
calculated. There are three tick boxes, which can be activated with user set values.
1. If the vessel is far away it is less interesting to calculate CPA. In a busy waterway this could cut down on clutter and processing
speed if a reasonable value is set.
2. Similar arguments to No 1. This controls when a warning for minimum CPA distance is given.
3. Similar to No 2 this controls the alarm based on a minimum time to CPA. A target is regarded as lost if regular transmissions is not
received, updating the vessels status.

Lost Targets: Rules for how lost targets should be handled on the display.
1. Target is regarded as lost if no transmission are received for the number of minutes set here, the target will change on the display and

have a black bar across.

2. The lost target will be removed from the display after the number of minutes set here.

Display: If and how a vessels course and speed should be displayed and if stationary vessels should be on the screen.
1. An arrow will be shown in front of the vessel representing it's COG (Course Over Ground). The length of this arrow and the dot at
the end of it represents the calculated position in the number of minutes set here. Set easily calculated values. If a vessel approaches
you doing 15 kts and the time is set to 6 minutes, the dot will be 1.5 nautical miles ahead of the vessel.
2. A track will be shown behind a target. This helps to judge the target vessels intentions.

3. An anchored or moored target will not be displayed if the speed is less than the value set here.

Rollover: Tick the boxes for the kind of information shown when hovering with the cursor over a target. This is what you get with all
the settings ticked.

CPA/TCPA Alerts: When an alert is triggered, a jagged circle in red is drawn around the target that set off the alarm. Additional events
can be set here, drawing more attention to the alarm. For practical navigation, make sure your alarm sound is set.
1. Shows an alert dialog on the screen with target information when an alarm is triggered.
2. Sounds an alarm when an alarm is triggered.
3. Don't show alarms for anchored and moored targets.

Select Alert Sound. Select an alarm that suits you. This alarm will also be used if an anchor watch is set. Due to copyright issues, only
a few sound files are included. Users can add their own generic ".wav" sound files. The location for these files are "/usr/local/share
/opencpn/sounds/" on Linux and typically C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\sounds on Windows XP.
Test Alert Sound. Test the selected sound and make sure this important feature is working

Enable Target Alert Acknowledge timeout. Once a target alert is acknowledged, wait the set number of minutes before the alert
comes up again. The purpose is to avoid alarm loops in congested waters due to own ships course and speed changes.

When exactly is an alarm activated?

50 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

An alert is set off if your boat is approaching the CPA, the blue dot on the extension of the course line, and the previously discussed set
of conditions are met. Once the distance to the CPA increases, this happens when the involved vessels has passed each other, the alarm
stops, even if the other conditions still apply.

+++

Quick Reference for targets:

Potential Danger.

No Danger. Not Identified ( Name not received)

No Danger. Identified

Lost Target

Anchored or moored. Displayed when the transmitted "Navigation status" is "at anchor".

The V-shape stern indicates a Class B target. Tugboats and pilot boats very often carry Class B transponders. These are often

designed specifically for small commercial boats, fishing boats and pleasure crafts.

This blue bit is the European, Inland AIS standard, "Blue Paddle" signal, commonly seen on inland waters to indicate that the
vessel requests a "stbd-stbd" passage or crossing. This Blue Signal is manually switched on/off on the target.

- a diamond with plus inside for NavAids.


- AIS Base Station

Routes and Marks

Marks...

are the basic points that is used for many things, such as creating routes, marking fishing spots, good anchorages or anything of interest.

OpenCPN comes with a handful of different icons that can be assigned to a mark. Right click or use the Route Manager and activate
the properties dialog. The Mark Icon window in the dialog shows the available icons.

A user can install his or her own icons to use with marks and "own ship".

1. Create a directory under the executable directory called UserIcons.


In MSW it looks like: Program Files/OpenCPN/UserIcons
In Linux create the directory: /usr/local/share/opencpn/UserIcons.

2. Add .xpm files to this directory. They can be any size. The name embedded within the xpm file becomes the name of the new
waypoint icon. These new icons will appear on the Waypoint Properties dialog, and can be assigned to any waypoint. They can also be
assigned in GPX Import files.

3. "sredna" has contributed a few nice icons. Download here.


For anyone interested, I enclose a small package containg some 24x24px icons that I find usable: red buoy, red flag, red flag buoy,
yellow buoy, yellow flag, yellow buoy flag, blue flag, flag. To use the archive, unpack to your UserIcons directory. WARNING: there
is no folder in the zip file. Feel free to modify/copy/anything with the icons as you like. They were created using KolourPaint in case
anyone wonders.

51 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

4.To replace the default own ship icon , just put a file "ownship.xpm" in the Usericons shared data directory.

You can create a mark by right-clicking anywhere in the map, and selecting "Drop Mark Here" from the menu. The mark will have a
triangle icon, to change that right-click the icon and select "Mark Properties".

You can move the mark by dragging it around.

When creating routes, OpenCPN will ask if it should use a nearby mark if any, when you add a routepoint.

You can delete a mark by right-clicking its icon, and selecting "Delete Mark". Marks can be deleted through the Route Managers
Waypoints tab as well. Deleting a mark that is part of a route, will also change the route.
The Man Over Board mark can be activated through the icon in the toolbar, or through hitting Ctrl + Spacebar. The mark looks
loke the button and is dropped on present position. This mark cannot be moved or deleted with the cursor or keyboard (by mistake), but
can still be deleted from the Route/Waypoint manager dialog. More about MOB here.

A similar kind of locking can be activated for all marks. Goto ToolBox->Etc.

and tick the box. This feature is handy, to prevent accidentally moving a mark. Activate this feature when underway, deactivate it when
planning.

Jump to Position...

In the rightclick menu a related feature - Jump to Position - i available.


A small dialog pop up where latitude and longitude can be entered. Pressing "OK" centers the display on this position, keeping the same
scale. The values entered is kept during a session, but goes when restarting OpenCPN

Routes

Will initiate the creation of a route. When clicked the cursor changes to a ( ) pencil. Left click along the desired route you
want to make. This will leave sequential waypoints as you click along. If your desired route extends off the currently displayed chart,
move the route cursor into the desired area. You can zoom in and out with the mouse scroll wheel or keyboard +/- keys during route
creating. You can also right click and select 'MAX DETAIL HERE' or 'Scale Out' during route creation. When finished right click and
choose end route from the context menu.

The right click menu is context sensitive, exactly what you get depend on what sort of chart it is and if quilting is activated, for
example.
You should now have an inactive (Blue) route. Active routes are Red, inactivated routes are Blue.
Right clicking on a route brings up a menu with many alternatives, such as "Insert Waypint" and "Append Waypoint".

Multiple Routes
OpenCPN currently has no provision to hide routes, so all your routes will show on the chart all the time.

To keep the chart clear of useful but un-needed routes follow these steps:
• Create a folder called 'GPX_Routes', or another suitable name.
• Create your route.
• Use the Route Manager to export the route, with a descriptive file name and save it in GPX_Routes.
• Delete the route from the chart.
• You can export all your routes as one big file or export and delete a route as you create them
• When needed, simply use the Route Managers "Import" Button to open the route file.

52 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

To get rid of the way points left on the chart when a route has been imported and then deleted.

1. Open the Route Managers Waypoint tab and press the "Delete All" button
2. Say 'Yes' to: 'Are you sure you want to delete <ALL> waypoints?'
3. Right-click on the route line and select 'Delete route' or open the Route Managers Route-tab to 'Delete ' or 'Delete all'.
4. Answer in the affirmative.

Saving and Loading Routes and Marks

Refer to The Route Manager and Data Import/Export to load and save data using The Route Manager

Activating and using routes


Right clicking on the track, changes the color from blue to orange and brings up a comprehensive menu.

Clicking "Activate Route" or performing the same action through the Route Manager, changes the route color to red and new, route
information window appears on the right side of the display. Once a route is activated, you are presented with the choice of "Deactivate
Route" in the different menus.

Right clicking on a waypoint in a route activates a few options, otherwise not available.

Activate Waypoint - Gives the direction to the chosen waypoint instead of the first waypoint in the route, which is the default.
Usefull when joining, for example, an imported route, at an arbetrary waypoint.

53 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Activate Next in Route. Sometimes it makes more sense to go directly the following waypoint, instead of via the position of the
nearest waypoint.
Remove Waypoint from Route, but don't delete it.
Delete Waypoint from Route.
Mark/WP Properties. This is the only way to get to these properies, for the moment. The are not yet available in the Route
manager. The dialog is the same as for an individual mark

XTE Cross Track Error. How far off course your boat is.

BRG Direction to next waypoint.

RNG Distance to next waypoint.

TTG Time To Go to next waypoint.

Grapich illustration to the values above. Think about it as driving a car on a road.

The Route Manager and Data Import/Export


Through the Route Manager OpenCPN can save and load waypoints, routes and tracks using the
GPX transfer format. We illustrate the Route Managers dialog with examples using the Route-tab. The
Tracks-tab and Waypoints-tab are similar.
This lets you save your routes and marks so you can have more than the active ones - for example to do route planning, or
archive existing data.

54 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

GPX format is supported by a wide variety of programs.

You can have as many saved files as you wish, there are no limits on the number of saved files.
Use this for passage planning by saving multiple possible routes for a passage.
Save routes and tracks for historical/log purposes.

Routes

To Sort routes click "Route Name" or "To"


Properties:This button brings up a new dialog

Activate: Activates a route marked in the left part of the window.


Zoom to: Zooms in on a route marked in the left part of the window.
Reverse: Reverses a selected route.
Delete: Deletes selected route or track.
Export Route. Save the route on your computer for later use (import)
Send to GPS. Send the Route to your GPS. For Garmin Users, make sure that the ToolBox->GPS->"Use Garmin
GRMN/GRMN(Host) mode for Waypoint and Route uploads" box is ticked. The reason for this is that Garmin units cannot
accept route uploads via NMEA0183. This is a "design feature" of all Garmin receivers.
Delete All. Be careful. If you know you have saved the routes on your computer and are able to import the again, this is a simple
way to clear the screen from routes. Better be safe than sorry, so save before deleting, if you want to be able to use the routes
again.
Import. Import one or more previously saved Routes. It is possible to select and import multiple routes.

55 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Export All Routes. Saves all routes in one gpx file. This is done through a normal file saving dialog.

Tracks

Start Track. Same thing as pressing the track button in the ToolBar
Route from Track. Make a route from a track, for future use. The new route is listed in the Route Manager tab.
All other buttons behaves similar to corresponding buttons for Routes.

Waypoints

56 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Properties. More about this dialog on this page.

Zoom to centers the chart display on the waypoint.


Go To. Make an instant route from present position to the mark and activates the route. A similar instant route is created by right
clicking and selecting "Go To Here" without first creating a mark. This instant route will be listed in the Route Tab.
All other buttons behaves similar to corresponding buttons for Routes.

Planning Data
Creating and Importing Great Circle Routes

GPX import can be used for many things, three sample applications follows below. First, look at this picture. Planning a trip from Cape
Town to Freemantle ?

57 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Here you have two imported routes, the Southern route is a pure Great Circle, the middle route is a Composite Great Circle, and then
the normal Rhumb Line furthest to the north.
A Great Circle is the shortest distance between two point on the globe. A composite route is the same thing with the additional
condition to stay below a limiting latitude, in this case 39°30'S. A rhumb line is a straight line on a Mercator chart. The Mercator
projection is the standard for OpenCPN.

Let us compare the distances involved.

The pure great circle is 4610 nautical miles (M)


The great circle as plotted with 5° of longitude between the waypoints is 4627 M
The pure composite route, limited by latitude 39°30’ S is 4651M
The composite route as plotted with 3° of longitude between waypoints (for the great circles) is 4669 M.
The rhumb line is 4843 M.

So the advantage of a great circle is obvious. The disadvantages, in this case are many.
Colder weather, stronger winds, higher seas and perhaps even icebergs. The great circle is just one factor in the decision making when
planning a route, the weather is likely to be the deciding factor in most cases.

A great circle route is created with the "gc" Ruby script, that is cross platform.
To create a gpx file containing a great circle you have to enter the departure points lat & long, followed by the destination points lat &
long and the optionally a limiting latitude for composite sailing and the distance in long between waypoints, default is set to 5°.

Need to see some offshore weather observations?

NOAAs NDBC site gives access to a lot of offshore observations from buoys and ships worldwide.
To easy visualize all this data the "ShipWxRep" script transform a limited set of all the available data into gpx waypoints. The format,
as seen above is "wind direction, wind speed, time for observation, and air pressure". This can be helpful when evaluating the accuracy
of grib files, even though the best tool in this respect probably is a calibrated digital barometer.

58 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Plotting Miami Tropical Forecast Advisories.

If you only have access to low bandwith internet, this script is a way to quickly plott the contents of, for example an email, containing
the forcast advisory. In any case, it is a good idea to have the forecast track of a tropical system available where you normally do your
navigation and planning.

Download the gpx scripts here. For some help run each script without arguments.

Vector Chart Display


First, one very important setting for vector charts is handled directly from the main toolbar.
This button toggles all text displayed on a vector chart On and Off

Second, right-clicking on any point on a vector chart bring up an information dialog. At the top of this is the "Object Query" choice
which pops up an information dialog, displaying the available vector-chart attributes at this point. Choose from the menu on the left
side of the dialog, and watch the details on the right side.

59 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

The example is taken from right-clicking on a buoy in a busy area.


Exactly what is shown in this dialog depend on the settings described below in "Display Cateegories".

Third, The ToolBox Vector Charts Tab is where everything else is handled.

Display Categories

Navigators has the choice of three pre-defined, different, presentations of ENC content, Base, Standard and Other. OpenCPN also has
the very flexible Mariners Standard, which is better described as "Mariners Choice".

60 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Base

Displays general information, including coastline, safety-contour, isolated danger,


buoy, beacon traffic separation zone, etc.

From the IMO definitions:


Display Base means the level of SENC information which cannot be removed from
the display, consisting of information which is required at all times in all geographic areas and all circumstances. It is not intended to be
sufficient for safe navigation.

Standard

Everything in "Base" and aids to navigation, fairways, channel limits, restricted navigation zones, restricted areas, etc..

All Other Information

Everything in "Standard" and more. This level could be described as "all essentials". More about what the the standards says about the
content of these three levels.

Mariners Standard

Users can use the filter tick box to set exactly what he or she wants displayed. A large set of filters, about 186, can be employed. They
are all to the IHO S57 standard, and it is recommended to download S-57 Appendix A - IHO Object Catalog and have a copy onboard.
Use your pdf viewers "search" or "find" function to quickly find what an acronym means.
Note that Mariners Standard gives the user a much wider choice of what to display, than approved ECDIS system are allowed. It is for
example possible to not display items in the Base category.

WARNING - it is possible to suppress essential information with "Mariners Standard".

If in doubt, switch to "Other", or use the "Select All" button.

Details can also be found on the Internet:


caris.com
s-57.com/
help.arcgis.com
To illustrate the way of thinking behind the acronyms, here are a few examples.

LNDARE = LANDAREA
TESARE = TERITORIAL SEA AREA
NAVLNE = NAVIGATION LINE
PIPOHD = PIPELINE OVERHEAD
SLOTOP = SLOPE TOPLINE
SLCONS = SHORELINE CONSTRUCTION

Each acronym also has an exhaustive official formal definition:

DEPCNT = DEPTH CONTOUR A line connecting points of equal water depth which is sometimes significantly displaced outside of
soundings, symbols and other chart detail for clarity as well as generalization. Depth contours, therefor, often represent an approximate
location of the line of equal depth as related to the surveyed line delineated on the source. Also referred to as depth curve.

Reference for Mariners standard

$AREAS Cartographic area


$COMPS Compass
$CSYMB Cartographic symbol
$LINES Cartographic line
$TEXTS Cartographic text
_extqn
_texto
ACHARE Anchorage area
ACHBRT Anchor berth
ACHPNT Anchor
ADMARE Administration Area (Named)
AIRARE Airport/ airfield
BCNCAR Beacon, cardinal
BCNISD Beacon, isolated danger
BCNLAT Beacon, lateral
BCNSAW Beacon, safe water

61 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

BCNSPP Beacon, special purpose/general


BOYCAR Buoy, cardinal
BOYINB Buoy, installation
BOYISD Buoy, isolated danger
BOYLAT Buoy, lateral
BOYSAW Buoy, safe water
BOYSPP Buoy, special purpose/general
BRIDGE Bridge
BRTFAC Berthing facility
BUAARE Built-up area
BUIREL Building, religious
BUISGL Building, single
CANALS Canal
CANBNK Canal bank
CAUSWY Causeway
CBLARE Cable area
CBLOHD Cable, overhead
CBLSUB Cable, submarine
CEMTRY Cemetery
CGUSTA Coastguard station
CHIMNY Chimney
COALNE CoastDEPCNT Depth contourline
CONZNE Contiguous zone
COSARE Continental shelf area
CRANES Crane
CTNARE Caution area
CTRPNT Control point
CTSARE Cargo transhipment area
CURENT Current
CUSZNE Custom zone
DAMCON Dam Barriere
DAYMAR Daymark
DEPARE Depth area
DEPCNT Depth contour
DIFFUS Diffuser
DISMAR Distance mark
DMPGRD Dumping ground
DRGARE Dredged area
DRYDOC Dry dock
DSHAER Dish aerial
DWRTPT Deep water route part
EXEZNE Exclusive economic zone
FAIRWY Fairway
FERYRT Ferry route
FLASTK Flare stack
FLODOC Floating dock
FNCLNE Fence
FOGSIG Fog signal
FORSTC Fortified structure
FSHFAC Fishing facility
FSHGRD Fishing ground
FSHZNE Fishery zone
GATCON Gate
HRBARE Harbor area
HRBFAC Harbour facility
HULKES Hulk
ICEARE Ice area
ISTZNE Inshore traffic zone
LAKARE Lake
LAKSHR Lake shore
LIGHTS Light
LITFLT Light float
LITHOU
LITVES Light vessel
LNDARE Land area
LNDELV Land elevation
LNDMRK Landmark
LNDPLC Landing place
LNDRGN Land regiom
LNDSTS Landing stairs
LOCMAG Local magnetic anomaly
LOGPON Log pond
LOKBSN Lock basin
M_COVR Coverage
M_HOPA Horizontal datum shift parameters
M_NPUB Nautical publication information
M_NSYS Navigation system of marks
M_PROD Production information
M_QUAL Quality of data
M_SREL Survey reliability
MAGVAR Magnitic variation
MARCUL Marine farm/culture
MIPARE Military practice area
MONUMT Monument
MORFAC Mooring/Warping facility
MSTCON Mast Mast
NAMFIX
NAMFLO
NATARE National territorial area
NAVLNE Navigation line

62 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

OBSTRN Obstruction
OFSPLF Offshore platform
OFSPRD
PILBOP Pilot boarding place
PILPNT Pile
PIPARE Pipeline area
PIPOHD Pipeline, overhead
PIPSOL Pipeline, submarine/on land
PONTON Pontoon
PRCARE Precautionary area
PRDARE Production/storage area
PRDINS Production installation
PYLONS Pylon/bridge support
RADDOM Radar dome
RADLNE Radar line
RADRFL Radar reflector
RADRNG Radar range
RADSTA Radar station
RAILWY Railway
RCRTCL Recommended route centerline
RCTLPT Recommended traffic lane part
RDOCAL Radio calling-in point
RDOSTA Radio station
RECTRC Recommended track
RESARE Restricted area
RIVBNK River bank
RIVERS River
RMPARE Ramp
ROADPT Road part
ROADWY Road
RSCSTA Rescue station
RTPBCN Radar transponder beacon
RUNWAY Runway
SBDARE Seabed area
SEAARE Sea area/named water area
SILBUI Silo
SILTNK Silo/tank
SISTAT Signal station, traffic
SISTAW Signal station, warning
SLCONS Shoreline construction
SLIPWY Slipway
SLOGRID Sloping ground
SLOTOP Slope topline
SLTPAN Salt pan
SMCFAC Small craft facility
SNDWAV Sand waves
SOUNDG Sounding
SPLARE Sea-pland landing area
SPRING Spring
STSLNE Straight territorial sea baseline
TELPHC Telepheric
TESARE Territorial sea area
TIDEWY Tideway
TNKCON Tank
TOPMAR Topmark
TOWERS Tower
TREPNT Tree
TS_FEB Tidal stream - flood/ebb
TS_PAD Tidal stream panel data
TSELNE Traffic separation line
TSEZNE Traffic separation zone
TSSBND Traffic separation scheme boundary
TSSCRS Traffic separation scheme crossing
TSSLPT Traffic separation scheme lane part
TSSRON Traffic separation scheme roundabout
TUNNEL Tunnel
TWRTPT Two-way route part
UNSARE Unsurveyed area
UWTROC Underwater/awash rock
VEGARE Vegetation area
WATFAL Waterfall
WATTUR Water turbulence
WEDKLP WEED7kelp
WIMCON Windmotor
WIRLNE Weir
WNDMIL Windmill
WRECKS Wreck
ZEMCNT Zero metre contour

Practical usage

A general recommendation would be to use "Mariners Standard" and to "Select All", to start with, and then switch of certain features as
required.

As an example let's look at passing through the British gas fields in the SW North Sea

63 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

This is not easy, so we want to get rid of all those red and yellow circles.

Untick LIGHTS.

Much better!

ShowSoundings

64 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

turns the measured depths on and of. Other settings also affects when soundings are displayed, for example SCAMIN. The dark black
numbers are not soundings. Instead they refer to heights of nearby islets or cays. On official paper charts the soundings are printed in
italics.

The bold number 20 refers to the land height of the unnamed cay SW of the number.
"Safety Depth" is set to 20 m, so all soundings greater than 20 are gray, while those less than 20 are black.

META objects

relates to information about the chart itself. With this switch on, an object query reveals such information as the buoyage system for the
area and the quality of the survey.

Show Important Text Only

displays only a bare minimum of text essential for navigation, such as course and bearing in a leading line (range) and bridge clearances.

Use SCAMIN

makes sure that objects are only shown at a relevant minimum scale. Without SCAMIN everything is always shown, leading to very
cluttered view at small scale (zoomed out).

Show ATON labels

displays names and purposes of Aid To Navigation, such as number or name of buoys, information about conspicuous objects etc

Show light description

this tick box control display of light characteristics. Checking this displays a label with a text describing the marker or lighthouse's
characteristics.

De-Clutter Text

Even when using SCAMIN there are cases when text labels overlaps or overwrites other labels and creates a cluttered impression.
Ticking this box clears up this mess. To see all the labels, increase the scale for the area.

Chart display style

Points

Paper chart draw the markers and lights just like the printed paper chart, while simplified uses icons to represent the same. Some like
the one and some the other, a matter of taste.
Paper Chart mode closely follows the IHO standard standard in this area. This mode is currently more developed than the simplified

65 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

mode, as it has a higher priority in the development effort.

Boundaries

Plain normally just uses a dashed line, while the Symbolized version also uses triangles pointing into the area.

Colors

Depth on the chart can be displayed with either 2 or 4 colors. This setting is closely related to the "Depths Settings". With 2 colors, and
using a relatively large scale, areas with depth less than "Safety Depth" is blue, the rest is white. With 4 colors, there are different colors
for areas less than "Shallow Depth", areas between "Shallow Depth" and "Safety Depth", areas between "Safety Depth" and "Deep
Depth" and finally for areas deeper than "Deep Depth".

CM93 Zoom Detail

Normal settings depend on a combination of personal preferences and present usage of map. To see more detail the "Zoom detail" can
be set to a higher positive number or for navigation in shipping lanes to a negative numbers. Typical zoom level 5 is good for fishing
when as much details are possible is of interest. Zoom level of +1, zero or -1 is usually fine for normal use.
Positive values give more detail, but at a cost:
a. It simply takes longer to render larger scale charts covering more screen real estate.
b. There will be more instances of gray (NODATA) areas surrounding the larger scale charts as you zoom out, unless quilting is
activated.
c. It can become dramatically slower if high detail is specified, and chart outlines are requested. In this case, the program has to read a
lot more cells to get their outlines.

Conversely, negative values give less detail. Zooms are faster.

Depth Settings

Controls the coloring of the water as a function of depth. By setting the Safety and Deep water right you will have a visible border to
show when to take care about shallow water.
CM93 charts and S57 ENCS works very similar in this area.The charts contains depth area features according to fixed depth cutoff
zones, usually 5, 10, and 20 meters. Intermediate values are not available in the database,if you select a value between those available,
opencpn chooses the next higher value available for display of color.
The charts are inconsistent in this area, depending on the country issuing the original charts. For example in UK and the Netherlands
the depth contours in CM93 are 2, 5 and 10 meter while in Sweden they are 3, 6 and 10 meter!
Generally for both S57 ENC and CM93, find these fixed depth cutoffs by right clicking -> Object Query ->Chart -> Depth Area. The
two values DRVAL1 and DRVAL2 represents these built in cutoffs.
If for example, as is the case on the South China Sea Hydrographic Commissions charts, the shallowest area has a DRVAL1 = 0 m and
a DRVAL2 = 10 m, there is, in most cases, no point in setting "Shallow Depth" to anything but 10 m.
Find out these cut off depth for your area and set the "Depth Settings" with this knowledge together with your preferences and activity.

With all the reservations above, the general case for 4 colors, will be described.

Shallow Depth

will color all water areas with water depths shallower than the set depth to a dark blue color.Soundings are in black.

Safety Depth

water deeper that Shallow but shallower that this depth will have a paler blue color. The Shallow Depth contour clearly marked with
dark gray borderline.Soundings less than this depth are in black, while soundings greater than this value are gray.

Deep Depth

water deeper than Safety Depth but less than Deep Depth will display a light gray color. The Safety Depth contour is clearly marked
with black borderline. Water deeper than Deep Depth is displayed in white.

66 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Finally a word about drying heights, displayed in green. There is no detailed information available for the value of the drying heights,
neither in CM93 ver 2 nor in most S57 charts, currently available for OpenCPN. Raster charts seems to be the only alternative for
navigation in shallow areas with a large tide.

CM93 Offsets
To use this feature.

Go to single chart (i.e. non-quilted) mode, with cm93 charts displayed. Use F9 to flip quilting on and off
Zoom/Pan to the region of interest.
Right click and activate "CM93 Offset Dialog"

In the list of cells/MCOVR IDs, selected the one MCOVR of interest. The coverage area for this MCOVR object will be outlined
with a heavy yellow border.

67 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Some cells have built in corrections already applied. The values wgsox and wgsoy, are offsets to bring the original chart cell to
WGS84. See the first and third cell in the picture above. The values are for information only, and cannot be changed. These
corrections are generally correct, but not always. Sometimes the corrections are wrong and sometimes there are no corrections
where there ought to be. This is where this manual offset feature comes in handy.

In order to use this feature effectively, one needs a geographically known reference point. As an example, say there is a NAVAID
present on the chart cell with known WGS84 lat & long, as from a light list. In this case, one can drop a waypoint on the chart, edit the
waypoint properties to the known lat/lon, and then use the CM93 Offset Dialog to slew the cell/MCOVR so that the dropped waypoint
coincides with the NAVAID feature on the cm93 cell (chart).

You may also use a geographical feature such as a Cape or point whose location is absolutely known, as by reference to observation, or
by rendering on another, more accurate chart such as a trusted scanned raster chart or georeferenced photo chart.

To see how this feature works, here is an example from the South Pacific.

68 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

This is Tongareva, also called Penhryn atoll. A mark, with a triangle is dropped at the westernmost point of the Island.

69 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Zooming out to next smaller scale chart makes the triangle mark jump NNE. Time for some corrections, as we, at least for the purpose
of this example, are confident that the larger scale chart is correct.

70 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Quite large corrections brings the chart into reasonable agreement.

Use the spin controls on the right side of the dialog to adjust the desired user offsets. It is also possible to write numbers directly.
Notice that positive corrections is towards North and East.
In some cases it is not clear exactly which M_COVR ID that represents your position. A simple test will reveal if a mark reacts to
(large) corrections.
The offsets are automatically saved in the binary MCOVR cache files found in the program data directory as CM93/...

Chart Conversion Manual


Table Of Contents

Conversion Using Linux


How to convert your chart images to a format that OpenCPN will read using Linux

Do you have a bunch of scanned charts of your area, in graphical format (jpg, tiff, etc.) and OpenCPN won't read them?
Here's how you can – with a bit of work, sure, but worth the effort – convert them into usable electronic charts.

The tools:

1. ImageMagick: http://www.imagemagick.org/ (Binary releases are available for a few distributions, for Ubuntu just get it with the
package manager, it's in the repositories.)
2. Libbsb: http://libbsb.sourceforge.net (You will need some version of libtiff-dev and libpng-dev installed to build it. A .deb
package that worked fine for me can be found here.
3. mc2bsbh: you can get it here.
1. Get the c++ source file, and from its directory, type:
2. g++ -Wall -s -O2 mc2bsbh.cpp -o mc2bsbh
3. It compiled without any problem on my (very standard) Karmic. I personally put it in /usr/local/bin, which I own as user, so
it's in the PATH and can be called from anywhere, if you leave it in the working directory, use ./mc2bsbh
4. MapCal: part of the free navigation package SeaClear .

71 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

1. Note: I had some problems running it with Wine (saving the calibration) but I can't reproduce the error and now it works
fine. One suggestion is, make the directory you're going to write the calibration in world-writable before running MapCal.
5. The pcx2tif script (optional) , found here. This is a great little shell script by "taifun" used to convert old Maptech-style formats
of tiled charts. If you find your chart is made of little bits instead of a whole file, this will stitch them all together in TIFF format.
1. Instructions for use are in the tarball.

Once we have the tools all set up, we can get to work. The process in in five steps:

1. Convert a chart image to tiff with imagemagick.


2. Convert it again to png with the same (you'll need both files).
3. Load the png version of the chart in Mapcal and calibrate it.
4. Generate the chart header with mc2bsbh, and make the .kap version of the chart, with libbsb.
5. Copy the resulting .kap into opencpn's chart dir, and reload the chart database.

Let's see them in detail:

Steps 1 and 2:

Say you have a chart in jpeg format called chart.jpg.

From the command line, use:


convert chart.jpg -colors 127 chart.gif

and then again,


convert chart.gif -colors 127 chart.tif

and then again,


convert chart.jpg -colors 127 chart.png

(there is a script that does this for multiple files, get it here , just remove the .doc extension, this is the example)
Throw away the .gif file. Don't ask me why you need to generate it in the first place, but apparently you do, it's an imagemagick thing.
Keep the .tif and the .png ones a while longer, though. You'll be even happier to get rid of them when you've finished.

Step 3:

Open MapCal.
File, Open Image. Open the .png version of your chart. Ignore the data window for the moment, you'll do that later, click OK.
You should see your chart.
To calibrate it, choose a point near a corner for which it is easy to know lat/lon. Right-click on it, and choose Add New Cal.
Point. To zoom in and out use the little + and – buttons at the bottom.
Ignore the fact that Latitude has three integer figures, we're still talking about the Earth. Enter the coordinates and proceed for at
least three more points, near the corners.
Click Activate Changes. Check that the grid makes sense. Click Border, draw a border around the chart (that part is easy).
You should also enter some data for the chart: Edit, Chart Information.
The Chart Name will show up in OpenCPN to remind you of all your hard work, choose it well.
For this example we'll just use “chart”.
You should also enter at least Scale (found on the chart) Depth Units, Projection (Mercator most likely) and Datum (WGS84 most
likely, but be careful with older charts). All of this information should be found on the chart itself.
For more details, you have the SeaClear Manual.
File, Save Calibration. Repeat ad-lib for any other charts and exit. If everything went well, you'll find a file called
CHARTCAL.DIR in the same directory as you loaded your png chart from. This is used to (finally) make your calibrated chart
that OpenCPN will use, as detailed in

Step 4:

Generate the chart header from the command line:


mc2bsbh CHARTCAL.DIR
You should see:
Create CHART.hdr
(the .hdr file must have DOS newlines)
So type:
tif2bsb -c 127 CHART.hdr chart.tif chart.kap
At which point you should have a chart.kap file that OpenCPN will happily use.
This can be done for many charts at a time by using the tif2bsb batch script from the mc2bsbh page. If it gives you any
problem with lowercase-uppercase names, try:
for i in `find * -depth`; do (mv $i `echo $i|tr [:upper:] [:lower:]`); done
which will convert all files in the current directory to lowercase (works great for me).
If you get an error like /bin/bash^M, no such shell (I did), it's a cr/lf thing, just edit it, type [enter] at the end of each line
(there's only 7) and get rid of the blank ones.
Proceed to install the filename(s).kap into OpenCPN (see installing charts)

Note 1: you can also make the .hdr file “manually”, using a template and entering the calibration data with a text editor, but I won't

72 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

go into that for the moment.

Note 2 (about the commands, so if there's any problem you know what to look for) :

convert is a command from imagemagick.


tif2bsb is a command from libbsb.
mc2bsbh is a standalone thing.

Note 3: (by Jonasberg, on the colors in the conversions) :

The "127" is the number of individual colors used. Sometimes it pays of to reduce this number to get a smaller file size, say, if
you start with a bitmapped format like png that contains fewer colors.

Note 4: On the joinpcx script:

If you use it "standalone" and not as part of the "charts" script, change the lines,
convert new1.gif - colors 127 $1.tif
(and .png) to
convert new1.gif -colors 127 `basename $PWD`.tif
(and .png)
because the "$1" will not create files with [directory_name].tif and .png, it won't create any files at all.
Using `basename $PWD`will make files called [current directory name].tif (and .png).
So just edit the script to whatever suits you best.

libBSB
LibBSB is essential for converting chart pictures to usable BSB type charts.

Full documentation and source code is available at libbsb.sourceforge.net.

Only binary packages for Debian based Linux distros and Windows are available for download here. There may be packages available
for alternative operating systems elsewhere.

libbsb-tools_0.0.7_i386.deb

libbsb-tools_0.0.7_amd64.deb

libbsb-0.0.7-win32.zip

FAQ
What are all those 'U' things all over my chart?

The feature being rendered is S57 Text relating to 'M_QUAL'.

This is a meta-object describing the quality of data shown. The Attribute of interest is CATZOC, or "Category of Zone of Confidence".
The value on most US ENC's is "6", or "un-assessed". Thus, the 'U'.

You can turn this symbol off in OpenCPN by de-selecting the box next to M_QUAL in 'Tool Box' / 'Vector Charts' tab 'Mariners
Standard' selection list box.

To learn the acronyms used in this application search the S57 'Object and Attribute' catalog at: http://www.s-57.com/

I have routes and way points in Sea Clear and I would like to import them into OpenCPN. Can I do it?

Yes. I had originally created and maintained all my routes and waypoints in SeaClear, exported them, loaded them into GPSUtility (for
Windows) and saved them as text files.

To import into OpenCPN I opened all my text files (routes and waypoints) with GPSUtility, saved that out as one big gpx file, and
loaded it into OpenCPN. Works like a champ.

I've edited them and saved them back out as GPX files with no trouble.

73 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Individual routes can be edited and saved in appropriately named GPX files.

Whenever I try to open a particular chart OpenCPN crashes. What's going on?

Chances are the chart file is corrupted. Note the name and number of the suspect chart and replace it with a fresh download.

NOTE: A list of the charts with their names and file names can be found in the README.TEXT that accompanies the charts
downloaded from NOOA.

Some unzip utilities for Linux are problematic when opening ECN's. If there are many corrupt charts in your download, try using a
different unzip utility.

OpenCPN and Great Circle Navigation

Raster charts display bearings and headings as straight, measurable lines on the chart. Similarly, Vector ENC's are rendered as Mercator
projections in OpenCPN and most other ECS's for the same reason.

For typical coastal navigation, errors which occur using rhumb line instead of great circle calculations are small for the distances usually
covered by one chart.

Mercator Charts and Mercator navigation is the standard for most navigational purposes. Other terms used instead of "Mercator
Sailing" is "Loxodrome Sailing" or "Rhumb Line Sailing".

OpenCPN uses Mercator Sailing and cannot directly display Great Circles, but through GPX route import , Great Circle Routes can be
used as explained on Planning Data page in the wiki.

This article is in not complete. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. Everyone is allowed to edit
after creating and account and/or logging in.

License and Authors


OpenCPN is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)

David S Register
bdbcat@yahoo.com
OpenCPN Lead Developer

Jean-Eudes Onfray
je@onfray.fr
Dialog usability enhancements

Pavel Kalian
pavel@kalian.cz
S52 Rasterization Improvements

Piotr Carlson
pjotrc_at_interia.pl
General usability enhancements

Anders Lund
anders@alweb.dk
RouteManagerDialog

Gordon Mau
gmau@hotmail.com
OpenCPN Documentation

Tim Francis
tim.francis.asia@gmail.com
OpenCPN Documentation

Mark A Sikes
markasikes@gmail.com
OpenCPN CoDeveloper

Thomas Haller
thomasmartin.haller@web.de
GPX Import/Export Implementation

Will Kamp
will@matrixmariner.com

74 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

Toolbar Icon design

Richard Smith
smithstrawler@hotmail.com
OpenCPN CoDeveloper, MacOSX

David Herring
dherring@dherring.com
OpenCPN CoDeveloper, MacOSX

Philip Lange
philip.lange@albemarleweb.com
OpenCPN Documentation

Ron Kuris
swcafe@gmail.com
wxWidgets Support

Julian Smart, Robert Roebling et al


wxwidgets.org
wxWidgets Authors

Sylvain Duclos
sylvain_duclos@yahoo.com
S52 Presentation Library code

Manish P. Pagey
pagey@san.rr.com
Serial Port Library

David Flater
software@flaterco.com
XTIDE tide and current code

Frank Warmerdam
warmerdam@pobox.com
GDAL Class Library

Mike Higgins
higgins@monitor.net
BSB Chart Format Detail

Samuel R. Blackburn
sammy@sed.csc.com
NMEA0183 Class Library

Atul Narkhede
narkhede@cs.unc.edu
Polygon Graphics utilities

Jan C. Depner
depnerj@navo.navy.mil
WVS Chart Library

Stuart Cunningham, et al
stuart_hc@users.sourceforge.net
BSB Chart Georeferencing Algorithms

John F. Waers
jfwaers@csn.net
UTM Conversion Algorithms

Carsten Tschach
tschach@zedat.fu-berlin.de
UTM Conversion Algorithms

Ed Williams
http://williams.best.vwh.net/avform.htm
Great Circle Formulary

Philippe Bekaert

75 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03


OpenCPN User Manual http://www.opencpn.org/book/export/html/31

CIE->RGB Color Conversion Matrix

Robert Lipe
robertlipe@usa.net
Garmin USB GPS Interface

76 van 76 1-5-2011 0:03

You might also like