LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
Having just done it, I was surprised how easy it is to Create your own kap charts for OpenCPN from a scanned chart.
You will need a decent image editing tool I like Paint.net (it's free)
Link - http://www.getpaint.net/download.html#download
and
imgkap.exe to do the conversion
Link - http://www.dacust.com/inlandwaters/imgkap/v00.01.11/imgkap.exe
I put it in a new folder on C: called img2kap
How to:
Scan your chart A4 section by A4 section (at high Resolution is best).
Create a new canvas in your image editing tool (at same Res as scan) the size of your chart minus the boarders.
Align all of the A4 scans into the new canvas and save (as .png file is best) in C:\img2kap.
You now need to note the top left and bottom right corner of the chart's Lat and Long.
These co-ordinates need to be converted to Geo Reference format, I do it by putting a Lat and Long into Google Maps.
eg Put in top left corner 49°54.8'N 05°57.5'W and Google Maps will return 49.913333, -5.958333
Put in bottom right corner 47°40.8'N 01°13.0'W and Google Maps will return 47.680000, -1.216667
Note you need to ditch the commas
You now need to open a Dos box - go to Start and type in cmd (press enter)
You get a black Dos window that will say something like:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
at the prompt line in the Dos box change directory to img2cap (or whatever you chose)
C:\Users\Monty>cd\img2kap
C:\img2kap>
at the prompt line type in:- imgkap image_name.png 49.913333 -5.958333 47.680000 -1.216667
eg
C:\img2kap>imgkap image_name.png 49.913333 -5.958333 47.680000 -1.216667
If all goes well the folder img2kap will now contain a file called image_name.kap
put image_name.kap into your OpenCPN kap file folder and in OpenCPN-(spanner)-Charts-Chart Files
Add Directory (whatever your kap file folder is)
and Bobs your Fathers brother!
You will need a decent image editing tool I like Paint.net (it's free)
Link - http://www.getpaint.net/download.html#download
and
imgkap.exe to do the conversion
Link - http://www.dacust.com/inlandwaters/imgkap/v00.01.11/imgkap.exe
I put it in a new folder on C: called img2kap
How to:
Scan your chart A4 section by A4 section (at high Resolution is best).
Create a new canvas in your image editing tool (at same Res as scan) the size of your chart minus the boarders.
Align all of the A4 scans into the new canvas and save (as .png file is best) in C:\img2kap.
You now need to note the top left and bottom right corner of the chart's Lat and Long.
These co-ordinates need to be converted to Geo Reference format, I do it by putting a Lat and Long into Google Maps.
eg Put in top left corner 49°54.8'N 05°57.5'W and Google Maps will return 49.913333, -5.958333
Put in bottom right corner 47°40.8'N 01°13.0'W and Google Maps will return 47.680000, -1.216667
Note you need to ditch the commas
You now need to open a Dos box - go to Start and type in cmd (press enter)
You get a black Dos window that will say something like:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
at the prompt line in the Dos box change directory to img2cap (or whatever you chose)
C:\Users\Monty>cd\img2kap
C:\img2kap>
at the prompt line type in:- imgkap image_name.png 49.913333 -5.958333 47.680000 -1.216667
eg
C:\img2kap>imgkap image_name.png 49.913333 -5.958333 47.680000 -1.216667
If all goes well the folder img2kap will now contain a file called image_name.kap
put image_name.kap into your OpenCPN kap file folder and in OpenCPN-(spanner)-Charts-Chart Files
Add Directory (whatever your kap file folder is)
and Bobs your Fathers brother!
