DIY Plotter charts ...

[Guest]

Anyone else create own charts for their plotter ? I have created a series for my "home-area" ... as the river is not charted commercially ...

example here :

and coming round to my estate ...

zooming in a bit ...

I have approximate 40 kms of the river now charted this way ... and am slowly inserting depths and other data into them ... a constant update really.

Anyone else into doing their own charts etc. ?

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[davel]

Not quite sure what's going on here Nigel.
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Are you using previous tracks to overlay on an existing chart to confirm the "real" position of the river, or have you created your own image (chart) and somehow imported calibrated this and iported it into the Lowrance?

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
Not quite sure what's going on here Nigel.
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Are you using previous tracks to overlay on an existing chart to confirm the "real" position of the river, or have you created your own image (chart) and somehow imported calibrated this and iported it into the Lowrance?

[/ QUOTE ]

There are no charts for the river shown here ....

So I took road maps and satelite imagery ... screen dumped to jpg ... making sure I had reference Lat / Long points ... loaded into a calibrating routine ... used OziExplorer actually ... to create a MAP file.
This calibrated file was themn imported into a polyline~gon / vector creation software to trace polylines and polygons over ... creating the vector layers. This was then saved as a Lowrance LCM file ...
The result loses the map jpg graphic leaving just the vector layers as you see above.

Here is an example of a scanned and stitched together jpg ready for calibrating ... it is the mid section of the river just passed my house ....

to give an idea of the base worked from ...

 

[davel]

Gotcha.

I use Ozi and use scanned charts that I then calibrate but there's then no need to go through the rest of your routine.
Interested to hear it can be done though. I didn't realise Lowrance had their own vector format. Where is the authoring software from?

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
Gotcha.

I use Ozi and use scanned charts that I then calibrate but there's then no need to go through the rest of your routine.
Interested to hear it can be done though. I didn't realise Lowrance had their own vector format. Where is the authoring software from?

[/ QUOTE ]

They use LCM and the old at5 file formats ......

The authoring software is GPSMapedit .... shareware. This gives the vectoring facilities .... but best is to download LCMMapedit from the Mapcreate yahoo group. That is the GPSMapedit software with the extra add-in of the Lowrance LCM converter.

GPSMapedit also creates for other Plotters as Garmin etc.

I stumbled on this by accident while trying to find ways to display my Nauticpath charts on my emulator on PC without having to buy a LEI reader. That was and still is unsucessful !

It's about the only use I have for Ozi - as I don't like it actually ... much prefer Seaclear .....

 

[davel]

Thanks for that. I've now marked this thread for future reference if ever I make a move to a plotter!

Re Ozi vs Seaclear. It's intersting how different products appeal to different folks. For me, I find Ozi works well but I've never been able to get on with Seaclear.

 

[Guest]

Quite agree that different for different ..... I prefer Seaclear because of its format is directly realted to Marine and uncluttered.
Ozi is based on off-road Aussie outback use ... and I find too many nits and bobs in the toolbar at top.... that are really unrelated to anything marine.
But it has advantages in using various formats and r=creating map files readable by other.

Now Ozi-Ex CE is a different matter and that is very good.

If I can help with map creation ... pm me ... and I'll try help.

 

[davel]

[ QUOTE ]
If I can help with map creation ... pm me ... and I'll try help.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, I will /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Birdseye]

Interesting technical exercise but whats the point? Sailing down your river you know where you are, and the road maps and sat images dont include anyn of the useful marine bits like depths, leading lights etc So all you really have is a chart on your plotter that tells you "you are in the river".

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting technical exercise but whats the point? Sailing down your river you know where you are, and the road maps and sat images dont include anyn of the useful marine bits like depths, leading lights etc So all you really have is a chart on your plotter that tells you "you are in the river".

[/ QUOTE ]

Your reply illustrates that you haven't cottoned on .... OK for my river I know I'm in the river ........

My whole point of the post is that you can create your own charts for your plotter where commercial are not available / coverage is old / incorrect.

I was trying to help people .......... to pass on information that others may find helpful .........

I even offered to help to create own charts ...... sorry but you are obvious not in need of any help in this matter - so why do you decry another ?

Also - you have missed another point- POI's CAN SHOW depths / contours etc. ------but typical BS expert you say it is not there .............. well you are wrong... simple.

 

[qetoo]

Nice job. Thanks for the post.