Exploring OpenCPN

Subjects

- FIND THE MANUAL

- ADD CHARTS
- CHART GROUPS
- PROGRAM SETTINGS (GPS, Vector Charts, Language/Fonts)
- ROUTES: create, save, change and display
- LOCK WAYPOINTS
- TRACKS: create, save and display
- ANCHORAGES: save and display
- LAYERS: create and display
- PLUGINS
- DISCUSSION & DEMONSTRATION TOPICS

Version 1.4 (6 July 2016)

 FIND THE MANUAL
ON THE TOOL BAR CLICK ON THE ‘BOOK’ ICON WITH THE ‘?’ MARK
 FIND THE MANUAL

CLICK ON THE ‘Help’ TAB

 FIND THE MANUAL
THE USER MANUAL
OPENS WITHIN YOUR
COMPUTER BROWSER
(Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc)

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE

ONLINE
ADD CHARTS
ON THE OpenCPN
TOOLBAR, CLICK ON
‘Options’ (the ‘wrench’)
TO DISPLAY THIS
PAGE

CLICK ON
‘Charts’.

CLICK ON
‘Add Directory …’
 ADD CHARTS
NAVIGATE TO WHERE YOU HAVE CHARTS STORED ON YOUR
COMPUTER. SELECT THE CHART FOLDER YOU WANT TO ADD
(in this case the cm93 vector charts). CLICK ON ‘Select Folder’
 ADD CHARTS
SELECT THE OTHER
CHARTS YOU WANT
TO ADD.
IN THIS CASE I HAVE
SELECTED GE2KAP
OVERLAY CHARTS
OF THE PHILIPPINES
AND INDONESIA.

CHECK THE BOX

‘Force Full Database
Rebuild’ AND CLICK
‘OK’ WHICH CLOSES
THIS SCREEN.

(CHECKING ‘APPLY’
LEAVES THE SCREEN
OPEN)
 ADD CHARTS

WAIT WHILE THE DATABASE IS UPDATED

 ADD CHARTS
THE OVERLAY CHARTS ARE SHOWN BY THE SMALL RED OUTLINES.
TO AVOID SLOWING THE COMPUTER IT’S GOOD TO HAVE ‘CHART GROUPS
 CHART GROUPS
ON THE ‘Options/Charts/Chart Groups’ PAGE, CLICK ‘New Group …’
 CHART GROUPS

ENTER A NAME FOR THE

GROUP AND CLICK ‘OK’

HIGHLIGHT THE CHARTS

TO BE ADDED TO THIS
GROUP ONE BY ONE AND
CLICK ON ‘Add’.

I RECOMMEND ADDING THE

cm93 CHARTS TO EACH
GROUP

THE SELECTED CHARTS

APPEAR IN THE GROUP

FOR THE SECOND GROUP

CLICK ON ‘New Group ..’
 CHART GROUPS
HERE THE SECOND GROUP FOR INDONESIA CHARTS HAS BEEN
CREATED. CLICK ON ‘OK’
 CHART GROUPS
TO DISPLAY A DESIRED CHART GROUP, RIGHT-CLICK ON THE
OpenCPN SCREEN AND CLICK ON ‘Chart Groups’ AND THEN CLICK
ON THE ONE YOU WANT TO BE DISPLAYED,
e.g. Philippine Overlay Charts
 CHART GROUPS
THE INDONESIAN CHARTS ARE NOT DISPLAYED. THEY WILL NOT
BE MOVED TO SLOW DOWN THE COMPUTER BUT ARE AVAILABLE
AT ANY TIME FOR DISPLAY
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
GPS
GO TO
‘Options/Connections

SCROLL DOWN THE

SCREEN.

USE THE ELEVATOR

IN THE ‘DataPort’
WINDOW TO SELECT
THE COM PORT THE
GPS IS USING, IN
THIS CASE COM1.

NEXT SELECT ‘OK’

(This presumes you

have installed the
driver for the GPS and
it is operating)
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
GPS

ON THE OpenCPN SCREEN THE GPS WILL BE SEEN AS GREEN BARS

IN THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER AND THE BOAT ICON WILL BE RED
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Vector charts

THESE ARE THE

SETTINGS I USE.

PLAY WITH THEM TO

GET THE DISPLAY
YOU PREFER
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Language/Fonts
WHEN OpenCPN IS INSTALLED ON SMALLER SCREEN COMPUTERS,
SUCH AS NETBOOKS, THE FONT ON THE SCREEN MAY BE LARGE
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Language/Fonts
A WAY TO CHANGE TO FONTS THAT ARE DESIGNED FOR THESE SMALL
MACHINES IS TO INSTALL IN THE WINDOWS FONTS FOLDER A SET OF
FONTS TITLED ‘DROID SANS’. THE FONTS CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM:
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Droid-Sans
CLICK ON ‘Download TTF’
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Language/Fonts

AFTER DOWNLOADING
THE FONT FILE, UNZIP
IT TO ANY CONVENIENT
FOLDER.

DRAG AND DROP THE

TWO .TTF FILES INTO
THE WINDOWS FONTS
FOLDER
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Language/Fonts
GO TO
Options/User
Interface PAGE.

ON THE
ELEVATOR
UNDER ‘Fonts’,
SELECT ‘Chart
Texts’
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Language/Fonts

THEN
CLICK ON ‘Choose Font …’

THIS WINDOW APPEARS.

MAKE THE SELECTIONS
AS SHOWN THEN CLICK
ON ‘OK’

BY TRIAL AND ERROR

FIND THE FONT SIZE
YOU PREFER
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Language/Fonts
THE SMALLER, LESS CLUTTERED TEXT IS DISPLAYED. IF YOU
WANT OTHER STYLES REPEAT THE ABOVE
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Display Depth Units
MY DISPLAY SHOWS SOUNDINGS IN FEET.

I HAVE CHOSEN THIS UNIT SINCE MY DEPTH SOUNDER READS

IN FEET. YOU HAVE A CHOICE OF WHICH UNIT TO DISPLAY
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Display Depth Units

GO TO Options/Display/
Units

YOU HAVE THE

CHOICE AS SHOWN;
FEET, METERS, OR
FATHOMS

OTHER UNITS CAN

BE CHANGED HERE
AS WELL!
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Tool Bar Cleanup
WHEN FIRST INSTALLED THE PROGRAM HAS MANY TOOL BAR ICONS

THE NON-ESSENTIAL ONES CAN BE DELETED TO ‘CLEANUP’

THE TOOLBAR
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Tool Bar Cleanup

RIGHT-CLICK ON THE TOOL BAR

TO SHOW THIS SCREEN

UNCHECK THE ONES TO DELETE,

SUCH AS THESE
 PROGRAM SETTINGS
Tool Bar Cleanup

THIS IS MY ‘CLEANED UP’ TOOL BAR.

ACTUALLY THE ‘TEXT ICON (A+)’ IS SUPERFLUOUS AS THE SHORTCUT

KEY ‘T’ TOGGLES THE DISPLAY TEXT ON AND OFF

(AND THE SHORTCUT KEY ‘S’ TOGGLES SOUNDINGS ON AND OFF)

 ROUTES
Create a Route

BEGIN BY
SELECTING THE
‘Create Route’
TOOL ON THE
TOOL BAR

THE CURSOR TURNS TO A

‘PENCIL’ SHAPE
 ROUTES
Create a Route
CLICK THE PENCIL POINTER AT DESIRED LOCATIONS
TO DESCRIBE THE ROUTE
 ROUTES
Create a Route
CONTINUE DROPPING WAYPOINTS UNTIL THE ROUTE HAS
BEEN CREATED THEN PRESS THE ‘ESC’ KEY TO STOP
 ROUTES
Create a Route
AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO STOP CREATING A ROUTE IS TO
RIGHT-CLICK ON THE SCREEN AND SELECT ‘End Route’
 ROUTES
Create a Route

OPEN THE ‘Route

Manager’ FROM THE
TOOL BAR

ON THE ‘Routes’ TAB

SELECT THE NEW
(Unnamed Route)
THEN CLICK ON
‘Properties;
 ROUTES
Create a Route
HERE YOU CAN GIVE THE ROUTE A NAME (e.g. SAMPLE ROUTE).
ROUTE PROPERTIES SUCH AS THE LENGTH AND THE WAYPOINT
INFORMATION IS PRESENTED
 ROUTES
Save a Route
TO ‘SAVE’ THE ROUTE GO TO THE Route Manager, HIGHLIGHT THE
ROUTE AND CLICK ON ‘Export Route’
 ROUTES
Save a Route
NAVIGATE TO WHERE YOU SAVE YOUR ROUTES (e.g. such as
My Routes under My Documents) AND OPEN THE FOLDER
 ROUTES
Save a Route
CLICK ON ‘Save’ AND THE ROUTE IS SAVED TO THE HARD DRIVE
 ROUTES
Change a Route
TO CHANGE A ROUTE, RIGHT-CLICK ON A POINT OF THE ROUTE
AND SELECT ‘Insert Waypoint’
 ROUTES
Change a Route
PLACE THE CURSOR ON THE NEWLY CREATED WAYPOINT AND
MOVE IT TO THE DESIRED LOCATION (But see next slide)
 ROUTES
Change a Route
IT MAY HAPPEN THAT YOU
CANNOT MOVE A
WAYPOINT ON THE
NEWLY CREATED ROUTE.

THIS IS BECAUSE ALL

WAYPOINTS HAVE
BEEN LOCKED.

GO TO Options/Display/
Advanced AND UNCHECK
THE BOX ‘Lock Waypoints...’

(MORE DISCUSSION ON
THIS LATER)
 ROUTES
Change a Route
CHECKING THE Route Properties SHOWS THE CHANGES TO THE
ROUTE .. LONGER DISTANCE AND THE NEW WAYPOINT
 ROUTES
Change a Route
THE ROUTE PREVIOUSLY SAVED DOES NOT CONTAIN THE NEW
INFORMATION. FROM THE Route Manager EXPORT THE ROUTE
AGAIN LETTING IT OVERWRITE THE OLD ROUTE
 LOCK WAYPOINTS
EARLIER WE SAW HOW
TO LOCK OR UNLOCK
WAYPOINTS USING THE
Options/Advanced PAGE

THE RATIONALE FOR

KEEPING WAYPOINTS
LOCKED IS TO AVOID
THE ACCIDENTAL CHANGE
OF A WAYPOINT LOCATION
WHILE UNDERWAY AND
FOLLOWING A ROUTE

AN ALTERNATIVE EXISTS
TO ALLOW A WAYPOINT
TO BE TEMPORARILY
UNLOCKED AND MOVED
 LOCK WAYPOINTS

HERE IS A WAYPOINT IN A ROUTE I WANT TO MOVE.

WITH THE WAYPOINTS LOCKED I CANNOT CLICK AND DRAG IT
 LOCK WAYPOINTS

RIGHT-CLICK ON THE WAYPOINT

AND SELECT PROPERTIES

WHILE THE WaypointProperties

DIALOG SCREEN IS OPEN THE
WAYPOINT CAN BE MOVED.
 LOCK WAYPOINTS
CLOSING THE ‘Properties’ DIALOG AGAIN LOCKS THE WAYPOINT
IN THE DESIRED LOCATION.

REMEMBER TO ‘Save’ THIS CHANGED ROUTE!

 TRACKS
Create a Track
CLICK ON THE ‘Toggle Tracking’ ICON TO ACTIVATE TRACKING
NOTE THAT I HAVE ACTIVATED THE ‘Dashboard’ AS WELL
 TRACKS
Create a Track
TRACKING IS CONFIRMED BY THE ICON BECOMING SHADED
 TRACKS
Create a Track

THE VESSEL’S TRACK IS DISPLAYED. NO, MY BOAT WASN’T DOING

99 KTS – I USED SIMULATION TO CREATE THESE IMAGES 
 TRACKS
Create a Track
THE SIMULATION IS STOPPED HERE TO DESCRIBE SAVING THE TRACK
 TRACKS
Save a Track
IN THE Route Manager HIGHLIGHT THE TRACK AND CLICK ON ‘Export Track’
 TRACKS
Save a Track
NAVIGATE TO WHERE YOU SAVE YOUR TRACKS AND ‘Save’ THE TRACK

NAME OF YOUR CHOICE

 TRACKS
Rename a Track

IN THE Route Manager CLICK ON THE Tracks TAB. CLICK ON THE

TRACK TO HIGHLIGHT IT THEN CLICK ON PROPERTIES
 TRACKS
Rename a Track

CHANGE THE NAME

TO WHAT YOU WANT

CLICK ON ‘OK’
 TRACKS
Display a Saved Track

IN Route Manager SELECT THE NAVIGATE TO YOUR SAVED TRACKS,

Tracks TAB AND CLICK ON SELECT THE DESIRED ONE AND CLICK
Import GPX ON Open
 TRACKS
Display a Saved Track
THE TRACK IS SHOWN ON THE CHART. YOU CAN DELETE FROM THE
Route Manager OR BY RIGHT-CLICKING ON THE TRACK AND SELECT
‘Delete
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location

SHOWN BELOW IS THE ARRIVAL AT AN ANCHORAGE

 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location
ZOOM IN TO SHOW WHERE THE ANCHOR WAS DROPPED
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location

RIGHT-CLICK AT THE ANCHOR LOCATION AND CLICK ON ‘Drop Mark (Ctl-M’)

 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location
A TRIANGLE APPEARS AT THE SELECTED POINT
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location

RIGHT-CLICK ON THE
MARK AND CLICK ON
‘Properties’
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location
THE SMALL TRIANGLE IS HARD TO SEE SO WE WILL CHANGE THE
SYMBOL. CLICK ON THE ELEVATOR NEXT TO THE NAME
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location

SELECT THE ‘Anchorage’ SYMBOL

 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location
HERE I HAVE CHANGED THE NAME TO SOMETHING EASY TO
RECOGNIZE IN THE FUTURE. WHEN DONE CLICK ON ‘OK’
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location
THE ANCHORAGE IS NOW CREATED AND DISPLAYED BUT NOT SAVED!
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location
IN Route Manager HIGHLIGHT THE ANCHORAGE
AND CLICK ON ‘Export Wpt ..’
 ANCHORAGES
Save an Anchorage Location

NAVIGATE TO WHERE YOU SAVE ANCHORAGES, CHECK THE

FILE NAME FOR ACCURACY AND CLICK ON ‘Save’
 ANCHORAGES
Display a Saved Anchorage

HERE WE WISH TO RECALL THE PREVIOUSLY SAVED ANCHORAGE

 ANCHORAGES
Display a Saved Anchorage
IN Route Manager SELECT THE Waypoints TAB THEN CLICK ON
Import GPX
 ANCHORAGES
Display a Saved Anchorage
NAVIGATE TO YOUR SAVED ANCHORAGES, SELECT THE DESIRED
ANCHORAGE AND CLICK ON ‘Open’
 ANCHORAGES
Display a Saved Anchorage
THE SAVED ANCHORAGE IS DISPLAYED
 LAYERS

Why Layers?

Temporary information during a session

that can be displayed at will

Permanent information in the program

that can be displayed at will
 LAYERS
OPEN THE Route Manager AND THE Layers TAB
 LAYERS
CLICK ON THE ‘Temporary Layer’ BUTTON
 LAYERS
The ‘Import GPX File’ window opens. Navigate to the file
you want to have in the temporary layer, highlight it and
click on ‘Open’ In this case the Philippine Anchorages
 LAYERS

The file appears under the Layers tab. Click on

‘List contents’ to display the anchorages under
the ‘Waypoints’ tab.
 LAYERS

The anchorages appear as waypoints and are shown

on the chart with the anchorage symbols
 LAYERS
If you close OpenCPN and reopen it the temporary
layer is no longer there .. hence ‘temporary’
 LAYERS

For layers to be permanently available they must

be placed within the computer system

The location is dependent on the Windows

operating system … i.e. Windows XP, 7 or 8 but
The OpenCPN program helps you find the location !!
 LAYERS

In all cases of Windows, on OpenCPN click on the

‘About OpenCPN’ icon (book with ? on the cover)
as you did to find the manual.
 LAYERS
The Layers
folder will be
installed at the
OpenCPN
‘Config file’
location e.g.
for W8-W10
at C:\Program
Data\opencpn

NOTE: This is
a ‘hidden file’
location
 LAYERS
Create a new folder
‘Layers’ within the
‘opencpn’ folder.

It’s only necessary to

create this folder
once.

All future layer

information will be
placed in this folder.
 LAYERS
I have now navigated to a .gpx file of ‘All Philippine
Anchorages’ and copied that file to the clipboard.
 LAYERS
Return to the ‘Layers’ folder and open it.
 LAYERS
Paste the file into the ‘Layers’ folder
 LAYERS

The anchorage file appears in the ‘Layers’ folder

 LAYERS
The anchorages are now shown on the Layers tab
of OpenCPN
 LAYERS
To show the contents of the anchorage file under
The ‘Waypoints’ tab, click on the button ‘List contents’
 LAYERS
Each of the anchorages is listed here and displayed on the chart
 LAYERS
To go to a waypoint location on the chart,
Highlight it and click on the button ‘Center View’
 LAYERS
The anchorage is displayed on the chart
 LAYERS
ANY .gpx file can be put in the Layers folder. Here I
have some information about currents in the Philippines
 LAYERS
As before, the file is copied ….
 LAYERS
… pasted into the ‘Layers’ folder …
 LAYERS
… and when OpenCPN is launched it appears under
the ‘Layers’ tab
 LAYERS
The information about current is shown at the circles,
easily displayed or not using the Route Manager
 LAYERS
POINTS TO REMEMBER

ANY .gpx file can be put in a layer.

This includes routes, tracks, anchorages and other
information that has been saved in the .gpx format.

Waypoints in a layer are locked. This prevents the

unplanned movement of a waypoint while clicking on the
screen.

Items in Layers can be displayed or not with a single

click
 PLUGINS
Plugins Included With OpenCPN
Dashboard Plugin
Plugin to display navigation data. Included in the OpenCPN
installation.

Grib Weather Plugin.

Plugin to display Grib weather data files. Included in the
OpenCPN installation.

WMM Plugin
A plugin to display the magnetic variation, based on the World
Magnetic Model.

Chart Downloader
Manager for chart downloads.
 PLUGINS
Additional Plugins
A CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF THE PLUGINS AVAILABLE FOR
OpenCPN IS AT: http:// http://bigdumboat.com/cpnplugins.html

26 plugins are currently listed

 PLUGINS
Downloading Plugins

GO TO THE OpenCPN DOWNLOAD PAGE AND SELECT AS SHOWN

(http://opencpn.org/ocpn/download )
 PLUGINS
Downloading Plugins
THE INSTALLATION PROGRAMS FOR AVAILABLE PLUGINS CAN BE
DOWNLOADED FROM HERE FOR WINDOWS AND IN SOME CASES
FOR LINUX AND MAC OX
 PLUGINS
My Preferred Plugins

IN ADDITION TO THE DASHBOARD AND GRIB PLUGINS I PREFER

TO INSTALL THE AIS RADAR AND CLIMATOLOGY PLUGINS
 PLUGINS
My Preferred Plugins

AIS/Radar View
Implements a radar-like display for AIS targets.

Climatology
Climatology plugin provides overlay
capabilities for historic weather data.
DISCUSSION & DEMONSTRATION
TOPICS

- DON’T SAIL OFF THE CHART

- PRESERVE CHART SCALES

- HIGHLIGHTING TRACKS

- CHANGE WAYPOINT NAMES IN A ROUTE

- CHANGE GPS COM PORT

-?????
 Exploring OpenCPN

BYE !

I hope this has been useful . It took

several bottles of red wine to complete.
I will blame any mistakes on the wine.
Questions? Email: [email protected]

Terry Sargent
http://yachtvalhalla.net
6 July 2016