Hello,

I tried Reefmaster first time a couple of months ago. I liked it, got really nice results, but found it not quite as simple to work with as DrDepth, which is what have been using for almost 2 years now. However, when it was recently announced that you now with version 1.6 get (practically) seamless production of AT5 charts from within Reefmaster I decided to take the step anyway, and bought Reefmaster.

My first impression remains: it is a really nice program (that seems to steadily get better and better), and the charts look truly great on the PC screen. I could not wait to burn a SD card with one of my favourite lakes. This is where I ran into problems, though. The shaded relief background raster that I see on my Lowrance HDS is not what I get on the PC screen. On the attached screen dump it look like it is shifted a few hundred meters NW, and possibly a different scale as well. I have tried 2 different map projects, and 2 different Lowrance units (one HDS 5 Gen 2 ,and one Gen2 Touch). Same problem with both. This did not happen when I tried ver. 1.5 two months ago (of course, back then it was done a bit different).

Did anyone else have this problem?
Could it be some simple setting that I got wrong?
I would be grateful for any suggestions!


Best Regards
Mats

Mats - that's very strange. What happens if you export a vector map?
Can you send your workspace (the .rmdb file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so that I can take a look?
Matt

To solve the problem would be much easier, if you would tell all steps you made.

My first thought if there are differences of a few hundred meters: did you use IMC in a separate step and set the IMC source data options to 'Mercator Lowrance'?

This is wrong if using data generated with RM.

Selecting Mercator Lowrance if the data was in Geographic WGS84 would lead to it being shifted far more than a few hundred meters. Manually shifting the data to Mercator WGS84 and then running it through the IMC as Mercator Lowrance would lead to a few hundred meter shift.

This certainly looks like a datum shift problem to me. If Mats D could make an AT5 file, and a polygon shapefile set available you'd probably be able to see where the problem crept in.

T

First of all, thanks to everyone who took the trouble to get involved, while I myself was having a good nights sleep! This really seems to be THE forum for anyone who does depth charts and I am glad I made the move from DrD.

Matt:
I have sent the database. When you say “export a vector map” I guess you mean to make an AT5 without the raster background? I just tried that, and it looks allright on the HDS. At least all contours are in the right places compared to the shoreline. If the location is correct I cannot tell, since the built-in background map in the GPS is so lousy. I added these files too, in the mail.

Hubert,
the steps were:
I created a workspace and a project
1)Imported the sonar log files and shorelines into the project
2)Did all the chart settings in the project edit window, so that on the PC screen it looked the way I wanted
3)Right-clicked the chart in the project view window, and chose Export to GPS
4)Chose “Lowrance” and “include raster background”, and the SD-card as the target folder

Please let me know what further details could help clarify!

I never changed any settings in IMC. I presumed that RM does all the settings for me. However, I just opened IMC and had a look at the advanced options, and and Source Data Options was not set to Mercator Lowrance.

Trevor,
I would be happy to make whatever files available to anyone. A polygon shapefile, is that what is produced if I pick Shapefile rather than Lowrance when choosing the export format?

Best Regards, and thanks for the support!
Mats

Hi,
I have found the problem - not a datum shift, but the wrong extent (sometimes) being assigned to the pgw calibration file for the background raster when automatically exporting the raster. All vector elements (contours, shorelines) are in the correct location, but the depth-colour raster has been given the extent of the full map (including empty shoreline areas), and not just the populated raster area, which gives the effect you are seeing. Therefore you will see this problem if you have a map with a shoreline that extends beyond the mapper area.

We'll have a maintenance release out later today to fix this, and include a few other smaller issues as well.

Just to be clear, this problem affects the position of background rasters only (not vector components), and only applies during automated raster export, in some situations.

Matt

Thanks for sorting this out so quickly. I am amazed by the quality of support for this software. I hope you can keep it up.

Mats

Hello Mats,
for your problem with lousy background maps, this might help you to get better background maps:

http://www.reefmaster.com.au/index.php/forum/mapping/187-creating-background-maps-with-insight-map-creator

This will show you how to create background maps from Open Street Map with the IMC. First you should try smaller areas than a whole continent ;)

Thanks Hubert,

I will give it a try. I just had a quick look at the openstreetmaps for my region, and they certainly look a lot better than the preloaded background in my HDS.

BR
Mats

The original problem in this thread is now fixed as part of the 1.6.11.31 maintenance release - run a "check for updates" to get the new version.