DJM Questor Software

Host: Club Cruceros, La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico
Base: DJM Questor Software

MarinePlotter Known Problems, updated 28 August 2022

• The MarinePlotter is for Windows 10 Laptop and Desktop computers and is not designed to run on Windows 10S systems.

• The MarinePlotter makes no adjustments per font size. However, it appears that in Windows 10, if you change the text font size to a larger font, Windows 10 will resize the forms proportionately so all the controls and the text in a form will appear in the form correctly. This is not true with earlier versions of Windows wherein, the text and controls will extent beyond the form and become non-visible.

• The plot orientation feature introduced after version 5,7,0 does not work in Windows Vista or with some video cards or drivers. The North pointing arrow will rotate correctly with a change in vessel heading, but the plot will not rotate and in some cases the plot is translated with your vessel to a non-centered location. If this occurs with your computer, do not use the Course-Up or Heading-Up orientations.

• Routes created with MarinePlotter versions 5,0,3 or later that use "alternate routes" are not backward compatible with earlier version of the MarinePlotter program.
• If you change the "rtept" element name in the "alternates" section of the route file to "arpnt", older programs will ignore the "alternate route" data and draw just the main route.

• Download blocked: Some antivirus programs such as "Avast Web Shield" might erroneously block the MarinePlotter Setup file download. To get around the problem without endangering your computer,
  • temporarily disable the virus checker (in this example, Web Shield),
  • download the file; and then,
  • re-enable the virus checker.

  Run the virus checker on the downloaded program. If a virus is found, please delete the downloaded program and please report the problem to "djm_questor_software@yahoo.com". If a virus is not found, then you can safely run the program on your computer.

  Avast reported, 14 January 2015, that the Web Shield false positive error for the download of the MarinePlotter Setup program has been fixed and the fix is available in a regular Avast Update.

• The older model BU-353 GPS receiver does not work with Windows-8 (no driver.) Try the "GlobalSat BU-353-S4 SiRF Star IV USB Cable GPS". On the other hand, tests indicate that the older model runs in the Windows 10 Preview (this might not be the case in the official Windows 10 release.)

  Position Error: When you start a computer and the MarinePlotter program with the GPS receiver plugged into the USB port, the program will sometimes report an erroneous vessel position because the GPS receiver failed to initialize correctly. If you doubt the GPS position, disable the GPS in the MarinePlotter, unplug the GPS receiver, wait a few seconds, reconnect the the GPS receiver, and then re-enable the GPS receiver in the MarinePlotter program. This method will normally cause the GPS receiver to initialize properly and you should see good position reports in the MarinePlotter.

• For the creation of a Mariner's Cruising Guide (MCG), the program restricts the order in which you create holes in areas for islands. All areas must be constructed and overlapping. You must then work from the largest area to the smallest area. For more information, see the Help topic on How to create an MCG area.

• The program does not support encrypted ENCs. Most ENCs foreign to the United States use the IHO S63 encryption standard and an SENC format.
• Some RNCs do not use the expected MERCATOR projection. These charts are processed as MERCATOR which is okay for small areas but can lead to distortion for large areas. The program will display an optional WARNING message for all non-mercator charts.
• Some older RNCs do not align properly with known (lat,lon) positions and can be off by several meters. The program provides a mechanism to align the RNC to a known reference. The offset is saved in a separate chart related file. One chart for the Mediterranian appears in Africa because the placement coordinates in the header are 10 degrees off.
• Some RNCs have multiple charts in one file. This program version cannot display each sub-chart in their specific locations. The MapTech BSB can list multiple files and the program will open the related kap-files as a chart group.
• Out of Memory: The program load all chart data into the computer's fast random access memory (RAM). If there is a not enough RAM to store the data, the system raises an "out-of-memory" exception. There are additional causes of an out-of-memory error; howerever, for the MarinePlotter, the error is general due to not enough RAM. The Microsoft Windows 32-bit operating systems limit user applications to 2-Gyga bytes of memory even though the total system memory can be 4-Giga bytes. The cause of the "Out of memory" error is random, sometimes the RNC will load and draw successfully. The out of memory error can also occur when you try to view too large of a bitmap chart (RNC or IMG), or if you try to load too many smaller charts. You might try to convert RNC or IMG files to Nautical Chart Image (NCI) Tiles. To convert to NCI tiles, you will might need to use a 64-bit computer with 8-gigabytes or more RAM. Generally speaking, NCI tiles cannot produce an out of memory error and will load and display much faster than the full size bitmap or many small chart.
• Some images converted from the GpsDataLogger ImageLists might not align as desired: This misalignment is due to pixel (x,y) to (lat,lon) conversion round-off errors. Also, the MarinePlotter provides more references that illustrate potential alignment errors.

Internet not available

If you have an Internet connection but the MarinePlotter reports no Internet (red [I] button,) then the program has been corrupted. If the Windows App "Repair" does not fix the problem, then you need to uninstall, download, and reinstall the MarinePlotter.

Missed GPS or AIS Alarms

Some GPS and AIS receivers will continue to send position updates while the computer is in Sleep mode; When the computer processing is suspended during Sleep mode, the computer processor is stopped and, as such, the MarinePlotter progam is not running and cannot detect any alarm conditions that might occur.

If you put the computer in a Sleep mode, upon awakening, the program might not correctly resume following a route or a waypoint "goto".

Drag and Drop fails

Due to security issues, Windows Vista and Windows 7 no longer support an easy to implement and use Drag and Drop methodology. You cannot drag a file from Windows Explorer to the MarinePlotter application that you started with the "Run as administrator" command.

RNC transparency fails

Some non-Intel computer graphics chip sets and some Intel "basic" chip sets or cards do not correctly process the RNC transparency setting. On these computers, an RNC transparency setting of 0.9-to-0.1 will produce a yellowish chart or a chart with missing pixels. However, the same computer will correctly process semi-transparent ENC and MCG images.

The problem appears to be related to the brightness of the RNC color-palette color-values. Also, the transparency range appears to be ralated to the color brightness: Dark colors can be made nearly transparent.

See: What is a color palette, or Palette (computing).

To reduce the RNC color brightness, refer to the RNC Palettes and the RNC Palette Editor help topics. The Black and White entries should be dark and light gray values.

You will need to experiment a bit to get an acceptable transparency for each RNC. Each RNC color palette can be difference.

Slow tile drawing start

When you change the plot view location or scale, you might notice a several second delay before for the tiles are drawn. This delay is usually due to the tile file access seek process in the permanent data storage device such as a hard disk drive.

You can reduce the tile drawing time two ways.

• Use a Solid State Drive (SSD) for the tile cache. An SSD internal to the computer can be three (3) or more times faster than the standard rotating hard drive.
• Defragment the disk drive that contains the Tile Cache after downloading new tiles. The defragmentation process will collect together tiles otherwise scattered and fragmented thoughout the storage media.
• Copy to new location the current Tile Cache. The Windows copying program will construct sequencial file groups in the new location.

Tile and Chart file backup stategies

The MarinePlotter application does not have a data file backup mechanism.

The short form of the famous Murphy's Law states that "if something bad can go wrong, it will." You can add extensions: "in the worst possible way", and "at the worst possible time", etc.

If you are going to use the charts and tiles on long distance voyages, you will most likely not be able access the Internet to obtain recovery data; as such, you should maintain at least two copies of the tile cache, chart files, and user MarinePlotter data folders. You can then use the copies to recover from errors: You can move the data to a backup computer when the main computer fails; and, you can recover lost data on the main computer.

I recommend that you have at least two (2) hard disk drives. If you use a CD drive, you should use the RW media; however, compared to the modern portable harddrives and memory sticks, the CD drives might not be able to conveniently hold all the data you need and are very slow. One disk drive should be a portable (USB2 or USB3) compatible drive that you can use with other computers. The other drive can be the computer's built in drive. You should designate one drive to hold the Master data copy. The other drive is the backup mirror image copy. I recommend that you do not create compressed backup copies for this data. A mirror image is an exact copy that you can use in a "plug-and-play" fashion and is much easier to deal with in an emergency. The master copy will probably be your main computer's drive because you will probably download new data to it.

Microsoft Windows provides a mechanism to Synchronize Folders. You should probably use "oneway" sychronizing from the master to the slave. If the folder Synch feature is not available in your Windows OS, then you can try the Windows Briefcase mechanism. For more information, see the Windows Start menu Help and Support command as search for "synch folder" and "briefcase".

You can also search the Internet for folder synchronizing backup programs. Search for and read the reviews. Some programs are free. For example:

• SyncToy
• Syncback
• FreeFileSync
• Alternatively, search for "sychronizing folders." Remember to stay away from programs that use the Cloud to sychronize folders because the Cloud (or other Internet file storage services) requires Internet access.

Problems possibly fixed in version 1.0.10 or later

Several conflicts have been resolved in version 1.0.10 and some prior problems that might have resulted from those conflicts have not re-appeared during testing. The following items might be fixed and these notices will be removed pending additional testing results.

Safe to End Process

• If you click the [X] button on the MarinePlotter to close the program, the program might display the message "Cannot exit: Safe to End Process". If the program fails to close, go to the Windows Task bar (normally at the bottom of your Windows Desktop display.) Click the mouse right-button on the MarinePlotter button. A menu will open. In the menu, select the Close command. The MarinePlotter program should now terminate. This error is random and will be fixed as soon as the cause is identified.

Out of Memory

• If you abort an RNC or an Image redraw, an "Out of memory" error can occur for the next redraw. Aborting a redraw sometimes prevents the program from performing some internal memory cleanup. When this occurs, you might need to restart the program.
• See also: Out of memory

Big Red X

• Sometimes a program error will corrupt the program's drawing window and Microsoft software will create a Big RED X in the plot window. A temporary fix is provided in 1.0.10 that will enable you to create a new drawing window without restarting the program. See the new Fix Red X command on the Xtools menu. Also, check the Help topic.

Note: If you want reasonably fast response times and minimal memory problems then display the minimal number of charts that you require.