Setting up your maps for Chart Selection

[gregory]

Starting with the HDS Gen2 3.0 Software Update we have support for Chart Selection on the units.  What this basically means is that when you select your charts out of this menu, the other maps will not be visible and you'll just get the maps you selected.  This is all controlled by the description string.

Chart Selection Menu Update – new selection menu lists available for Navionics, Lowrance, CMAP MAX-N+ and other 3rd party mapping options by name.

The description string is made up of multiple key-value pairs separated by a pipe delimiter but, for the purposes of this tutorial, I'll only break down the 2 you need to know about.

Keys

• "M" - Manufacturer.  This is the name of your company
• "D" - Description.  This is the description used to describe the chart

Both of these keys are optional and do not need set.  If neither key is set, your maps will go under the Lowrance Chart Selection and use traditional chart replacement.

So, for example, if you were producing maps for a fictional company named ABC and your map was Billy Bob's Pond, you would set up your description string as - M=ABC|D=Billy Bob's Pond and your map would then be individually selectable apart from the other chart sources.

To set the description string in the IMC, go to Advanced Options->Atlas Options->Atlas Description....

[Luke]

This is a really nice feature, thank you. 

[fjordfischer]

Hello Greg,


ist a good tool and it works fine.

This tip can also be a good help, espacially if i create a chart for a friend with a new unit. He put the chart in the unit and - nothing is to see, because the unit is set on "Naviconics" by the dealer. With this feature a question appears and the user now know - he must set to other chart constellation.

But i found: Do never name Your charts "M=Lowrance" without "D=..." (or also with - no tested)! This can be make problems.

 
Thanks and best wishes
fjordfisher

[DannyGeysen]

Yes indeed, a really nice new feature Greg.
Please, let them coming.   

[gregory]

Hello Greg,

ist a good tool and it works fine.

This tip can also be a good help, espacially if i create a chart for a friend with a new unit. He put the chart in the unit and - nothing is to see, because the unit is set on "Naviconics" by the dealer. With this feature a question appears and the user now know - he must set to other chart constellation.

But i found: Do never name Your charts "M=Lowrance" without "D=..." (or also with - no tested)! This can be make problems.
 
Thanks and best wishes
fjordfisher

What happens when you do that?

[fjordfischer]

I find in the chart sources: 1 x Navionics and 2 x Lowrance. One of this (my) "Lowrance" not display my chart. If i want to restart the unit, it reboot again and again - i must break the battery connection.

[gregory]

Interesting...we'll probably need to get that fixed.

[gregory]

Can't reproduce this particular issue on the  internal build so if it was broken, it's fixed now.

I tried with M=Lowrance and M=M=Lowrance.

[fjordfischer]

Okay. now with pictures (M=Lowrance) in order:

Pic 1: Card is inserted, there is the question, entered with YES


Pic 2: Nothing appears


Pic 3: Chart source menu - You see 2 x Lowrance


Pic 4: Change to "another" Lowrance"


Pic 5: In background now You can see the chart!!!


The problem with the new start is this case i can't no more find?!?! But also without the card now i can see 2 x Lowrance.


Best wishes
Jörg

[gregory]

2 Lowrances and not switching over is reproducable.  I was more concerned about the perpetual crash.

For now, if you want it appearing under the standard Lowrance entry, don't fill in the description string.

[fjordfischer]

I will never use "Lowrance" as description. But a inexperienced user could this do, because he know - the right chart source is "Lowrance". Or there is people, who want to provoke the chart source question (because a change from Naviionics to Lowrance is required).

It would be better, if the strings as "Lowrance" and "Navionics" would not be possible for own names in the IMC.

[fjordfischer]

Hello Greg,

now i could reproduce the error, not only 1 x and also after soft reset:

The problem is the name of the new chart (not only "Lowrance") and the following conditions:
- the own chart is in use, if the unit will be switch off
- only if i new start and the card is inserted - the system reboot and reboot and ....
- if i take out the card during the permanent reboots, the system boot normal and show "Navionics" as chart source.

The pic. show the point, short before the unit reboot ever and ever.


Best wishes
Jörg

[gregory]

That reset, I believe, is unrelated to the description string.

In any case, that was one of the test procedures and it no longer occurs on the internal build.

[DannyGeysen]

Hi Gregory,

There is definately  something wrong when using the description string.

I have had several times my HDS Gen2 or Gen2 Touch was constantly rebooting when I had taken away the SD card after its last use. (SD card with AT5 V12 map, with description string.) The units were switched off before removing the SD-card.

When constantly rebooting (without SD-card) and I reinsert the same SD-card I was using before, all becomes normal again.
The units have the latest firmware versions loaded.

[Hubert]

With maps at5 Version 13 I had no difficulties, but I have not tested in exactly this way Danny had described.

[DannyGeysen]

Gregory,

After rebooting and rebooting, I have had terrible problems with both my HDS Gen2 and Gen2 Touch. Settings that were changed ( knots, km/h, overlays that had disappeared, needed to recalibrate the Touch etc... .

There were 2 diferent maps on the SD card, both with a description string. I had used underscores in the name of the maps. Maybe that could be a problem?

[prometheus]

Hello Danny,

Can you send me a .sap file you used to reproduce the problem dataset that caused the unit to reboot? Thanks in advance.

[DannyGeysen]

Adam, can you send me your email addres please?

[DannyGeysen]

Hi,

Anyone else that is using the 'Map Selection String' in the IMC ?
When using this feature, my units (HDS Gen2 and HDS Gen2 Touch) constantly keep rebooting?
Anyone else who has noticed this strange behaviour?

[Hubert]

I use it without any problems.

For the latest maps I used the description string only.

[prometheus]

First backup all user data if possible, because it will be erased. To get the unit to stop rebooting continuously upon powering up, you can do a hard reset (press and hold + and - while holding power after powering on the unit and seeing the boot screen. When you hear a loud *BEEP* you can release the buttons and wait for the unit to finish booting.

[siiverlce]

Hello. I am new to these forums, and I am new to IMC & Lowrance.

Is the reboot issue fixed? I like the Chart Selection idea, and I would like to start using it.  =)

[fjordfischer]

It works. You particularly can use it for
- more than one raster chart on the same SD-card http://www.tacklefever.de/index.php?topic=5356.0 for different or the same spatial area,
- blend your own data with IG charts (find out the exact name from the IG chart and use it for your own files, watch for space) or
- for using theme charts for the same spatial area with divergent user option. Sample pictures:

[siiverlce]

It works. You particularly can use it for
- more than one raster chart on the same SD-card http://www.tacklefever.de/index.php?topic=5356.0 for different or the same spatial area,
- blend your own data with IG charts (find out the exact name from the IG chart and use it for your own files, watch for space) or
- for using theme charts for the same spatial area with divergent user option. Sample pictures:

Thank you for the reply! I have been too busy with work to reply to you.

Is it possible to ADD a "description string" to a completed map?

Or do we have to process a new map to add this "description string?"

[fjordfischer]

What exactly you mean? How long is the text?
Please give an explanation or create a photomontage.

The first idea - use an invisible point with text, for more text use a labled point with symbol and the INFO_BOX attribute (look here: http://www.tacklefever.de/index.php?topic=3965.msg30575#msg30575 ). 254 signs are possible and also attachments in the future.

Another ways is to create a vector symbol with text:

[siiverlce]

What exactly you mean? How long is the text?
Please give an explanation or create a photomontage.

I refer to your attached images in Reply #23 of this topic.

I made a map with current IMC, but it shows up in Lowrance as a Photo Overlay. I did not add the description string under Advanced Options->Atlas Options->Atlas Description....

Can I go back and add this description to my old maps? Or do I have to reprocess it in IMC (again)?

[gregory]

You need to recreate the file.  Once it's in AT5, there's no way for you to adjust the settings that the file was created with.

[Volccc]

Tried to use this for .at5 vector maps. Selection works fine, but I got strange behavior in chart categories: list of categories to switch on/off depends on atlas description, and near completely differs from list for map without description with Lowrance type. Doesn't matter what I use, M= or D=.
Categories works, but I need to:
  Create map with desired name
  Check categories
  Edit my map MAJ_CAT MIN_CAT attributes
  Create map one more time, now all works fine.
What is it: issue with IMC, or maybe something wrong with my device? Tried it on Elite-7 TI (first version, maybe too raw software).

[gregory]

We'll look into it.  It's not common to hear back on the status of issues until they are fixed and released.

[gregory]

For reproduction purposes, are your category names/atlas description names in Russian or in English?  Roughly how many major categories and minor categories are in your dataset?  What Atlas Version are you producing?

[Volccc]

Only English. As for now, 2 major and 6 minor. If it helps, I can create from one very small test map set of .at5 with different names and as a result with different categories list in device.

[gregory]

That would help.  Attach to the forum either as a zip or At5 renamed to the "zi_" extension.

[Volccc]

In attached zip 4 folders:
Shapes - input shapes, the same for all generated maps. Small test map around N51°44.8' E46°23.2'
Empty - generated without description
D=Volga Saratov, D=Volga Test - with atlas description
All 3 shows different list of categories.
Device: Elite-7 TI 1.0.53.2.25 with Russian Ukrainian Language pack.

[gregory]

We reproduced the issue locally.

No issues with the chart itself.  When a category menu is initialized for a description string, it's not being updated either when removing or inserting a card.  To work around this, until it's resolved through a software update, you would need to reset the "Local Settings" for the chart plotter to reinitialize the category settings for that description string.  For a null description string, since those charts are typically embedded, this would require you to have the card inserted when resetting those settings.