This section deals with versions of the software which are under active development but not in the currently released version.

Download the Development version 3.96.4a

Download OziExplorer 3.96.4a

History

Please continue to report any problems you find.

Development Version 3.96.4a (October-2009)

Changes

• Added support for seamless maps.
  • This is the loading of multiple maps into OziExplorer so they are merged together to form one map.
  • This is a first look at the seamless map support and issues can be expected.
  • See the extensive details and help below.
• Routes are now working again.
• Many fixes to map calibration.
• Added support for the New Zealand NZTM2000 map projection and datum.
• 24bit color tif files are now paged (no longer fully loaded into memory).
• OziExplorerCE .rt2 route files can now be loaded.
• Added support for Garmin Oregon, Colorado, Dakota, Zumo, Nuvi and Edge GPS receivers.
• Added support for internet maps.
• Improved support for XP and Vista themes.
• Added the ability to store altitude in kml files.
• Added update notification when new development versions are available.
• Many other issues fixed.

Help for Seamless Maps

Overview

• A seamless map can be thought of as a container which can have many OziExplorer maps loaded into it. For Example : load a seamless map (.map) file and all the maps contained in the map file will be loaded. 

• You can have many seamless maps with each one having many loaded maps.

• To setup your seamless map - As you would normally load a map in OziExplorer, load the map file "Seamless.map" and use the Seamless Map Control to add your maps. The options on the "Options Menu" allow you to create additional seamless map files.

Limitations in this version

• Map Projection and Datum - The seamless map can only be displayed in the Mercator map projection and the WGS 84 datum but this will be changed in a future version to allow any map projection / grid and datum to be used for the displayed map.

• Mapview - Will be implemented in a future version.

• BSB4/5 and Nv Digital not supported but will be in a future version.

• Internet maps cannot be loaded into a seamless map.

• Some other map types such as UBD and Kompass cannot be loaded into a seamless map.

• Printing will be supported in a future version.

• Saving does not work, it may be supported in a future version.

Getting Started

Steps to set up a Seamless Map.

• Download and install the development version.

• Run this development version and load the seamless map file.

• Use the option on the Options Menu "Create New Emply Seamless Map" to create and name your own map file Eg: "Seamless Map - My Maps.map".  This can be done any number of times to create different seamless maps to add different maps. (Maps of different scales or maps for different regions etc).

• Use the "Seamless Map Control" toolbar buttons to add maps to the seamless map.

• There are 4 zoom buttons on the toolbar to change the seamless map zoom.

• In the map list, if the "Status" does not show "ok" the map will not be shown.

• Use the options on the drop down Options Menu to change the list sort order. (NOTE: if maps have been moved up or down the list using the Up/Down buttons, changing the sort order will re- sort any maps that have been moved).

• The control can be resized by dragging the sides of the control (the size and position will be remembered). Use the Show Action List button to show/hide the action list. 

Toolbar Buttons

Add Maps - Select one or more files in a folder to load into the seamless map.

Add all maps from a folder and subfolders - Select a folder, all maps in the folder and its subfolders are loaded.

Find and load maps for screen region - Select a folder, all maps in the folder

Zoom in to 100% for the map at the centre of the screen.

Zoom In - Zooms the map in, the zooms from the buttons are finer then the zoom levels from the drop down menu.

Zoom Out - Zooms the map out.

Select Map Zoom Level (menu) - A drop down menu of zoom levels is displayed.

Show Action List - The Seamless map Contol is expanded to show the actions list.

Show Options - A drop down menu of options is displayed. (The menu options are explained below)

Move the Selected Map Up - moves it up. Maps at the top of the list will be displayed on top of maps further down the list.

Move the Selected Map Down - moves it down.

Centre Position on the Selected Map - The map position is moved to the position of the center of the first selected map.

Remove the Selected map from the List - removes the selected maps.

Save the Map File - Save the loaded seamless map (the map is automatically saved when it is closed).

Option Menu

Copy Map to New Seamless Map - There is no limit to the number of seamless maps you can have. This option copies the loaded seamless map to a new name, the new seamless map can then be loaded and individual maps can then be deleted or added as required.

No Sort of Maps - Does not automatically sort the maps, useful if you want to move the maps into a specific order that will not change.

Sort Maps by Pixel Scale - The maps at the top of the list are shown on top of the maps that are lower in the list. Sorting the maps by their pixel scale is usually the best way as you would normally want the higher detail maps on top.

Sort Maps by Name - Sorts the maps by the map name.

Remove All maps from the List - Removes all the maps from the seamless map list. This does not affect the maps on disk it only removes them from this seamless map.

Delete All Map Thumbnails - For seamless maps OziExplorer creates small thumbnails of various sizes for each map to speed up the loading process. This option deletes the thumbnails and they will be recreated as needed.

Configuration - Shows the configuration dialog.

Configuration

Max Memory (MBytes) - The amount of memory OziExplorer is to use for working with maps. The default is 750 MBytes but much higher or lower values can be specified depending on the amount of memory your PC has.

The Status Bar

Number Maps - the number of maps loaded

Mem Total for Maps - the total memory allocated in seamless maps configuration

Free for Maps - the amount of allocated memory remaining

Download the Development version 3.96.3b

Download OziExplorer 3.96.3b

History

Please continue to report any problems you find.

Development Version 3.96.3b (January-2009)

Changes

• Fixed map color corruption issue.
• Fixed some issues with selection of track points using the selection control.
• Fixed multiple track point delete from the track list
• Fixed many other issues relating to the track tool options - track split, track reverse, track join etc.
• In configuration - the drop down com port list was too slow - fixed.
• Fixed some issues with systems using large fonts.

Development Version 3.96.3a (December-2008)

Changes

• There are a lot of internal changes so this version may not be fully stable and is not complete.
• Windows Vista compatible.
• Now has 10,000 tracks (only 100 are initially shown in the track control but more tracks are added as required).
• Now has 10,000 point sets.
• New and faster loading configuration dialog (still needs work).
• Map calibration screen.
  • Faster loading.
  • Uses less resources.
  • New map border point adding method - now add up to 100 map border points.
  • New latitude/longitude entry fields - add lat/lons in any format.
  • (24S  ;  25.123N  ;  24 33.45 S  ;  156 45 21.345 W  are all valid entries)
• Map Features
  • Display map feature images directly on the map at user set scale.
  • Display map feature image automatically when mouse placed over map feature.
• ROUTES do not work - routes are still being developed and cannot be used.
  • Route Control (Editor) is not complete, the buttons refer to the track (it is a copy of the track control and is not complete).
  • The only buttons that work are the route waypoint add and insert buttons, at this stage a route can be created on the map but nothing can be done with it.
• Waypoints can now have user symbols (gps symbols are still available).
• New "Save map to Image File" - allows the saving of map sections (and other options).
• AIS (Automatic Ship Identification) has many changes
  • Closest Point of Approach (range and time is shown in the list and plotted on the map).
  • TCP/IP input for AIS data.
  • Improved handling of data.
• New menu layout.
• Many internal changes have been made to the program to allow for the changes still to come.
• Some recent changes to the release version of OziExplorer may not be in this development version, these will be added as a priority.

Development Version 3.96.2a (February-2006)

Fixes

• Fixed problem with configuration
  • GPS symbols were not correct
  • Moving Map Pointer was not correct
• Numerous other fixes have been done.

Changes

• Tracks

There has been a change to the way tracks can be used, there is now the concept of an Active Track. In the previous version all track points for all tracks could be active at the same time, this made it difficult to select the exact point wanted when tracks overlaid each other. Now certain operations can only be done on the Active Track.

• When the Track Control is not open the Active Track is always Track 1.
• When the Track Control is open the Active Track is the track highlighted in the Track Control List.
• The Active Track will always plot on top of all other tracks.
• Track Points can be added, deleted, selected ... for the Active Track.
• The Active Track can have track points active and displayed in a different color, the button is on the Track Control toolbar.
• Uploading to a GPS still always uses Track 1 and downloading still uses Track 1 (+2,3 depending on how many tracks are downloaded).
• There are other operations which still work only with track 1.

• Points (not waypoints)

Operate the same as Tracks (where applicable) and the Active Point Set is the Point Set highlighted in the Point Control.

• Support for the Ship Automatic Identification System (AIS) has been added, ships sending AIS information will be plotted on a map displayed in OziExplorer. The option for AIS is on the Moving Map Menu, this allows you to view a list of the ships sending AIS and also to configure the AIS com port. AIS data can be supplied on the same com port as the GPS NMEA data or on a separate com port. If AIS is marked as Active (in AIS configuration) then it is automatically started when Moving Map is started. There are still a lot of work needed in OziExplorer to the AIS system but it should work well enough to test. A button for the AIS control can be manually added to the User Toolbar. For my testing I have been using the Nasa Marine AIS Engine.
• The Route Editor can now be resized, the size of the 2 lists on the form can be adjusted and the column widths of the 2 lists can be adjusted.

Development Version 3.96.1c (January-2006)

Fixes

• The program would sometimes freeze on startup, the problem has now been found and rectified.
• The position display had an erratic update as the mouse was moved across the screen, this has been fixed. However vary large tracks can also cause this and a change has been made to allow for this (see changes below).
• Problems with Selection Control have been fixed.
• Many other minor problems have been fixed.

Changes

• Track Point inserting has been modified to make the determination of the selection point better (may still need more work). There will still be times where the correct track leg to insert into cannot be determined, the option here is to click on the map where the correct leg can be determined and drag the track point to exactly where you want it.
• The column widths in the Point Control list can now be saved.
• There have been other minor changes to the Point Control.
• Large tracks cause the position display to have an erratic update as the mouse is moved across the map. There is now a button on the Track Control toolbar to turn the Mouse searching on track points on and off.
• Program startup time has been reduced (from 3.5 secs to 1.5 secs on my PC).
• Track Move Control now works with the Selected Track points.

Development Version 3.96.1b (January-2006)

Fixes

• Fixed File / Load from File and File / Save to File submenus which were not appearing (change in version 3.96.1b)
• Some bug fixes but probably added many more because of all the internal changes.

Changes

• OziExplorer now supports skins which allow you to change the visual look and feel of the software. The Skin Manager is available on the File menu. 5 Skins have been provided, more will be made available in the future.
• Many changes have been made to how tracks are handled. The concept of making track points active is now gone (they are now always active). Separate buttons are provided on the track control to add or insert track points to track 1.
• The Track Control has had major changes, you can now make it any size, the list column widths can be altered and are automatically saved, the toolbar has changed to add new buttons and remove the buttons no longer needed.
• The Track List has been changed and can now load large tracks instantly.
• There are now numerous line styles for tracks. Use the Track Property dialog to set the line style. To open the track properties double click on a track in the track control list.
• Points are now always active.
• The Point Control toolbar has been changed to remove buttons no longer needed. The control can be resized but the column widths are not saved yet.
• The Selection menu and Selection Control now has options to select track segments in Track 1 and points in Point Set 1. These options can be used instead of using active points to delete and save.

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