Change history for SeaMarks since version 7.0:

This lists the changes made to the program by release date. You can look over this list to see if your version might have a problem that has been fixed.

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2/27/24   Made some minor updates   12/19/23   Fixed PCWindPlot import algorithm . Also made sure the program was "signed"   10/13/23   Fixed the Replace function which had Color and Symbol swapped   7/3/23   Made improvements to import routines for Garmin GDB and Humminbird HWR files.   3/11/22   Modified the Furuno NavNet3D import to get it working right   6/3/22   Added the GPX Garmin format to IO routines.   5/31/22   Made small improvements like warning messages.   2/22/22   Fixed the Fish32N tracks importer so it doesn't have spurious lines.   2/19/22   Fixed an issue with importing a Furuno GP1971F  file causing an overflow error.   2/2/22   Fixed the Export of Raymarine GPX format that was getting dates wrong.   1/2/22   Added import for an Italian track plotter named Fish32N.   12/2/21   Added Furuno TZD and FurunoGPX to the import form GPS definition so as to load the appropriate icons.  Made a new Garmin GDB importer that does not use GPSbabel.  Fixed an issue where Symbol and Color were swapped in the Finder list so that they did not work right.   6/7/21 Modified the Furuno exporting of the GP-1871F /1971F waypoints in GPX to handle some particular requirements of those models.  Also fixed the USR versions 4 to 6 importer to handle more variations. 4/24/21 Fixed some issues with track plotting having to do with saving a spot. 2/13/21 Updated the WMM.DAT file and updated the UserPreferences file to  show last file loaded as being  in the SeaMarks folder instead of the Lorangps folder. 1/8/21 Fixed a bug in the Furuno TZD export that made it export only one point.  Bug introduced 4/24/20, 10/30/20 added a shortcut for Garmin importing 8/30/20 Fixed an issue with a recent Windows 10 upgrade that would kill the program.  By upgrading the BoxedApp Packer the issue went away.  Updated the SeaMarks program version to 8.2. 7/1120 Fixed an issue with Importing a Garmin track file that has an ACTIVE LOG section. 7/1120 Fixed an issue with Importing a Garmin track file that has an ACTIVE LOG section. 7/1/20 Fixed an issue where if an old Furuno file was to converted to Garmin format, the name length got set to 6. 6/10/20 Fixed issues with Furuno 3D export, with sometimes printing a blank sheet, and with not adding a new waypoint when loran features are suppressed. 5/11/20  Changed the installer to use a simpler format that is less likely to have issues.  4/24/20 Improved the Import of text files of the CSV variety to avoid issues with various forms of Lat/Lon that included non number characters.  Corrected a bug in the Export  of Furuno GPX files having to do with the wrong date/time format.  Made a change to allow more than 100,000 track point import from PC-WindPlot. 2/7/20 and 3/30/20 Fixed some minor issues that did not prevent proper operation. 11/4/19 Fixed an issue with showing the manual and some other minor bugs. 8/3/19 Added the import of Furuno TZD tracks.

Changed the version number to 10.1

7/26/19 Fixed a bug introduced in 8/2/18 when the maximum was increased to 100,000 points.  This bug prevented the proper import of Raymarine archive.fsh waypoint files. 6/18/19 Added code signing to the program so that instead of saying "Do you want to run this app by 'Unknown Publisher?" it will say "by Andren Software Co.".  That should reduce the likelihood of running afoul of anti-virus programs. 5/13/19

Changed Version number to 10.0

Big change!  We switched to a virtualized mode for the program.  This involves combining all functions, resources, and libraries into one executable (boxed app) that does not need to be installed.  Thus, the program can run from a removable disk (flash drive) as well as the usual location on the hard drive.  As for the hard drive, we supply a simple installer that creates a place (folder) for the program on the hard drive, copies the program there, creates shortcuts, and identifies the types of files associated with SeaMarks.  While the experienced customer could do this, many of our customers are not comfortable with these operations.  The version is now 10.0 and if ordered on the USB flash drive, you can run it there immediately if you don't want to install it on the hard drive..   5/9/19 Changed Version number to 9.1 5/5/19 Worked to make GPX import/export routines better for the various brands.   12/27/18 Fixed an issue with Simrad/Lowrance version 2 and 3 export introduced by the change to maximum file size. Also made the GPX export more robust and added a Furuno TZT GPX version. Changed the Loading of a GPX file when clicking on a GPX file from Windows. 12/12/18 Fixed the Settings saving that did not save all the settings due to unintended consequences introduced when the maximum file size was increased to 100,000. Fixed a problem with editing the Name of a waypoint with punctuation marks where it defaulted to an apostrophe when a hyphen was more appropriate. Corrected an issue with finding duplicated Names if the file was too big. Improved the importing of the Furuno Rat/Rou file type. 10/13/18 Fixed an error in the Garmin ADM export that prevented it from working that was introduced when the maximum file size was increased to 100,000 two months ago. 10/10/18 Modified the duplicate search so that 'exact' duplicates can have some very small difference in Lat/Lon and still be automatically deleted if that is the only criterion. 10/6/18 Fixed the GPX export so that Groups are sorted properly in the file for Raymarine. Took the description out of the GPX Routes export as it caused issues for some GPS models. Fixed the Sitex HY model Importer to ignore blank records instead of assuming the end had been reached when encountering one. 8/6/18

Changed Version number to 9.0

8/2/18 Made a change to the maximum file size from 32,500 to 100,000. This impacted 125 routines and caused about 300 changes. Most of the changes were in the 59 import/export routines as all had to be modified to handle this. Previously, if users had more than 32,500 points, the program would have them to split the file into multiple chunks. This mostly happened on track files. Fixed a few bugs found along the way. Spent a good part of the month testing the changes. 6/12/18 Fixed an issue that screwed up parsing the DDDMM.MMM style of Longitude. This mainly impacted track plotting. 6/2/18 Added more extensions to the Find Missing Files routine. They are: EVT, FWP, KAP, TSV, AND WPT. Added Mediterranean charts to the CD/USB load where needed. 5/20/18 Fixed an issue with Garmin formats MPS and GDB due to a missing library file. 5/12/18 Improved the C-Map userimg.bin file importer to better handle fragmented files. If the user has had a long experience with the GPS and has deleted some sub files, the organization of this file can become very fragmented and hard to read. 3/30/18 Fixed an issue in the Hondex Export having to do with not having a leading 0 on longitude. Made sure the Lat/Lon format was right even if the user was using different format. Added icon and color recovery for importing Furuno GP1650/GP3300 MRK files. 3/14/18 Added recovery of the Date in the Offshore Hunter software import. Fixed a minor error in exporting a text file while using Loran Chain as one of the fields to be exported. Improved the import of Lowrance routes and trails. 2/20/18 Made the TZD icons import and export correctly as much as possible. Fixed an issue with the import and export of Humminbird GPX files with Groups. 1/7/18 Further fixed the TZD export to avoid a path not found error. Added a routine to the TDZ import to handle files with soft paragraph marks (line feed without carriage return). 1/3/18 Fixed an issue with the Furuno Time Zero (.TZD) import/export for windows 10 that was preventing it from working. 12/7/17 Added an importer for Hondex tracks and fixed the Lowrance/Simrad importer to handle version 6. Added a choice to the Backup/Restore capability to Select All for transfer and changed how it transfers BSB/KAP files so it works in a MAC.

Changed version number to 8.8

11/10/17 Added importer and exporter for Hondex GPSs like the HDX-121 by Honda. This does the Event and Waypoint files. 10/10/17 Added an importer for the Koden_KGP model. Fixed an issue in the Sitex HY importer to avoid extra lines. Changed some Furuno TZD icon translations for import and export. Fixed an issue with the GPX exporter when used with Groups. 7/20/17 Fixed issues with saving a GPX file. Added an importer for the nwps32.txt style of file from a Northstar 951. 7/7/17 Fixed an issue in Importing Furuno NavNet3D points where an extra Carriage Return character would cause the import to fail. Also fixed an Icon issue in exporting to Furuno NavNet3Ds. 6/25/17 Added the 4990 chain to the ASF tables for the Central Pacific around Hawaii. Extended the ASF tables for the 7980 SouthEast US to better cover the Bahamas. Fixed an issue with export to Garmin GPX where homePort would not recognize the file. 5/30/17 Fixed an issue with the export to Humminbird GPX where the depth was reported as 10 times too high. 4/30/17 In Windows 10, the import and export of the Furuno TZD format and the import of Google Earth KMZ was not working, so that was fixed. In importing a text file, if the file had soft paragraph marks, it wouldn't work and that was fixed. . 4/3/17 Fixed an ASF table straddle issue where if the waypoint fell right on the border of the table and there was no adjacent table, it might not convert. Fixed an issue where some import/export routines would lock up the program in an infinite loop if a file was not where it was supposed to be. Added code to allow more loran lines in West Texas as the ratio of the line spacings was around 10 times. Added a GPX selection to Humminbird export. Added a Samyung GPS importer (no, that's not misspelled Samsung). 1/27/17

Changed the version number to 8.7

Cleaned up the Furuno GP39 GPX export to conform to Furuno requirements. Fixed an issue with the Calibrate Conversions routine due to an unrelated change elsewhere in the code. Added error handling on two routines that would crash the program on an error. 1/22/17 Had an issue with international use of a comma for a decimal point and fixed that. Put limits on Lat and Lon so that in the event the format was not quite right, nonsense values would not be displayed. Found that /windows 10 did not include a library called ComCtl32.ocx, so added that. Fixed an issue with importing Furuno TZD files. 11/29/16 Fixed an issue with the C-Map Userimg.bin files for a version I had not seen before. < 11/28/16 Added capability for import and export of Furuno GP39, Import of GPX with Groups and modified the import of Humminbird version 5. Made changes to accommodate the new Raymarines. 11/24/16 Added importer for Furuno GP39 10/9/16 Added capability to Humminbird HWR importing to handle the newest version of that format. 10/1/16 Created a Save GPX with Groups exporter 8/2/16 Changed the way I do Zipping for formats like KMZ and TZD. 8/1/16 Fixed an issue with Furuno NN3D export in Windows 10.. 6/6/16 Added an exporter for Sitex Hy format. Did some code cleanup.

Changed the version number to 8.6

5/26/16 Added an importer for Sitex Hy file type and fixed the Furuno NavNet 3D routes export . Changed the icon "X" for Google Earth export to lower case as upper case did not display. Added a point O on the error distribution display after calibration to mark the center of the plot. 3/7/16 Added an export for OziExplorer files. Fixed an issue where part of the screen did not get updated when returning from the File Properties dialog. Found an error in the Garmin importer where an icon was mis-identified. Added another importer for Garmin Routes to handle a version not seen before. Changed the calibration routine to save the file if doing an error distribution report since that replaced the data in the spreadsheet with another set. 1/16/16 Updated the Furuno NavNet 3D waypoint importer to handle the case where the 3 associated files are not present. Also to handle files where there are blanks between lines. 1/12/16 Updated the World Magnetic Model (WMM.DAT) file. This file has the world wide compass magnetic variation table. Without this update, an error message is encountered when opening the program. It unfortunately points to a defunct web site. The correct file is on this web site. Ignoring the message is OK as most people do not go by magnetic compass headings anymore. 11/30/15 Fixed an issue with the Nobeltec ONF importer to handle a version not covered by the ONF specification document. Also corrected the C-Map XML importer that was giving 000 for the decimal part of Lat/Lon. This was introduced when I made changes for international considerations. Changed the Northstar 962 importer to show the file name the same as the file imported. 10/31/15 Added importers for NorthStar 962 floppy files, CAPN software, and Coastal Explorer software.

Changed version to 8.5

9/22/15 Added an additional form of the Garmin USERDATA.ADM file to the import capability. Changed the GPX importer to translate icons into the SeaMarks set. 9/6/15 Updated the calibration files for the Southeast chain. Fixed an issue introduced a year ago that made the Export GPX routine double up on the waypoints if "Include Inlet" was checked. Added capability to import Furuno GP3300 MRK files. 7/15/15 Added loran station 9980 for the Mediterranean and corrected the 6731 station for a change in location of one slave. Added a comma catcher for the Furuno NN3D export. 7/13/15 Fixed a bug in the Import Text file routine introduced in V8.4 that zero's the fractional minutes. Also fixed a bug that gives the wrong answer if the DD.DDDD form is imported. 7/10/15 Added ability to handle international considerations such as the use of East as positive longitude and commas for the decimal point. Also made provision for Tab delimited files on import since commas are used differently.

Changed version to 8.4

6/12/15 Added the ability to plot the miss distance pattern when calibrating. 6/5/15 Fixed an error that prevented auto-saving each waypoint as it is entered. Nothing was lost providing you saved the file after adding waypoints. The auto-save was done in case the computer crashed while entering data. 5/16/15 Improved the Furuno GP1650D cable uploader. 5/4/15 Added importers for Coastal Explorer NOB files and GPSU native files.

Changed version number to 8.3.

4/2/15 Fixed an issue with the C-Map importer returning 0 Lat/Lon if the absolute Longitude was beyond 90 degrees. 2/27/15 Fixed a date issue with the Lowrance V4/5 importer. Fixed a download issue with some Furuno NN2 and earlier GPSs having marks interspersed with waypoints. Made the plotting of routes better by eliminating a spurious line to the center lat/lon. 2/2/15 Made minor changes to the PC-Windplot importer to avoid an error message. 1/7/15 Found a problem with the Furuno NavNet 2 uploader. It was shifting the names 1 down from the waypoints. This caused the names to not line up with the wapoints they were supposed to represent. 12/27/14 Added routines for Nobeltec ONF format import and export of routes 12/18/14 Added routines for Nobeltec ONF format import and export of tracks 12/10/14 Added routines for P-Sea Windplot import and export of tracks 10/25/14 Added a Fix Name Duplications routine to make this job easier. 9/11/14 Fixed issues with the Furuno TZD export, the GPX export, and the Lowrance version 4 USR export. 9/3/14 Revised the Furuno GP1650F import to handle more variations. Made the name length setting take effect immediately after a warning about duplicates creation.. 8/22/14 Added another import version of the Furuno NavNet 1 rat/rou file. Added the GP1650F to the existing GP1650B importer. Also took away some of the Name restrictions when editing the grid and left them to the export routines to implement, if necessary. These make the names, descriptions and comments conform to what you could enter into the GPS. Many GPS models do not allow all the possible punctuation marks you might find on your computer's keyboard. 8/13/14 Fixed an issue where a coding error caused an error when opening a V7 file. 8/11/14 Modified the Lowrance V4 import/export to allow the use of Comments instead of Description for the GPS comments. Modified the C-Map importer to allow importing deleted sections of the Userimg.bin file. 7/21/14 Fixed an issue with the Furuno NN3D routes importer. 7/18/14 Revised the Raymarine Archive.fsh routes import to cover more variations. Revised the Garmin userdata.adm import/export to better align the icon translations. 7/3/14 Found that the serial port utility was not being distributed with the program since Dec 2013. 6/21/14 Found that the serial port utility was not being distributed with the program since Dec 2013. 6/14/14 Added capability to handle tracks over 32500 points in multiple files. Added Lowrance version 5 for waypoints. 5/24/14 Fixed a bug introduced 4/10/14 which broke the calibration routine. Fixed a file naming issue on some importing notably text. Changed the dafault name length from 6 to 16 as that is more often used today. Put in warnings if an export is using too long a name. 4/10/14 Added tracks import and export for GP1870, a terminal function for serial cable upload and download of older GPSs that initiate the process. Added Group to export options. Added a terminal style upload and download for Furuno GP32, 33 and any other GPS that initiates a data transfer by itself.

Changed version to 8.2.

2/19/14 Added waypoint import/export capability for the new Furuno TZ Touch machines using the TZD format. 1/30/14 Added a Group field to the data base. As GPS waypoint storage capacity has increased, some manufacturers have added the ability to group waypoints into folders. This new Group field is to manage those groups (folders). It is also useful for holding the names of routes and tracks. Added means to fill the Group field. Added a Raymarine import archive.fsh routes, GPX routes and tracks import,

Changed version to 8.1

10/25/13 Added import and export capability for Furuno GP1870F routes (PNT extension). Fixed a few issues in the GP1870F waypoint import and export.

Changed version to 8.0

8/19/13 Added import/export routines for Garmin ADM routes.

Changed version to 7.9

7/12/13 Added a new import capability to IMP-EXP for the Furuno GP1650 MRK files. Added a Furuno Rat/Rou routes importer. Worked on purge duplicates so that a user can quit the search and delete what was done so far. Added a cancel function. Fixed an issue with the Furuno NavNet 3D importer that occurred if just one group was identified. 5/11/13 Added import/export routine for Furuno GP1670F and GP1870F machines. Also fixed the find function when displaying on a chart.

Changed version to 7.8

1/8/13 Added Google Earth loran grid export so that you can see your waypoints, routes and trails in Google Earth with a loran overlay. Improved the way loran grids are calculated to better handle the extreme curvature close to the loran stations. Made a minor correction to the Garmin ADM file exporter.

Changed the version number to 7.7.

10/15/12 Made a correction to the C-Map userimg.bin file import so that it will tolerate a 0.0 longitude in the file. Fixed an issue with the Furuno NN3 exporter for negative lat/lon. Fixed another one for the import of Raymarine archive.fsh files where a rare occurrence caused an import abort. Added handling of 2 versions of the Furuno NN3 import.

Changed version to 7.7

8/25/12 Added Google Earth exports so that you can see your waypoints, routes and trails in Google earth. 8/10/12 Added a Google Earth export function so that the data base can be displayed on Google Earth. Also made changes to accommodate a Si-Tex version of the C-Map userimg.bin file import. Fixed an issue with the Cyber cable upload/download for Lowrance and related units.

Changed version to 7.6

6/23/12 Made changes the the Lowrance USR version 4 import and export to get the icons right. Fixed an error that crashed the program if you tried to create a batch list for printing maps. Modified the Northstar cable loader to handle the 3 added fields in Version 7.0. 5/912 Fixed problems with the Simrad USR file import and export. 4/5/12 Added Garmin ADM version 2 exporter and added the template to the upgrader and the CD burn list. The template was not included in the CD burn for 3/26 by mistake. 3/26/12 Fixed an issue with Garmin userdata.adm files to work with files up to 10,000 waypoints. Fixed another issue with NOAA chart display interfering with simple chart display. 1/25/12 Added import for Lowrance routes and trails including version 4. 1/16/12 Fixed an issue with userimg.bin files over 2231 points.

Changed version to 7.5.9

12/21/11 Added routes and to the simple chart display. Added an import routine for Tracks fro several GPS brands. 11/2/11 Fixed an issue with the Maptech export of marks32.txt files where it exported the wrong version of the file. 10/16/11 Modified the Garmin ADM exporter to handle some newer models. Improved import handling of a corrupt Furuno ROU file.

Changed version to 7.5.8

9/7/11 Found that I had broken the Furuno NavNet exporter if the user chose "include Inlet". 8/27/11 Added the ability to save-as and include inlet for all export routines. Added feet to the list of range options. 7/1/11 Added a C-Map routes importer 6/20/11 Found that the shortcut for zoom in by 3 (F3) got switched with the Find-Next (Ctl-N) shortcut, probably on 6/10/11 but maybe earlier like 5/18/11. fixed that

Changed version to 7.5.6

6/10/11 Added ability to use right mouse clicks to advance the duplicate search. This makes possible to do most duplicate purging with just left and right mouse clicks. 6/9/11 Improved the Import and Export GPX, MPS, and GDB routines. Now, it can take blanks in the source and output names and paths. All transferring is done in the root of C drive with the name changed if needed 6/5/11 Added C-Map userimg.bin tracks import capability. 5/15/11 Added a Humminbird tracks import capability. Made it possible to change the printer default from the program. 4/24/11 Fixed Raymarine Archive.fsh exporter for non groups that gave an overflow error. 3/21/11 Added import/export for Maptech "marks.dat" files that is found in the C:Program Files/Maptechdata folder. This is the binary file that initializes the Chart Navigator program. 2/6/11 Added import/export for Nobeltec ONF formatted files. Also added import tracks capability for Garmin ADM, Lowrance USR, Raymarine FSH, Furuno NavNet, and GPX. Made sure that groups are handled OK with Furuno NavNet 3D import/export.

Changed version to 7.5.2

1/4/11 The file "wmm.dat" has gotten out of date. This update fixes the file that carries magnetic compass variation data. This data is constantly changing and needs to be updated every 5 years.

Changed version to 7.5

10/28/10 Improved the text importer and exporter to handle more varieties of CSV files. It will now handle extra commas in the text so long as the text field is enclosed with quotes. Added the selection of Icon set to the importer. Caught an error that prevented showing all NOAA charts and another that prevented drawing all the range/bearing lines on a chart. Added a line width selection to chart printing. It used to print bold lines, but some recent Windows update made it print faint lines. Corrected an error where if you put two periods before the extension in a file name, it couldn't load the file. 9/7/10 Added capability to turn off the space-out-the-text feature in Printing Setup. Fixed an issue with the Humminbird exporter not catching an invalid date code. Added waypoint name to the ways you can select a RB reference. Fixed an issue with the Create Catalog function in Display on NOAA chart. 7/19/10 Fixed a bug in the calibrate conversions routine which, under certain circumstances would cause a Path-File access error and not complete the calibration report. 7/6/10 Fixed a bug in the Garmin exporter that made it bomb if the icon was a question mark. Also found an error in the NOAA chart catalog rebuild function that stopped it from working. 6/8/10 Added Humminbird HWR file import/export capability. Fixed the GPX importer to handle the Humminbird variant that has no carriage returns or line feeds. Modified the Raymarine C/E series importer to handle case where the longitude is near 0 and modified the exporter to better handle folders and large files. Fixed a bug in the Raymarine RWF exporter. 5/15/10 Added folder setup to the Garmin ADM exporter so that the user does not have to initialize the SD card in his GPS first. Also fixed an issue where the 5/8/10 version introduced a bug where it would not view or print maps. 5/6/10 Fixed an issue with the Raymarine Export to archive.fsh with folders. Found that Raymarine only allows 500 waypoints per folder except for the My Waypoints folder. Since new Raymarine GPSs allow up to 3000 waypoints, this issue is starting to be seen. 4/7/10 Fixed an issue with a Raymarine import that had two versions of My Waypoints in it. It would show both even when only latest was chosen. 4/2/10 Modified the Raymarine Exporter to handle groups. Now, you can retain your group arrangement.

Changed version to 7.4

1/31/10 Changed the scheme for downloaded programs so that the user does not have to download a UserPreferences.ini file, but instead uses an Access Code. The downloading had many problems. For you, this is no issue since you already have a User Preferences file. 1/4/10 Fixed an issue with Furuno 3-D exporting where icon numbers over 31 caused the GPS import to halt. 11/10/09 Had a problem with browsers opening the userpreferences.ini file instead of allowing user to save it. Fixed this by zipping the file and building in the unzip capability. Fixed a problem with updating an old version 5.x INI file. Did some code cleanup. 9/27/09 Minor cleanup 8/24/09 Fixed an issue with the Garmin ADM importer where it would look for the wrong file in the wrong location. 8/13/09 Fixed an issue with the Raymarine exporter where it bombed if the datecode column was blank. 7/1/09 Added an oil rig icon to the icon set. Added save-as to MAP create/modify. 6/6/09 Found that the NOAA chart outlines did not display correctly on the simple chart. Also removed the 2-D bathy charts from the web site. The bathy charts are no longer available and few customers wanted them. The same bathy charts are now available on a National Ocean Service website in a different electronic form that is not yet handled by this program. 5/6/09 Did some cleanup of the installation a while back and deleted a file needed by GPSbabel for the Garmin GDB and MPS import/export function. That broke the function, so I added it back. 4/18/09 Improved the text (CSV) importer to allow more flexibility and make the importing session more trouble free. 3/8/09 Added an error check to the startup screen. Previously, in Vista, if the program ran into a problem with improperly registered support libraries (OCXs), it would hang and give no information as to the problem nor any way out of it. 2/14/09 Fixed problem when entering waypoints. If no name was entered it would complain about duplicated names. 2/4/09 Fixed a problem with printing associated waypoints in NOAA map printing. 1/6/09 Initial installer was not copying all the NOAA charts onto the hard drive. 12/30/08 The identify waypoint feature on a chart was using "~link~" instead of the name when the name was linked to the waypoint number. 12/25/08 The Furuno NavNet exporter set some waypoints as black and that was not accepted by the GPS. These are changed to dark blue. 12/22/08 Added an import/export capability for the C-Map userimg.bin files. This type is used by Simrad, Northstar M series, SiTex, and some Furunos. Basically, if the unit uses C-Map cartography, then it probably uses this type. This mainly helps where the unit uses SD cards. If it uses C-cards, then you need to get a card reader from C-Map. Fixed an issue with the Furuno Rat/Rou file type where it would not load into the GPS more than 256 waypoints. Changed the Raymarine C/E series importer to handle the case where the user had set up multiple folders on the GPS. This had confused the previous importer so it would not import all the points.

Changed version to 7.3

11/9/08 Fixed a bug where a change made 3/17/08 decremented the waypoint counter, causing a waypoint to be deleted if the Change Chain button was used while entering new waypoints. You usually don't have to bother changing chains while entering waypoints in Loran as the program can figure out the right chain itself. However, if there is any chance that it can't, then this operation is necessary. 11/1/08 Minor maintenance. 9/3/08 Added import/export routines for Garmin's new userdata.adm format used on SD cards. This makes it easy to seamlessly get data from Garmin units to and from the program.

Changed version to 7.2

7/9/08 Added a Furuno NavNet3D import/export capability.

Changed version to 7.1

6/3/08 Added the capability to handle icons and colors in the Furuno NavNet import/export and fixed a minor bug in the import routine. 4/22/08 Changed the Icon column so that you can enter icons not on the list. Be aware that the import export routines translate my icons into what I think is the appropriate icon for each brand. Added a warning in the Furuno NavNet importer if the Lat/Lon is corrupt. Added the capability to use the function keys during data entry for numbers in the Lat/Lon and Loran fields. 3/20/08 Handled an issue where editing an entry while in the adding mode caused an extra row in the spreadsheet. Also made "import Text file" work better. 3/13/08 Fixed an issue where choosing Single ASFs per file and Set ASFs crashed the program. Also fixed it to where the Features file can be 11 or 14 fields. 3/5/08 Fixed an issue involving printing a Loran grid on a NOAA chart. 2/23/08 Made the spreadsheet display work more smoothly and put in more protections in the import routines. 2/20/08 Redid the Icon translation tables to make the Icons better match between the program and the various GPSs. Now handling Raymarine, MaxSea, and Lowrance. 2/18/08 Fixed a problem where the Raymarine C/E series export did not accurately place the points on the GPS chart plotter. 2/8/08 Fixed a problem where Comments would not print. 10/30/07 Fixed an issue in GDB importing where the program would sometimes say it could not find a file it needed in the process. Also made it work with version 3.0 USR files. 8/21/07 Fixed a few issues with respect to import/export. Added an Offshore Hunter type and changed the GPX export to not have a blank in the latitude that caused GPSU to reject the file. Changed from dashes to hyphens to fill blanks in the export process for some GPS types that do not like blanks or dashes. 5/23/07 Added the ability to show NOAA charts of the BSB/KAP variety. 5/13/07 ion to 7.0 Notes on the features of version 7.0 versus earlier versions: The fundamental changes to the program have been focused around adding three new fields for better handling the interchange of data with GPS units. These three fields are: (GPS) Name, Icon, and Depth. While the Depth field could be used for almost anything, it will be used for import/export functions where depth is called for. Most GPSs use a short name field that looks good on the screen without too much crowding. This can be a number or any set of characters available from the keyboard. In keeping with this use, the program allows Names of between 6 and 16 characters and lets the user choose to have some waypoints named while others are numbered as before. Keeping the GPS name and the program name coordinated, allows the making of hard copy listings and charts that match what is in the GPS and what gets displayed on your Chart Plotter. The program has also added capability for more import/export flexibility. In particular, it will now handle the C-Map, RayMarine C/E-series, Furuno Rat/Rou and Garmin userdata.adm formats directly. I also made the ASCII (text) import/export routines be much more flexible to handle almost any organization of data. As another big change, I added new Loran station information so that a user can handle the changed timing of the 9960 and 8970 chains that took place 1/17/07. In this case, the user can set up an 9960bXY pair for the before case and an 9960aXY pair for the after case.. I added the ability to skip over entering data for some fields when entering new waypoints. If you are not going to be using Depth, for example, you can grey out that field or just skip over it when entering data. Also added functions for filling the Name field when you open an older file that didn't have one and finding duplicated Names. Another useful addition is the EDIT>Replace function. This allows both individual and global replaces. In keeping with the trend to be GPS centric, I have added the capability to hide almost all Loran features.

Earlier History

Development of this program began in the late 1970's when I needed to convert Loran A readings to Loran C. I found a government document with the computational algorithms written for the Navy by A. C. Campbell of the Geodesy Division of the Hydrographic Surveys Department, Naval Oceanographic Office in 1962. It's amusing when I sometimes get a call from a customer saying they are one of my oldest customers because they bought a program in the mid 1990s. The first program was developed on an HP 9825 desktop calculator with 32KB of RAM and a 32 Character LED display. that was about 1976 so that I could convert Loran A to Loran C. It was written in HP Basic and stored on a cassette tape drive. In 1986, personal computers began to show up on the market from IBM, Apple, Atari, Radio Shack and others. A friend, Ken Martindale, offered to rewrite the program in GW Basic on the IBM PC in exchange for a copy. I then began selling the program in an interpreted Basic form for use in IBM DOS based machines. The first customer was Jay Shehey on July 16, 1986. In the late 1980s, I obtained a compiler so that I could sell it as an executable program (EXE). I later developed it on Quick Basic for the PC and MAC for a while, then it transitioned to Visual Basic. The MAC version died when Microsoft stopped supporting Quick Basic on the MAC. It has been on Visual Basic up through version 6.0 of that program where it currently is being developed. I did not upgrade to VisualBasic.net as it would have taken months to make the change and not get any benefit I could see. I also learned that VB.NET was basically an interpreter and the source code was what you shipped. That made it such that anybody could examine and copy my code. So, no thanks, Microsoft..