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I’ve
purchased a Maptech Digital ChartKit and am trying out RayTech charting
software, but the resolution does not seem to be as good as with ChartKit’s
included viewer. R.S., via e-mail
The
problem probably is that you have not enabled RayTech’s “SharpChart”
option. Follow this menu trail: File/Setup/System, then select the Performance
tab, and finally check SharpChart. On my system that results in fine-looking
images.
Your
question brings up the important issue of “charting engines.”
Panning, quilting, and particularly zooming huge raster files is computationally
challenging. For instance, digital charts are scanned at 254 pixels per
inch; at one-to-one on a typical 70- to 120-pixel-per-inch monitor, they
will look quite crisp as well as quite zoomed in. All chart viewers should
look about the same in this mode (hard to tell with RayTech, since it
doesn't have a distinct 100 percent or 1-1 mode). But, as you zoom out
to, say, 3x, the software has to eliminate two out of three of those original
pixels. Done without intelligence, the resulting image will get pretty
raggedy, since the important text, shorelines, etc. are relatively thin.
Hence,
we get the “SharpChart” or “CrystalView” or “whatever”
options; every chart viewing program can employ algorithms to analyze
the image, trying to drop truly extra pixels and retain distinct objects.
It is traditionally a switchable option because it adds overhead to the
already strained brain of your machine and can slow things down. Of course
this is less of an issue with today’s faster processors and large
RAM banks. But, these sorts of charting engine solutions do vary from
one program to another, and they are critical to happy operations.
Got
a marine electronics question? Write to Electronics Q&A, Power
& Motoryacht, 260 Madison Ave., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10016. Fax:
(917) 256-2282. e-mail: PMYElectronics@primediamags.com.
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