NemaStudio Beta 3 released

I have just released the 3rd beta version of NemaStudio to selected beta testers.

There is a lot of functionality added in his version, and also some annoying bugs have been removed. Not all, but most.

In the picture at the left you see the new treeview panel in operation. This panel represents all objects (instruments and targets) in the users database.

In addition to opening objects with the large buttons in the instrument selection panel you can also open selected objects via this treeview panel. Here you have two options: you open an object by a double-click or via a context menu that opens when clicking the right mouse button on an object. In this context menu you also have the option to permanently delete an object from the database. I have created a rather clumsy but as I hope instructive enough screen cast on how to use the treeview panel here.

What more is new in this beta? Here is a list.

1. An installer to facilitate easy install and setup has been added
2. Delete functions to delete objects from the database have been added
3. New AIS targets and messages have been added: Base Station, SAR Aircraft, Aid to Navigation, messages 4, 9 and 21
4. A treeview panel for easy opening of NMEA objects (see above)
5. Most reported bugs are corrected
6. Position update on all instruments happens now every second, and is not related anymore to the interval setting for transmitting a sentence
7. Minor improvements to the user interface like tooltips etc.

An important change is point 6. Before, a new position was calculated on each transmit interval. So if the xmit interval was set to 2 seconds, the new position was calculated every 2 seconds. Now that we have introduced AIS in NemaStudio we have much longer transmission intervals, in some cases up to 3 minutes. This was resulting in very inaccurate position updates as you can imagine.

So now there is a separate timer included in each instrument/target, that does a position update every second, independent of the transmit interval. The one-second is hard coded, but if required, I can make this a settings variable. Let me know.

I also want to take the opportunity here to thank the guys from Y-TRONIC for their help in solving a very annoying bug I had in MsgType5. These guys are real AIS experts!