News

Date	Description
2022-12-15	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is Git tag ‘release-2.0.1’, trunk commit 9321a1a). Release 2.0.1 is a major release that includes, among other features: (1) Refactor API from C to C++14; (2) Add Python API bindings using SWIG; and (3) Add support for spatial metadata
2018-05-02	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is Git tag ‘release-fr-1.6.3’, trunk commit 57B9C70). Release 1.6.3 is a maintenance release that resolves some build issues (pull requests 8-12) and provides bug-fixes for the bagViewer application (pull request 13). This release also restores to the FSD descriptions of the extension layers that can be provided in a BAG file, which somehow got removed after release 1.5.1 of the library.
2017-08-29	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is Git tag ‘release-fr-1.6.2’, trunk commit DD9A290). Release 1.6.2 includes documentation changes to reflect clarification of usage for VR refinement node placement and datum transform metadata. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2016-11-28	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is Git tag ‘release-fr-1.6.1’, trunk commit 3D94544). Release 1.6.1 includes a bug fix for some Linux variants that could result in data not being written to the file. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2016-08-01	Binary packages for the Open Navigation Surface V1.6.0 are now available for download (click here to go to the download page). These include an option to get just the debug and release versions of the library, and a package that includes the bagViewer application in addition. Compilation was done with Microsoft Visual Studio 14 in x64 mode. Thanks to Giuseppe Masetti at CCOM/JHC for providing the binary distributions.
2016-07-05	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is Git tag ‘release-fr-1.6.0’, trunk commit 5D02EB4). Release 1.6.0 includes the variable-resolution surface extensions, a new 3D viewer application (bagViewer), code cleanup, support for builds on Linux Mint, MSVS 2015, example BAG files, and bug fixes. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2016-06-10	A candidate release for the next version of the Open Navigation Surface library, version 1.6.0, is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is Git tag ‘release-cr1-1.6.0’, trunk commit 935DFA8). Release 1.6.0 includes some significant changes to the BAG file structure, particularly the ability to include variable-resolution surfaces in BAG files in order to support new data processing methods such as CHRT. The library also includes new code for a 3D viewer application (bagViewer), code cleanup, support for builds on Linux Mint, support (and instructions) for build on MSVS 2015, example BAG files from NAVO, and bug fixes. The comment period for CR1 will finish on 2016-06-24/1200EDT.
2016-05-28	The HDF Compass project has been made BAG-aware, so that you can use it to open BAG files, validate the XML metadata, inspect the layers present, and even do simple hill-shade visualizations of the mandatory layers. The result is “BAG Explorer”, part of the HydrOffice suite of libraries and tools, which can be downloaded from the project website. Note that BAG Explorer also provides a Python implementation for reading BAG files.
2014-06-07	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-fr-1.5.3’, trunk revision 321. Release 1.5.3 is a maintenance release that fixes bugs from previous versions. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2014-05-07	The second candidate release for version 1.5.3 of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-cr2-1.5.3’. Release 1.5.3 is a maintenance release that fixes bugs from previous versions. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details. The comment period for CR2 will finish on 2014-05-22/1200EST.
2013-09-04	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-fr-1.5.2’, trunk revision 310. Release 1.5.2 replaces the old build system with a CMake version, removes Xerces and updates some of the documentation. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2013-07-12	The candidate release for version 1.5.2 of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-cr-1.5.2’. Release 1.5.2 replaces the old build system with a CMake version that is cross-platform and uniform, removes Xerces from the library in favor of libXML2 (which can now parse the metadata schema), and updates some of the documentation. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details. The comment period for CR1 will finish on 2013-07-26/1200EST.
2012-08-20	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-fr-1.5.1’, trunk revision 264. Release 1.5.1 is a minor release that fixes some bugs in translation of Well-Known Text (WKT) into a projection specification. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2012-04-16	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-fr-1.5.0’, trunk revision 263. Release 1.5.0 updates the metadata specifications to align them with the latest TC211 versions (and avoids having to do validations on load), fixes a number of memory leaks (and potential memory leaks), updates the specification for possible vertical uncertainty types, updates the optional surface correctors dataset, adds new build environments (e.g., for Visual Studio 2008), and fixes a number of other minor issues and bugs. Note that the code now uses external references for the schema required for the metadata, and by default point to this website. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2012-03-06	The candidate release for version 1.5.0 of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-cr-1.5.0’. Release 1.5.0 upgrades the BAG metadata schema to the latest official version from TC211, improves handling of coordinate system information, modifies some of the optional layer APIs, adding optional groups to improve auxiliary information provision to assist in quality control of bathymetric surfaces. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details. The comment period for CR1 will finish on 2012-03-19/1200EST.
2011-08-10	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-1.4.0’, trunk revision 219. Release 1.4.0 now turns on HDF5 compression by default, and selects reasonable defaults (although the user can adjust these if required). See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2011-07-19	The candidate release for version 1.4.0 of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-cr-1.4.0’. Release 1.4.0 allows for HDF5 compression to be configured when new BAG files are created, and will choose a nominal compression method if no explicit compression is set by the user. (The default setting was determined through a number of tests, see here for more details.) Reading BAGs with compression turned on is transparent to the user, so new BAGs will continue to be read by older versions of the library. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2010-10-21	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-fr-1.3.0’, trunk revision 161. Release 1.3.0 contains a new optional dataset for vertical correctors, and EPSG codes to represent information about projection properties. We have also updated the HDF5 library to V1.8, which has implications for backwards compatibility with previous versions of the library (that is, BAGs written with release 1.3.0 will not be readable with previous versions of the library). It is therefore very important that all users upgrade as quickly as possible to support compatibility between software versions. See the ‘CHANGES.txt’ file for details.
2010-09-27	The candidate release for version 1.3.0 of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-cr-1.3.0’. Release 1.3.0 contains a new optional dataset for vertical correctors, and EPSG codes to represent information about projection properties.
2009-08-03	Candidate release 1 for version 1.2.0 of the Open Navigation Surface is now available for download (click here to go to the download page). This is SVN tag ‘release-cr1-1.2.0’.
2009-07-14	A new candidate release of the Open Navigation Surface is currently being prepared. In addition to adding new functionality to allow the XML metadata to be read and written through an adjunct library, this release will also include HDF5 compression of data, modifications to the elevation data layer so that the data can be interpreted according to a number of processing paradigms (e.g., as true depth, depth corrected using assumed sound speed profiles such as Carter’s or Matthew’s Tables, or depth corrected so that fathometers set to fixed assumed sound speed of 1500 m/s indicate the same depth), an optional layer to include such depth data when a true-depth elevation layer is also available, an upgrade to the HDF5 library, and binary packages for various operating systems (for final release only). These changes modify the API for the library, and are not forwards compatible. The current plan, therefore, is to step the internal version number of the BAG files being generated at the same time as the release is constructed. A particular concern to implementers is that the new version of the HDF5 library (1.8) is not forwards compatible from the version (1.6) that was used in previous releases of the Open Navigation Surface. This means that BAG files generated with the next release will not be readable by code that was linked against the 1.1.0 release of the library. We recommend that all new implementations use release 1.2.0, and that all implementers with release 1.1.0 upgrade as a matter of urgency when release 1.2.0 is available. Details of the modifications to the library are available in the Teleconference notes from 2009-06-12 and 2009-07-10. An announcement about the candidate release will be posted here when the first package is available.
2008-03-18	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface has been released on the web- site’s download section (click here to go to the download page). This is essentially a roll-up of bug fixes, particularly for memory leaks and problems with metadata string termination and whitespace handling. See file ‘CHANGES.txt’ for details. This is SVN tag ‘release-1.1.0’
2008-02-21	A new candidate release of the Open Navigation Surface has been released on the web-site’s download section (click here to go to the download page). A candidate release is made prior to a full release to allow interested developer to check the proposed code-base for the next stable release, and provide any comments or corrections to be incorporated before the official release. The release target for 1.1.0 is 2008-03-14. Comments can be sent to the developers using the e-mail address on the contacts page, and should be sent prior to 2008-03-07. Some modifications to the Candidate Release might be made in the meantime (if there are show-stopper bugs to be fixed), and will be anounced here if so. For those with direct SVN access, this is revision 110, tag ‘release-1.1.0’.
2006-05-02	A new release of the Open Navigation Surface has been released on the web- site’s download section (click here to go to the download page). This updates the build system for Win32 platforms to avoid problems with DLL builds, removes conflicts with Win32 standard libraries, updates code to avoid warnings with some Linux builds, and changes the elevation and uncertainty values in the tracking list from double to single precision. The example BAG files have also been updated to match. This is SVN tag ‘release-1.0.1’
2006-04-14	The first full release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available. A source code archive has been generated from the project’s SubVersion server, and is now available for download from the website (click here to go to the download page). This release of the project has significantly more documentation that the candidate release, and a much improved build system. The release also contains an updated version of the File Specification Document, which contains details of the project’s structure and how to request updates and extensions to the BAG format.
2006-02-08	The first Candidate Release of the Open Navigation Surface is now available. A source code archive has been generated from the HEAD branch of the project’s CVS repository, and is now available for download from the website (click here to go to the download page). The intent of this release is to allow time for comments from any interested users before the First Release, currently scheduled for 2006-03-31. Comments can be sent to the developers using the e-mail address on the contacts page, and should be sent prior to 2006-03-03. Some modifications to the Candidate Release might be made in the meantime (if there are show-stopper bugs to be fixed), and will be anounced here if so. Note that the download asks for some basic information on who is downloading the package and their intended use. This is cached internally, and will not be used for any other purpose, nor will it be released to anybody else. We don’t like spam either, and will not sell or otherwise distribute your information.
2006-01-17	At its teleconference meeting today, the ONSWG agreed on the release schedule for the ONS library. The process will be to release a ‘Candidate’ version of the library for comment on 2006-02-03, accept comments from users until 2006-03-03, and then incorporate the feedback for a full release on 2006-03-31. The candidate release will be source code only, but the full release will contain both source and binary versions for selected platforms. Both of the releases will be hosted through the web-site. More details can be found in the meeting notes.
2005-09-15	An update on the status of the project was presented by Shannon Byrne of SAIC at the Fourth International Conference on High-Resolution Surveys in Shallow Water (Plymouth, UK) today. Included in the paper were demonstrations of the first BAG file being used in HIPS, Fledermaus and SABER using the alpha level code from the second ONSWG meeting. The paper is now available for download from the whitepapers section of the website, and the presentation from the presentations section.
2005-07-22	The second ONSWG meeting completed today in Durham, NH, with the first build-out of the ONS library from source. This would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the programmers who brought their talents to the process, and the employers who let them do it. Our thanks to all of them! There will now be a period of testing and debugging to make the code safe for the rest of the world, with the aim that there will be a testable alpha library and a real BAG file for the Shallow Survey conference in 2006-09, along with trial integrations into some of the vendor packages. The meeting notes can be downloaded from the meeting notes section of the website.
2005-07-13	A paper on the Open Navigation Surface has been accepted for publication in the International Hydrographic Review. Based on the work to date as presented at the US Hydro 2005 conference, the paper provides details of the principles of the project, the structure of the library, and the methods required for the Digital Signature Scheme. The paper will be published in the 2005-11 editing of the journal (V6(2)) and will be available here in PDF format from the whitepapers section as soon as possible thereafter.
2005-06-15	A paper on the Open Navigation Surface has been accepted for the Fourth International Conference on High-Resolution Hydrographic Survey in Shallow Water (click here for the conference web-site), which is to be held in Plymouth, UK from 12-15 September 2005. The paper, “The Open Navigation Surface Project” aims to show the first full implementation of the project’s library, including integration of the file structure into commercial software developed and maintained by the members of the ONSWG through their day jobs. The paper effort is being spearheaded by Shannon Byrne of SAIC. The extended abstract associated with the presentation, and the presentation, will be available for download from this web-site after the conference.
2005-05-17	The second meeting of the Open Navigation Surface Working Group is currently being organized for July 2005, with current best week being that starting 2005-07-18. The primary goal for the meeting will be to examine progress on the project in support of a beta release of the library, and to determine what still needs work. The meeting will be held at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and NOAA-UNH Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire. More details will be announced as they are settled. As before, all of the sponsoring organizations are asked to nominate one or at most two people to attend so that the meeting size does not grow out of control. However, the meeting is open should organizations not represented at the original meeting wish to send a representative. For more details on getting involved, click here.
2005-03-28	In its first public outing, Brian Calder presented a paper on the ONS project at the US Hydrographic Conference 2005 in San Diego, CA today. The paper describes the structure of the project, and its current state of development.
2005-02-28	The Open Navigation Surface web-site is now available for use. This site contains information on the ONS project, whitepapers generated by the project Working Group members, and the current status of the project.

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