Coastal Software Corporation
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Go Fish
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Before calling or sending email to our technical
support staff, please see if your question is already answered in our
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) list below. Q1. Why won’t FishMapper start when I try to
run it? Q2: What's
wrong with my FishMapper display? Q3: Why
won't my old laser printer work properly? Q4: Can I
download FishMapper data to my GPS? Q5: Why
does my trip chart print only on the top half of the paper? Q6: What
map datum does FishMapper use for its coordinates? Q7: Why
can't I input my coordinates as Loran-C TDs? Q1: Why won’t FishMapper start when I try to run
it? When I try to start FishMapper,
the program either locks up my computer or it just crashes with an error
message saying something like “FISHMAP caused an invalid page fault in module
ATOGLRP9.DLL at 017f:6900ed89.” Help! A1: Answer The source of the problem is your video card driver and
the way it implements hardware acceleration.
Because video card vendors are mostly interested in making sure their
cards are great for playing 3-D computer games, they often cut corners when
it comes to correctly implementing the graphics function calls that games
don't normally use. This is especially
true for video cards that are over two years old (although even some new ones
have this problem), and it also appears to be the case for your video
card/driver combination. However, there is a workaround that should get your video
card working correctly with FishMapper.
First, bring up the Display Properties dialog box by selecting the
Display icon in the Windows Control Panel.
In this dialog box, select the Settings Tab. Near the lower right-hand corner of the
Settings dialog is a button labeled Advanced.
Click it to display the Properties dialog for your particular video
card and driver combination. One of
the Tabs available will be labeled either Performance, or Troubleshooting, or
something similar. When you select
this Tab you will see a slider control labeled Graphics Hardware
acceleration, and it will probably be set all the way to the right (Full). Click on the slider control and drag it all
the way over to the left (None), click the Apply button, and try again to
start FishMapper. The problems you
experienced should go away. If you
want to, you can try various intermediate settings of hardware acceleration,
checking each one to make sure that the video card is working correctly. You may also want to check with your video card vendor to
see if an updated driver is available that fixes the problem at its
source. Listed below are links to the
websites of many of the most popular video card vendors. It is possible that a newer driver will
allow your video card to properly support full hardware acceleration. Be sure to carefully read all
the instructions before downloading and installing a new video card
driver. You should also be sure to
have the toll-free phone number handy for the technical support department of
your video card vendor while installing a new driver. Q2: What's wrong with my FishMapper display? When I click on an oil/gas rig or reef and drag the mouse
around to get the bearing and range to another point on the chart window, I
see all kinds of lines coming out of the selected rig or reef and sometimes
the box with the name and location of the rig or reef disappears. As soon as I click the mouse somewhere else
all the lines go away and the chart looks normal again. What's going on and how do I fix it? A2: Answer Your video card/driver combination improperly implements
hardware graphics acceleration. The
solution to this problem is the same as for Question 1
above. Q3: Why won't my old laser printer work
properly? I've got an old laser printer with only 1 MB of memory,
and when I try to print my trip charts the printer only prints out about half
the chart. What am I doing wrong? A3: Answer Nothing, but because of the limited memory of your printer
and the differences between the way that inkjet printers and laser printers
function (inkjet printers don't have this problem), you've got two options to
get your trip charts printed. The
first option is to add more memory to your printer, which will improve your
printing capabilities for ALL your programs.
But assuming you'd prefer a cheaper alternative, your second option is
to try the following workaround.
Instead of directly printing your trip chart using the File Print
command, use the File Create Bitmap command to create an image file of the
trip chart on your hard disk. When
this command is finished a dialog box will appear telling you the name of the
file and where it is located. Now load
this image file into the Windows Paint program, which is located under
Start->Programs->Accessories->Paint.
After you load the image into Paint using the File Open command,
select the Paint program's Image->Attributes... command. In the middle of the Attributes dialog box
that appears, you will see a section labeled Colors that has two options:
Black and white, and Colors. Select
the Black and White option, click the Ok button, and then select the File
Print command (still in the Paint program) to send the image of the trip
chart to your printer. Even with its
limited memory, your laser printer should now print the trip chart just fine. Q4: Can I download FishMapper data to my GPS? Can I download all the artificial reef and oil/gas rig
position data in FishMapper to my GPS unit?
I want to have all those locations stored as waypoints. A4: Answer Your GPS unit can't handle all the data stored in
FishMapper, so the short answer is no.
However, we are looking into the possibility of letting you download
the items for a single trip into your GPS, so they can be stored as
waypoints. This would let you not only
use the printed FishMapper trip chart to get an overall picture of where you're
headed, but would also let you just punch up the next waypoint on your GPS to
get guidance to the next spot on your trip.
This capability may make it into the next upgrade version of
FishMapper. Q5: Why does my trip chart print only on the
top half of the paper? Whenever I print out a trip chart, it always prints just
on the top half of the page. How do I
turn the trip chart sideways so it prints out bigger? A5: Answer You must be printing using the "Portrait" image
orientation, rather than the "Landscape" orientation (which is the
default when printing from FishMapper).
The image orientation for printing can be changed from Portrait to
Landscape by selecting the Print Setup command from the File Menu, or by
clicking on the Toolbar button that looks like an open book (fourth button
from the left). Either action will
open the Print Setup dialog box, and at the lower right of this box you can
select the Landscape orientation. Now
when you print, your trip chart will be sideways on the page and will almost
completely fill it up. You can verify
this before printing by selecting the Print Preview command from the File
Menu, or by clicking on the Toolbar button that looks like a magnifying glass
over a piece of paper (just to the left of the printer button). Q6: What map datum does FishMapper use for its
coordinates? In the setup page of my GPS unit, it says it's using the
WGS84 map datum, but its also got lots of other map datums listed. Which one should I use with the coordinates
in FishMapper? A6: Answer All coordinates (latitudes/longitudes) in FishMapper use
either the NAD83 or WGS84 map datum.
Although technically slightly different, these two datums are
considered to be compatible and are often used interchangeably. Most GPS units are set at the factory to
use WGS84 (the datum used by the GPS system itself), but you should check to
make sure that your unit is set to use either WGS84 or NAD83. Q7: Why can't I input my coordinates as Loran-C
TDs? When I try to add a new private reef in FishMapper, I can
only enter latitude and longitude. Why
can't I enter all my old fishing spot coordinates as Loran-C TDs? A7: Answer Basically, we didn't want to mislead people into thinking
that the Loran-C TDs they entered would have the same degree of accuracy as would
be implied by their conversion to a precise latitude and longitude. Although some good conversion algorithms do
indeed exist, the greatest source of error is in the Loran-C system itself. Even on a good day, Loran-C positions can
be off by as much as 1500 feet, or about 1/4 nautical mile, as measured by
two different but reasonably well-calibrated Loran units. This error is so large that the only
approach that makes sense is to relocate those spots with the original Loran
unit and depth finder, and to read the latitude and longitude off a GPS
unit. No conversion program will do
much more than get you in the general area of a particular spot. Now, if you really want to convert those Loran-C
TDs into latitudes and longitudes, you can download the POSAID2 utility from the
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