Topic: Yellowfin viewer and XTF file format

[Erik]

Robert -

I don't know if you remember me, but I am one of the guys wanting to make my Lowrance LMS-480M unit's recordings viewable in the Yellowfin viewer as well as more portable using the XTF file format.

I'm making some good progress decoding the lowrance SLG format, and I got a good reference to the manifest variable (the bitfield showing which data fields were valid in the file) so I'm ready to start writing a converter for the SLG files as well as potentially a mosaic and processing tool.  I'm working solo, but I do have a small group of interested people tracking my progress in a yahoo group.

While I take a few months to work on writing my own viewing and processing software after I finish the converter (which is a relatively quick project), I was hoping to use the yellowfin viewer to display my files.

I have a question I hope you won't mind answering.  The Yellowfin viewer won't read just any XTF file it seems, it wants to display only those created by the Yellowfin.  Is there a flag in the XTF files created by the Yellowfin that would permit the Yellowfin viewer to work?

Or, should I work toward translating to a file format supported by some of the viewer software for the Humminbird units?  I need, in order of priority, a better display program, a database for organizing tracks, and a mosaic system for stitching together tracks into a complete picture.

In case you or anyone is interested I'm doing this to enable better use of my side scan, which is a semi-commercial towfish unit built by burton electronics.

Thanks,
Erik