1.) requires node js and several sudo apt install applications (see below.)
2.) clone this repository - git clone https://github.com/N129BZ/VfrSecChartMaker.git
3.) clone the Mapbox mbtile application (see below) into the base VfrSecChartMaker directory.
4.) unzip clipshapes.zip to the base VfrSecChartMaker directory.
5.) from a terminal prompt in the VfrSecChartMaker directory, enter npm install
6.) run the app via command node makechart.js -d chartdate using a valid FAA sectional chart release date.
7.) go do something else, the process will take several hours to complete.

The application accepts 2 arguments. Date is required, zoom range defaults to 5-11.

1.) The required date argument should be in the format -d mm-dd-YYYY
example: node makechart.js -d 10-07-2021

2.) The optional zoom range argument should be in the format -z n-n, or you can use a single zoom level n
examples: node makechart.js -d 10-07-2021 -z 4-10 or node.makechart.js -d 10-07-2021 -z 8

• Note that on some versions of Ubuntu, python-imaging has been replaced by python-pil

sudo apt install        \   
        graphicsmagick  \
        imagemagick     \
        python-imaging  \
        gdal-bin        \
        nodejs          \
        node-sqlite3    \
        node.shelljs    \
        node.commander  \
        npm             \
        unzip
        
# clone into the base VfrSecChartMaker directory
git clone https://github.com/mapbox/mbutil.git

# install commander into the base VfrSecChartMaker directory
npm install commander

The charts are downloaded from the FAA digital raster chart repository. VfrSectionalChartMaker uses a JSON file with the list of charts to be downloaded. You can change that list to include as many or as few area charts as you want. The list includes 37 area chart names which covers the continental USA. The only "gotcha" here is that the area names must exactly match the FAA's spelling, including dashes or underscores, without the ".zip" extension. The processing will normalize the resultant graphic files with underscores in place of dashes or spaces. As of today, 10-11-2021, the official chart release is for 10-07-2021. You can view that list at: https://aeronav.faa.gov/visual/10-07-2021/sectional-files

{
    "charturl": "https://aeronav.faa.gov/visual/<chartdate>/sectional-files/<chartname>.zip",
    "areas":
        [
            "Albuquerque",
            "Atlanta",
            "Bethel",
            "Billings",
            "Brownsville",
            "Charlotte",
            "Cheyenne",
            "Chicago",
            "Cincinnati",
            "Dallas-Ft_Worth",
            "Denver",
            "Detroit",
            "El_Paso",
            "Great_Falls",
            "Green_Bay",
            "Houston",
            "Jacksonville",
            "Kansas_City",
            "Klamath_Falls",
            "Lake_Huron",
            "Las_Vegas",
            "Los_Angeles",
            "McGrath",
            "Memphis",
            "Miami",
            "New_Orleans",
            "New_York",
            "Omaha", 
            "Phoenix",
            "St_Louis",
            "Salt_Lake_City",
            "San_Antonio",
            "San_Francisco",
            "Seattle",
            "Twin_Cities",
            "Washington",
            "Wichita"            
        ]
}

Add all of the other areas and chart types including Alaska, Hawaii, territories, and IFR charts, etc.