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Free navigation charts and demo software

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lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/13/2006 : 00:17:28

For those of you who have not yet experienced digital navigation charts, listen up. There is an electronic navigation software package "FREE DEMO VERSION" available that is worth looking at. It is called NavPak Pro. See this URL for a magazine article on the software:
http://www.takehersailing.com/navpak.htm

Download the software at:
http://www.globenav.com/navpak-demo.zip

Why should you expend time and effort on this? here's why:
NOAA has finally made available "FREE OF CHARGE" for anyone to download, not only the S-57 format ENC charts, but the BSB format raster charts, of all US navigable waterways! There are currently over 500 S-57 ENC charts, and 1100 or so BSB's. BSB's (NOAA calls them RNC's) are raster scans of NOAA's traditional paper charts, geo-referenced for the proper Lat/Long coordinates and mapping scales. On your computer screen, a BSB chart looks just like a paper chart, right down to the traditional colors and symbology. S-57 ENC charts are "vector" charts, and contain actual intelligence like depth soundings, information about navaids and hazards, etc. For example, you can double click on a buoy symbol, and a pop-up window appears with all the important data on that buoy, like name, color, light flash or fog horn sound patterns, depth, etc.

Navpak Pro displays S-57 ENC charts, BSB or NDI (Canadian) raster charts, TIFF and BMP images, or you can scan and georeference your own paper charts and maps that you already have. NOAA S-57 ENC and BSB charts are of course already georeferenced, and Navpak Pro has a tool to easily build a library of charts that are related by region, say all charts of San Francisco Bay, or South Florida, or Lake Erie. Once the charts are in this library, NavPak Pro can automatically scroll to the next adjacent, largest scale chart when your GPS generated position crosses a chart boundary!

The primary purpose of this software is marine navigation, to link your computer to a GPS unit: the software displays the chart of the area you are sailing in and shows your GPS position as a flashing red circle with a black line indicating course. If a route has been planned and input, the screen will show the route and the waypoints, with a data window indicaing VMG, SOG, track, and other info.

For home use, it can be run in "simulator" mode without an actual GPS connected, and you can do route and waypoint planning, or just daydream about your next cruise while perusing the charts of the area. Registering the software costs $225, but the free demo is fully functional except for one thing: it won't read the computer's serial/USB ports without a registration key, so you can't connect an actual GPS. But everything else works! So you can use it for cruise planning at home, or for setup and georeferencing scans of your own paper charts if you have any. For example, Canadian Chart #3313 of the Gulf Islands. Several people in my sailing club have this chart book; with this software and a flatbed scanner, you can add scanned panels from Chart 3313 to NOAA-supplied BSB's of the San Juans, and with a little time and effort, end up with a high-quality digital chart database of the whole region, from Seattle to Desolation Sound!

I have spent several hours playing with this software and I am truly impressed. I have only tried out the free demo, and have not attempted to connect a GPS to it, but even just for home planning use it's awesome! Remember that the demo software, and all charts for US waters, are FREE, so all you have to spend is a little time to learn how to use it, and eventually maybe the $225 if you someday decide to use it on your boat for an actual cruise.

You can download NOAA's RNC (BSB format) Raster charts at this web page:
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/download.htm

Download NOAA S-57 ENC charts here:
http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/download.htm

Any questions, please feel free to e-mail me. I am really excited about this resource, considering that NOAA paper charts used to cost $18 each, and they are now giving away the electronic version for free.

Larry Charlot
Catalina 25WK/TR Mk. IV #5857 "Quiet Time"
Folsom Lake, CA

"You might get there faster in a powerboat, but in a sailboat, you're already there"

Edited by - on

Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 07/13/2006 : 06:34:40

I was also able to download a program called SeaClear which has so far been a pretty darn good free charting application. It will work with the NOAA charts listed above and is not a demo

http://www.sping.com/seaclear/

Edited by - Champipple on 07/13/2006 06:35:22

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 07/13/2006 : 07:31:01

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Duane Wolff
 I was also able to download a program called SeaClear which has so far been a pretty darn good free charting application. It will work with the NOAA charts listed above and is not a demo

http://www.sping.com/seaclear/
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Thanks Duane. I d/l'ed SeaClear and will take a look at it tonight after work. A quick scan of the user manual indicates that SeaClear and NavPak seem to be quite similar, except that SeaClear can not use S-57 ENC charts. However, SeaClear looks like it might actually be better than NavPak for use with BSB raster charts, as it seems to display more information on the screen.

UPDATE JULY 16: I have spent some time playing with the SeaClear software, and it is pretty nice. It has more zoom levels than NavPak, and the World-wide index chart is better than NavPak's. However, I have not yet had an opportunity to connect it to an actual GPS; that will have to wait until the next time I am out at the lake. I may have a problem here. My Garmin 168 has only RS-232 serial connectivity, whereas my laptop has only USB ports. I know that there are adapters for USB-to-RS232, but the few times I have tried to use them to connect to some kind of non-USB "legacy" device, it usually doesn't work. If I can borrow someone's newer handheld GPS, like a Garmin 60cs or 76, that has USB connection, I'll give SeaClear a thorough tryout.

Edited by - lcharlot on 07/16/2006 19:35:36

jotruelove
Deckhand

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USA
22 Posts

Response Posted - 07/30/2006 : 07:34:08

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I may have a problem here. My Garmin 168 has only RS-232 serial connectivity, whereas my laptop has only USB ports. I know that there are adapters for USB-to-RS232, but the few times I have tried to use them to connect to some kind of non-USB "legacy" device, it usually doesn't work.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Greetings all,

I use SeaClear with a USB antenna with no problems :) DeLorme is a popular street GPS program that can be purchased with a GPS antenna (about $100 for both the Street Atlas and Antenna). The beauty of the antenna is that you can download Port Emulation software from DeLorme that will allow the antenna to fuction as both a stand alone GPS receiver and a port emulator as well. The USB data is routed to either comm port 2, 3, or 4. Then simply start SeaClear, ignore the "comm" errors, as you are not using comm ports to communicate, and watch it work.

Fair winds, my friends...