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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Anyone use Polar Navy charting software?

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/05/2013 : 13:01:39

I downloaded all the vector charts from NOAA for Washington State, and tried out several freeware readers for them and was not impressed. I also downloaded Fugawi's trial software, but again, not very impressed. Then I found Polar Navy (recommended on NOAA's site long with a number of other viewers). I downloaded & installed it and it's quite good, plus it has Active Captain integration, so you get all the reviews of various places you might like to go. It also has integrated real-time tides & currents. The user interface is a bit clunky, sort of Windows 3-ish looking (and this is on a Mac), but overall I like it so far. It has a free fully operational download for 30 days, but the cost is $50 for up to five different computers, tablets, iPhone/pad (no Android yet that I've seen), etc., which seems like a pretty good deal. It can also be configured to download the latest updates for your charts from NOAA.

We already have Garmin's charting software on Rita's iPad, but for $50 this seems like a pretty good back up that you can use wherever it's convenient for you. I'll go through my 30 day free trial and see how I feel at the end of that, but so far I like it.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

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TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2272 Posts

Response Posted - 07/05/2013 : 19:37:17

I tried their Windows software a couple years back, but its interface seemed really clunky, even compared to the ancient SeaClear software.

Everyone has his own preference, but if you're trying things out you might try OpenCPN. It's completely free (though I've made voluntary donations), and the guys developing it seem to be top notch. It seems to get significantly better every year. Unfortunately it does not have ActiveCaptain display because Jeffrey Siegel burned a few bridges with the developers (IMO).

FWIW, Practical Sailor reviewed Nav software for Macs this month. They gave MacEnc their top rating, though gave pretty good coverage to OpenCPN, saying, "With seven years of experience with MacEnc, we can't give up on it, but if we were starting anew, OpenCPN would be our first choice." They knocked PolarView's user friendliness, but praised its ActiveCaptain integration.

Edited by - TakeFive on 07/05/2013 19:38:44

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 07/05/2013 : 20:16:34

I did try OpenCPN, every time I touched the mouse, it'd go into a 1-3 minute load of charts. I tried doing a force reload of the entire database, but that made no difference. Maybe it's just the Mac version, but it seemed impossible to ever scroll more than a tiny bit before it'd go into another load cycle. Another thing it'd do was bleed through parts of the UI onto whatever other page I was working on. All of a sudden, I'd have the tool bar for it pop through from behind, which was pretty annoying. I'm all for open sourced software, but OpenCPN didn't seem quite ready for prime-time.

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TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2272 Posts

Response Posted - 07/05/2013 : 20:36:28

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 I did try OpenCPN, every time I touched the mouse, it'd go into a 1-3 minute load of charts. I tried doing a force reload of the entire database, but that made no difference. Maybe it's just the Mac version, but it seemed impossible to ever scroll more than a tiny bit before it'd go into another load cycle. Another thing it'd do was bleed through parts of the UI onto whatever other page I was working on. All of a sudden, I'd have the tool bar for it pop through from behind, which was pretty annoying. I'm all for open sourced software, but OpenCPN didn't seem quite ready for prime-time.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
The chart load issue is a one-time thing, while OpenCPN constructs a cache of tiles for display. "Forcing the reload" just rebuilds the directory structure and makes the program rebuild all the tiles again. Also, I think raster charts are much less prone to this than vector charts, and I tend to prefer raster. Not sure about, because I update my charts only once a year, so I don't see the issues you're describing.

The bleed problem must be limited to the Mac version, because I've never seen anything like it under Windows.

But none of this means a thing - if you tried it and don't like it, then you need to try something else.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.