Is all chart plotting software for Mac terrible (or too expensive)?

[willfrancis]

Have been trying to find something that allows simple passage planning from home ahead of a weekend sail, as well as use on board hooked up to a GPS, with a MacBook Air. My job requires me to be really good with computers but I just can't work out a setup which gives half-decent charts and usable software all for under £100. For the price of some packages plus charts you could buy a standalone chart plotter or iPad.

I feel like I must be missing something, so any advice very welcome

 

[Sailing Ape]

Hi.
Not really sure what you're looking for, but Navionics running on a 3G iPad works pretty well. It doesn't need to have a sim card in it, just needs to be a 3G model so that the GPS works when you're sailing (or you could simply use it on your phone if you don't mind the small screen).

If using it on your MacBook Air is a must, then maybe Open CPN http://opencpn.org/ocpn/ will do the trick. It can use a load of different charts, some free and some paid for. Ok for planning, but not sure about using it to actually navigate by when out on the water.

This has been something I've also been thinking about so curious to see others opinions.

 

[cliveshelton]

I gave this up several years ago and now keep a dedicated MS laptop with PCPlotter (v good) Some plotters work with Mac MS emulation in the background but slow things down and get in the way for other Mac uses. iPad seems to be the way to go but the planning software not a patch on PCPlotter IMHO. Many swear also by OpenCPN but only cos it's cheap I think.

 

[charles_reed]

Try downloading the Mac version of Open CPN and the Meggeson Ed3 charts.

No cost involved, though the CMapEd2 are really an ECDIS chartsystem for commercial vessels, so miss many of the (frequently inaccurate) details of Navionics et al.

 

[Reptile Smile]

I only speak as a lowly grunt, but I'm not sure what it is I would want to be doing from a navigation and/or planning point of view that I can't do in Navionics on an iPad (though I do have the navigation pack/extra), in that I'm not worried about grib files (I am, at best, a coastal sailor, and various web pages give me the info I need), and I'm not worried about AIS in that I can tell where the ships are because they cast a large shadow over me and make a big noise. But I don't know very much about anything...

PS - I have used OpenCPN quite a lot too, until I decided I could just do it all in Navionics...

 

[{151760}]

I have Imray's chart plotting software on an iPad along with a Bluetooth gps dongle. I use it for preliminary planning at home, but prefer paper charts for detailed planning. On board it's good as a plotter, except that I can't see the screen on the cockpit if there's any sun.

 

[Reptile Smile]

It's a fair point about the sun visibility, but then I just hold it in the companionway, and have a quick squiz at it there...

 

[laika]

Try downloading the Mac version of Open CPN and the Meggeson Ed3 charts.

No cost involved, though the CMapEd2 are really an ECDIS chartsystem for commercial vessels, so miss many of the (frequently inaccurate) details of Navionics et al.

What are "Meggeson Ed3 charts"?

I was going to say that OpenCPN natively on Mac is possibly not the ideal choice due to lack of charts: I thought the choices for the UK were limited to pirating the CMAP charts, sailing only on the west coast of scotland in areas covered by the Antares charts or the new S63 option which last time I looked (things could have changed) seemed prohibitively expensive for UK charts. I'd be interested to know more about charles_reed's alternative and where they can be bought.

You might look at some virtualisation software (I use VMware fusion but VirtualBox is free and works), a copy of Windows (You'll likely know how to obtain a cheap licence better than I: Got mine as part of a microsoft developer program) and run OpenCPN in a virtualised windows environment with the visitmyharbour charts. Or indeed any of the other low cost plotter programs which are available for windows.

 

[{151760}]

It's a fair point about the sun visibility, but then I just hold it in the companionway, and have a quick squiz at it there...

Yes, me too. I'm thinking of making a holder for it that swings out of the way. Trouble is, it would then obstruct the door of the heads, and that might cause an accident...

 

[Niffler]

I gave up on Mac charting for my MacBook Pro, emulation was rubbish and there's so little that's native. In any case the iPad seems to do more than my Lowrance ever did, and a much bigger screen, though I built a nice box type arrangement to go under the spray hood to make it easily viewable in sunlight, but I have a big overhang anyway on the cockpit spray hood. The absence of AIS on Navionics is a real pain, I can't believe they haven't sorted that yet.

 

[Reptile Smile]

I gave up on Mac charting for my MacBook Pro, emulation was rubbish and there's so little that's native. In any case the iPad seems to do more than my Lowrance ever did, and a much bigger screen, though I built a nice box type arrangement to go under the spray hood to make it easily viewable in sunlight, but I have a big overhang anyway on the cockpit spray hood. The absence of AIS on Navionics is a real pain, I can't believe they haven't sorted that yet.

I'd be interested to see AIS, in a sort of, it's-there-why-not-look-at-it type thing, but for me I'm not sure it has much to do with the kind of sailing I do. If Navionics implement it, all good, but I doubt I'd want to pay much extra for it. I suppose my question continues to be, what is it that people want to do on a laptop that an iPad doesn't do, whether with Navionics or other software, or indeed on other tablets or phones. Screen size? Is that a factor?

 

[ionbard]

I'm intrigued by the folk who have given up on using windows on a Mac with an emulator - it would be interesting to know more about the emulator, version of windows, and Mac spec.

I regularly use ArcGIS on my Macbook Pro (mid-2010 spec so not terribly current), running Windows on Parallels, and it's fine, even for some quite big tasks. I'd be surprised if chart plotting software created a heavier system load than GIS software, but equally happy to be wrong...

I'm interested in replies to this topic as I keep thinking about sorting out computer chart plotting. I think I'd probably go for OpenCPN on windows with VMH chart, although if I could afford it I'd be tempted by the Furuno/ map media stuff - their iPad app is excellent and I believe the PC version is too.

 

[Yngmar]

I'm intrigued by the folk who have given up on using windows on a Mac with an emulator - it would be interesting to know more about the emulator, version of windows, and Mac spec.

VMWare (Fusion) is best, closely followed by Parallels Desktop. Both will let you connect a USB device to the host (Mac) and route it to the guest (Windows), which you will need in case of either charts being locked on a USB dongle or USB NMEA adapters.

OpenCPN runs fine natively on OS X (including gpsd or USB-serial GPS/NMEA data). So the only reason to run Windows would be the VisitMyHarbour "Chartstick".

 

[ionbard]

Thanks for that. What (if any) UK charts do you use on OpenCPN on OS X?

 

[Yngmar]

A certain somewhat outdated package of vector charts from *mumble* and current raster charts which I got *mumblemumble*. Ahem.

 

[ionbard]

�� fair enough. If you felt comfortable PM-ing me with what to search for I'd be very grateful...

 

[dutyhog]

Polarview & UKHO charts

Polarview NS works well with Macs, including my old MacBook Pro, http://www.polarnavy.com/index.php I use a USB GPS with it at the chart table, or outside if not too sunny.

Their deal for all UKHO UK & Ireland ENC vector charts cost about £19:
https://polarnavy.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/united-kingdom-charts-available/
with all updates downloadable for several years. US charts are free.

Polarview NS plus charts costs about £50.

It works well with Antares charts, which pop up instead of the UKHO ones when zoomed in close enough.

PolarNavy licences you for 5 computers/operating systems. You can have Mac OS, Windows, Linux, iPhone and iPad versions. I download charts at home, set waypoints etc, then clone from my home machine to the MacBook with SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, then re-activate the licence with the MacBook. I'm wondering about getting a Toughbook, which should be covered by the same licence.

Gordon