Opencpn charts

[Heckler]

Have downloaded it and found some french canal charts but nothing else unless I go in to murky websites. Where exactly can I buy suitable charts? Peeps suggest CM93, but what exactly are they and where can I buy them?
Stu

 

[Wunja]

I have a link to some official free Dutch charts. Its on the home PC. I'll update when I get home. Inland waterways only.

Update:

This wasn't the link I was thinking of, but has the same information:
http://www.amslshop.com/Binnenkarten/digital/Holland-Gewaesserkarten.php

You can also get free vector and raster charts of the US coastline from NOAA.
Google ENC NOAA charts.

 

[Mrnotming]

Charts for openCPN

Hi Stu,

See http://www.michaelbriant.com/admiralty_charts_scandle.htm

Which pages contain information on several free sources and warnings re copyright.

I will PM you.

 

[fergie_mac66]

information

Hi Stu,

See http://www.michaelbriant.com/admiralty_charts_scandle.htm

Which pages contain information on several free sources and warnings re copyright.

I will PM you.

interesting site thanks for posting it

 

[contessaman]

[removed by admin]

its then very straight forward to install the charts into openCPN. It works well and the AIS input is great.

I still use [removed] rather than the above because it looks and feels like the admiralty charts its based on. pity it has no ais input.

anyway, enjoy!

 

[lustyd]

Its probably not exactly legal but its not like you are downloading pirate movies or anything. I shouldn't think you will light up on the FBIs most wanted list for downloading some old charts!

its then very straight forward to install the charts into openCPN. It works well and the AIS input is great.

It's definitely not legal and law, morals and honesty are not about whether you are likely to get caught but how good you are as a person. What you are suggesting is very similar to me stealing your car because I found it with the keys in outside your house, it doesn't make it OK it just makes it easy.

 

[david_bagshaw]

A good start can be had here, all legit

http://www.vnf.fr/vnf/content.vnf?action=content&occ_id=34871

french some


http://ris.vlaanderen.be/html_en/vaarkaarten/index.html

Many euro inland

http://elwis.de/RIS-Telematikprojekte/Inland-ENC-der-WSV/IENC-Dateien/index.php.html
German inland

and swis inland is available

 

[saxonpirate]

Its probably not exactly legal but its not like you are downloading pirate movies or anything. I shouldn't think you will light up on the FBIs most wanted list for downloading some old charts!

Heh... contessaman, better take a quick look out of the window and check that there isn't one of those un-manned drones circling overhead. Apparently the Yanks have got a version now that can zap you while you're walking down the street...

 

[Bosun Higgs]

It's definitely not legal and law, morals and honesty are not about whether you are likely to get caught but how good you are as a person. What you are suggesting is very similar to me stealing your car because I found it with the keys in outside your house, it doesn't make it OK it just makes it easy.

Either you are a part time preacher or you write software! Irony is that in trying to make my firm free of pirated software, the biggest problem area by far was the IT dept.

It would be interesting to know how many posters on here had a PC with nothing on it , music or software or photos, which had been downloaded in breach of someone else's IP. Maybe 10%, maybe less? What do you reckon? Just you and me?

 

[maby]

Either you are a part time preacher or you write software! Irony is that in trying to make my firm free of pirated software, the biggest problem area by far was the IT dept.

It would be interesting to know how many posters on here had a PC with nothing on it , music or software or photos, which had been downloaded in breach of someone else's IP. Maybe 10%, maybe less? What do you reckon? Just you and me?

I have to say that my general rule of thumb with pirate software is to ask myself if I would buy it if there were no pirate source on offer. If the honest answer is "no" then it's not theft since they would not get the revenue anyway. If the honest answer is "yes" then I pay up. I have bought many items for which there was a pirate version available.

The sales manager of a large company I worked for some years ago intentionally seeded download sites with copies of our obsolecent products on the basis that people would download them, decide that they were wonderful, then buy the latest version.

 

[lustyd]

I have to say that my general rule of thumb with pirate software is to ask myself if I would buy it if there were no pirate source on offer. If the honest answer is "no" then it's not theft since they would not get the revenue anyway. If the honest answer is "yes" then I pay up. I have bought many items for which there was a pirate version available.

The sales manager of a large company I worked for some years ago intentionally seeded download sites with copies of our obsolecent products on the basis that people would download them, decide that they were wonderful, then buy the latest version.

I wouldn't buy a Mercedes does that mean I can take one from the forecourt?

 

[lustyd]

Either you are a part time preacher or you write software! Irony is that in trying to make my firm free of pirated software, the biggest problem area by far was the IT dept.

It would be interesting to know how many posters on here had a PC with nothing on it , music or software or photos, which had been downloaded in breach of someone else's IP. Maybe 10%, maybe less? What do you reckon? Just you and me?

So crime is ok if everyone does it? It's strange how quickly morals have deserted society in the Internet age. I'm not a developer but I am a technical consultant.

 

[Conachair]

I wouldn't buy a Mercedes does that mean I can take one from the forecourt?

A few out of date charts are hardly the same as a mercedes.

 

[Roberto]

The sales manager of a large company I worked for some years ago intentionally seeded download sites with copies of our obsolecent products on the basis that people would download them, decide that they were wonderful, then buy the latest version.

Were you working for Maxsea ?

It seems to be a widespread opinion that Maxsea, then a very small company, let out a number of their "cracked" early software version in order to lure potential future customers into their "upgraded" product

but then what do I know

 

[LadyInBed]

Back to the subject
& sorry if I am teaching a bit of egg sucking, but I have just stumbled across the http://opencpn.org/ocpn/layers_library page.
The .gpx add-ins are downloaded as .7z zip files and extracted using 7-zip.
You extract the file to a folder (I created C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\GPX files)
Then in opencpn using the Route Manager tool and selecting Layers Tab you can use the Temporary Layer (pointing it to \GPX files folder) to import the gpx file(s) you have downloaded.
Note: Using this method, you lose the gpx overlay when you close opencpn but you just add it back in using Route Manager.
If you want the overlay to stay on the chart, then use the Import GPX button at the bottom of the Route Manager window.
I found the French Atlantic Forecast Areas (at the bottom of the page) quite useful.

 

[lustyd]

A few out of date charts are hardly the same as a mercedes.

Perhaps you would be so good as to point us all at the value of item at which theft becomes acceptable?

 

[Conachair]

Perhaps you would be so good as to point us all at the value of item at which theft becomes acceptable?

Nope.

I don't care.

If something is good at it's job then I will willingly pay up, no question. if I have paper charts onboard (always for a cruising area) the i really have no problem about using some downloaded out of date charts. What's the difference between that and scanning paper.

 

[maby]

I wouldn't buy a Mercedes does that mean I can take one from the forecourt?

There, of course, is the big difference between software and everything else - and the central arguement of the FSF. A Mercedes is a tangible item that cannot be copied (at least not without a machine shop and at a cost that is greater than the legal purchase price of one from a dealer). The person who copies a piece of software is not depriving anyone else of the original item. The charge of theft is that they are depriving the copyright holder of the revenue from the sale - but that does rather beg the question of is it still theft if they would not buy a legal copy in the absence of an illegal alternative?

 

[maby]

Were you working for Maxsea ?

It seems to be a widespread opinion that Maxsea, then a very small company, let out a number of their "cracked" early software version in order to lure potential future customers into their "upgraded" product

but then what do I know

No, I was not, but the strategy demonstrably worked for my previous employer. We led the market in the developing world with a product that, objectively, was not particularly good compared with the competition.

 

[Magaz97]

As a matter of interest, is there an OFFICIAL source for downloading the charts and making payment, or are the charts obsolete and in open circulation?