OpenCPN vs Neptune route planning incl currents

[KAL]

I have Neptune Planner and love it’s ability to plan a route that takes account of tides and currents, giving CTS and predicted time to go, etc. Neptune works out the predicted water track and displays it on the chart so you can see how you’re likely to be affected.

I can, of course, do the plan manually by using tidal atlases and current diamonds, but the facility for it to be worked out quickly for me is invaluable when planning options for dates and times of departure.

However, there is an annoying bug in Neptune that will not let me save routes, so I am looking for alternatives.

OpenCPN has a big fan-base here. It seems to be able to handle AIS as well, which is excellent, so I’d like to ask if the same facility for route planning with tides and currents exists in the package.

Or are there other packages offering a similar function? If so, which would you recommend?

 

[GHA]

AFAIK, nope, no tidal planning in Opencpn. You can view the tidal charts which speeds things up a bit but not like Neptune. If neptune gives uo CTS & bearing then putting a route ino Opencpn is pretty quick - free so give it a go :encouragement:

 

[aboutboating]

you can save the route in Opencpn (*.gpx) and then import it into Neptune. However OpenCPN does add a bit of "guff" to the file so you need to edit it out before you open in Neptune.
If you are a bit IT savvy, the GPX file is editable in NOTEPAD, OpenCPN adds stuff in the GPX Node, remove this and it will open in Neptune.
Another way you can do this is to save a route from Neptune - also a GPX file and see the difference between the OpenCPN created file and the Neptune created file.
A file saved from Neptune should open in Opencpn.

 

[KAL]

Been having a play with qtVlm, which seems to have a wealth of features built in. Seems to do routing using Grib tides and weather, and is also free, although there’s a donate button if you wish to contribute to the author.