Plotter on PC

[bromleybysea]

Didn't get much joy when I posted on the PBO site so hope it's not a major solecism to put it on here as well. I want a plotter programme for my laptop. At the moment the choice is between PCPlotter and SeaPro. I have looked at both demos and at the moment I am favouring PCPlotter, mainly because I prefer the Navionics cartography and I have Navionics on my cockpit plotter anyway. I also like the "ribbon" interface on PCPlotter and whilst I accept it may not have all the bells and whistles of SeaPro, it is significantly cheaper. Any views on this gratefully recieved.

 

[Richard10002]

Software On Board with C-Map works for me

 

[idpnd]

OpenCPN is free, CMAP floating around online alledgedly

 

[tudorsailor]

Didn't get much joy when I posted on the PBO site so hope it's not a major solecism to put it on here as well. I want a plotter programme for my laptop. At the moment the choice is between PCPlotter and SeaPro. I have looked at both demos and at the moment I am favouring PCPlotter, mainly because I prefer the Navionics cartography and I have Navionics on my cockpit plotter anyway. I also like the "ribbon" interface on PCPlotter and whilst I accept it may not have all the bells and whistles of SeaPro, it is significantly cheaper. Any views on this gratefully recieved.

Seapro lite does most things and at £199 for chart for whole meditteranean, is cheaper that PCPLotter which is at least £429. I use SeaPro as a backup to my Raymarine and am about to add AIS which I cannot add to my old Raymarine plotter

Tudorsailor

 

[bromleybysea]

PC plotter

Thanks for the heads-up on Software on Board and OpenCPN. I have had a look at the online information and will download the demos when I get home- can't do it at work unfortunately! I had a look at the SOB manual- I want route optimisation- to be able to calculate best time of departure over a period(a bar chart with the results would be nice)- am I right in thinking that SOB can't do this?

 

[ShaunG]

i have been using seapro for about 4 years. i started with standard and upgraded to performance sailing

it's reliable, (never crashed yet, although PC is dedicated as a plotter) It works well although the PC hardware specs need to be towards the top of the range, not the lower end otherwise it is a little slow to pan around and won't do 3d, although i see 3d as a toy.

Setup of com ports is easy.
Downsides:

not easy to make chart ammendments
lack of keyboard shortcuts
mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out is sporadic
more fuctions than are really used.
PC radar is expensive (too rich for me)
requires a USB dongle to be plugged in at all times
would be nice to have quick access to show only the chart full screen adn hide everything else

Upsides:

easy to configure, especially like the fact that different views can be saved
excellent race and performance functions that have helped me sail better
measure tool is very well thought through
tidal and planning tool is excellent

The downsides above are the only ones that i can come up with after 4 years so not bad at all. The upsides are just some of my favourite features.

PM me an i will pass on my phone number if you want to chat about seapro