Electronic charts

[stonejd]

Need to try the new board plus looking to buy some additional electronic charts for the east coast (prefer raster format). A quick look at vendors marketing Maptech and Softchart shows prices for the latter to be significantly cheaper. Seems to be a no-brainer to buy Softchart unless I'm missing something. Thoughts?

[Tim]

I used some Soft Charts that came with a Nav Software I tried and returned.

If you read their buzz on http://www.capjack.com/index.asp?a=0, one of their selling points is their colors. Well, I for one, hated their colors and will never buy any Soft Charts for that reason, alone. But, if you don't mind their colors, there is little difference between using SoftCharts and Maptech Raster Charts.

[sded]

What charting program are you using? Some (VNS 6 and earlier for example) are incompatible with the Maptech BSB 4.0 charts. I use SoftCharts for Mexico along with Maptech for California, and they appear identical except for the SoftChart bright colors. I don't plan to buy any more Maptech charts.

[stonejd]

I'm now running Rose Point Coastal Explorer. It seems to display about everything so that should not be a problem. I did run into that issue with the newer charts format a couple of years ago trying to run a new set of Maine charts on an OLD version of Chartview.

Thanks.

[Tim]

I'm now running Rose Point Coastal Explorer. It seems to display about everything so that should not be a problem. I did run into that issue with the newer charts format a couple of years ago trying to run a new set of Maine charts on an OLD version of Chartview.

Thanks.

How do you like Coastal Explorer? I tried it as soon as I heard about it, because I've been anxiously waiting for an S57 capable software that does decent quilting.

Not only does it do decent quilting, it's got a great GUI and I just love it!

btw, if you got the May 13 update, that was because of me. I blew it up on install due to having newer charts than the install was capable of. Apparently the folks at NOAA had changed something and Rosepoint hadn't caught it, since most folks installed their set of charts. (which was dated 3/15) Since I update bi-weekly, I ignored their chart set.

Rosepoint responded real quickly, though. I sent them info on what happened. Sent them the charts that blew it up and by C.O.B. (west coast time) they had a fix.

[stonejd]

I realy like the . I'm currently just running it on the home computer, waiting to replace a very old laptop on the boat, with one with more RAM and XP.

I saw the note about the update. Thanks for getting them to do it.

Since my first post asking about Maptech and Softchart I've called one of the major suppliers who are selling both. I asked them for an explanation of the price difference. What seemed to be a knowledgeable response was that he thought I'd be happier overall with Maptech because Softchart has been very slow to bring out updates. For what it's worth...

[stonejd]

Oops! Should be: I really like the CE....

[Tim]

Oops! Should be: I really like the CE....

One nice feature about this board is that you can edit your posts.

edit: If you look to the right, next to the quote button on all posts you write is also an edit button.

edit 2: the x will delete the post.

[stonejd]

Thanks for the edit tip.

[sded]

Picture is a direct comparison of the colors of SoftChart vs Maptech. Charts are actually slightly different (501 vs 502), but very similar in detail at this particular point. Brighter colors take some getting used to, but otherwise I like the SoftCharts fine. And I can buy a bundle and download just the ones I need.
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/sded/smcharts.jpg

[Fred]

You can go to the new, new Crusing Sailors BB at

http://www.cs-bb.com/forums/CSBB/index.cgi/#12001