Nav Software for MAC?

[helloam]

Hello! I am a new cruiser/boat owner, and have acquired NavTech (?) on an old PC through the former owner; however, I am a Mac user and would love to know of any superior programs that work well with/are designed for Mac!!

Cheers!

[Latitude9.5]

MacENC you can download a demo macenc.com

[Steve Pope]

PassagePlus is a very reasonably priced program designed for Mac's It has a sample down load for free. Minimum requirements is mac OS v 10.3.9 I have been in touch with Jonathan Fewtrell the designer of PassagePlus when he was here in New Zealand a month or so ago and was impressed with his dedication to making this program work. He has just released the 1.6 version and it has AIS on it as well.
You can now download all of The LINZ charts from the LINZ web site for free, they will run on passageplus. Also compatable with Australian Hydrographic Services Seafarer RNC charts. For the latest version plus demo charts which include 4 seafarer charts, go to:
<http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanfewtrell/windvector/FileSharing19.html>

I have no financial or business interest in this program.

[neelie]

Try NavimaQ


http://www.barcosoft.com/navimaq/navimaq.html


I've downloaded it but haven't yet tried interfacing GPS etc to it. So I have no opinions, other than the suppliers were very helpful.

[helloam]

Thanks to all of you for your feedback so far - Steve Pope, I had trouble loading that Mac page - do you have any other ways to get a hold of him?

Cheers!

[Steve Pope]

Helloam, If you google passagePlus or windvector, or try <www.windvector.com>one of these should get you there.
regards.

[dkall]

I've found for the Mac NavX to be relatively easy to use and works beautifully with all the charting programs. Plus it is reasonable and doesn't lock you into one kind of chart. I still back up w/ paper charts when possible but so far use mostly the NavX.

Also, I understand he has ported it over to the iPhone, but then I don't think the iPhone will work in the middle of the Atlantic. I believe the GPS signals are all from cell towers.

http://www.gpsnavx.com/

[GPSNavX]

FWIW: Apple iPhone 3G will acquire a position anywhere as it has a true GPS receiver.

http://www.inavx.net/#FAQ

According to the Barcosoft forum, Navimaq is being discontinued.

[cbcat]

Another option might be to run Parallels, a VM for macs that enables you to run a full windows environment - flavor of your choice (XP, Vista etc). I love my mac, but there are times when some software versions are better (or simply only available) on a PC. I bought Parallels a few months ago and it's been amazing. You can download a free trial if you want to test drive it. Mac Virtual Machines and Virtual PC. Automation and Virtualization Software for Desktops, Servers, Hosting, SaaS - Parallels

I'm not familiar enough to chime in on mac nav software. The real point here is if there's a great (PC) nav package that you love, this could be an option. And you don't need that old PC just to run a few apps. Do it all from your amazing mac

[Latitude9.5]

I run parallels it is a good program, although I haven't booted my windows partition in 6 months

[BlueWaterSail]

Originally Posted by GPSNavX

FWIW: Apple iPhone 3G will acquire a position anywhere as it has a true GPS receiver.

iNavX™ - Marine Navigation & Charting Application for iPhone

According to the Barcosoft forum, Navimaq is being discontinued.

But the charts available are for the US only. A GPS receiver isn't much use if it doesn't have a chart to point to.

[rtbates]

Originally Posted by cbcat

Another option might be to run Parallels, a VM for macs that enables you to run a full windows environment - flavor of your choice (XP, Vista etc). I love my mac, but there are times when some software versions are better (or simply only available) on a PC. I bought Parallels a few months ago and it's been amazing. You can download a free trial if you want to test drive it. Mac Virtual Machines and Virtual PC. Automation and Virtualization Software for Desktops, Servers, Hosting, SaaS - Parallels

I'm not familiar enough to chime in on mac nav software. The real point here is if there's a great (PC) nav package that you love, this could be an option. And you don't need that old PC just to run a few apps. Do it all from your amazing mac

I second VMware Vusion. I just recently gave up on MS XP Pro in favor of the Mac and don't know why I waited so long. BUT by running the VMware Vusion software with MS XP Pro OS all my windows software can be run on my Mac. Terrific software VMware. It can also be run on a windows machine for internet surfing and by doing so no one can get at your 'real' machine. If you get a virus on the virtual machine simply erase the virtual machine OS folder and copy over a new version and continue on. Never will you have to reload the OS becasue of a virus or dropper from some bad guy site.

[jaga]

I'm an absolute supporter of the Mac, and use Parallels and Fusion when I have no other option (essentially for Sailmail over my ssb). My mac is well integrated into my boat instrumentation, using MacENC and a Miniplex multiplexer to integrate.

However, Fusion and Parallels won't successfully run everything, particularly in the hardware arena. I've yet to get C-Map's PC Planner card reader to run on either, though the associated software runs fine; it just won't recognize the reader (and thus the cmap charts). Generally it seems if there's also a Mac driver for the hardware it will probably run, but if there's no Mac driver then it can be iffy.

Scot

[Barco Software]

Originally Posted by GPSNavX

FWIW: Apple iPhone 3G will acquire a position anywhere as it has a true GPS receiver.

iNavX™ - Marine Navigation App for iPhone

According to the Barcosoft forum, Navimaq is being discontinued.

It is interesting that Rich chose to leave out that NavimaQ is still actively supported.
We are also making the free edition of SeaFarer available on the Mac. And will continue to develop new products for the Mac.

[Amgine]

Also interesting that Rich didn't toot his own horn, or even offer corrections about the name of two of his softwares mentioned already: GPSnavX and MacENC.

Both softwares have received stupendous reviews (some software magazine went so far as to bemoan that it's not available for Windows...), which is why I tried, and bought, MacENC. I've also received outstanding support 7 days a week.

Not that I'm against having more than one software... I'll be testing out MaxSea as well as the other mac softwares I haven't tried yet that have been mentioned here.