View NOAA RNC in Maptech Navigator ?

[Neo]

I'm viewing NOAA raster charts (.BSB) in Polar View from Polar Navy. I like the program and find it very easy to use, however it gets a bad case of the hicups when panning and zooming.

Is there a way to view the NOAA charts using Maptech's Chart Navigator "Viewer"? Does the Maptechs's free "Viewer" version of Chart Navigator have limited functionality? Thanks

[ActiveCaptain]

Maptech's Chart Navigator will certainly work with the normal free NOAA raster/BSB/KAP charts. The disadvantage of Maptech's product is that it only shows one chart at a time. PolarView has the advantage of quilting the charts together to provide a seamless view.

I'd write to PolarNavy and ask them for help. I don't find that there are hicups with their product panning and zooming. I'm sure they'd like to know if there was an issue.

[Neo]

Thanks Jeffrey. It was helpful to know that it was possible before I invested my time and energy. I futzed around with Maptech and managed to load a few NOAA charts, more by accident than anything else. Cheers.

[Neo]

Jeffrey, I loaded the NOAA RNC charts of the northeast into the free version of Maptech Navigator and have compared the performance with that of Polar View. Polar is better for planning routes. Because of the quilting I can view the entire route at any scale . In addition, Polar provides GRIB and tide data free, while the free version of Maptech does not. However, viewing the individual charts in Maptech allows one to view the chart legend, notes and scales. (Fathoms, feet, meter, etc). So, I use them both.

By the by, I assume Active Captian.com is your website. I have been using it to plan a Cruise from Boston to Provincetown. Very nice. Cheers

[ActiveCaptain]

Neo - Great! Use the tools that work the way you do. There's a reason there are so many. It sounds like you have a good fit for your needs.

Thanks for using ActiveCaptain too!

[scotte]

Neo- might be worth giving OpenCPN a try - OpenCPN | Official OpenCPN Homepage

It supports quilting, and will handle both vector (S57, CM93-2) and raster (BSB) charts. It's completely free, and actively under development (see the OpenCPN forum here), so constantly improving and getting new features.