Suggestion for marine nav software for Mac OS

[Guest echeng]

Hey, does anyone have a suggestion for good marine navigation software for Mac OS X (with GPS support). I have used CMap and MaxSea for Windows, and they are pretty terrible.

 

I have MacGPS pro, but I don't have many maps for it (and it's not that great).

 

Really, I'd just love to get Google Earth offline. There are a lot of hacks for it to work offline (sort of), but ... it would sure be nice to have a real offline Google Earth cache that doesn't involve seeding everything manually!

[Long John Silver 0]

Hey, does anyone have a suggestion for good marine navigation software for Mac OS X (with GPS support). I have used CMap and MaxSea for Windows, and they are pretty terrible.

 

I have MacGPS pro, but I don't have many maps for it (and it's not that great).

 

Really, I'd just love to get Google Earth offline. There are a lot of hacks for it to work offline (sort of), but ... it would sure be nice to have a real offline Google Earth cache that doesn't involve seeding everything manually!

 

Unfortunately I think that MacGPS pro it's the best choice you have for Mac.

For the maps you can download tons of BSB maps or you can easily create yours scanning and georeferencing a plain nautical map.

 

Anyway the best option is using OziExplorer that it's fair the best gps mapping software available. While it's windows native you can run it on your Mac (Intel/motorola) through the various Windows emulator available for the Mac.

Here there is a link:

 

http://www.oziexplorer3.com/support/oziexp..._virtualpc.html

 

Of course, then you will have the same problem with maps but out there is plenty of them.

Otherwise I created custom digital raster maps several times with OziExplorer and it's easy. I went to a digital service and I got the paper chart scanned at 300 dpi for about 15 Euro. Once you get the file, the best option is to convert it to a indexed tiff woth photoshop or with a free Oziexplorer utility then you follow the wizard inside OziExplorer.

Last but not least you can also scan a large chart with your A4 scanner at home. It's al little more tricky but it works:

 

http://www.oziexplorer3.com/eng/scanmap.html

 

Bye

Edited August 18, 2009 by Long John Silver

[Hamish Morrison 0]

Hi Eric,

 

I have been using GSPNavX (http://gpsnavx.com) for some time & can't fault it. There's even an app for the iPhone!

 

Hamish.

[JackConnick 76]

I second the recommendation of GPSNavX. All US charts are free from NOAA btw. He has a trial version. The ENC version is probably the one to get as it uses vector charts and you can set up a bluetooth network to interface with the iPhone app. The software allows overlays of AIS, weather and radar as well as interfacing with other NMEA output from on-board instruments.

 

I have the iPhone app as well and it's very handy on a small boat, although it's GPS only gets down to about 30' accuracy.

 

GPS NavX

 

Here's a link to a forum dealing with Mac marine software and hardware, mostly sailing oriented:

MacSailing.net

 

Jack

Edited August 18, 2009 by JackConnick

[Drew 0]

Eric

Why don't you just use the software from Garmin? Roadtrip does a decent job of remembering way points. The Garmin maps are relatively cheap for international maps and if you're really bored, you can make your own. It's not up to the Vista version which can transfer to Google Earth but it's part of the deal and you have access to a good choice of maps at decent prices.

I wanted to use NavX but the world map was $300 for a DVD.

I bought the BlueChart Pacific and Atlantic maps all by Navteq for $200 and those get updated for life. Yes the charts for Indonesian waters aren't the most accurate with GPS. But you have a good little program that's free and will do basic stuff.

It's not perfect. The Mobile XT versions aren't really cross compatible with the normal NT and mapsource maps which is BS but you can use your blackberry with XT. I use my garmin to get around asia and africa with the various maps I buy. Again they aren't perfect, but it beats out quite a few others.

The biggest drawback of the Garmin software is the prevalence of Windoze DVD/CD/SD. If you want to use them on a Mac, you have to convert them into a mac type file and with my collection of DVDs, it took awhile.

[MikeVeitch 0]

Eric, you don't own a boat! don't worry about it

[ErolE 3]

I second OziExplorer. Cheap and more capable than packages 10 times it s price. Will read virtually any file. Let you manually geo reference. You can feed side scan or multi beam overlays onto it. Basically I have yet to find something it doesn t do..

 

Erol

[loftus 42]

I second GPSNavX, they are pretty good and consistent about upgrades as well.