Does anyone have any experience with Raytheon's Navigation S/W? It seems to be the only package that will take the same chart packages the GPS chart plotter takes. Or am I mistaken? I don't want to have to buy 3 sets of charts: 1 paper, 1 for the chart plotter, and 1 for the PC. (2 sets will be bad enough) Or is the PC redundant in this case? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Debra
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Ron
Chart S/W
Debra I think you should be asking what s/w & chart formats are best for the application you have in mind. The Raytheon onboard chartplotters like the RL70CR that support both radar and GPS usually use the CMap-NT format digitAL charts. Many of the PC nav software programs (e.g., MapTech, The Cap'n, etc.) use digitIZED charts -- there are big differences. Digitized charts are exact replications of the official paper charts, and are geo-registered to a specific horizontal or geoidal datum (e.g., WGS-84) so you can plot/pull exact lat/long positions. As such, they serve the similar purposes of the paper charts -- route planning and more precise navigation & piloting. The digitized format is very computer memory- and processor-intensive, since to capture the fine detail they must be scanned at a very high resolution and then treated with special reduction & compression algorithms. Digital (vector) charts are on-the-fly reconstructions of a horizontal situation. They will show boundaries and will be geo-registered to plot/pull lat/longs. Often they are coupled with a similarly geo-registered information database that provides feature object descriptions (e.g., nav aids, wharfs, hazards, landmarks), and other data (e.g., depth). The digital format is much more computer memory- and processor-efficient, hence their popularity in hand-held devices. Digital charts, because of their ability to be drawn very rapidly, serve the function of a positional reference (chartplotter) very nicely. Since they don't (yet) have the detail and accuracy of the paper charts, you use them for route planning and precise navigation at your peril. Charts in both formats (digitized and digital) suffer from a general lack of regular, affordable updating mechanisms. (For that matter, how many of us are faithfully updating our paper charts from the LNMs?) So, I guess the answer is you must decide which way to go with full understanding of the limitations offered by each technology. It would make more sense to get a handheld GPS as a backup that uses the same chart format as the master on-board chartplotter. Then, they could be shared. Having said all that, I do not have direct experience with Raytheon's s/w. For what its worth, I use the MapTech Chart Navigator software & their digitized charts (with digitized photos & topographic maps) for route planning and downloading GPS waypoints & routes. It works very nicely. I do not bring my laptop PC on-board however because, in general, these laptops are not ruggedized for a marine environment. Hope that helps you some. --Ron s/v Lady Jane, Marblehead, MA
Debra I think you should be asking what s/w & chart formats are best for the application you have in mind. The Raytheon onboard chartplotters like the RL70CR that support both radar and GPS usually use the CMap-NT format digitAL charts. Many of the PC nav software programs (e.g., MapTech, The Cap'n, etc.) use digitIZED charts -- there are big differences. Digitized charts are exact replications of the official paper charts, and are geo-registered to a specific horizontal or geoidal datum (e.g., WGS-84) so you can plot/pull exact lat/long positions. As such, they serve the similar purposes of the paper charts -- route planning and more precise navigation & piloting. The digitized format is very computer memory- and processor-intensive, since to capture the fine detail they must be scanned at a very high resolution and then treated with special reduction & compression algorithms. Digital (vector) charts are on-the-fly reconstructions of a horizontal situation. They will show boundaries and will be geo-registered to plot/pull lat/longs. Often they are coupled with a similarly geo-registered information database that provides feature object descriptions (e.g., nav aids, wharfs, hazards, landmarks), and other data (e.g., depth). The digital format is much more computer memory- and processor-efficient, hence their popularity in hand-held devices. Digital charts, because of their ability to be drawn very rapidly, serve the function of a positional reference (chartplotter) very nicely. Since they don't (yet) have the detail and accuracy of the paper charts, you use them for route planning and precise navigation at your peril. Charts in both formats (digitized and digital) suffer from a general lack of regular, affordable updating mechanisms. (For that matter, how many of us are faithfully updating our paper charts from the LNMs?) So, I guess the answer is you must decide which way to go with full understanding of the limitations offered by each technology. It would make more sense to get a handheld GPS as a backup that uses the same chart format as the master on-board chartplotter. Then, they could be shared. Having said all that, I do not have direct experience with Raytheon's s/w. For what its worth, I use the MapTech Chart Navigator software & their digitized charts (with digitized photos & topographic maps) for route planning and downloading GPS waypoints & routes. It works very nicely. I do not bring my laptop PC on-board however because, in general, these laptops are not ruggedized for a marine environment. Hope that helps you some. --Ron s/v Lady Jane, Marblehead, MA
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Debra B
Passport Vector Udpated Qrtly
The Passport World Charts that accompany Visual Navigation Suite are supposed to be updated quarterly. This is a big draw since I don't know anyone who updates paper charts as religously. Any other charing S/W people like or dislike?
The Passport World Charts that accompany Visual Navigation Suite are supposed to be updated quarterly. This is a big draw since I don't know anyone who updates paper charts as religously. Any other charing S/W people like or dislike?
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Dan Hawryschuk
RayTech Navigation software
Just updated to 3.0 from 2.01. 3.0 gives you tides and current directions as a no cost addition in capabilities. Good feature to have if you sail in high tidal range waters. No calculation for current tide at your location and direction of flow. I use Ray Tech on Floriday's a Passage 42. Great additional capability to have in conjunction with a Raytheon chartplotter. The real benefit is the seatalk capability which allows all instruments to interface to each other. Having the software allows you to select a different chart format than the chartplotter uses Cmap CF-85. The detail that you can see on a typical laptop screen is higher resolution than you have on a chart plotter (at least mine with a green CRT) I use a Dell inspiron 8000 for a laptop and the pixel count is much higher than normal. Excellent clarity on whatever detail chart you look at. Putting together this system is relatively expensive but the combination of software capability and communications capability is powerful. My next step will be to connect the SSB to download weather info to overlay on my charts from the internet. If you can spend the money, the capabilities are amazing. Landfall Navigation sells the software for less than the on line Raytheon store. Good luck. Let me know what you decided. I might be able to help with specific hook problems.
Just updated to 3.0 from 2.01. 3.0 gives you tides and current directions as a no cost addition in capabilities. Good feature to have if you sail in high tidal range waters. No calculation for current tide at your location and direction of flow. I use Ray Tech on Floriday's a Passage 42. Great additional capability to have in conjunction with a Raytheon chartplotter. The real benefit is the seatalk capability which allows all instruments to interface to each other. Having the software allows you to select a different chart format than the chartplotter uses Cmap CF-85. The detail that you can see on a typical laptop screen is higher resolution than you have on a chart plotter (at least mine with a green CRT) I use a Dell inspiron 8000 for a laptop and the pixel count is much higher than normal. Excellent clarity on whatever detail chart you look at. Putting together this system is relatively expensive but the combination of software capability and communications capability is powerful. My next step will be to connect the SSB to download weather info to overlay on my charts from the internet. If you can spend the money, the capabilities are amazing. Landfall Navigation sells the software for less than the on line Raytheon store. Good luck. Let me know what you decided. I might be able to help with specific hook problems.
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Kenneth Pfaff
Demo version blows up
I can't say that I use the software, but I received a demo version with my new Hunter 290. The software installed fine, but everytime I open a chart the software gets a general protection falt and dies. So as a result I haven't played with it much. Don't know how a purchased version would work.
I can't say that I use the software, but I received a demo version with my new Hunter 290. The software installed fine, but everytime I open a chart the software gets a general protection falt and dies. So as a result I haven't played with it much. Don't know how a purchased version would work.
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Dan Hawryschuk
to blows up, Ken
Can you define blows up? I downloaded both 2.01 demo and 3.0 for demo before I bought 2.01 demo and it didn't blow up. Is your PC spec'd to handle the software. Charts require quite a bit of space. I had a problem with 3.0 download but that was because I tried to have 2.01 coexist with 3.0. You should delete 2.01 when you run the wizard for installing 3.0. I kept getting a fault error at a 3d file at about 56% of the download. If you call tech support they will send you a Demo CD. That's how I found out my PC didn't like both versions at the same time. CD rom download behaved the same way the internet download did.
Can you define blows up? I downloaded both 2.01 demo and 3.0 for demo before I bought 2.01 demo and it didn't blow up. Is your PC spec'd to handle the software. Charts require quite a bit of space. I had a problem with 3.0 download but that was because I tried to have 2.01 coexist with 3.0. You should delete 2.01 when you run the wizard for installing 3.0. I kept getting a fault error at a 3d file at about 56% of the download. If you call tech support they will send you a Demo CD. That's how I found out my PC didn't like both versions at the same time. CD rom download behaved the same way the internet download did.
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Kenneth Pfaff
Dan, Will check tonight
Dan, I will try it again tonight to see the specific error. Part of the problem I may have cause myself in that I have Demo's of The Cptn, NavTech?????, and a purchased version of Map Tech Region 3 instlled on the PC. I wanted to see how the Raytheon version worked and I wanted to use a chart I was fimiliar with so I open on one of the MapTech charts. I assumed it would either work or tell me it couldn't open it, not blow up. I will try it tonight with one of the charts that came this the demo.
Dan, I will try it again tonight to see the specific error. Part of the problem I may have cause myself in that I have Demo's of The Cptn, NavTech?????, and a purchased version of Map Tech Region 3 instlled on the PC. I wanted to see how the Raytheon version worked and I wanted to use a chart I was fimiliar with so I open on one of the MapTech charts. I assumed it would either work or tell me it couldn't open it, not blow up. I will try it tonight with one of the charts that came this the demo.
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