Anybody Using OpenCPN Navigation Software?

P

Pat Anderson

New member
I know iPhones and iPad are great, but sometimes I just like to look at a full size computer screen when thinking about route planning! I have an old version (2009) of Coastal Explorer but that is on the Windows side, and I was looking for something to use on the Mac side, preferrably free, and I came across OpenCPN. It had good reviews, so I downloaded it, and pointed it at a directory containing the 2 DVD set of MTW Electronic charts, which it processed just fine. All looks good on startup.

The problem is that the program is a real slug, even on my fast MacBook. Besides lacking a search feature entirely, which I could live with because I theoretically can center a region on the based map and zoom in, every time I zoom or pan, the program takes a minute to create some kind of new file. Then it simply stopped responding to zooming and panning entirely.

I will give it another chance or two, but has anyone else uses this program and found it acceptable, or is it just me? Is there any other free or low cost Mac navigation program that uses the NOAA and USACE electronic charts? Or am I stuck going back to Windoze to use good old Coastal Explorer?

 
Navioincs iPhone app (free) allows to load NOAA maps. THis feature is not yet available for Android devices.

NOAA has a free online chart viewer

I use Garmin Home Port software on Windows PC (<$30) and take the SD card with installed maps from Chartplotter 545s and use it on PC

You can check Active Captain and Boat US mag for recent reviews.


I dont use my Mac lap top for this purpose. It is old, running OS 10.4, 1G RAM and Intel Duo core CPU. I may upgrade after the buying Ipad Air or when AIr 2 is released... maybe this fall
 
I've been using Open Captain for the past two years. Just recently downloaded the latest version. It is installed on an ACER Netbook. I use a USB receiver and the program has worked great. It's actually a bit more precise than my Garmin Chartplotter.
 
I run OpenCpn on a Samsung Series 7 Slate tablet computer. It runs under Windows 7 with a GPS connected via USB or Bluetooth. Everything runs quickly. I use the charts downloaded free from the NOAA website. I was really surprised at how often they are updated, sometimes every few days. I save the charts to the hard drive in the computer. If you're running the charts on CD that's probably why you are experiencing slow performance. CD I/O speeds are terribly slow compared to a hard drive. Try loading the charts onto the hard drive or just download the charts you need from NOAA to your hard drive and give it a try. You may well see a huge difference in speed.

Also, I've noticed that if you have thousands of waypoints in the system it slows it down badly too. I downloaded a set of waypoints showing fishing locations (around two thousand individual waypoints) and it really slowed things down. I'm not sure why that is because I use the tracking feature when I'm on the water and that also creates quite a lot of waypoints but doesn't seem to slow it down at all.

I also use PolarView from PolarNavy. It has two nice features. It will download charts from NOAA and the Army Corps of Engineers (larger rivers) if you have internet access. It will also use ActiveCaptain data which is nice if looking for a marina, fuel, or reviews of various anchorages.

Since I'm running both in Windows 7 I can easily switch back and forth between the two applications if I want to. I've found that for the most part I use OpenCPN, only running PolarView if I want the ActiveCaptain data.

I've been quite pleased with OpenCPN and run it just about all the time I'm on the water. If you're having performance issues try downloading the NOAA or ACE charts, save them to the hard drive and see if that speeds things up for you.
 
I am not accessing charts on CD - I copied the charts to a folder and pointed OpenCPN to that folder, and it recognized the charts. The MacBook Pro is a considerably more powerful and faster machine than most garden variety Windows laptops, certainly no Netbook is in its league. Still, OpenCPN does not pan or zoom worth a damn, and seems to freeze up at times. I am specifically interested in whether anybody else runs OpenCPN on a Mac, it may be optimized for Windows, I don't know, but for me it is a dog. I will take a look at PolarNavy but Coastal Explorer runs so well with the MTW Electronic Charts under Windows that I may have to suffer along under Windows for route planning, and perhaps even get a USB GPS receiver dongle again. I have Windows 7 installed on the MacBook Pro with Bootcamp, I really only got Windows 7 for Coastal Explorer and one or two other Windows specifc apps. The MTW electronic charts set is from 2011, but includes all available NOAA and USACE electronic charts as of that time, which was a LOT. I might buy the 2014 set, but downloading individual charts is too much trouble by me!
 
Pat Anderson":2xscx3xw said:
I am not accessing charts on CD - I copied the charts to a folder and pointed OpenCPN to that folder, and it recognized the charts. The MacBook Pro is a considerably more powerful and faster machine than most garden variety Windows laptops, certainly no Netbook is in its league.
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I guess that would depend on how old the MacBook Pro is, they've been out since '06. I've got a four year old Netbook that runs OpenCpn just fine. You might trying changing some of the settings that make it run better on underpowered Windows systems:

http://opencpn.org/ocpn/Low_Power_Systems

I don't know if that will help since you're running Apple hardware though.


Pat Anderson":2xscx3xw said:
Still, OpenCPN does not pan or zoom worth a damn, and seems to freeze up at times.
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That sounds like the way it reacts when I imported a couple of thousand waypoints into OpenCpn. I'm not familiar with MTW Charts, do they include a lot of waypoint type data like some chartplotters do? Information on marinas, etc? If so that might be the problem.


Pat Anderson":2xscx3xw said:
The MTW electronic charts set is from 2011, but includes all available NOAA and USACE electronic charts as of that time, which was a LOT. I might buy the 2014 set, but downloading individual charts is too much trouble by me!
Click to expand...

The NOAA charts can be downloaded individually, by state, by region, Coast Guard District, or all at once in a single download. Either way you'll be getting the latest charts. I was really surprised to see how often they are updated, sometimes just days between updates.

I use PolarView to download the updated charts. The process is kind of clunky but works. Every time I put the boat in the water I have the latest charts. Both the raster charts (look like the printed charts) and ENC charts (the digital versions) are available. I use both. Just a mouse click to switch back and forth between the two.

I hope you find a solution.
 
No Mac solution - I checked out PolarView (Polar Navy), and it does not hold a candle to Coastal Explorer. Guess I will boot to Windows to do my armchair route planning!
 
BrentB":3u8ogmqi said:
Are you using GPS puck with openCPN?
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Mostly the USB puck, $35 on Amazon a couple of years ago. Sometimes a Garmin Oregon connected via USB, and a few times the GPS in my cell phone via Bluetooth just to see if it would work.
 
We have a Raymarine C-80 chartplotter and getting information into it is very difficult. Not what I want to do anyway. I want to do armchair route plotting with ease. The ONLY program that seems to do that for me is Coastal Explorer. I can export routes and get them into the C-80 with a lot of complications but I don't have chart chips for the area I am planning anyway. Hence a GPS puck and Coastal Explorer will probably fit the bill perfectly. After looking at the rest, I am really impressed with how GOOD Coastal Explorer is!
 
Well, Pat, if you want to run Coastal Explorer, that's understandable since you have it and are familiar with it. I haven't tried Coastal Explorer/Rosepoint, but have a friend who bought it. He uses it and it's quite good. which it should be at $400.

One thing I've found out about OpenCpn is that it is being developed by an enthusiastic group of programmers who are sailors. So it's developing and includes AIS and a radar overlay through add-ons. I noticed that the commercial programs, such as Fugawi/Coastal Explorer, etc are slow to add features since they have to deal with other manufactures.

I've tried several commercial programs (Capn, Fugawi, Maptech,) and OpenCpn runs as well as any of them. Of course I run Windows, but I also use their Linux version. As far as I can see, both versions are equal. Panning, zooming, route planning, AIS, radar overlay, tracking work well in real time. Panning and zooming are redraw functions and would depend on the speed of the computer. On an older Toshiba, it was really slow. On the newer HP it works well.

OpenCpn and the on-line NOAA charts are both free and take advantage of common technologies such at ethernet. I'm curious as to what impact the combination will have on the recreational commercial market; not just the software but on multifunction displays. I mean we all have a PC now, C-Dorys are cabin boats, so why should we invest in a limited expensive display?

If you want a demonstration as to how fast OpenCpn works, look at the images in this post: OpenCpn and Radar. OpenCpn was updating both the chart orientation and the radar overlay in real time. The radar display lagged which is the 3G radar delay, not the OpenCpn processing.

Boris
 
Well, OpenCPN just sucks on my fast MacBook Pro, and Coastal Explorer works great and has more features. Maybe the sailors developing OpenCPN should take a lesson from Coastal Explorer! I bought Coastal Explorer when it was first out, and it was quite a bit less then, but still expensive compared to free. But as far as I am concerned, completely worth it. And I did not hear from ANYBODY running OpenCPN on a Mac. I could try it on the Windows side, but why? I have Coastal Explorer on the Windows side already, I was just lookng for something acceptable on the Mac side, and did not find it, not in OpenCPN or Polar Navy.
 
Pat: since there's no forum complaining about Macs and OpenCpn, I assume that it works reasonably well on those machines. So here's a couple of thoughts, if you care. Certainly Coastal Explorer will serve you well, but OpenCpn give you an option.

First, what version are you using. OpenCpn is up to 3.2 with 3.3 available in Beta. I'm running 3.3.149, whatever that means and it's solid. Apparently 3.3 fixed some Mac problems. And are you using OS X?

From the OpenCpn rrelease notes:

"Notes about OpenGL mode on laptops and other computers with Intel integrated graphics running Windows: The support of OpenGL in the drivers for these graphics cards is known to be problematic. If you experience performance problems with OpenCPN after longer periods of use with vector charts, there are two things you can do, depending on what driver you are running.
If you are running the older Intel GMA driver, usually found on netbooks and other machines with Atom processors, go into the 3D settings under Display Settings / Advanced / Intel Graphics, and try changing the setting called "Device Memory Footprint" to "Low". This improves performance with vector charts but may affect the possibility to display raster charts.

If you are running the more recent Intel HD Graphics driver, usually found on Core iX laptops, your best bet is to make sure you are running the most recent driver version from Intel. Note that this is sometimes different from the driver supplied or recommended by your computer manufacturer, so you might be closing yourself out from their support by installing this. You can get the current version from http://downloadcenter.intel.com, under the "Graphics" product family."

From the OpenCpn installation guide:

"Mac OS X

Installation OpenCPN on Mac OS X is no different from installing other programs. If a previous version is installed, rename the old version (app) file to avoid overwriting.
The Mac package is a ".dmg" file, and to install OpenCPN, the dmg file has to be opened (it will mount as a virtual device) and the app icon in the opened device window must be draged and droped to the application folder.
After that the device window can be closed and the mounted virtual device can be ejected.
You can have a look at this tutorial for general instructions on installing an application on Mac OS X.
If you have a message, that installations are only accepted for programs from qualified developers, go to System Settings / Security, first Tab, and switch to "No Constraints".
After installation switch back, to prevent installation of malware."


Boris
 
Unless your computer has a built in GPS (and some do) you need a GPS data source. For a standalone system, the easiest is a GPS puck with a USB connection.

GlobalSat BU-353 USB GPS Receiver: ~$40

Garmin GPS 18x USB receiver for PC: ~70

The Garmin may/may not put out NMEA 0183 sentences depending on which version you buy. But fear not! OpenCpn has the option to read the native Garmin data. How's that for custom programming?

I use the cheap GlobalSat, we'll see how that works.

Boris
 
For route plannind mode, as opposed to cruising mode, there shoud be no need for an attached GPS. I say "theoretically" because I cannot make this dog hunt...


BrentB":2idx60y4 said:
Do you need to have GPS puck conncected to the computer for OPenCPn to operate? or does it work ok without one
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