OpenCPN Version 4.0.0 Build 2015-01-08

[Larry M]

Version 4.0.0 was released in January. It was a good chart plotter system before and continues to get better. Here's the link for what's new.

What's new in the OpenCPN version 4.0 ? | Official OpenCPN Homepage

 

[Edelweiss]

I don't use it often while we're underway for navigation, since we have the Garmin system. But Open CPN is excellent for planning on the lap top and being able to sit down at a table while doing it, verses standing at the helm.

I may put an all-in-one PC at the helm with Open CPN running on it. That would free up the chart plotter for full screen depth sounder/fish finder instead of running split screen or switching pages between the two functions all the time.

 

[Doug]

Open CPN

We've used Open CPN for several years now and like it a lot. We can do our planning on the laptop at home and take it to the boat for navigation. Our older Garmin is now relegated to backup duty and its fishfinder/depth functions.
We bought a smaller screen (10 in. I think) laptop that fits nicely at the helm and use Canadian raster charts and NOAA vector charts.

 

[CPseudonym]

Perhaps I'm missing something, is this a free download? I've never looked into it before as my helm has no room for even a small laptop.

 

[Larry M]

Perhaps I'm missing something, is this a free download? I've never looked into it before as my helm has no room for even a small laptop.

Yes, it's free. Supported by a bunch of geeks who donate their time as far as I can tell plus some $'s from thankful users.

Here's a snap shot about OpenCPN:

A Chartplotter and GPS Navigation Software.


OpenCPN is a free software (GPLv2) project to create a concise chart plotter and navigation software, for use underway or as a planning tool. OpenCPN is developed by a team of active sailors using real world conditions for program testing and refinement.

The most recent stable version, OpenCPN 4.0.0, was published on January the 8th 2015 and can be downloaded from opencpn.org/download.
What is new in 4.0.0?


Features

• Worldwide, standard, S57 and encrypted S63 vector chart support.
• IHO S52 compliant display of S57 and S63 vector charts.
• BSB v3, and earlier, raster chart support.
• "BSB4" and "nv-chart" support through plugins.
• CM93 vector chart support, with per cell offset corrections.
• OpenGL support for enhanced performance on modern hardware.
• Single-chart and Quilted display modes.
• North-up, Course-up and Chart-up display modes.
• Moving-map display mode.
• Route navigation with ship tracking functions.
• Waypoint navigation.
• Dashboard, for configurable on-screen display of ship's NMEA data.
• NMEA 0183 GPS interface at selectable baud rate.
• Advance NMEA message handling structure, with built in multiplexer.
• Autopilot output support.
• AIS input with full target tracking and collision alerting.
• AIS support for SART with selectable MMSI for automatic MOB handling.
• AIS support for DSC and GPSGate Buddies.
• Anchor watch/alarm functions.
• GRIB file input and display for weather forecasting.
• GPX Waypoint, Track and Route input and output file support.
• Tide and Current prediction and display by location.
• Route planning with tidal support.
• Builtin great-circle routing.
• Integrated weather routing through qtVlm or separate plugin
• GPX Layers for annotation of charts.
• A selection of display themes.
• A growing number of plugins. Climatology, Weather Routing, WeatherFax, Google Earth, World Magnetic Variation, Voyage Data Recorder, AIS -radar, SAR and a LogBook, plus many more.
• Multi-language support. 20+ languages supported.

Platforms
* Windows XPSP3 , Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1
* Linux, BSD, Solaris
* Macintosh OSX

 

[CPseudonym]

Thanks Larry, I'll give it a try. If nothing else it would be nice to have at home.

 

[Larry M]

Pilot charts for planning?

Pilot Charts for Chart Plotters | Official OpenCPN Homepage

 

[MikeD]

Version 4.0.0 was released in January. It was a good chart plotter system before and continues to get better. Here's the link for what's new.

What's new in the OpenCPN version 4.0 ? | Official OpenCPN Homepage

Wow, that looks like nice software.

I have been using OziExplorer (Official OziExplorer Web Site - GPS Mapping Software for Tracking and Navigation. Supports Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance and GPS) for many years and while it has quite a few more features that OpenCPN, I am going to give it a try.

I really like how OpenCPN handles BSB charts and it also looks like it will run really well with the Vesper XB-8000 transponder for both GPS & AIS over WiFi. I am planning to buy the Vesper AIS transponder in next months boat budget.

p.s. no relationship with OziExplorer apart from being a long term user.

 

[hmason]

Will this run on an iPad?

 

[N4712]

Wow, that looks like nice software.

I have been using OziExplorer (Official OziExplorer Web Site - GPS Mapping Software for Tracking and Navigation. Supports Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance and GPS) for many years and while it has quite a few more features that OpenCPN, I am going to give it a try.

I really like how OpenCPN handles BSB charts and it also looks like it will run really well with the Vesper XB-8000 transponder for both GPS & AIS over WiFi. I am planning to buy the Vesper AIS transponder in next months boat budget.

p.s. no relationship with OziExplorer apart from being a long term user.

Yep, we have a Vesper XB-8000 and I use the wifi feature with our little windows 8 notebook that I have Open CPN and Coastal Explorer on. It's a nice portable chart plotter to take anywhere on the boat even though I have my TZTBB repeated to all the TV's on the boat.

 

[MikeD]

Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with running OpenCPN on a WIN 8 Tablet?

If yes, would love your feedback, plus details of storage and memory requirements.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[FlyWright]

I'm running it without a gps on my home Windows 8 netbook and it works fine. Also run it on my Windows 7 netbook on the boat with gps. It occasionally locks up on Windows 7, but I just reset it and in a minute, I'm back up. I haven't had any problems with Win 8.

My netbook is just 30GB storage and it works fine. It might depend on how many charts you load.

 

[MikeD]

I'm running it without a gps on my home Windows 8 netbook and it works fine. Also run it on my Windows 7 netbook on the boat with gps. It occasionally locks up on Windows 7, but I just reset it and in a minute, I'm back up. I haven't had any problems with Win 8.

My netbook is just 30GB storage and it works fine. It might depend on how many charts you load.

Thanks for the reply!

I am planning to use it a on Win 7 laptop for a "boys" fishing trip on the 20 March, but just with a bluetooth GPS feeding it. All going well I might then purchase a tablet to run it on as I don't really have a lot of spare room for a laptop at the helm.
Then I will purchase the Vesper AIS transponder. I have been using mAIS on the iPad up till now and it is really appreciated at home (via Marine Traffic), particularly when we venture out into the open waters beyond Pelorus Sound.

Mike

 

[Donsan]

I upgraded my desktop to 4.0 yesterday after reading the OP. It looks and works great on my i5 with 16gb of RAM, a SSD and 27" monitor but it is difficult to really evaluate on a fix desktop environment.

The purpose of loading it on the desktop was to get a handle on the look and feel of it as I am in the market to replace my 6-7 year old slow laptop. I might also go with the hopefully soon to be released large screen (12+ inches) iPad and use Navionics. Did a trial on the Navionics US maps and found it to be impressive. I might not have the setting correct in OpenCPN as it doesn't identify town/city names that can be optionally identified on Navionics. Also like the fact Navioics has optional terrain maps with roads.

I am leaning toward the iPad/Navionics solution as the iPad will have built in GPS and we will get it with 4G LTE.

Very very disappointed in the Intel laptop market where the main emphasis seems to be on CHEAP. They PC makers have been dragging their feet on SSDs, cellular networking and built in GPS. They seem to have abandoned the high tech innovation market to Apple.

 

[N4712]

I run an I5 2500k with 8GB of ram and a 7200K HDD and it runs anything I throw at it great.

 

[Larry M]

... I might not have the setting correct in OpenCPN as it doesn't identify town/city names...

In the tool bar you can toggle the ENC text on and off. Look for the large A.

You can also adjust how much is displayed. Sometime when you scroll in the charts, they can get very cluttered with too much information.

 

[Donsan]

In the tool bar you can toggle the ENC text on and off. Look for the large A.

You can also adjust how much is displayed. Sometime when you scroll in the charts, they can get very cluttered with too much information.

Thanks! Got it. Now I remember I turned it off in the old version because of text overlap. That seems to be fixed in this version.

 

[bayview]

I'm lost. I downloaded the program but cant figure out how to download the US charts. Is there a tutorial somewhere?

 

[GregBrannon]

The application website has instructions for obtaining charts. Searching "opencpn charts" or similar should get you the site's instructions for downloading and then installing the charts so that the program can find them. Good luck but come back if you need more help.

 

[bayview]

Ok got them working. Thanks.