SeaClear and Google Earth

[opie]

Just a note to see if anyone else likes SeaClear II, a free program for laptop computer nautical navigation, as much as I do. I have the free (unless you buy the $15 disk) NOAA nav charts, about 1000 of them. The charts roll seamlessly as you move along with a gps connected. (BU-353 GPS puck used, $35) 2 week part-time learning curve.

Also, Google Earth "tours" was fun to learn to use. I put a kmz ICW tour on the google community website just now. Look for gecopie as my username if you want to see it. (2 meg kmz file)

And, I found out that Google Earth allows 2 gig of cache. My cache is now 986 meg and I have high resolution images of all the coastline and ICW from NC to the Florida line. So I can take my laptop anywhere and get high res images of all waterways and beaches, all without having an internet connection. What could be sweeter? And you can save the cache somewhere and start a new one if you fill it up to 2 gig. Theoretically, if you had a big enough harddrive, you could save all the images you would ever need offline and switch caches as you need to.

[Indulgence]

I use SeaClear all the time. I print charts and use them for cruise planning.
Especially considering it's freeware, it is amazing. LH

[opie]

Forgot to mention Goops, the free Google program that tracks your movement against Google Earth pictures if you plug your GPS into your laptop or PDA or cellphone. I tried it going to the store today and I had a 15 12" LCD screen bright "TomTom like" device right in the car. Amazing, said the admiral. And, thinking about it, I could use Goops on the boat as well, showing my track on the water, but without the nav aids showing. (EarthNC has that subject covered. I just finished my 30 day free trial on that program, but have not decided to buy it.)

[Hamin' X]

I don't know, Opie. I tried SeaClear II, but either I was too dense, or the reactive centrifugal force threw me off the learning curve. I just updated to the latest version (1.0.196). I'll see if I can do better. What NOAA charts do you use, Raster, or ENC's? Are the directions in the manual correct? enquiring minds want to know.

~Rich

[opie]

Seaclear, as I use it, uses Raster charts, which is another name for exact copies of paper charts.
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/ is the governments chart location.
Choose the Nautical Charts tab.
Choose the raster tab (RNC)
Choose the download tab. (Avoid the free "viewer" as you will be limited to looking at the charts through what seems a toilet paper tube.)
Choose textual selection (I can't get graphical to work, and you probably know your chart number anyway.)
Download chart.
Place it in the computer where the Seaclear program is, and under the subfolder, Charts.
Now, Seaclear should be able to find it when you use the program.

And, yes, the manual is correct, but very dense.

Don't beat yourself for your earlier efforts. I put in over 40 hours on Seaclear to get my results and at $50 per hour (my imaginary "retired" price of my labor) Garmin or Raymarine would have been a cheaper choice......

[Hamin' X]

Thnaks for the info, I'll give a go. If you don't hear from me in a week or, send the undertaker.

~Rich

[atzserv]

Opie,

You forgot to give the instruction to use "mapcal" a program in the Seaclear program to calibrate any newly added files to the Charts Folder. Without using that program, Seaclear won't detect the raster charts just installed. I honestly don't understand Mapcal that well but I just go to tools then Autoload list then scan for new charts. After that i do it again with tools, Autoload list, then update. By doing that it shows the charts added when using Seaclear. It may be the missing link others have missed, and had trouble understanding why Seaclear doesn't seem to work.

Hope this helps more than confuse,

Gary

[opie]

Gary,
I used Mapcal (2 day learning curve) and calibrated a couple of Yahoo maps of my street into SeaClear format. Works like a charm and you are right, SeaClear won't see them until you do a Mapcal update. But, you do not need to calibrate or update an already calibrated NOAA chart (kap). I tested this theory by erasing the chart for Catalina Island from the Charts directory. Then I went to NOAA and downloaded it and put it into Charts and it was OK in SeaClear without using Mapcal. Even if, for some reason, I am wrong, the Mapcal update procedure is a two click procedure and easy to do. Thanks for the suggestion. Mapcal just needs three points of reference and it calibrates the image to Seaclear standards (whatever Datum you choose). For example, I used NOAA charts for heading into Georgetown SC harbor and for the harbor, I Mapcal'd a Google Earth high resolution image of the harbor. When I did a demo (using dead reckoning) on Seaclear (setting my speed to 65 knots... love to do that) I sped into the harbor on NOAA charts and automatically switched to the harbor image when my boat icon passed the outer marker. Seamless and very nice. I even have green and read markers, from a demo of EarthNC.

[atzserv]

Opie,

Your clearly way ahead of me on how seaclear works. The goggled maps part sounds really neat. I may have not imported the kap files when I did it. It has been a good while since I first played with Seaclear the first time and now I just do the procedure because of the first time experience. At any rate you might be the one from here on out to help all of us out with this cool program.

Gary

[Terry]

Does anyone know how to load a full region of seaclear charts so that I can move seamlessly from chart to chart like in garmin. Currently I can only list the charts then select one for use until I am done then load the next chart. With garmin I can select a collection of charts then give that collection a region name then load that region name and move seamlessly across the charts. I have struggled with seaclear on and off for a couple years to no avail.

[opie]

Terry, you are where I and others were stuck for a long time. If the charts you download from NOAA (kap) (raster) are not in the Seaclear/Charts directory they will be only available on a onsey-twosey method as you describe. If all the charts are put in the above directory Seaclear will hum like a well oiled seamless Garmin, from chart to chart, lovely to behold, especially when you have been frustrated for months or years as you have been. (Note: Gary thinks you need to use Mapcal (tools/find and update) to get the chart to appear. If this is true or not, it is such a good idea to learn how to do this anyway since you will need this tool to add your own charts that you copy from a magazine or elsewhere. So I will do as Gary recommends and Mapcal my new list every time I add to the chart directory. Can't hurt.)

[Terry]

Opie;
Yes they are listed in SeaClear/charts/directory. I vaguely remember way back when I first got them they were not listed there, it was blank, I also remember having to go through some sort of conversion process witha utility program to get them readable in the first place. Once I got them listed in the directory I was able to select them. I did see something called PNW which is obviously something I created, I vaguely remember a page somewhere in the bowels of the program that was for creating groups and I would have called my group PNW (Pacific North West) so it must be there somewhere. It has been a while since I gave up in frustration, but it does start to sound like I had the hang of it once upon a time, just can't remember it all. And those hostile menus that disappear never to be found again unless I shut down and start the Seaclear over again, man what an UN-intuitive program. I think if I can find that PNW name I might be back in business but I only saw it somewhere once while playing and cannot remember where, but it is there, I saw it. Does it have a help somewhere or is there somewhere I can download some instructions? I wouldn't mind having the use of it again.

[Hamin' X]

Go to the directory that has Seaclear and you should find the manual for the program there. If you can't find it, email me and I will email it back to you. It is in PDF.

As far as the menus disappearing, just take your mouse cursor to the far right of the screen and they will reappear.

~Rich

[delevi]

I haven't been able to get any detail below the water. Zooming in doesn't help. What am I missing?

[r.fairman]

You can use Gevoyager 6 to automatically cache an area in Google Earth I use this to pre cache an area I will sail in in Turkey. I can then use Google Earth offline using this cache and using Goops track in google earth with my USB GPS I now use a Samsung NC 10 netbook with a battery life of 8 hours