EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part three of a weekly series on computer-based navigation software and electronic charting. For more about this series and why we wrote it, please see our Room 13 blog.
There is good news for boaters who want to test the waters in the ever-growing market of navigation software. Two companies provide free programs-one a simple chart viewer and the other a complete electronic chart system-that can be used to experiment and learn much, at very little cost.
CARIS's Easy View and Sping's SeaClear II are applications that display digital chart files on your laptop. By combining one of these free downloads with free raster or vector charts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, you can create a simple electronic chart system that can teach you a great deal about computer-based navigation and answer the question, "Is this right for me?"
However, the adage ¯you get what you pay for" does apply. Although both programs are impressive for products created without a paying customer base, they are not the free equivalent of the feature-rich, sophisticated commercial software packages that dominate the market.
CARISEasy View displays raster charts in NOAA's BSB format.
The freeware offered by CARIS, which is a chart viewer rather than a full navigation package, and Sping, which is more full-featured, have very different capabilities, which evolved from the different interests and intents of the people who created them. But both lack many of the popular features offered by their commercial cousins. They can also be difficult to use, at least by modern standards, and both companies offer comparatively little in the way of documentation and customer support.
But they do present a relatively simple way to get started in computer-based navigation and electronic charting-and the price is certainly right!
CARIS EASY VIEW
To understanding CARIS Easy View you must first understand the company. CARIS was founded in 1979 by a survey engineering professor from the University of New Brunswick who worked on digital mapping programs in the basement of his home with his students. Its first commercial software product was called CARIS, which stood for Computer Aided Resource Information System.
Today, CARIS is a multinational company with offices in the U.S., Australia and Canada. It develops software that stores and manages hydrographic data for use with paper or digital charts, often working under contract for federal agencies. For example, NOAA uses a CARIS application to update and create its Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs). CARIS's software is also used in agriculture, geology, forestry and transportation.
