| Author | Message | ||
     Ted Lavino Moderator Username: tlavino Post Number: 135 Registered: 01-2006 |
You can now get ALL of NOAA's raster charts in one download. They've also streamlined the download process. http://www.charts.noaa.gov/RNCs/RNCs.shtml | ||
| Ted Lavino Moderator Username: tlavino Post Number: 114 Registered: 01-2006 |
Greetings folks, it appears that Maptech has removed their download site for downloading raster charts (www.freeboatingcharts.com). That leaves the NOAA download site to obtain free raster charts, although the process is a bit more involved than using the Maptech site. To access the NOAA chart download site point your browser at: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/charts.htm#RNC and click on the "Free RNC Downloads and Weekly Updates" link in the Electronic Charts section. You will then be presented with an agreement that you have to acknolwedge via a button at the bottom. You are then taken to the selection tool page where you select either the graphical or textual method to choose which charts you want to download. I find the graphical version easier to use as you don't need to look at each chart number, just select all charts in a given area. Note: To use the graphical tool you will need to first download and install Sun's Java Runtime Environment (JRE - formerly called a Java Virtual Machine or JVM), available at http://www.java.com After you select the charts (max of 100 per download) the site then packages your selection in a .zip (compressed) file for you to download. The problem is that the charts in the .zip file are each in their own folder. Windows XP and Vista contain a tool that expands the zip file, but with all the folders present. You can also find free third party tools such as SecureZip from PKWare that has an option to ignore folders and unzip all files into one folder, which is then easier to use with chart plotting software-you only have to tell it to look in one folder to find raster charts. You can find the PKUnzip tool at: http://www.pkware.com/download-software/free-unzip |
