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Hello, I like what I read about GPSNavX and have reviewed the available charts on the site's links. Our cruising grounds are primarily the Virgin Islands from PR to the BVI. From what I see with the charts available it seems to me that we would be better with the navx and raster charts rather then ENC and the vector charts. Can anyone give me the pros and cons of the two types of charts and software? I don't want to end up wishing I had spent the extra money for.
Thanks
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Hello and welcome,
There is a good comparison chart on the
GPSNavX Home webpage.
Click the word "compared" under "Product".
Both are excellent, IMO. It really boils down to what charts you can get for your cruising area and whether you will be returning the boat to the US in the near future. If you have an older Mac (non-Intel) then GPSNavX is probably better.
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Jon Longworth
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Scott Dillon
Sydney Australia
North Shore 38
CYCA
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I'm not sure that there is any benefit in using NavX, since MacENC can display both types of charts. I started out mostly using raster charts in MacENC because my area didn't have accurate ENCs. As NOAA has updated its ENCs I have almost entirely stopped using the older rasters, though there are times when the rasters will give a better interpretation.
I have found a large benefit in processing speed with ENCs. As I've added ever more waypoints and annotations the app has lately been bogging down very badly on my macbook when I am displaying a raster chart. The annotation is the greater culprit, but reverting to a raster view certainly adds to the slowdown.
Another point to consider is the ease of downloading updated ENCs. Despite steadily improving download speeds in most areas, there is still a dramatic difference in updating your ENCs vs. downloading regional rasters. All of N. America in ENC format is less space on my hard drive than just two regions of Alaska. I know that people care less these days about hard drive space, but if you try putting rasters for all of N. America on the disk you might have reason to care again.
Edmund
