DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS FOR FREE NOAA CHARTS
[To PRINT THIS PAGE - Right Click and then Left Click on "Print"]
Click on this link:
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/raster/download.htm to
take you to the NOAA web site that has the FREE CHARTS. This is the same link on the
NAVIGATION PAGE titled "FREE CHARTS".
Go to bottom
of the page and click on the bar that says "Proceed to NOAA (BSB) Downloads".
Click on the
blue "TEXTUAL" button to see a listing of the available charts to to download.
The "GRAPHICAL" button requires your computer to have Java files installed to
make it work so I ignored it. If you know the chart numbers you can easily
go to the charts you want to download in the "Textual" section. If you do
not know the numbers then you need to use trial and error to get to the section
that contains the charts you want.
In this "sample" case I wanted to download chart #18007 "San Francisco To Cape Flattery" and I found it by using the "Go to" box at the top of the page. I selected section 761-780 after a few tries at other section numbers.
Select the
chart(s) you want to download by clicking the box(s) at far right of chart(s)
you want to download.
Click "Review
Selections>>" at top of page when you are through selecting chart(s). You will
see a listing of the charts you selected.
To continue
click "Order Selections".
You should
then get a page that gives you information about what you are going to download.
My sample download page had the following information:
--- The selected BSB charts have been packaged into a Zip file.
--- The name of the Zip file is NOAA_BSBs319034.zip.
--- The size of the Zip file is 2.62 MB.
--- To unpack the Zip file after downloading, you will need 4.68 MB of free disk space.
NOTE: The zip file name, the size of the file and the free disk space needed will probably be different for each download you do.
To download,
click the blue button "Download".
You then get a
Dialogue Box titled "File Download"
In the File
Download Dialogue Box click "SAVE"
Now you get
another Dialogue Box titled "Save As" where you select the directory in your
computer that you want to put the Zip file. The selection area is at the
top of the Dialogue Box. At the bottom is the name of the Zip file - in this
case NOAA_BSBs319034.zip.
The information below is related to extracting the files from the
downloaded Zip file.
I set up a
temporary directory I named "Tempory" and extracted the files to it using
WinZip. The extraction automatically set up a sub-directory named "BSB_ROOT".
In "BSB_ROOT"
was the file "Readme.txt" and another sub-directory named "18007". 18007 is the
chart number that I downloaded.
In the
sub-directory "18007" were the following files: "18007.BSB", "18007_01.KAP",
"18007_00_32_01_145_NTM_BSB.ptc", and "18007_01_32_01_145_NTM_BSB.ptc".
The information below relates to
setting up the downloaded files in the SeaClear and Maptech
software on your computer.
".KAP" files
are the charts and the ".BSB" files have additional information in them that
SeaClear does not seem to use but are used by Maptech Chart Navigator Pro.
They are not necessary, however, to use the Maptech Chart Navigator Viewer which is
what you download for free.
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For SeaClear -
the chart files (".KAP") should be installed into the SeaClear "CHART" folder
and the SeaClear program "MAPCAL.EXE" needs to be used to AUTOLOAD the files.
When I copied the "18007_01.KAP" chart file into the SeaClear "CHART" folder" and used the MapCal.exe program to Autoload the files the chart showed in the SeaClear program list of available charts and displayed correctly when selected.
=======================================================================
For Maptech -
I installed the ".KAP" and ".BSB" chart files into the Maptech folder titled "DATA".
The path on my computer after installation is -- C: Program Files\Maptech\Chart
Navigator\Data\.
To get the charts to display in the Chart Navigator Viewer when you click the "Chart List" (which is on the Main Menu at the top of the screen under "Charts") you need to take the following steps after placing the downloaded charts in to the "Data" sub directory.
Click
"Charts", then "Chart List", then the tab titled "Advanced Chart Management".
Next
to the box titled "Chart Directory To Add" make sure that the directory path -
C: Program Files\Maptech\Chart Navigator\Data\ - is listed. If not, then
use the "Browse" button to navigate to the Data sub directory and click the
"Add" button. I believe, however, that the directory path is already
there.
Then,
on the right side of the screen (as you look at it), about half way down, is a
section titled "Chart List" with a button titled "Rebuild".
Click
"Rebuild" and the charts in your Maptech "Data" sub directory will show
in the "Available Charts" section that is part of the "Chart List" screen.
NOTE: Click on "Help" in the bottom - right of the "Chart List" screen. This takes you to a screen titled "Opening Charts: The Chart List". Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on "Advanced Chart Management" (it is a link that is underlined and in blue type). The next screen explains how you can use directories on your computer to control what charts are included in your "Chart List".
I hope this page has been of help to you. If you have any suggestions for additional information I would appreciate you letting me know.
To go to the Contact Page all you have to do is
THANKS!
This site was last updated 07/09/08
.