Free Electronic Charts of Baja Mexico ?

[tg32879]

Pls don't request anymore file sharing for the charts. I have given them to one person, which I am allowed as per Copyright. More than that I am not allowed and I will not infringe the law... So please, don´t send anymore requests for downloading my CM93ed2 charts, which with some efforts on the Internet can be bought for something of USD 16 in a russian site and they are good, free of virus and they are accurate.... so, just have to do your homework and you´ll get them. Happy new Year

[dacust]

Originally Posted by tg32879

Pls don't request anymore file sharing for the charts. I have given them to one person, which I am allowed as per Copyright. More than that I am not allowed and I will not infringe the law... So please, don´t send anymore requests for downloading my CM93ed2 charts, which with some efforts on the Internet can be bought for something of USD 16 in a russian site and they are good, free of virus and they are accurate.... so, just have to do your homework and you´ll get them. Happy new Year

I'm afraid you are being a little naive here.

The CM93 charts are owned by Jeppesen. They charge thousands of dollars for a world-wide set of charts (last time I saw a price it was $14,000, but that was a fair number of years ago). There are no legal copies for $16 anywhere. There are no legal copies with a copyright that says you can share them with one person.

You giving them to only one person only means you have distributed stolen property only one time.

-dan

[SlugmasterP]

I have a set of CM93 charts and they aren't detailed at all for the coast and bays. It's my understanding that they are vector charts? I'm not sure what those are but I'm guessing they are just for determining distance and eta etc? If anybody could explain the purpose of them to me I'd be grateful. I wouldn't feel comfortable entering an unknown bay using just a CM93 on OpenCPN. Baja seems really hard to get electronic charts for as well. Is Navionics the way to go? Thanks

[dacust]

Originally Posted by SlugmasterP

I have a set of CM93 charts and they aren't detailed at all for the coast and bays. It's my understanding that they are vector charts? I'm not sure what those are but I'm guessing they are just for determining distance and eta etc? If anybody could explain the purpose of them to me I'd be grateful. I wouldn't feel comfortable entering an unknown bay using just a CM93 on OpenCPN. Baja seems really hard to get electronic charts for as well. Is Navionics the way to go? Thanks

Well, actually, the amount of detail and what they are for have nothing to do with the fact that they are vector charts.

Having little detail is due to one or both of the following.
1-CM93 charts are world wide, but have better coverage in some areas than in others. Some places they are dismal indeed.
2-If you don't have all the correct options checked in OpenCPN, you won't see all the details. Check in the OpenCPN subforum for answers on that.

Raster charts are simply scanned versions of paper charts. Bitmaps, basically. The charting software just takes that image and positions it on the screen where it should be geographically.

Vector charts are actually like a database. It is a list of features and where they are. The charting software looks at each item and draws it on the screen where it should be.

The advantages are that vector charts can show only the class of object(s) you want to see. When you zoom out, it can increase the size of the text to keep it readable. It can alarm if you get to a place where the chart says it is too shallow. It can change the soundings from fathoms to feet. Some software even shows lights lit up only if they should be able to be seen from your current location (taking into account the elevation of land between you and the light).

Vector charts also take up MUCH less disk space. This is one of the reasons that every stand-alone chartplotter I know has vector charts built in instead of raster.

But, the fact that vector charts remain clear and sharp no matter what the zoom level can lead people to zoom in further than the chart is accurate. And many people are just familiar with reading paper charts and so are more comfortable with raster charts.

Here, you can read a short piece I wrote on chart errors and accuracy.
==> Inland Waters Resources - Chart Errors

-dan