MaxSea TimeZero

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It's been a long time since a forum has been established that will change the world. The first was a New York Jets Usenet newsgroup back in 1998, and now we have the Furuno USA Forum. I'd like to congratulate the powers that be that put the time and effort into making this a reality.

With that out of the way, I'd like to welcome everyone onboard as a dedicted Furuno Dealer as well as a Furunophile. I wanted to drop a post here in the MaxSea software forum for any and all who would like to know more about the capabilities of the TimeZero software suite, both Navigator, Explorer, & Professional. While I am not at the level of [Name Removed by Moderator] The Great, I will be monitoring this portion of the forum religiously in order to assist as well as learn from other dealers, users, and MaxSea software engineers.

In my opinion, as someone with a large amount of experience using other brands of navigation software, TimeZero stands head and shoulders above every other program on the market, for both the long-distance sailboat racer, to the hardcore sportfisherman. It's also been a great tool for the casual cruiser, whether using Navigator as a way to prepare routes and plan trips with the assistance of ActiveCaptain, and loading those routes and marks via the file export and conversion option within the software, as well as those with Explorer who have the means of connecting a notebook or shuttle PC to their NavNet system to provide not only route synchonization but the ability to take advantage of the PBG module and radar interface with both the DRS and FAR2XX7 systems.

So to anyone who is viewing this topic and is curious about how they could add MaxSea TimeZero to their system, even if they do not have a NavNet3D system onboard, feel free to ask any questions about the program and it's capabilities, and I along with others will be able to provide assistance in how to make the software become an invaluable tool for navigation.

Regards to all,

Chris Labozza
 
Welcome to the Furuno Forum Chris. Your help and experience is greatly appreciated.
 
Looking forward to getting some more use of my 3D and MaxSea....thanks for your help in advance Chris!!!
 
I have and have been using a demo version of this software within an existing Navnet system that includes Furuno 2117 ARPA Radar, DGPS, AIS and Echo Sounder. I must say I'm underwhelmed. At first blush this suite is very pretty, but realistically it's not appropriate for a professional application, the 12.7 version of MaxSea 7 is a better fit for commercial application. It's been trimmed down too much and some critical functionality (at least IMHO) is missing. I'll post more as I can later tonight.
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Okay, I've had a chance to put Time Zero through its paces and I'm not convinced it would serve very well as a commercial application without some major tweaking.
First I'll say that the "own ship" icon is missing the ability to be scalable and represent the actual length and beam in relation to the channel and/or other vessels when zoomed in. The AIS signatures of other vessels are scaled to their length and beam but not your own ship....hmmm. In tight quarters this function is worth having.
Instead there's a strange looking three dimensional image that expands as you mouse over the image and makes using it as a reference nearly impossible. The simple icon in MaxSea7 is a much better image in that you can actually see your true overall dimensions as you scale in or out on the chart. I use the icon's ability to scale in MaxSea 7 to accurately spot my anchor position, it's invaluable for many reasons not the least of which if you break an anchor rode, you'll be able to locate a really expensive anchor in short order. With this expanding icon, it could be anywhere in a diameter equal to the ship's length or more.

The tidal current information doesn't appear to use any accepted reference material that is freely available. The predicted times for slack current and max current bear no resemblance to any government pub I can find. What's up with that? The disparity may not affect a pleasure boat so much but slack current transits are necessary for many deep draft applications and accurately predicting that slack is the difference between a safe transit or a white knuckle event. Someone might want to check out Nobeltec's take on current and tidal prediction software since Furuno owns it now....

Is it too much to ask for a 24 hr clock?

The drop down UI in MaxSea7 for the AIS target info is missing and it is an important little UI since it allows the changing of one's status with the click of a mouse rather than dealing with a multi-key-press event on the Furuno F100 AIS unit. Eg; "underway using engine", "moored", "at anchor", etc.
The tracking function no longer allows naming .ptf layers as easily as before. In MaxSea7 the historic record can be called up with "windows explorer" and layers easily re-activated for reference.
The chart catalog UI has changed and doesn't allow a means to check the revision/edition dates of your installed raster library. This is a key function that should be resolved. Your chart catalog needs to be as current as possible and you have to be able to prove it. In MaxSea7 you can right-click the raster chart in use and choose "properties" and get your edition date and any pertinent revision dates at will. The chart manager is an especially useful UI. In Time Zero you're not given that functionality.
Overwriting the chart catalog with raster updates from NOAA was a chore, I had to delete the original catalog rather than just overwrite it. The MaxSea7 program is set up much better for keeping an up-to-date catalog. The vector library is useless as soon as you install it since you won't be able to use free updates from NOAA to keep them current. You'll need to rely on the vendor to convert the NOAA catalog to their proprietary format and sell it to you at intervals that make keeping a current and "correct as possible" catalog impossible and unnecessarily expensive.

The "center on" function offers no look ahead offset forcing you to drag the screen for a peek ahead and then reset the centering function.
Additionally, the scroll function present in MaxSea7 is not available in Time Zero's Nav window requiring a user to left-click and drag the screen instead of (in MaxSea7) the cursor changing to an arrow as you near the chart edge and a left click will scroll the chart until you let go.
I'll pass along any more info I have as I get it.
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I agree about the currents. I have reported errors. They don't match national reference data, even when they imply they use them as the source. It looks impressive visually, but when I choose a location I know well it doesn't match my experience or the standard referece tidal charts. Change of direction is the easiest way to notice errors, and this can be two hours out. How can the derived calculations be better than guesswork?
 
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