I've been using Autochart Pro since it was rebranded from Dr. Depth and have been using it to generate maps for my Humminbird fishfinder. I have found many limitations with the software, especially in regards to side scanning and map size. Most likely due to Autochart not being able to rely on hardware graphics acceleration. However I do have a few suggestions after I have been playing with my trial version for the last few days with a ton of my data over the last few years.

1. "Show sidescan". Could there be an option to remove data above a certain speed and to remove data when the heading changes above X amount? That way it would remove a lot of garbage data from the side scan data that is otherwise useless.

2. When adjusting the depth scale for the primary and secondary sonar it affects the horizontal scale for the primary and secondary as well as the vertical scale for the side scan.

3. I have noticed some stability issues with the program, sometimes from "simple" things such as changing the depth range of the data from the waypoints (eliminating the bad data in bulk), it will sometimes cause the program to freeze and crash.

I see huge potential with this software, so much so that I am setting up an automated mapping boat for 2018 and will be primarily using this software for processing the data.

Are these valid suggestions or possibly operator error?

Thanks Conrad.
1. Filters for curve and speed were present in RM1 and are going to be reintegrated with RM2 fairly soon - this can be a useful feature.
2. Yes, these are all linked. It is by design but we are always open to suggestions.
3. Please do send through any error reports if they happen as this really helps us to iron out any issues.

Matt wrote:
Any timelines on when these may be released? Weeks or months? Will the updates be "free" to members who have paid for RM2 as it is right now? Or is there a cost to upgrading?

I've still got quite a bit more testing I want to do with this software...but getting to learn how to use it, it's a really great piece of software! Just wish Humminbird opened up their mapping so it could export from RM to load into a Humminbird, but that'd kill Autochart sales so I could understand why they wouldn't want that.

Yes, a free update. We've only made one "paid for" upgrade in nearly 5 years, and that was the jump from v1.8 to 2. Expect plenty more updates and upgrades as part of the RM2 release cycle.

Which is totally understandable! I'd like to see what the side scan overlay on a 3D map would look like but it seems that the demo limits generating side scan layers. Or see what is possible with importing into Google Earth. Since this can't be generated through the demo is there a demo Reefmaster file that I can view to see this level of quality?

If you download this top-level KML file and open it within Google Earth you can see an export of some of our demo data as a KML SuperOverlay. A superoverlay is a multi-scale image, similar in some ways to map tiles, which downloads just the image data required for the current view extent and resolution.

Amazing stuff! In your (hopefully) unbiased opinion what have you seen provides the best side side that you've processed in Reefmaster? I'll be buying a copy of this software without a doubt!

No - this is not data we collected ourselves and was not recorded with heading data or higher precision GPS, so could be better (headings, in particular, can make a big difference). Also this is actually an export from RM1 so there is no swath blending/automatic closest signal selection or sharpening. Having said that, the source data is good (nice straight, parallel runs) and the subject matter is interesting (flooded town in dammed lake) so it does make for a good demo - but it would be better exported from the latest version of RM :)