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PolarView Quick Start
Guide
Managing Charts Press Ctrl+O or select menu File->Chart Manager to open Chart Manager. Press "Add Directory" button to add a directory containing ENC or RNC chart cells. Navigate to directory containing S57 or BSB chart cells and press "OK". Directory will be automatically scanned and all S57 and BSB cells found under it will be added to Chart Manager. To set cell replacement mode use "Existing cells:" selector. By default existing cells will be replaced with new cells of the same name. To remove cells, select cell rows from list and press "Delete" button. Use available ENC User permit to order S63 chart cells. To add S63 permits, click "Manage permits" button. In Permit Manager window, press "Add" button and navigate to permit file. Select the file and press "OK" to load. To enable or disable individual chart cells or groups of cells, select one or more cells and press a "+" or "-" button to enable or disable cells respectively. Disabled chart cells will be denoted as "Off" in status column. Navigating Around Chart Window Arrow keys - Pan chart view in appropriate direction Shift + Arrow keys - Faster panning of chart view Drag with mouse - Move chart view with mouse 'G' key, Right Mouse Menu->Go To Coordinates, View->Go To Coordinates - Enter coordinates of new location to recenter chart '+' or '1' - "Zoom in" (go to next larger scale) '-' or '2' - "Zoom out" (go to next smaller scale) 'Z', Right Mouse Menu->Zoom,View->Zoom - select "zoom level" (chart scale) directly '3', View->Rotate 10°CCW - rotate chart view 10° counter-clockwise '4', View->Rotate 10°CW - rotate chart view 10° clockwise '0', View->North UP - restore "North Up" orientation Double-click on a chart cell entry in Chart Manager to center on that cell. Ctrl+I - Open Object Information window. Once open, information about chart objects will be displayed by clicking mouse on any chart location. Working with Waypoints and Routes Shift-click on any chart location - start "Quick Route". Use this as a distance and bearing measurement tool. Move the mouse around and distance and bearing to current mouse pointer along with total route distance will be displayed. Current distance/bearing mode (Great Circle or Rhumb line) is set in Preferences menu. Shift-click again to place more route points. Distance/bearing from previous point and route total distance will be displayed. Esc key - pause current route editing. If in distance/bearing measurement mode (less than 2 route points placed on "Quick Route"), the route is removed. Shift-click on existing route point to activate it. Once activated, it can be moved to a new location just like a new route point. Shift-click again to place it in the new location. Press Esc key to return route point to its previous location. Press Backspace/Delete key to remove route point. Shift-click on existing route line to add route point in the middle of route line. Ctrl-click on any chart location to add new waypoint. Ctrl-click on existing waypoint to make it current. Move waypoint around, then place again with Ctrl-click. Press Esc key to return waypoint to its previous location. Press Backspace/Delete key to remove waypoint. Activate right-button mouse menu over the existing waypoint and select Edit Waypoint. Waypoint Information dialog will appear. Press Edit button to start editing. Press Save button to save changes. Routes can be "snapped" to waypoints. To do that, Shift-click the current route point over the existing waypoint. Route point will attach itself to the waypoint. Once attached, route point cannot be individually moved. Route point will move if waypoint is moved. To disconnect route point, select it as above and press Backspace/Delete to remove. Waypoints can be tagged with arbitrary tags. By default any new waypoint is a member of tags [All] and [Recent]. [Recent] contains 100 most recent waypoints. Working with Route and Waypoint Manager Press Ctrl+R or select menu Routes->Route Manager to open Route Manager. In Routes pane, press '+' button to add a new route. Press '-' to remove currently selected route. Press 'Copy' button to duplicate currently selected route. Double-click any route entry to toggle its visiblity on the chart. Visible entries will be marked with '>' symbol next to the name. In route points list, select route points and press Delete/Backspace button to remove them from route. Double click route point entry to recenter the chart on its location. Press 'Load' button to load routes from GPX or CSV file. Select file type and navigate to data file. Press OK to load data. Press 'Save' button to save currently selected route to GPX or CSV file. Select file type and destination file name. Press OK to save data. In Waypoints pane, you may add or remove a tag to/from multiple waypoints. Select desired waypoints from waypoint list. Type a new or chose an existing tag name from a tag name combo box located under tag list. Press '+' button to add the tag to selected waypoints. Press '-' button to remove the tag from selected waypoints. Double-click any tag entry to toggle visiblity of waypoints carrying this tag on the chart. Visible entries will be marked with '>' symbol next to the name. Press 'Load' button to load waypoints from GPX or CSV file. Select file type and navigate to data file. Press OK to load data. Press 'Save' button to save waypoints for a currently selected tag to GPX or CSV file. Select file type and destination file name. Press OK to save data. In Track pane you can load and save tracks in GPX or CSV format files. Additional track functionality is available in PolarIS. Working with GRIB data Press Ctrl+G or select menu File->Grib Manager to open Grib Manager. Weather pane provides control of locally stored GRIB files. Press "Load" button to load Grib file. Once file is loaded, entries for wind and pressure data with effective time will appear in the Grib Manager list. Use up & down arrow keys to navigate the list. Double click on Grib entry to center on the grid location. Options pane provides control of GRIB display options. You can toggle specific types of information to be displayed: wind, pressure and wave height. Download pane connects you to Polar Navy's "in-house" GRIB download service. To download GRIB data: - Select download area by either entering East-West and North-South boundaries in appropriate fields, or using "Select" option to select the area on a chart. Make sure that the area is at least 1 degree by 1 degree in size. - Select type of forecast model and model frequency. - Press "Download" button - data should be downloaded shortly. If you are behind an HTTP proxy, use Network pane in configuration dialog to enter host name and port of your HTTP proxy. Viewing tides and currents Press Ctrl+T or select menu File->Tide Manager to open Tide Manager. Data pane shows tide or current information for selected tide station. Select graph or text view to show data as either graph or text. Tide prediction duration can be varied between 1 and 7 days. Select dates from calendar to get predictions for future or past dates. To return to current date press "Today" button. Tide Stations pane shows current set of tide and current stations. You can limit the set of stations by distance (as measured from current center of visible chart). Press refresh button if you moved the chart, to re-filter the list. PolarView Tide Manager uses the standard TCD (Tide Constituent Database) files, compatible with a number of other tide prediction applications. You can select another tide database file by pressing "Select Database" button. Press "Default" button to return to the built-in tide database. To select a tide or current station on screen right-click on the tide or current station icon on the chart (represented by a small dual-colored circle) and select "Tides & Currents" from context menu. This will open Tide Manager and display tide information for the selected station. Arrows on current station icons denote the direction of flood and ebb current. |
PolarCOM Quick Start
Guide
PolarCOM is a multifunctional NMEA data processor, bridge and display. PolarCOM is designed to be used both as a self-contained application and as a data interface for PolarIS - our integrated navigation system. PolarCOM runs in a tray and all its functions can be accessed by right-clicking the tray icon or using specific "hot keys". Working with Serial IO Right click on PolarCOM tray icon and select Configure menu option. This will bring up configuration dialog. In the Ports pane click on "Add" button to bring up Port Add dialog. The default port type is a "Serial Port". From the combo box select appropriate port name (i.e. COM3). You can keep default values for port baud rate, input/output modes and connection timeouts. Uncheck "Activate on startup" checkbox if you do not wish this port to automatically activate whenever you run PolarCOM. Enter visible name for the port in the text box above and press "Add" button. The new serial port should appear in "Off" state in the list of ports. Select it from the port list and press "Start" button to activate. When connected to a serial port, the status will be set as "Running". If serial port is not available, port status will be set to "Waiting" pending connection of serial port device. To verify that data is being received right click on PolarCOM tray icon and select NMEA Terminal menu option. This will bring up a terminal window showing any incoming NMEA data. Working with Dial Panels PolarCOM processes NMEA information and displays it using a number of digital and analog dials. Dials can be placed on dial panels to create the best view appropriate to current mode of navigation. To create a new dial panel, open Configure dialog and select Instruments pane. Press "Add" button to add a new dial panel. The panel is created empty. You can rename the panel by Ctrl-clicking its name in the instrument panel list. The grid on the right hand side represents possible dial locations on the panel. Select a location from the grid, select desired dial from the drop down box below and press "Change" button to place a dial in that location. Dial will be drawn immediately. To remove the dial, select its location in the grid, choose "<empty>" from the drop-down list and press "Change" button. For best view resize dial panels by first adjusting the width until desired text or analog display size is achieved, then adjusting height to place the entire dial in view. Right click on dial panel to reach context menu. You can toggle each dial panel to stay on top of all other applications, and to be transparent. Dial panels can be toggled on and off screen using system-wide "hot keys". The default "hot key" combination is Shift+Alt. This combination can be changed in Configuration pane. Press "hot key" combination and a number key (0 - 9) from the main keyboard, to bring appropriate dial panel to main screen or remove it from view. Working with Alarms PolarCOM maintains a number of ship and navigation metrics and provides audio and visual alarms when specified limits are reached. Arrival and XTE (cross track error) alarms operate in conjunction with PolarIS ship navigation mode. To open Alarms dialog right click on PolarCOM tray icon and select menu option Alarms, or press "hot key" combination together with letter 'A'. Settings pane of Alarms dialog provides entry for the following alarm and limit types: Arrival Alarm - Alarm mode - select from a single chime, a continuous alarm, or no alarm modes. - Select action to be performed upon arrival at waypoint. PolarCOM can go to next route point automatically upon reaching desired way point, wait for user to dismiss Arrival alarm before moving on to next route point, or do nothing. In the latter case user would need to activate next route point from PolarIS navigation menu. - Enter distance (in specified units) from route point - when the vessel is at this distance from desired point, alarm will be activated and point will be considered "arrived at". Depth Alarm - Check the check-box to turn depth alarm on. - Enter minimum depth value for alarm to activate. - Optionally enter your vessel's draft and transducer offset. Positive transducer offset is from water surface, negative is from keel. Offsets may be used to calculate water depth from NMEA messages that carry only depth under transducer or keel. Anchor Drag Alarm - Check the check-box to turn anchor alarm on. Once alarm is turned on, if PolarIS is connected, an anchor circle will be shown around the ship to indicate anchorage boundary area. - Enter maximum anchorage area swing radius. This defines the size of boundary circle. If the vessel travels outside the circle, alarm will sound. XTE (Cross Track Error) Alarm - Check the check-box to turn XTE alarm on. - Enter maximum XTE distance in the text entry field. If vessel is following a route specified in PolarIS, alarm will sound if vessel cross track error exceeds this value. You can close the Alarm dialog, once all the settings are set. Alarm dialog will be brought up automatically if any of the alarms are triggered. |
PolarIS Quick Start
Guide
PolarIS is an integrated navigation solution combining data processing capabilities of PolarCOM with chart display and route management functionality of PolarView. You will need to obtain a license to activate navigation functionality - once activated, PolarView will change it's identity to PolarIS. Live Ship View - Make sure PolarCOM is operational and receives data from GPS or other NMEA input providing position information. - In PolarIS select Comm->Connect to PolarCOM menu. You should see a ship icon on the chart. - Select Comm->Go To Ship or press 'S' key to bring ship in the center of screen. Chart view will move to maintain ship position. - Two modes of ship view are available - "course up" and user-defined. In "course-up" mode chart will be continuously rotated to match the course of the vessel. In user defined mode chart can be left in "North-up" orientation or turned to arbitrary angle using standard chart controls. Chart view mode is controlled by "Keep course up" check-box from Preferences dialog Ship pane. - Use "Show position circles" option from Preferences dialog Ship pane you can toggle display of "radar rings" showing circles of specific distance around your vessel. - Use "Show ship heading" option from Preferences dialog Ship pane to show a heading line and orient vessel icon in line with heading, rather than course over ground. This option requires heading input available from your NMEA network. When turned off, or if heading information is not available, ship will be drawn aligned with course over ground. Navigation and Working with Routes PolarIS creates a special "navigation route" to be followed by the vessel. This route is shared between PolarIS and PolarCOM. Navigation route is shown in red in daytime chart palette. Once navigation route is established, it will be maintained by PolarCOM if you close PolarIS and will be restored and shown on the chart if PolarIS is restarted. - 'N', Right Mouse Menu->Navigate - access Navigation sub-menu. The following navigation options are available: - Navigate here - a navigation route from current ship position to position under mouse pointer will be created - Navigate to waypoint - this option will only be active if mouse pointer is placed on a waypoint on the chart. A route from current ship position to this waypoint will be created. - Navigate Route - this option will only be active if current route is available. Navigation route will be created using a copy of the current route. First leg of navigation route will follow from current ship position to the first route point of the original route. - Navigate Route from Here - this option will only be active if current route is available and mouse pointer is placed on one of the route legs or points. A new navigation route will be created using a copy of current route with the first leg from current ship position to selected point on the route. - Next Route Point - when navigating a route, you can switch to the next defined route point. - Previous Route Point - when navigating a route, you can switch to the previous defined route point. - Stop Navigation - clears navigation route and stops navigation. Tracks Tracks are automatically created while ship position is shown on the chart. Two track modes are available, controlled from Preferences dialog Tracks pane. - An adaptive track mode attempts to create tracks that follow vessel movement as closely as possible, while avoiding unnecessary track points. In this mode you can control relative precision of track point creation. Specific intervals will be automatically determined. - A traditional periodic track mode will create a new track point at a pre-defined time interval. Tracks can be viewed in Tracks pane of Route & Waypoint manager. They will be named based on starting date of a given track. |