Working With Zones

About Zones

BoatCruiser comes with the feature for creating customized Zones for any purpose required. Zones are areas of interest that can be defined by selecting successive Waypoints in the Main Chart View. Zones are shaded so that the area of interest is clearly defined. Below is an example of a Zone:

The Zone tool appears on the main tool bar. Note that the program must be open in main chart view, i.e., full screen, to see this icon. Also note that by taking the mouse pointer over the button, in one or two seconds a ToolTip will appear with a description of what that button does.

From establishing a shallow water territory to defining wind and current conditions within an area, clearly marked Zones will be a welcome added feature to the charting and navigating experience. In addition to defining an area of interest, a zone can also provide information such as alarms when entering or exiting a Zone, the perimeter and area that the Zone covers, and the location of the center of the Zone.

Any image, text, pdf or any other kind of document can be attached to the selected Zone. See help under the Managing Zones using NavManager.

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Creating A Zone

A Zone is created by adding waypoints in the Main Chart View. To start creating a Zone, click the Create Zone button on the Main Toolbar. Each time the left mouse button is clicked in the Main Chart View, a Waypoint will be placed at the point you clicked. Drag to create the first Leg of the zone. Click and repeat the process to create each leg of the Zone. To end Zone creation double left click on the last Waypoint to complete creating the Zone.

To add a Zone Waypoint to a location not visible in the Main Chart View, pan and/or zoom to the desired location first and then begin to create the Zone.

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Deleting A Zone

There are two ways to Delete a Zone:

• In NavManager, select Zones, then select the Zone(s) to delete. Click the delete button which is located in NavManager's toolbar.

• Alternatively, right click on one of the Legs, i.e., one of the boundary lines of a Zone, and select Delete from the menu which appears.

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Changing Zone Properties

Zone properties can be changed using NavManager. Changes can be made to the name, add a description, Hide or Unhide, Lock or Unlock, change the colour of the Zone, change the Waypoint icon, set the Alarm or reset the Coordinates.

• Select the Zone in NavManager. Double-click on the selected Zone. On the dialogue box that opens, change any of the properties of the Zone. Remember to click Apply and OK when finished. (Note: Wind and Current shown at the bottom of this image are only available in NC Pro.)

  

• Alternatively, edit the Zone properties by right-clicking on the Zone boundary, choosing Properties and choosing the appropriate topic from the menu which appears.
  

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Locking / Unlocking a Zone

• There are two ways to Lock/Unlock a Zone: In NavManager, select the Zone to Lock or Unlock, and click the Lock checkbox (underneath the padlock icon) to lock or unlock the Zone. (Note: the green callout with text will not appear on your screen. This is for demonstration purposes only.)
  

• Or, right-click on the boundary of the Zone and choose Lock or Unlock, as the case may be, from the menu which appears on the screen.
  

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Duplicating A Zone

Right-click on the boundary of the Zone to be duplicated. Choose Duplicate in the resulting submenu. Nothing will appear to change but, in fact, there will be a duplicate zone created exactly on top of the original zone.

Note that Zones can only be moved by resetting coordinates in NavManager or in the Properties window. Highlight the section of the zone you wish to change by clicking on the section and set new coordinates by typing in new information or using the pull-down menu to change. (Note that the orange callouts with text do not appear on the screen. They show here for demonstration purposes only.) Don't forget to click Apply and OK when finished.

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Moving a Zone Leg

Once a Zone has been created, either of the legs of the Zone can be moved at any time by left-clicking and holding on a waypoint , then dragging the waypoint to the desired position.

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Setting Alarms for a Zone

To set up alarms for a Zone, click on Tools on the main tool bar, click options, then choose Alarms/Ranges on the menu which appears.

When the Alarms/Ranges page opens, this is what shows:

(Changes are made by clicking on each section and overwriting text, or by using the small up and down arrows.) Don't forget to click Apply and OK when finished.

Adding An Attachment

There are two ways to add an attachment:

• One is to right-click on the border of the Zone and choose Properties. When the window opens, choose the Attachments tab at the top. Click on Add and browse to find the image or text file to attach. When the image is attached, a preview will open. Don't forget to click Apply and OK when finished.
  
  



• The other way to add an attachment is to go into NavManager, select Zones, select the Zone you wish to add the attachment to and double-click on the selected Zone. The Properties window above will open. Click on Add and browse to find the image or text file to attach. When the image is attached, a preview will open. Don't forget to click Apply and OK when finished.
  
  Once a text or image has been added, it can be deleted by highlighting the selection on under the tool bar and clicking Delete. Don't forget to click Apply and OK when finished. When finished, the preview window will be empty. (Note: the orange callout with text will not appear on the screen. It is shown here for demonstration purposes only.)

• The second way to add an attachment is to drag a file or image from the desktop. Click on the text file or image, hold and drag it from the desktop to the Zone and drop on top of the border of the Zone. Delete any attachment as described above.

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