NavPak-32 Copyright(c) Global Navigation Software Co. 1984-1997 QUICK START INSTRUCTIONS NavPak is a graphic program for navigation on digital charts and maps. It can be used with scanned charts and maps, or without as a digital plotting sheet and drawing program. NavPak has a NMEA interface for satellite navigation (GPS), and a complete collection of traditional navigation tools and drawing tools. When NavPak is used with NMEA data, it will plot your position as a marker and track on the chart, automatically scroll chart, manage way points, and provide course and distance to a way point. This copy includes Beta testing functions to plot radar targets, show the radar cursor position, and calculate current set and drift using a compass and log interface. After testing is complete, registered users will receive a new copy if any significant changes are made. Double-click near a way point, track point or radar target, and the Search function will determine which point it is, and display a dialog box, with information about the point. The traditional tools include: Celestial sight reduction and plotting, star and planet finder, draw great circles, plot bearings, draw line relative, measure distance, advance LOP, and a time-speed- distance calculator. Graphic drawing tools include: plot markers, draw straight lines, draw freehand, color fill areas, and place text strings. All drawing and plotting can be saved as a Windows Metafile. Included with NavPak is a program called MapSetup. This program makes it easy to scan and calibrate your own charts to use with NavPak, and it can be used to check commercially available charts. MapSetup has a feature to convert NOAA/BSB (.kap), NOS/GEO, and NDI format charts to BMP (.bmp) or RLE (.rle) format for fast scrolling, and to allow updating with an image editing program. All charts should be checked and corrected with MapSetup before using for navigation. Charts can have significant errors in the placement of reference points, and in the header information, which defines projection parameters, scale, skew angle and scanning resolution. MapSetup and NavPak will not be affected by most errors in the chart header, since they calculate all this information from the placement of the reference points in the chart file. The location of the reference points defined can be checked and corrected using MapSetup. See "Chart.txt" and "MapSetup.txt" for more information. PROGRAM FILES The program executable files are NavPak32.exe, and MapSetup32.exe. Icons have the extension: .ico. Text files have the extension: .txt, and can be read using Windows Notepad, or any other text editor, or word processor, and they can be started from icons. DEMO COPIES Demo copies of NavPak are fully functional, except that they do not plot your GPS position and track. The demo copies can be used for coastal and celestial navigation, to experiment with scanning your own charts and maps, and converting BSB or NOS/GEO charts. The demo copy includes the following two sample bitmaps: 1. 11467_10.kap is a small inset from NOAA chart 11467. This sample is a BSB chart made by Chart Kit. 2. World.bmp is a map scanned in monochrome, with color added using Windows Paintbrush. This map is useful with the "Great Circle" function to determine waypoints for a transoceanic passage. Programs (.exe files) can be started by double clicking on the file name in Windows Explorer, or they can be setup to start from icons as follows: In the Windows 95 Start menu, select "Settings", then "Taskbar", then "Start menu programs", then "Add", and follow the dialog boxes. COMPATIBILITY NavPak-32 will run on Windows 95 and Windows NT. Registered copies can be supplied for computers without a coprocessor (SX CPU). Future versions of NavPak will have downward compatibility with charts, script files, track and way point files made for previous versions. USING THE PROGRAM To use NavPak with a bitmap, select "File" from the menu bar at the top of the screen, when the menu drops down, select "Open Chart..." which will present an Open File dialog box. A script file will be used to set the scale, georeference points, and variation when the image is loaded. The script file has the same name as the bitmap, with the extension .scr and must be in the same directory as the bitmap. If you're using a demo copy, the file "World.bmp" will appear in the files box if it is in the same directory as NavPak. Double click on the file name, and the bitmap will appear. The chart 11467_10 can be used after converting to a BMP or RLE format with MapSetup. When the bitmap is displayed, go to the "Screen" menu and select "Area Map". The "Area Map" is a miniature copy of the whole image, which will give you an overall perspective. Experiment by clicking a point on the "Area Map" with the left mouse button, and then clicking the right button to scroll the main window to the position indicated. Browse around the chart using the scroll bars, arrow keys, PgUp, PgDn, End and Home keys. With demo copies, all the features are available via the menus, the only limitation is that the demo will not plot your GPS track and position. To use NavPak without a bitmap, digitize a point near the center of the screen with the mouse, then select "Tools" from the menu bar. When the menu drops down, select "Manual Setup", and a dialog box will appear. Enter your assumed position in the appropriate boxes. You can leave the scale (pixels per minute) as is or enter any other positive number above .07. See "NavPak.txt" for more information about scale, and for more details about how to use NavPak. INDEX OF TEXT FILES NavPak.txt....... Command Reference, and general info for using NavPak. NMEA.txt......... Position plot, Track, Waypoint, Auto Pilot, Radar interface and Current Set/Drift functions. Chart.txt........ General info about chart formats and list of available charts. MapSetup.txt..... File conversion and calibrating scanned images. Metafile.txt..... Vector overlay image to store plotting and drawing. FAQ.txt.......... Frequently asked questions. Order.txt........ Disclaimer and ordering info. UNINSTALL PROGRAMS Launch "Add/Remove Programs" from the "Control Panel", highlight the application name, and click on the "Add/Remove..." push button. This will remove the program group from the Task Bar. After removing the program group, use Explorer or other file manager to delete the NavPak directory. NavPak and MapSetup do not install any hidden files on your system, and they do not make any changes to other files. /*** END ***/