The Navigate Tab is used to display the current sets of charts along with any additional objects, such as waypoints, routes, AIS targets, and your vessel's position.
SEAiq works like most iPad apps using the standard gestures for panning, zooming, and rotating the display.
When you first open SEAiq you will see the base chart of the world. Any charts you have downloaded will show up as light magenta outlines on the display. You can see the chart by zooming into the display.
SEAiq uses "chart quilting" algorithms to automatically select which charts to display depending on what charts are covered by the area of the display, the scales of the charts, and how far zoomed in you are. Additionally, most vector charts provide so-called SCAMIN information that tells SEAiq at what scale different features should show up. This helps reduce clutter and is part of what gives vector charts their "smooth scaling."
The chart display aims to follow the relevant International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) standards. Symbols and other display characteristics come from the S-52 standard. Symbols are specifically generated for your displays characteristics.
A number of aspects of the chart display can be changed according to your preferences. These include: units for depth soundings, colors to assign different water depths, and color modes to protect your night vision. See the Settings section for more information.
If you want to know what any symbol represents you can double tap on it and select "Details for this Location". You will be presented with a list of symbols near where you touched and what feature is represents. Most features have more information and you can read it by pressing the detail button on the row.
We encourage new users to try this feature out. Many mariners are not aware how much information is stored in vector charts, in part because most chart plotters either strip this information out or don't make it accessible. SEAiq attempts to make it easy for you to access all information.
On the left side of the display is a scale bar indicating the current display scale. In some cases the entire scale bar may not be visible.
If the scale bar is black and grey, then it represents 10nm in length. It is divided into 5 segments of equal length.
If the scale bar is orange and grey, it represents 1nm in length. It is divided into 10 segments, each one cable (0.1nm) in length.
The top left corner of the Navigation tab is an orange compass rose indicating direction of True North on the display. If you rotate the display, this symbol will rotate as well.
If you want to rotate back to True North-up, you can touch this symbol and the display will rotate back to True North being up.
If you have a GPS fix, the display will show your vessel in its current location. If course information is also available, it will show that as well using an arrow. If you want the display to follow your vessel's location, you can touch the grey arrow in the top right of the display. It will turn magenta and center your vessel on the display.
You can enter Course-Up Mode from Follow Vessel Mode by touching the arrow again. The magenta arrow will change to pointing upwards and the display rotated so the vessel's current course is upwards.
SEAiq has two status bars that are used to present sensor data and other information to the user. The top status bar appears on the top of the navigation display, while the side status bar appears on the side of the navigation display. They are similar in some ways though the side status bar includes many advanced features not available in the top status bar. The bars can be controlled through the Status Bar section of the Settings tab.
Buttons on the top and hand side are used to control which status bar (if any) should be displayed. Note that on smart phones the side status bar is displayed in full-screen in portrait mode, due to lack of screen space.