BoatCruiser 2.0.20.5, NavCruiser Pro 2.0.20.5 and SailCruiser 2.0.19.5
Thursday, August 14, 2008

General

• Added Message Box asking the user if they want to quit the application.
• Imporved the Water Level Table Display.(NavCruiser Pro Only). The table contains all relevant information obtained from the AIS message plus the Water Level Direction (Up/Slack/Down) column and the Age column to reflect the time of received data.
• Added Font changing context menus for WaterLevel table, AIS Target table and ETA List.
• Added option for the origin of COG vector location. By default it is located at the GPS Offset. Center of the ship and the offset with Y=0 (CenterLine) are two other options
• Added QuickInfo Form for display information about select objects
  • Added options for changing font size and docking the QuickInfo Form.
  • Left clicking in form closes it.
  • Pushing + or - will increase and decrease the font size.
• Implemented the Undo function for moving WPs, Route, Zones and Markers.
• Added options to the Gyro Device to update the AIS positioning device ROT and HDG using the HDG and ROT from the gyro.
• Changed the option for ROT Predictor where the user can choose the number of predicted headings within the time interval (NavCruiser Pro Only). These options are located in Boat/Vessel Options.
• Added unit configuration options to distinguish between short and long distances. Added combinations for feet/Nm, meter/km and meter/Nm, for which you can set the individual thresholds.
• Added Chart View Options page in Tool/Options to display the different options for follow modes and chart view rotation modes. Added new follow mode options:
  • Center - Keeps the boat at the center of the screen.
  • Screen - Allows the boat to move across the screen and when it reaches the edge of the screen it is move back to the other edge.
  • Ellipse - Allows the boat moves around the screen on an ellipse where there is more space in front of the boat than behind. As the boat heading changes the screen position of the boat changes. Panning the screen will increase and decrease the size of the ellipse.

• Fixed the process of updating our Products on the Vista operating system. Fixed the bug with the AIS Targets not being drawn correctly when not to scale.

• Optimize the drawing and loading of S57 Charts on Primary and on Secondary Chart View (NavCruiser Pro Only).
• Added a cleared date and an ARE table to BSB Chart Properties Page. ARE table list the updates applied to the BSB chart. Clicking on the items in the ARE table will cause the chart view to jump to the location of the update

• Added options to turn on the AIS target names and adjust the text size. CTRL-L toggles the showing of the names.
• Added draught column to the AIS target table.
• Added the Meeting Spot (MS) (NavCruiser Pro Only) feature to the AIS display. To find the MS (blue or green spot) with the selected target for oncoming and overtaking ships your ship and the selected target have to be within the span of the activated route. Use Ctrl-E to toggle between choosing the current speed of the ship (green MS) or the speed set for the route (blue MS - a combination of the current speed of your ship and the speed on all legs up to the MS) as a basis for the calculation of the MS ETA time. The MS ETA time is also displayed.
• Added Follow Selected AIS Target ('buddy') feature in the Secondary Chart View. The Follow Target icon (that can be added from the Tools/Customize Toolbar Menu) controls the position of the target on Secondary Chart View the same way the Follow Vessel mode toggles this feature on the Primary Chart View for your own ship.

BoatCruiser 2.0.19.8, NavCruiser Pro 2.0.19.5 and SailCruiser 2.0.18.4
Friday, Febuary 29, 2008

New Features

• Added a Water Level Table for the St. Lawrence Seaway AIS Messages.(NavCruiser Pro Only)
  The following options are access by right clicking on the table:
  • Show All/Show Flag option.
  • Show UTC/Local Reference Time.
• Added the Notices to Navigation. (NavCruiser Pro Only)
• Added the yellow shoal icon for notices that contains shoals information. (NavCruiser Pro Only)
• Added the Data Source Selector which allows the user to switch between C-Map and Other data source easily.
• Added menu items to the chart context menu to changed the Shallow/Safety/Deep contours values. Only available in the Other Data Source with S-57 charts loaded.
• Added Online help menu item for opening the HTML and PDF version of help on our website.

• Fixed a bug with importing of tracks from C-Map Card Reader.
• Fixed a bug with printing of navigational objects on the chart.
• Fixed the loading of Chart View on Start Up.
• Fixed the issue with Chart Import Wizard given red error messages when the chart/update was already imported. If the Chart or Update already exists then a green message is display.
• Fixed the updating of BSB Charts.
• Fixed an issue with the updating of S-57 charts no being saved.
• Removed and over zoom icon and added red background to the scale bar when the current chart is over zoomed.

BoatCruiser 2.0.18.3, NavCruiser Pro 2.0.18.6 and SailCruiser 2.0.17.3
Wednesday December 12, 2007

New Features

• Added support for Auto Chart Update Add-On in BoatCruiser and SailCruiser.
• Added Auto Chart Update Add-On to NavCruiser Pro.

• Fixed a bug with the ETA on waypoints being 1/1/1 in NavCruiser Pro and BoatCruiser.
• Fixed an exception with the zoom box tool.
• Fixed a bug with the Auto Chart Update Add-On which indicated there were updates available for the charts even when there was no update available.

BoatCruiser 2.0.17.3, NavCruiser Pro 2.0.17.3 and SailCruiser 2.0.16.3
Friday November 23, 2007

New Features

• Added the recording of depth values and water temperatures which can be view in the TimeMachine.
• Added a CHS Downloader/Imported Wizard. (NavCruiser Pro Only)
• Added the display of S-57 update dates to the Chart Properties Page and to NavManager.
• Added file links for S-57 Chart file Notices to Chart Properties Page and to NavManager.
• Added the GoTo Boat to the toolbar.
• Added the description box for Annotations.
• Added the display of Draft for AIS targets.
• Improved the importing of S-57 Charts and the updates. When a S-57 chart is being imported the edition and updates dates are now being displayed in the import dialog.
• Added options for changing the colours and line thickness of AIS target ships COG and SOG line.

• Fixed the marker entry and exit alarms.
• Fixed the adding of attachments to waypoints.
• Fixed a bug when sending a route with a long name and the route contains a lot of waypoints.
• Fixed the saving of column widths for the route properties.
• Fixed the displaying of tacking for routes received from the GPS. (SailCruiser Only)
• Fixed the updating of S-57 charts. Some updates were not being applied correctly.
• Fixed the deleting of charts for the Other Data Source. An exception was occurring if the user deleted a large number of charts.
• Fixed the S-57 thumbnails.
• Fixed the tide dialog for displaying C-Map Tides.
• Fixed a bug with reading and writing registry strings with unicode characters.
• Fixed the bug with the depth contours not always being displayed.
• Remove the apply S-57 update menu item. The users can update there charts using the Import Chart Wizard.

• Soundings duplicated on overlapping charts.

BoatCruiser 2.0.16.0, NavCruiser Pro 2.0.16.0 and SailCruiser 2.0.15.0
Tuesday August 21, 2007

New Features

• Added a green ghost ship to show the predicted position of the selected AIS Target ship. The predicted position is calculated using the current target ship speed, course and age of the last position report.

• The Station time zone is now the default time zone for the Tidal Dialog.
• Fixed a bug with the saving of the View->Layers->Marina's locations option.
• Fixed the Printing of objects on the charts. All the objects are now drawn on the chart.
• Fixed a bug when clicking on the Maptech tide stations in the properties. It was sometimes showing the incorrect tide station in the Tide Dialog.
• Fixed the bug with the Tripometer cells not updating correctly.
• Fixed the importing and exporting of routes from C-Card.
• Fixed the saving of the columns orders in the route properties table.
• Fixed the sorting of the waypoint index columns in the route properties table.
• Fixed the bug with the ETA not showing seconds when the options Show seconds in time interval was checked.
• Fixed the Connect on Start-up option for Autopilot.

BoatCruiser 2.0 and NavCruiser Pro Version 2.0.15.2
Thursday, June 28, 2007

New Features

• Added the display of position accuracy information for the AIS Positioning Device.
• Added options to the AIS Device Setup page to allow the primary device to use the HDG and ROT information from the AIS Device.
• The course information for a track point is set when transferring tracks from the C-Card.
• Added Gyro offset option to the Gyro Device.
• Enhanced support for receiving Garmin position fixes.
• Added option to turn on/off the Anemometer data filtering. The data filtering reduces jumping of wind data by calculating the average wind direction to achieve a more stable reading.
• Added the ability to calculate True Wind data (direction and speed) when only relative wind data are provided via anemometer.

• Fixed a bug for TTG time say 0:0 < 1m.
• Fixed a bug for the formatting of TTG. The TTG with no units is displayed as 00:00:00.
• Fixed a problem with the gyro not updating the true heading of the primary position device.
• Connection on start up is now working for all devices.
• Fixed problem with status bar icons. It is now updating after starting in night mode and switching to Day mode.
• Fixed the Anemometer / Wind Instrument reading of data.

SailCruiser Version 2.0.14.47
Tuesday, June 11, 2007

New Features

• Add option for switching routes between motoring/sailing. When sailing, the TTG and ETA times will be based on tacking and wind conditions, when motoring the TTG and ETA times will be based on straight line calculations.
• Improved tacking information on waypoints/marks. When you click on a mark/waypoint you will receive actual and optimal data for ETA, TTG, and Distance.
• The optimal tack and the actual tack will be drawn from the boats position to Active Waypoint.
• Added option to turn on/off Anemometer data filtering. The data filtering reduces jumping of wind data by calculating the average wind direction to achieve a more stable reading.
• Added ability to calculate True Wind data (direction and speed) when only relative wind data are provided via anemometer.
• The wind arrow color now changes to green if there is connection to GPS and to anemometer (at the same time) and red when you are in Dead-Reckoning (DR) mode.
• Added Autopilot compatibility.

• Importing and exporting routes between SailCruiser and BoatCruiser has been fixed.
• Fixed the import and export of routes to CSV files.
• Fixed the duplicated route problem where the tacking was not showing up on a duplicated route.
• Fixed reading of Anemometer data.

Version 2.0.14.0
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

New Features

• Added text to the chart import wizard to tell the users that this wizard is not for C-Map charts.
• CTR+R shortcut key now toggles the recording.
• Added advance options setting to the C-Map Options. The settings allow the user to control advance chart options such as chart lock, virtual cartography, and etc.

• Fix the problem with COG being set to N/A when there was valid COG information.
• Removed the Duplicated data being shown for AIS Ships.
• The QuickInfo box is visible longer. Before moving the mouse by one pixel would cause it to disappear.
• The GPS GLL was being set as an invalid sentence when it only contains 4 tokens.
• Fixed the display of ETA, TTG, and etc information in playback.
• Fixed the go to coordinate problem where the CMapView was going to Level J.
• Fixed the problem with the default layouts disappear after installing an update.

Version 2.0.13.4
Monday, March 19, 2007

New Features

• Hooked up display of S-57 depth contours to the display category. If the display category is set to base, then only the safety contour (or next higher conotour if the safety contour does not exist) will be drawn.
• Added display of depth contour vales for S-57 vector charts
• Changed the options for C-Map and S-57 back to the way they were before the last update. Now all chart types will have independent options controlling them. Our concern was that there would be too many opitons for the user to understand once we add support for the 3rd vector chart type, C-Map Max Pro. However some users like to be able to control chats individually, as in using S-57 for the primary display and C-Map with all options off for the secondary display for viewing AIS targets. Most users will only be using one chart type so adding more options that wont use is not that bad anyway.
• Added hour glass cursor when switching layouts, to indicate the process is lengthy.
• Added option to hide / show the vessel.
• Added the ability to move route legs parallel to themselves.
• Cross track error (XTE) computation has been changed. XTE used to be calculated as the perpendicular distance from the GPS / AIS position fix (antenna location) to the current leg of the active route. The problem with this was that it does not take into account the GPS / AIS offset. We now use point on the center line of ship where a perpendicualr to the center line would intersect the GPS / AIS offset. If the ships heading is significantly different than the intented course to steer of the current leg, we run into the problem of what point on the ship should be used for XTE calcuations. We will use the point mentioned above since it is close enough.
• Added option to turn off AIS & GPS vessels independently.
• Added more error checking / logging to find problems with too many regions (graphics objects) being created, resulting in OutOfMemory exceptions.
• Added print options to printing from NavManager to allow user to change page options such as margins and landscape / portrait mode.
• Added display of own ship (from AIS via Pilot Plug) data as a layout cell, and as quick info on hover.
• Changed the behavior of the program if the user tries to start a second copy of BoatCruiser. Before we displaed a message to the user indicating that BoatCruiser was already running. Now we just bring the main window for BoatCruiser to the front.
• Added an option to turn off S-57 safety contour highlighting.
• Renamed "Distance To End" to "Distance to Dest" for consistency.
• Changed deadreckoning so that it is on by default in products other than NavCruiser PRO. Many people are used to seeing their boat on screen, even without a GPS connection. This was turned off by default for the NavCruiser PRO users who do not want to see their vessel unless there is a valid position fix available.
• Added a toolbar button to turn deadreckoning on/off.
• Added options to turn on/off days and seconds in time intervals (e.g. TTG DEST, TTG WP, etc.). If days are turned off, hours are incremented by days X 24. Dayrs are not displayed if days = 0, even if the option is turned on. Seconds are displayed when the seconds option is turned on even if seconds = 0. Hours and minutes are always displayed if text cell units are turned off. Both hours and minutes are not displayed when their values are 0 and text cell units are turned on. If text cell units are turned on days, hours, minutes, and seconds are abbreviated as d,h,m,s respectively. If text cell units are turned off, hours, minutes and seconds are separated by colons (:), and days and hours are separated by a dash (-).

  	Text Cell Units Off	Text Cell Units On
  d off, s off	30:31	30h 31m
  d on, s off	1-6:31	1d 6h 31m
  d off, s on	30:31:4	30h 31m 4s
  d on, s on	1-30:31:4	1d 6h 31m 4s

• Changed the behavior of the "New Window" menu item so the form generated is not maximized to full screen. This was covering up the main application window, resulting in some confusion as to what just happened to the uninformed user.
• Improved the performance of the prgram when playing back a track.
• Renamed "Activate Route From This Waypoint" to "Activate Waypoint"
• Added ability to insert a waypoint to a route using a clearing line. By right-clicking on the leg of a route and selectig "Insert Waypoint with Clearing Line", a set of cross-hairs that extend to the edges of the screen apper and are parallel to the route leg clicked on. The line of the cross-hair perpendicular to the leg is the "Clearing Line". When the left mouse button is clicked, a waypoint will be inserted at the intersection of the route leg and the "Clearing Line".
• Added a timeout to the check for updates so that the program does not freeze if there is no response from the navsim web server within a 5 second period.
• Added keyboard shortcuts for to go to world (CTRL+W), move boat to center of screen (CTRL+SHIFT+W), move boat to cursor (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+B), zoom in 2X (SHIFT+ADD), zoom out 2X (SHIFT+SUBTRACT) zoom out 10X (Page Down), zoom in 10X (Page Up)
• Added a track to route converter to the context menu for a track (right click a track and click "To Route"). The conversion adds a wayponit every time the course changes by more than 1 degree.
• Added options to select COM ports and baud rates to search in the Device Wizard.
• Added support for updating S-57 charts via notice to mariner files (.001, .002, etc.)
• Added alarms to the Autopilot warning when the position fix is lost or when switching to dead reckoning. An option has been added to allow the autopilot to function when deadreckoning is enabled. By default this option is off.
• Added an "Autopilot Output" window so the user can see all NMEA sentences generated by our software that are being sent to the autopilot. This will enable better testing of the autopilot.
• Added a GPS Quality Indicator layout item (called GPS - QUALITY) indicating the type of position fix (GPS, DPGS, PPS, etc.).
• Changed the way properties for routes work when clicking on a waypoint. Clicking on a waypoint brings up the properties for that waypoint and not the properties for the entire route.
• Added an option to control the display for time interval units (e.g. predictor lines under the vessel options). This fixes the problem of such units switching back to seconds. The default setting is minutes.
• Combined vessel predictor and predictor lines under the vessel options into a single set of controls labeled predictor. Vessel predictor has been renamed to ROT predictor and Heading predictor has been renamed to HDG. There are now separate look ahead times for the COG and HDG predictor lines.
• Modified our track to route converter so the minimum distance between waypoints is 0.1 nautical miles. Waypoints are also added when we detect a change in speed of 1 knot or more.
• Added quick info for "own boat / ship" on mouse hover, showing name, length, beam and draft. Clicking on your vessel also brings up the properties for your vessel.
• Added options to control the track 2 route conversion process. Options are available under Tools->Options->Track To Route.
• Added a help button to the device setup pages and the options pages. Clicking this help button brings up the help file for the appropriate options or device.
• Added horizontal scroll bars to the properties windows
• Added quick info for C-Map (point) objects, on hover. This is to compensate for the fact that C-Map does not have the option to display light descriptions on the chart.
• Added option to use custom images for markers. Now the user is not constrained to only use the built in set of marker images. Normally icons are 16 x 16 (pixels), but the user could choose a file bigger than this, in which case the image will be drawn at full size centered around the markers coordinate (no zooming / scaling of images takes place). The user must ensure that the image is not too large. In the future we will consider adding opitons to control the placement and size of the custom marker icons.

• Fixed problem with some random lines being drawn on the screen. This is a result of drawing the vessel and related items (predictior lines, etc) when the vessel is off the screen.
• Fixed importing / exporting of objects with attachments to NSO files.
• S-57 settings will be restored from the VectorChartOptions (if present). VectorChartOptions have been removewd since some customers do not care to have options for different charts types combined.
• If for some reason the database becomes corrupt, the database is renamed and a new database is created. This will stop the program from crashing in the event of a save when the power goes off (for example).
• Fixed bug where magnetic heading was being used to update true heading. Although the magnetic heading was being converted to true heading, there was a slight variation between the computed true heading and the true heading being sent by the positioning device, in the event where the device was sending both true and magnetic heading.
• Fixed problem with ARPAOptions not being imported correctly from old databases.
• Fixed problem of retrieving some objects from database causing the program to crash.
• Fixed problem swithcing layouts. Drawing in the primary and secondary chart view were not being turned off while switching layouts, which was causing some errors to occur.
• Fixed problem with layouts that was causing error messages to be written to the error logs. The problem was that columns could not contain columns and rows could not contain rows in the layouts file. This was fixed by allowing columns within columns and rows within rows.
• Fixed problem with stopping a simulation for a long route was not working correctly.
• Fixed bug with predictior value in BoatOptions not updating correctly.
• Fixed problem with cursor not updating correctly after deleting a distance tool via right click.
• Fixed problem where text cell selector text not being updated when text cells are moved via a drag drop operation.
• Fixed problems with the device manager sometimes not finding connected devices. Also reorganized the searching mechanism so that the most common configurations are searched first.
• Fixed inverted route leg info when anti-aliasing is turned off.
• Fixed problems with the last build including: Active waypoint not switching when vessel passes waypoint on the active route; Clicking on an AIS target causing an exception to happen; Recording using deadreckoning while in playback mode was not adding the deadreckoning position to the active track; Text cells were not updating in playback.
• Fixed an issue with tracks where the thumbnail was not being updated when the track is modified.
• Fixed the highway view while in playback mode.
• Fixed problem with color modes not working correctly caused by a recent chnage.
• Fixed problem with moving of waypoints causing last modified waypoint to jump back to its original position.
• Fixed problem with inserting waypoint with clearing line not keeping the same course line for the new legs after the insertion.
• Fixed problem changing colors not updating until a layout switch
• Fixed problem with vessel not moving in the secondary view if follow boat is turned on.
• Fixed problem with missing Date/Time text cells.
• Fixed problem with using the up and down arrows to select layout cells causing the chart to pan.

Version 2.0.11.0
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Common settings between C-Map and S-57 have been combined into a new 'Vector Chart Options' page. Unfortunately you will have to setup these settings again after this update. Sorry for any inconvenience.

New Features

• Added option to connect AIS to a specified web address and port number. This allows a user to see AIS targets at home using an internet connection. There are several sites which provided live AIS data over the internet.
• Added Vector Chart Options to "Tools->Options->All..." in the main menu
• Added anti-aliasing to S-57 charts for visual appeal
• The quick info window now disappears on mouse leave
• Added option to turn the Toolbar on and off. This option is under "View->Toolbar".
• Added a link to the beta web page to the help menu of BoatCruiser Beta.
• Changed the date displayed for charts in the NavManager to use the issue date of the chart, as opposed to the import date.
• Added shortcut key (CTRL+M) and toolbar button to add a marker at the current position fix.
• Added feature to allow spacers to be added to the toolbar. To add a spacer, click the "Insert Spacer" in the "Customize Toolbar Dialog". A "spacer" button will be added that can be manipulated in the same manner as all other buttons, with the exception that removal of a spacer does not add the spacer to the optional buttons list.
• Added option to allow choosing columns in the route table. Right clicking on the route table brings up a menu of all available columns and clicking on a column name toggles the column on and off.
• Added a new options page called "Vector Chart Options" which combines common settings from C-Map, C-Map Max Pro (comming soon) and S-57. This was done to reduce duplicate information, so the user only needs to set the values in one plcae.
• Included layouts as files in the installer as opposed to embedding them in the program. This makes removing layouts from some products (such as fuel from SailCruiser) much easier.
• Changed the zoom box tool so it does not reset on mouse up. This allows the user to keep zooming in using the Zoom Box tool without having to click the zoom box tool button for each zoom.
• Added error logging to the release versions of our software to help with customer support. When the error log directory contains more than 10 error logs, they are compressed into a zip file.
• Deadlock (program lockup) detection has been added to the release versions of our software. This was added to help with customer support. Previously the deadlock detection file was called "ThreadLockDiagnostics.txt". Now there is a folder called "Deadlocks" and a file is generated for each time the program is run and a deadlock is detected.
• Added Name, MMSI, and Call Sign columns to the AIS target list view. Before there was a single column called ID and the text was one of name, mmsi or call sign depending on what option was selected for ID Method in AIS/ARPA options.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed problem where some NOAA S-57 vector charts were not importing
• Increased the speed of importing S-57 vector charts. Import times have been reduced by 35%.
• Fixed problem with buoys not showing circle at precise position on S-57 charts
• Fixed incorrect water level times in the St. Lawrence Seway over AIS
• Improved the speed of switching color modes
• Fixed many problems where the program was locking up
• Fixed bug with chart objects not showing up on double click
• Fixed problem of units not being displayed in the correct values in the properties pages
• Fixed problem with vessel predictor time switching to 1160 seconds
• Fixed problem with "View->Scale->..." not working in the secondary view
• Optimized drawing on startup so drawing is turned off until the program is fully loaded
• Fixed bug with updating S-57 charts where updates were being applied even if the updates were older than the chart. This was causing some charts not be displayed correctly and some chart objects not to be displayed properly.
• Fixed problem of hidden message box appearing after importing a layout, causing the program to appear locked.
• Fixed problem where toolbar was not changing color modes properly
• Fixed problem where com ports were being closed when an error occured during a send or receive. This was causing data to stop flowing, resulting in timeouts. Instead of closing the com port, we now just clear the com port errors (using ClearCommError) and continue reading data.
• Fixed small problem where the layouts were not closing from the contenxt menu on the layout tabs at the bottom of the main window.
• Fixed bug with resizing of layout cells when removing the 2nd last cell
• Fixed problem with AIS list not removing targets with no position fixes
• Fixed problem with S-57 vector charts not being displayed due to missing coverage areas. The standard says that coverage areas are mandatory, however we should still display thse charts even in they are not fully formed. To do this we just use the bounding box around all chart objects as the coverage area.

Version 2.0.10.6
Friday, November 10, 2006

Note: Com Port and baud rate settings for devices (AIS, GPS, etc.) will need to be reset after this update.

New Features

• Added dual offsets for GPS antenna for AIS and GPS - before we only had the single offset.
• Saving of the NMEA logger settings (com port and baud rate)
• Updating of S-57's by using the chart import wizard
• An option to change route thickness has been added to the general options
• Shoals for the Montreal - Quebec region have been added
• Check for updates now occurs every time the program starts.
• Added option to turn on recording at startup
• The recorded tracks are now named in sequence (e.g. track 127) instead of 'ACTIVE TRACK'
• Device status bar has been changed to use green/yellow/red icons to indicate ok/warning/error states, respectively. Green indicates that the port is open and data is being received. Red indicates that the port is open but no data is being received (user must check physical connection to device). Red indicates that the port has been closed.
• A new ship shape (tapered stern) has been added to the vessel options.
• Added a speed alarm
• Added Radar EBL 2 & VRM 2 to available list of cells
• Changed the device setup page so each device has its own tab. Clicking on an item in the status bar brings up the options for the associated device, instead of all options.
• Added color management to control colors for day, dusk and night modes.
• We have added an option to turn off the display of units in the text cells. This option has been added to the general program options ('Tools->Options->General'). When this option is off, the units are move to the title bar, giving maximum real estate for the numerical value.
• We now scroll the ETA list to the active waypoint, and highlight the active waypoint.
• Put date and time on separate lines in the ETA cells (next wp and dest)
• Added an option to determine if the date portion of arrival times is displayed
• Added option for XTE units and XTE decimal places - default XTE units are meters/feet
• When moving astern, the SOG will be indicated with a minus (-) sign in front of the speed value. Moving astern is determined by checking the difference between course and heading - if the difference is between 170 to 190 degrees then the ship is moving astern (i.e. if heading is 'opposite' course).
• Added East Up, West Up, South Up, and Heading Up rotation modes.
• Tracks are hidden on exit for performance on the next startup. Tracks are turned off since they are not necessary for navigation.
• Added a maximum expansion factor for displaying S-57 charts. S-57 charts will only be displayed when the current scale is less than or equal to the original chart scale multiplied by the maximum expansion factor. Before, charts were drawn up to a maximum of 10 times The maximum expansion factor must be between 1 and 10.
• Added shortcut keys for switching color modes: ALT+D switches to day; ALT+N switches to night; ALT+K switches to dusk.
• Added VDOP cell
• Added AIS and GPS setup to vessel options (right click on ship)
• Added option to not accept incoming vessel dimensions and offsets from the AIS
• Added feature to allow customizing the toolbar
• Automatically pan the chart when mouse comes to edge of screen, while creating a route
• Added an option to turn off the quick info window on hover.
• Added a 'Check For Help Updates' option to the help menu for getting the latest version of help.

• Fixed autopilot support: sending waypoint id's in the APA and RMB sentences; origin and destination id's in the RMB sentence were reversed.
• Switching layouts with NMEA logger running does not stop logging
• Vessel predictor lines not drawn the correct length
• Vessel ROT predictor not working correctly in some cases
• Problem with the context menus on AIS targets - AIS targets were shown using the chart menu causing crashes
• Selecting AIS targets with the right mouse button would not allow deselecting (quick info coming up when no object clicked on)
• The minimize button has been removed from the NavManager
• Dead Reckoning disabled when no positioning devices are receiving position fixes
• Playback of tracks recorded using dual positioning devices
• A problem was fixed with parsing of NMEA sentences. This may have been causing some sentences to be dropped, resulting (possibly) in timeouts in some situations.
• Fixed problem with rounding of S-57 sounding values
• Reduced size of track files and sped up saving / loading of tracks
• Changed tool tip for 'Wind Instrument' in the status bar to 'Anemometer'
• Fixing problem where drawing was being turned on in the secondary chart view after using the chart import wizard or the object import wizard.
• Changed color of own ship in night mode so that it is more visible
• Changed the follow vessel / go to vessel to not change the scale.
• Changed drawing of AIS/GPS ships so that the ships are no longer drawn after data is not received within timeout period.
• Fixed problem with options not being saved / restored properly, including max look ahead position, follow vessel/boat, rotation mode, raster/vector charts visible.
• Grid lines colors for ETA List, NavManager, and Target Lists have been changed to used the ForeColor option in the new color settings.
• Fixed a problem with the satellite info window not being drawn correctly, after recording for 12+ hours
• Changed back color of AIS alarm list to the text back color (same as for the text cells)
• Fixed error in the strip chart when clicking on a track
• Changed order of devices in 'Tools->Devices' to coincide with the status bar icons
• Changed abbreviation for knots to 'kn'
• Renamed 'magnetic variance' and 'declination' to 'magnetic variation'
• Removed 'Heading - True - Gyro Device' and 'Heading - Magnetic - Gyro Device' cells
• Added 'Magnetic Heading' cell
• Fixed problem of not being able to hide locked tracks from the NavManager
• Fixed problem of track info not being displayed properly in the NavManager
• Fixed problem of saving sort order of AIS target list
• Extended heading predictor line for AIS targets to use the interval from the options
• We have added a tile to the Alarm List View. When a layout containing this list is locked and there are no alarms, the cell is empty and no indication is given as to what the cell is for. The user is left with the impression that there is an error.
• 'Show true course' has been renamed to 'Show COG'. 'Show true heading' has been renamed to 'Show heading'.
• Changed drawing of S-57 soundings so they are centered around the coordinate
• Decreased the program startup time so the program loads a lot faster
• Fixed problem in the NavManager where all thumbnails were being generated when all objects were selected causing the program to freeze and the CPU usage to become very high.
• Dead Reckoning vessel is drawn centered at its position
• Fixed problem with annotations not being displayed property when the chart view is rotated.
• Fixed problem with program crashing on some machines that did not have C-Map NT PC Selector installed before running BoatCruiser for the first time.

Version 2.0.9.26
Monday, August 28, 2006

Note: Flashing nav-aids are now working again

New Features

• Added a vessel ROT predictor icon based on current COG, SOG and ROT
• Added port/starboard readout to the XTE, indicated by the letters P and S after the XTE (e.g. XTE: 0.1 NM P)
• Added buttons to load Nautical, Imperial and Metric units in the Unit options page (Tools-Options-Units)
• Added dual trip meters
• Added option to turn off S-57 tide rips (water turbulence)
• Added port/starboard XTE alarms on route legs
• Added ability to edit the active route
• Added option to turn off drawing of points of the active track (available from the general options)
• Added Radar - Parallel Indexing options button to toolbar
• Radar - Parallel Indexing options are now editable on the fly (floating window) so that the options can be changed while working with the program
• Radar - Parallel Indexing EBL/indexing line changed so that the indexing line is parallel to the EBL. Earlier, the beam bearing line was mistakenly used as the EBL
• New layout cells can now be opened in old layouts
• Added option to save NMEA dump to a file
• Added option to turn off the device connection timeout warnings (available from the alarms/ranges options)
• Added display S-57 chart names instead of just the file names
• Re-added AIS positioning in BoatCruiser 2.0
• Added option to turn off waypoint icons (available from the general options)

• Fixed the hanging / lockup problems
• Automatically reconnecting to pilot plug adapter after a dropout
• Cursor updating problem
• Printing problems
• Fixed problem of some S-57 charts not importing
• Fixed problem of multiple buoys being displayed (problem with update procedure - object were added that should have been removed)
• Renamed EBL (toolbar) to DRBL (dynamic range bearing line)
• Removed autopilot timeout warning
• Changed the alarm dialog so alarm text is fully visible
• GEO locations - removed drawing of geo locations, added search feature and removed the geo locations layer from the 'Layers' menu
• Fixed pilot plug adapter drop out problem
• Fixed problem where the compass shows decimal places which were cluttering the display
• Fixed route departure/arrival time discrepancy in the NavManager
• Saving/restoring true heading
• Thickness of the active track has been reduced
• Fixed error when reconnecting to devices on startup

Version 2.0.8.26
Friday, July 7, 2006

Note: BoatCruiser 2.0 Pro has been renamed to NavCruiser Pro

New Features

• Split screen: there is a layout cell called Secondary Chart View. When open, the secondary view will be used to jump to locations (e.g. scene of collision, waypoints, AIS targets, etc.) so that follow boat is not interrupted in the primary chart view. Both displays have independent data sources (C-Map or Other) as well as independent rotation modes - right click to change, or also use the main menu. (NavCruiser Pro only)
• AIS Recording: When recording tracks, we now record all AIS targets, msgs, etc. allowing you to playback the complete scenario (NavCruiser Pro only)
• SOG and COG have been added to the AIS Targets List
• AIS Target List and ETA List have movable columns, and the locations of the columns are saved on exit of the application.
• The quick info window for AIS targets is now dynamic - the values will change when the target is updated. Also, ARPA targets are also displayed in the quick info window.
• Importing of S-57 vector charts from zip files has been fixed (the format used by the NOAA website)
• Single chart mode (other data source) is now working correctly. Before, charts were displayed upside down and on every position change we were switching to the highest detail chart under the ship.
• We added a tool to diagnose device connection problems. The tool is called NMEA dump, and is accessible for the layout cell with the same name. This tool displays all NMEA sentences received on the selected com port. Note that you can be connected to a device and also display the NMEA sentences at the same time. This is a replacement for the Hyperterminal diagnostic tool that locks out the com port, necessitating a reboot to access the port again.
• Reading NMEA sentences from com ports has been optimized. This reduces the CPU usage significantly when connected to NMEA devices (e.g. AIS, GPS, etc.)
• Sending of routes to devices using NMEA has been added. This will only work with devices that support route upload via the NMEA 0183 protocol.
• We have added an AIS device alarm display. These alarms show the status of the AIS transmission, indicating any problems that have occurred. The AIS device alarms page is displayed whenever an AIALR or AITXT sentence is received and the option 'show device status' in the AIS device setup is checked. (NavCruiser Pro only)
• Complete Voyage Recording - Saving of all AIS (including weather/lock info for NavCruiser Pro users) and own ship tracks. For playback of recorded voyages, use the *Time Machine* feature to zoom in/out, pan forward/backwards in time
• The position and sizes of dialog windows is now saved on exit including the NavManager
• The computation of time to go to destination (TTG DEST) has been fixed to use the current speed, not the speeds on the route legs
• Fixed Goto Boat so that it goes to the primary positioning device coordinate (NavCruiser Pro only)
• Columns in the NavManager and the AIS target list are now sorted correctly
• The position chosen for Max Look Ahead is now saved on exit
• A bearing display has been added to the radius line of Parallel Indexing Lines
• Added Custom Decimal place option - customizable decimal places for different types of measurements (bearings, distance, speed and general). This allows different measurements to be displayed with different accuracies.
• S-57 ENC enhancements
  • Faster Import speed of S-57 vector charts and optimum memory usage during import
  • Improved S-57 chart colors
  • Changed sounding color in night mode to a dark gray instead of red
  • Added S-57 sounding range feature
  • Obstructions are now drawn using the correct symbol instead of the danger icon
  • All contour lines are now drawn
  • Added four-color shading with options for shallow & deep contour
  • Added option to fill / not fill dredged areas
  • Improved S-57 buoy light color in Night Mode
  • All soundings are now displayed at all zoom levels, and overlapping soundings have been removed
  • Added Light descriptions with the option to turn them on and off
  • The maximum displayed scale for S-57 vector charts has been reduced to 10 times the original scale (instead of 20) => considerable display speed-up
• Advanced Parallel Indexing (NavCruiser Pro only)
  • Radar ring display
  • Added 2 sets of EBL/VRM combinations
  • Indexing lines on both sides of the VRM Range circle
  • Editing of EBL/VRM with the mouse
  • Cursor changes to cross hair when a line can be moved / rotated
  • Option to turn on / off radar ring
  • Customizable radar ring color
  • Option to turn on / off EBL
  • Option to turn on / off indexing line
  • Option to show the opposite indexing line (indexing line with EBL 180 degrees + the current EBL)
  • EBL can be locked so it cannot be modified with the mouse
  • VRM can be locked so it cannot be modified with the mouse
  • Indexing line can be unlocked so that it can be rotated about the intersection of the EBL & VRM
  • Ability to set the relative angle between the indexing line and the EBL (default is 90 degrees)
  • An option to set the indexing line angle to that of the COG has been added
  • Customizable colors & pixel width for each EBL/VRM combination
• Added Goto Boat function in secondary chart-view (NavCruiser Pro only)
• Several issues with play back have been fixed: own ship HDG missing has been fixed; fixed problem of only MMSI numbers of AIS targets shown in the AIS target list; the extended COG/HDG lines were not being drawn; some AIS target shapes were not being saved correctly
• Zooming has been changed so that each zoom step corresponds to a chart scale (e.g. 1 : 50, 000). There are approximately 200 zoom step scales, ranging from 1 : 150,000,00 to 1 : 50. The current scale is displayed just above the scale bar (bottom center of the display), and is displayed only when the scale bar is displayed. We have also added menus to go directly to a desired scale. These menus are accessible from the chart menu (right click) as well as the main menu under View->Scale. The chart menu works on the current display, but the main menu only works on the primary display
• The AIS and GPS device connections have been reworked. When data is not received within an interval of 10 seconds an alarm is trigged, the color of the ship is changed to cyan and the status bar icon turns back to gray. We DO NOT switch to 'dead reckoning' when position fixes are not available. When data is received, the status bar icon turns red and the ship is drawn magenta.
• Optimized Recorded data storage
• All distance tools saved automatically
• Added fully customizable distance tools; click drag to edit/move
• Added option to change distance tool color and thickness; see object properties in Properties cell or by double-clicking
• NavManager title and default size have been changed
• Menu / toolbar features work on primary and secondary chart-views (NavCruiser Pro only)
• The option to switch between single / multiple chart mode is always enabled. Before, it was only enabled when the primary chart view was in the 'Other' data source (NavCruiser Pro only)
• Added an option to turn on / off marker names
• AIS device alarm box displayed with time stamp
• Added Full Screen to main menu
• Option to turn off Marker names in Options - General
• Delete key enabled within NavManager

• Device status icon now updated every 10 secs
• Disabled zoom limit
• Importing duplicate charts disabled
• Separate charts database for better memory management, faster
• Scale Bar on/of option saved on exit
• Improved Zooming in / out in C-MAP mode
• Fixed: Zoom box function
• Fixed: Overlapping text in S-57 ENCs
• Fixed: Problem with heading always being zero (ship always pointing to true north)
• Fixed: Predictor lines in night mode not visible
• Fixed: Delete locked objects in NavManager not working
• Fixed: Program Exception error on exit (follow mode)
• Fixed: Importing / Exporting tracks
• Fixed: Problem with printing route legs
• Fixed: Dead Reckoning not working when connected to AIS (no position fixes available)
• Fixed: 'Find nearest tide station' exception error
• Fixed: WP names not being displayed below chart scale 1 : 137,500
• Fixed: GPS position fix reverting to 0.0 N, 0.0 W when receiving invalid position fixes
• Fixed: AIS alarm dialog - no alarm reason
• Fixed: Cursor position high CPU usage
• Fixed: Distance tools high CPU usage
• Fixed: Automatic saving of tracks on shutdown
• Fixed: Record button not updating with the boat options
• Fixed: Auto-creation of new track file when the number of track points reaches 43,200
• Fixed: Error on shutdown (null reference exception)
• Fixed: C-MAP MAX Printing issues with flashing NavAids

Version 2.0.7.1
Friday, May 5, 2006

New Features

• Added dual display of AIS and GPS position fixes. The primary position device is colored magenta, while the secondary positioning device is colored green. (PRO only)
• Added *ETA To Waypoints* Cell. The ETA's are based on the current speed from the GPS, not on the speed of the legs as was previously done. Feature only works on an Active Route. Note: The ETA's in the route waypoint table are only based on the departure time for the route, the leg speed and length.
• Added quick ETA to waypoint display (left click on the waypoint of an active route)
• Parallel Indexing Lines are now fully editable
• Parallel Indexing Lines are now saved in the database. They show up in the properties and in NavManager, and a contet menu (on right click) has beed added
• Added option to turn route leg info on and off (Options - General)
• Tracks are automatically locked when recording is turned on, so they cannot be deleted while recording
• Renamed 'Remove' in the chart context menu to 'Remove Chart'
• The device wizard has been removed from the device setup page. A new menu item has been added under the 'Tools->Devices' menu
• Menu items for each option group (e.g. General, Units, C-Map, S-57, etc.) have been added for faster acccess to specific options
• S-57 charts are copied to the hard drive when imported from removable drives (e.g. CD-ROM, network drive, etc.). Earlier, if removeable media was removed, the S57 charts disappeared.

• Fixed: Track start time and length not displaying correctly
• Fixed: Updating of the AIS target list was too slow, and not all targets were being added to the list
• Fixed: AIS targets out of range not being removed from the AIS target list
• Fixed: AIS target age was not being updated correctly
• Fixed: Unlocking a route in properties and changing the name was not saving the changes
• Fixed: ETA computation (UTC conversion)
• Fixed: Sorting direction of AIS target list was in reverse
• Fixed: Device conenctions were disconnected after 1 minute of inactivity, including Autopilot and Depth Sounder
• Fixed: Highway View flickering
• Fixed: Added support of NMEA sentences generated from Raytheon Chart Plotters.
• Fixed: S-57's with regional settings set to French not displaying correctly
• Fixed: Lock order times (Seaway messages) display not in correct Time Zone (PRO only)
• Fixed: *Depth View* graph not displayed using the selected depth units

Version 2.0.6.4
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

New Features

• Added a quick info window for AIS targets
• Added distance to AIS target list
• GPS offset and conning position relative to bow, instead of midship
• Added option to show bulls eye when ship is not to scale
• Trajectories have been renamed to tracks
• Tracks are stored in individual files, with file name set to the time the track was created
• Tracks are limited to 43,200 points (12 hours of recording @ 1 point per second). When a track reaches the maximum length, a new track is created
• Added option to switch between AIS and GPS as position device. If the AIS is set to the positioning device but no position fixes are received for 5 seconds, the GPS position fix will be used
• Added bi-directional bearing display on distance tools, and an option to turn this on and off
• Added option to turn wayponit names on and off.

• GPS jumping problem
• Geo locations cluttering the screen
• Sending routes to Garmin GPS
• Fixed jumping to AIS target wen follow boat is on
• Fixed problem with units not being displayed in the selected measure (affets properties dialog, boat options, fuel consumption graph, ...)
• Fixed problem with message boxes not resizing correctly
• Fixed problem with initial departure time for routes being stored internally in local time instead of utc time, causing the departere time to be earlier than the creation time
• Fixed problem when computing ETA to next waypoint and to destination in the ETAToWP and ETAToDest layout cells
• Fixed resizing of the tide graphs so they don't go off the screen
• Fixed problem with tide height list not being in sync with the tide graph
• Fixed problem deleting rows from the fuel consumption data view
• Fixed problem with columns in the zone table not retaining position

Version 2.0.5.2
Friday, April 7, 2006

New Features

• Added anti-aliasing to improve graphics display. Also added an option to turn anti-aliasing on/off
• Added conning position to boat properties
• Added electronic bearing lines (EBL's), drawn from the conning position
• Added importing of routes, markers, zones and tracks from .csv files
• Added properties option to the context menu (right-click) in the NavManager
• Changed the drawing of the boat so that the boat is drawn as a bull's eye when not to scale
• Added GPS HDOP (horizontal dilution of position) cell
• Added two color shading option for C-MAP
• Added safety contour and safety depth options for C-MAP: safety contour controls the coloration of depth areas; safety depth controls display of soundings

• Fixed exporting of routes to a .csv file from NavManager (before producted an empty file)
• Fixed problem with the properties window, where clicking the apply button changes the current object beging edited when invoked from the NavManager
• Fixed problem with not being able to select the 'Chart View' cell multiple times while creating a layout
• Fixed problem with the fuel consumption Graph not being formatted using the selected unit options
• Fixed problem with the properties window dimensions not being restored correctly
• Adjusted color of depth areas less than the safety contour of S-57 vector charts, to a more contrasting color for easier visualization of unsafe/safe waters in night mode. The color of the selected safety contour has also been changed so it is more visible in night mode

Version 2.0.4.67
Saturday, March 25, 2006

New Features

• Added C-Map Safety Depth Setting
• Added Garmin USB Protocol Support
• Added Customizable Units
• Added Video Camera Support (DirectX enabled cameras only)
• Added quick scene display for AIS collision alarms
• Added Apply Button in Options menu
• Added arrows to routes
• Added Text Clipping of info (routes, tools, etc.) - text clips to objects
• Added display of GPS antenna position on own ship
• Added new cells for Digital Compass HDG
• Added Predictor Lines using COG or HDG(T)
• Added setting for decimal places used for display

• Fixed Text Formatting in Summary/Print
• Fixed Digital/Analog GPS Offset Display
• Waypoint Table - Retains Column Settings
• Properties tab name changes according to selected Object
• Export Dialog uses Default Filename
• Duplicating routes duplicates waypoint names
• Prediction Line made bolder
• Clicking on WPT in WP tables centers view on WPT

Version 2.0.3.69
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

New Features

• Added activation as a security measure
• Anemometer and gyro compass support
• Added option controlling the display of points of interest which were cluttering the C-Map Max charts
• Added option to turn chart borders on and off
• Added layout cells for ETA, TTG and Distance to end of route
• Now allow unlimited distance tools. Before they were limited to 2 of each type
• Added support for viewing of BSB notes
• Highway road display
• Display of current stream magnitude and direction in properties
• Added distance from start to waypoint table
• GPS offset position is drawn on your own ship
• Clicking on a waypoint in the route waypoint table centers the chart on the waypoints location

• Fixed problem connecting to devices using com ports higher than 19 (e.g. Bluetooth GPS)
• Fixed the problem of reconnecting to devices after resuming from standby/hibernate mode
• Fixed problem with updating of GPS satellites
• Reading GPS offset, vessel dimensions, and rate of turn via pilot plug
• Fixed the problem of distance/bearing tags being drawn when the option is turned off
• Fixed the problem of panning while in 'follow boat' mode. We now turn off follow boat instead of disabling panning
• Changed the color of the playback speed so it shows up better in night mode
• Fixed issue of high tides being off by over an hour in the time slider
• Fixed problem of check boxes not resizing correctly at 120 DPI
• Fixed bug with exporting of layouts
• Added preview of objects to printouts
• Fuel Consumption Graph color is dimmed in night mode
• Layout cells no longer change in response to keyboard input - they only change when the drop-down item is clicked

• Locking of layouts
• 'Manage Layouts' Dialog
• Instant Route

• Switching to time machine keeps your boat on the screen
• AIS targets go to the top of the CPA list when a potential collision is detected
• Flashing nav-aids in night mode