Virtual Sailor supports a global scenery model, this means that whenever your boat is inside any scenery boundary the appropriate scenery is loaded for this area.
Sceneries can be made for smaller area inside a larger scenery area, when the boat enters this area the more detailed scenery is loaded, unless you disable the option "load internal scenery" in the graphic options dialog.
There are two ways in which you can change your location and be on another scenery, one is by using the map dialog, and the other by using the scenery dialog.
Using the scenery dialog is less accurate than using a map but also very simple, select from the main menu Change -> Scenery to see this dialog.
Each of the existing sceneries is shown on the map as a rectangular bright area, and also is seen on the right side list.
You can add more scenery areas by downloading them from the websites of Virtual Sailor, or by importing digital topographic maps directly.
To select the area of interest, select them from the map, or from the list, then zoom in until you see the area on the map clearly, and then press "Select Pos", this will move your boat into this position and scenery.
When several sceneries overlap for the position you selected, the more detailed area will be loaded.
The most important tool in Virtual Sailor is the map, learning to operate the map properly is the key to exploiting the full capacity of the program, the map has three levels of detail; active area, scenery area and global area.
Press M to show the map dialog, this shows you the map view with the scenery level of detail.
When you zoom in and out you pass between these levels of detail, zooming in you will see the map change its scheme and you will see objects around you in greater detail, this is the active area level.
Zoom out until you see the borders of your scenery, will show you a part of the world map, upon it you will see other scenery areas and you will be able to plot a course to one of them and make global navigation between sceneries, this is called the global level of detail.
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There may be also detail maps in the scenery you use, these appear as rectangular faded areas on the map, to show these map press the "detail maps" button, see the rectangular areas appear, and click on the area of interest.
The top two buttons are used for zooming in and out, to move the map simply click on any empty spot and drag it with your mouse, to center the view around the your point of view use the camera position button.
Any boat and waypoint can be moved on the map and positioned where you want, to do so press the "move selected item" button, pick this object with your mouse and drag it to the new position, once done with moving objects, press this button again to exit this mode.
You can also move your point of view or your boat to a desired location, to do so pick on the desired location on the map and then press the "move to point" button, if you were onboard a boat the boat is moved, if your camera was free only the camera will be moved.
Press the "measure distance" button and then move your mouse around your position, the distance between you and the selected point as well as the azimuth to it will be shown on the map, once done measuring, press this button again to exit this mode.
In Virtual Sailor you can have up to 64 waypoints, these waypoints are shared between all boats in the scene, however you may assign different waypoints to each boat, thus creating different routs for each boat.
To add a waypoint pick the desired position on the map and click the "add waypoints" button, to remove a waypoint, select it on the map and click the "delete waypoint" button.
To assign a waypoint as the next waypoint for any boat you wish, select the boat on the map, select the waypoint on the map and press the "set next waypoint" button.
After you add several waypoints in succession you have a route, when the assigned waypoint is at the start of this route your boat will navigate from the first point to the last when auto pilot is enabled.
To create a different route for different boats you must unlink the last point you wish to have from one route and set the next point as the first point on the next route.
In this picture you see you see a typical sequence, first you add waypoints to create a route, this includes all the points you want for boat 1 and boat 2, then you assign next waypoints to the boats according to the point you wish each route to start, then you select the last point of each rout and press "unlink waypoint".
Of course you can also link points you unlinked, and assign different points as your next waypoint, there is not special order in which you need to take these actions.
The map was designed to be used when you are making scenery as well, when you change objects in the def files inside the scenery, or in the objects.txt files inside the scenery all you need to do in order to see them appear in the scenery is press the "reload scenery" button.
Each object in the objects.txt, ports.txt, maps.txt files etc, appear using the same coordinate format as the one you have on the map, each time you click on the map, these coordinates are copied to the clipboard and you can simply paste them immediately into one of these file.