When starting a new project, it is recommended to load a map of the survey area. The map can then be used as guidance to setup your boundaries, cross sections and routes. Hydromagic supports a wide range of both vector and raster map formats, including:
In case no map data is available for the area to be surveyed, you can download maps from web sources automatically by entering the map's boundaries. How to do this is discussed in more detail in the chapter "Download Maps".
Before you will be able to import or download background maps, you must either have loaded an existing project or created a new project. To create a new Hydromagic project, select the "New Project..." option from the "File" menu, fill out all required fields and click "OK".
It is important to provide the correct projection for your new project, because you will not be able to change this at a later time.
You have to create or open a project before you can import maps.
Maps are imported into the project, this means that the next time you open the project, the map will be loaded automatically. To import a map to the project, right click the "Maps" folder in the "Project Explorer" and select the "Import Map..." option. When the "Project Explorer" has been closed, you can also import a map using the menu bar by selecting the "Import Map..." from the "File" => "Import" menu. You can also click the "Import Map" button in the tool bar.
Right click the "Maps" folder in the "Project Explorer"
to add a new map to the project.
A file open dialog will be presented. By default all supported map formats are displayed. You can select one or more maps and click "OK" to load them into the project. When you have selected a file which is not already present in the "Maps" folder of your Hydromagic project on the disk, it will ask you whether you want it copied to the "Maps" folder. It is recommended to do this, otherwise you will loose the background maps when transferring the Hydromagic project to another computer.
Select the file format and file name(s) for the files you to import into the loaded Hydromagic project.
After selecting one or more map files in the file selection dialog, click the "OK" button to load and add the files to the project. When no file type has been set in the file open dialog, and the software doesn't know which format the map is, it will ask you as shown below. In this case select the correct file format for the selected files and click "OK".
When the file format isn't set and the file extension unknown,
Hydromagic may ask you for the file format.
Example of a S-57 ENC imported into a Hydromagic Survey project.