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Title: Enhancement suggestion for Mr Tides
#1
Love the new Mr Tides 3. Just a suggestion, but could you add the functionality to enter your boat's draft, and have Mr Tides highlight it on the tidal curves?
Never knowingly overcanvassed!
 
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#2
Don't see why I couldn't add this to the program. I'll have to work out a UI and add the line in, but that's not hard. It'll only be on the day view though, the other views don't support this idea.

August
 
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#3
I've thought about this some, and decided against doing it because it wouldn't be helpful. What you really want to know is "how deep is it below my boat" and that I can't help with. No-one is actually going to be at the station location, and the water depth elsewhere will not be the same as at the station.

However, I did come up with an idea that I think is better - an anchor guide. Given the current depth of the water (taken from your depth sounder or lead line) and your keel depth, I can compute if it's safe to anchor given the next set of high and low tides. I can also tell you how much scope you'll need for chain (3:1) and rope (10:1) rodes. I think this would be most helpful.

I'll work on this idea for a future release. I'll need to gin up a UI and add some preferences, and make sure it all works.

August
 
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#4
August,

Just looking at the Anchor Aid feature and found a small oversight. The description pop-up for the Anchor roller height is the same as for Keel depth ("Set this to the depth of your keel").

As for the different scope ratios mentioned in previous posts, you can only do so much for people -unless you want to go aboard and set the anchor for them Smile. I like that you include the ratio in your calculated lengths (chain & rope 3:1 & 10:1), but what about including the 'standard' ratios in between (5:1 & 7:1)? That provides the boater with all the info he/she needs to make their decision, but also serves as 'reminder' about given standard practice lengths. I know you can't create calculations for every situation/ rode & chain combination, but that may be a reasonable compromise.

BTW, thanks for all the work you put into Mr. Tides!

Regards,
Shane
When I grow up I want to be Peter Pan.
 
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#5
August,

Just thought of another thing after hitting send. For the Anchor Aid, you have the default setting that looks ahead for 2 days, or conservatively, the stations full tidal range. What about adding in another user inputted field for number of days/nights anchoring, then using that inputted value to determine how far ahead Mr. Tides looks forward?

Regards,
Shane
When I grow up I want to be Peter Pan.
 
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#6
I was just trying to plan a weekend of scuba diving in October. I switched over to calendar view, and was surprised that only max current was listed. For planning passages through high current areas, and scuba diving, it would be nice to list slacks.
 
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#7
I didn't have the room to put slack times on the calendar, so I went with ebbs and floods. I agree that slacks are important, and if I had more room on the calendar I would put them in. I'll see if I can't do something with the cell to make it bigger as you mouse over it, like I had in Mr. Tides 2.5. But that code was a real hack job and I'm not sure if I want to reuse any of it or not.

August
 
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