Hands On: Openining a Yacht Analysis

Hands On: Open an Existing Yacht Analysis

In this example, you will open an existing yacht file in Sailfish Yacht Analyzer. This will demonstrate how to import existing analysis (*.YML files) and allow you to become familiar with the Sailfish Yacht Analyzer user interface.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have completed installation of the Sailfish Yacht Analyzer files and make note of the installation directory if you did not accept the default selection. This information will be used to locate the sample analysis files.

Step by step

	1	Open the Sailfish Yacht Analyzer application, if it is not already running.
	2	Navigate to the File menu, select Open.

	3	Navigate to the samples directory. If you selected the default file locations at install the path will be:
		"X:\Program Files\Sailfish Yacht Analyzer\Samples\"
		where "X" is the install drive letter.

	4	Select the "norlin34" analyzer file and click Open. Depending on your setup, you may be presented with another dialog - click OK for now. The Sailfish Yacht Analyzer will be opened in a few seconds, the tree view to the left will open. Analyzer files created by any version of Sailfish Yacht Analyzer can be opened in this manner.

		What am I looking at? When you first start Sailfish Yacht Analyzer, your screen will look like this. The screen is divided into four parts; at the top you see the menu and toolbar. Among other things, you will see the yacht name of the current yacht. To the left you will se the navigation tree. You navigate to different analysis by clicking in that tree. The result from the analysis or data entry will be shown to the right in the Result or Entry view. Take some time to explore the Sailfish Yacht Analyzer interface. Rolling your mouse over the analyzer toolbar just above the ruler will display brief descriptions of the various buttons. By clicking Shift+F1 the mouse pointer will change its shape to an question mark and an arrow. By clicking on any item will bring up additional help or descriptive information. For a brief overview of the various buttons on the designer toolbar click here.
	5	From the tree view, click on the "+" sign before sailing and select the Polar command or click on the Polar button on the analyzer toolbar. After a few seconds, you will see a form displaying the finished polar diagram. You may change from true wind to apparent wind. You can also get numeric sheets or the polar diagram by clicking appropriate tab.

		This exercise has shown the basic steps in creating a new yacht analysis. The result was the polar diagram. Try using the navigation Tree or other navigation buttons shown above to navigate around the analyzer. Click on one of the branches in the tree control. Later, you'll see how to modify how the viewer looks and behaves.