Layers Menu
The Layers Menu controls everything that is plotted on to the selected Base Map, except the Gray Line, which is controlled from the Settings Menu > Map Features page.
There are currently 60 layers that can be added to the Base Map. All available layers are provided as standard. There are no extra charges to pay.
To show the 'Layers Menu' window, click the 'Layers' button in the 'Controls Panel', or type the 2 letters 'LM' on your keyboard.
Explaining the Layers Menu
The Layers Menu might look a little complicated to start with, but actually it is quite easy to use. First of all, there are three things to explain:
1/ A Map Layer can be made up of one or more of the following: Raster image, Points, Lines, and Labels.
2/ The Layers are split into three groups, identified by colored backgrounds. The purple layers are always plotted first on the Base Map. The blue layers are plotted next. The red layers are plotted on the top.
3/ Layers within their colored group are plotted in order, so the last layer selected will be on the top of the heap in that colored group. The order of the layers that are visible is shown in the 'Layer Stacking-Order' panel. Layers at the top of the panel are plotted first. Subsequent layers are plotted on top of previous layers.
Layers are split into 'Classes'. The list of Classes is shown in the 'Map Layer Class' panel. To select a Class, click the radio-button next to it. The map-layers within that class will then be shown in the 'Map Layer Name' panel below.
Checking any check-box adjacent to a Layer Name will select that layer for plotting on the map. When a layer is selected, it will be listed in the 'Layer Stacking-Order' panel, which shows the order that the layers will be plotted on the map. The layer at the top of the panel will be plotted first. Subsequent layers will be plotted on top of that. The layer that is last in the list will be plotted on the top of all the other layers.
You can move any map-layer up or down in the plotting order by clicking on it in the 'Layer Stacking-Order' panel to select it, then clicking either the 'Layer Forward' button, or the 'Layer Back' button. A layer will only move forward or back within it's own colored group: purple, blue, red.
When you click on a map-layer in the 'Layer Stacking-Order' panel, its Class will be selected in the 'Map Layer Class' panel, and the layer's Description and Style will be loaded in the center-panels.
Layer Styles
As mentioned above, all layers have one or more of the following: a Raster image, a Point, a Line, and a Label. To identify which styles a layer has, just click the layer in the 'Map Layer Name' panel, or in the 'Layer Stacking-Order' panel. The styles will then be listed in the 'Map Layer Style' panel, and the 'Settings for Points', 'Settings for Lines', and 'Settings for Labels' panels will be filled with the current settings for that layer. There is no 'Settings for Rasters' panel, as Raster layers do not have any settings: they are either visible, or they are not.
Some layers have additional features or options: if so, these are shown in the 'Additional Layer Features' panel. Select whatever values you like.
If there are controls in the 'Style' panels, then there are settings that can be altered. The checkboxes in the 'Map Layer Name' panel turn the whole layer on or off, but the 'Visibility' checkbox in the 'Settings for Points' panel would just control the Points in the layer, so you can still see the lines and labels, but hide the points. The 'Visibility' checkboxes in the 'Settings for Lines' and the 'Settings for Labels' panels work in the same way.
To change the style for a Point, Line, or Label element of a layer, just click the associated 'Change..' button. A popup window will open for each type. Make the changes that you want, and then click 'Save', or close the popup window, to save the new values and return to the 'Layer Menu'.
The settings that you give to any Layer will only apply to the current Base Map. You can have different settings for each layer on each base map, and the program remembers them all!
Once you have made all the changes you want in the Layers Menu, close the window, and the map will rebuild with the new settings.
Group Styles
For some map-layers, such as 'Ham Radio > Ham Log', there are more complicated 'Group Styles' available for Point and Line. For instance, if we have selected 'All QSOs Colored By Band' in the 'Additional Layer Features' panel, then the 'Edit Group Style for Points and Lines' window will open. Here, you can select either a single color for the Point and/or Line colors by clicking one or both of the 'Use Common Color' radio-buttons; or you can assign individual colors to the Point and the Line colors for each entity in the group: these entities are shown in the 'Group Colors' panel on the right. This would therefore use different colors to show which band a contact was made with on the map. Notice also that there are checkboxes associated with each entity in the 'Group Colors' panel. This enables you to show only a subset of the available bands when plotting points or lines on the map: useful if, for instance, you only wanted to show your 20m and 15m contacts.
Resetting All Style Values
If you ever want to just reset everything to the default values, view the 'Settings Menu > User Style'.