Creating a New Profile
This guide will walk you through creating a new Profile from scratch. It will import NMEA data and GPX course data.
NOTE: if you don't have access to some of the menu items make sure you are in the edit mode by opening the Profile using the Edit Profile menu item. If you follow the steps below this shouldn't be a problem.
Open Race Analysis
Launch the Race Analysis application from the desktop short cut or by browsing to the programs file.
When the Profile Screen opens select the 'New Profile' menu item.
Enter a new Profile name and a description of the profile. It might be useful to create a generic profile that you can later use a template to edit and save with specific data.
Click OK.
You are prompted to save the new profile.
Enter a useful Profile name and click Save.
Edit the newly created Profile
Once the Profile has been saved the Profile Screen (Edit) opens with the new Profile ready for editing. Before adding Race Entries, especially if you are creating a template it probably make the most sense to import Marks and Static Objects.
Marks and Static Objects
You can do this by clicking the '*' in the left most column of the Marks and Static Objects grid and filling in the data manually. Note the Lat and Long are in decimal degrees with North and East positive values. There also needs to be a Mesh Model assigned to each mark. This is the 3D definition of the object that will displayed to the GPS location you have defined. Clicking the appropriate cell in the MeshPath column will open the file dialog. Browse to the ../Models folder and select the model you want to use then click Open. This will assign the model to the mark.
If you have the marks and static objects in your GPS there is an easier way to do this.
Importing GPX Waypoints
If you have your GPS waypoints entered into your GPS and your GPS can save those waypoints as a GPX file you can import then directly into the profile.
With the New Profile open in the Profile Screen (in Edit mode) select the Data Import Tools menu and choose GPX Waypoints.
You will be presented with an open file dialog, browse to the folder where you saved your GXP waypoint file from you GPS. You may need to refer to you GPS software manual for the exact method to export a GPX file.
Select the file and click Open. IF the data is in the correct format it will be imported and added to the Marks and Static Object grid. You will then be able to edit the names and descriptions as needed. You will still need to assign models to each of the marks using the method detail above.
Race Entries
Adding a new Race Entry (Boat) is similar to manual adding marks. Click the '*' in the leftmost column of the Race Entries grid and fill in the BoatName, SailNumber, Description etc. Skip the TrackFile for now. Entering a model is done in the MeshFile column like you did for the marks.
Track Files
The track file contains all of the data to simulate and analyze. The data needs to be in a specific format and can be imported from a flat text file. The text file must contain the raw NMEA 0183 sentences. Weathergage Software LLC provides a free NMEA data recorder that can interface via USB/RS-232 and create these flat text files based on the data your hardware records.
From the Data Import Tool menu select the NMEA Data option and browse to the folder containing the data file.
The file will be opened and processed and you will see a summary of what was imported.
Click the SaveAs button and select the appropriate folder. Once saved you can cancel or close the dialog.
Now you can add the TrackFile to the appropriate Race Entry. If you are creating a template you might not want to add the TrackFile instead save the template first so you can reuse it. Either way you can always open and edit a profile to change any of the values and save it as a different profile.
Save the New Profile
Once you have added all of the data you can save the new Profile using the Save Profile menu.