There are many options to costumize your map drawing in Aqua Map, from adding additional layers (eg Satellite), to changing the depth colouring (eg Safety depth) and to customize icons and texts size.
Additional layers
This is the list of the additional data you can add to the basic nautical charts from the main Settings page:
- Land data: you can enable the display of a complete cartography for the land part (streets, highways, buildings, forests, ...).
- Online satellite images: you can enable the display of the satellite images as a layer on top of the map. When enabling this layer, a slider will appear on the map display (on the lower-right) to fade the satellite images with the nautical charts.
- Additional rasters overlay: you can enable the display of additional raster charts that will be overlaid to the existing vector charts.
NOTE: this is available only in certain areas. - Tides & Currents: you can enable the display of the Tide and Tidal current stations as icons on the map.
NOTE: currently T&C are available only for the North America and Oceania. - Fishing charts: (see the Fishing charts settings page for more details) you can enable the display of the a special set of charts dedicated to the fishing.
NOTE: currently T&C are available only for the North America and Oceania. - Marine forecast:(see the Marine forecast settings page for more details) you can enable and configure the overlay of the Marine forecast data on the map. Currently you can show on the map: Surface currents, Wind and Waves.
- Weather buoys:(see the Marine forecast settings page for more details) you can enable the overlay of a set of icons representing weather buoys that give access to real time weather condition at their location.
- AIS targets: (see the AIS Integration page for more details) you can enable the overlay of the AIS targets received through your Wi-fi Connections.
- USACE surveys: (see the USACE settings page for more details) you can enable the overlay of the USACE (US Army Corps of Engineers) hydrographic surveys data on the map.
- Coast Guard data: (see the USCG and NAVWARNs setting pages for more details) you can enable the overlay of the Coast Guard data on the map.
- Live Sharing: (see the Live Sharing settings page for more details) you can enable the overlay of the other Aqua Map users.
- ActiveCaptain: (see the ActiveCaptain settings page for more details) you can enable the overlay of the data from the ActiveCaptain community on the map.
- Waterway Guide:(see the Waterway Guide settings page for more details) you can enable the overlay of the data from the Waterway Guide community on the map.
Map colouring
In order to change the coloring of your map you have 2 options in the main Settings page:
- Map appearance: here you can select among the Day or Night map drawing style; the "Auto" setting select automatically the Day or Night style depending on the device appearance (Light, Dark) setting.
NOTE: Night mode is intended to be used only in low luminosity; under direct sun or in bright conditions the contrast will be too low. - Depth colouring: here you can select the shading style for the depth areas. "Standard" will draw the depth areas as in the paper charts where the colouring starts from blue for the shallowest depth and shades to white for depth areas deeper than 20m. "Natural", vice versa try to reproduce the way you see the sea colors in nature, starts from white for the shallowest depth and shades to dark blue for depth areas deeper than 3500m.
NOTE: this feature does not work in areas with Raster charts. - Safety depth: here you can enter your safety depth. This value will define the limit of the blue shaded depth areas. Depth areas deeper than the "Safety depth" will be white shaded. Depth areas shallower than the “Safety depth” will continue to be blue shaded as previously.
NOTE: this feature does not work in areas with Raster charts.
Map visibility
There is a dedicated page to select the size for most of the icons and texts present on the map and you can reach this page from the main Settings page.
Due to the different types of icons and texts, the options have been grouped in categories for clarity.
At the bottom of the page there is a Restore defaults button to restore all the icons and texts sizes to the original ones.
Map data
The first group includes all the elements that are part of the base cartography.
- Map icons size: to change the size of most of the icons that are part of the basic cartography. The change in size will be proportional, keeping the ratio between the different icons (smaller icons will continue to be smaller).
NOTE: some icons belonging to the land data will not have its size changed (always quite small to avoid clutter). - Map texts size: to change the size of most of the texts that are part of the basic cartography. The change in size will be proportional, keeping the ratio between the different texts.
NOTE: some texts belonging to the land data will not have its size changed (always quite small to avoid clutter). - Use patterns for map areas: some areas (eg Restricted areas, Anchor areas, ...) can be filled with icons representing the area itself. This will improve the understandability of the map but at the same time will increase the clutter of the map. With this option you can decide whether to see these icons or not.
User data
The next group includes all the elements that belong to the user (routes, tracks and markers).
- Marker icon size: to select the preferred size of your markers and waypoints icon.
- Show marker names on map: to enable the drawing on the map of the marker's name (just below the corresponding icon).
- Track/Route width: to select the preferred width for the lines representing tracks and routes on the map.
Additional data
The last group includes all the additional elements you can overlay to basic cartography; if a setting is disabled it means the corresponding data has not been enabled for drawing.
- Live Sharing icons: to select the preferred size for the Live Sharing icons on the map.
- Tide & Current icons: to select the preferred size for the tide and tidal current icons on the map.
- AIS target icons: to select the preferred size for the AIS target icons on the map.
NOTE: changing the size of the icons will also change the size of the texts (the boat name) drawn on the map. - ActiveCaptain icons: to select the preferred size for the ActiveCaptain icons.
NOTE: changing the size of the icons, will also change the size of the text (the object name) drawn on the map (if enabled with the below switch).
ActiveCaptain names on map: to enable the drawing of the objects name on the map (just below the corresponding icon).
NOTE: when enabled the names will be drawn only at detailed scales. - Waterway Guide icons: to select the preferred size of the Waterway Guide icons.
NOTE: changing the size of the icons, will also change the size of the text (the object name) drawn on the map (if enabled with the below switch).
Waterway Guide names on map: to enable the drawing of the objects name on the map (just below the corresponding icon).
NOTE: when enabled the names will be drawn only at detailed scales. - Weather buoy icon: to select the preferred size of the Weather buoy icons on the map.
- Weather icons: to select the preferred size of the Weather icons (wind, current and wave).
- USCG buoy icons: to select the preferred size of the US Coast Guard buoy icons on the map.
NOTE: changing the size of the icons will also change the size of the buoy number text (drawn near the icons itself). - CCG NAVWARNs icon: to select the preferred size of the Canada Coast Guard icons on the map.