iFly GPS Forum

The chart toggle button in the lower left, (on Android anyway), used to simply cycle through the various charts available for the type being displayed. For example, for sectionals in the northeast, each press would switch to New York, then Montreal, then Halifax, then Detroit, etc. (maybe not in that order, but you know what I mean). It was quick. One press and you are on the next chart.

With the advent of the seamless charts, the buttons' role is a little different, but I think it could be just as quick (maybe even better than before), but it's not. They way it is presently implemented, the first push pulls up a menu, (often with only 1 option available), then another press pulls up a list of available charts, or seam switches, then a third press makes the selection. Three presses to try a new seam location. And if the first one didn't get what you want, it's three more for the next try, and so on. If one happens to be flying in an area with 3 overlapping options, it could take 9 presses, and the attendant distraction of reading menus and options, to try the other two seam cuts, only to decide that what you had in the first place was already the best option. With the old functional mind set, it could be 3 presses, with no more than a glance to decide if you like the change.

Could the toggle button go back to simply cycling between the available options one after another? This could even be better than before, because with seamless charts, the toggle would only be cycling through the charts and seam cuts that are applicable to ones location and zoom level, vs. cycling through all downloaded charts of that type.

Just my two cents. Thanks,

Jim

Hi Walter, Thanks for responding and for iFly. Stitching together charts of different orientation and scale with complex content is quite an undertaking and I'll complement the job you've done as amongst the best I've seen. Here's an example of one area I ran into and wished the chart toggle was the simple sequence implementaion from before the seamless charts. Screen shot attached and I use an 8" Motorola tablet. Center the chart on RKA, zoom 36 and with L30 on top. I was flying SW bound on V542 when I noticed the issues I've circled in the screen shot. Clearly an area where any stiching algorithm would struggle, but I knew that bringing a different chart to the top would resolve the issue. First I found that despite the menu listing L30, 32, & 33, I could not get a change to stick until I zoomed out one level, changed the top chart, then zoomed back in. L33 solves some of the issues but still leaves the airport NW of RKA without information. You can see the other registration and labeling issues in the areas I circled. The issues are easily resolved by selecting L32. Perhaps I just happened to get L30 on top through some unknown sequence of pans and zooms, and I was not bothered in the least to have change the top chart. But I did find myself wishing for the old style sequencing instead of having to go through menus and selecting a particular chart. The old way would have cycled through L30 > L32 > L33 > L30 ... all with single presses and no menus. In a different area of the New England sky, I changed the top chart to get one with a sharper image due the first being a broader scale and thus less resolved than the second. Again, no big deal but it would been easier with old style sequence button. I could point you to a VFR example where 2 sectionals and 2 TACs are options, where the old style S1 > S2 > TAC 1 > TAC 2 > S1... sequencing would have been nice. Even if I didn't want a TAC and just wanted the other sectional, it's no more button pushes and less distraction to just cycle through the TACs to get back to the other sectional. So anyway, those are some circumstances in which I found myself wishing for the old style chart toggle function as opposed to the new menu driven style. Thanks for listening and keep up the evolution of a great product! Jim