The Nowcasting tab, by default, displays the Main Chart in the centre of the Nowcasting Pro main window. The map region displayed, corresponds to the activated chart. The entire area of the main chart, is displayed in the Zoom Chart, on the bottom right of the Nowcasting Pro main window.

The main chart shows your vessel's position, speed and bearing against the geographical chart. It also displays the weather forecasts once they have been downloaded. Land areas are drawn in brown and sea areas are drawn in blue. As your position, speed and bearing varies, the main chart will adjust itself accordingly to reflect the changes. Please note that the coastline is NOT drawn to navigational standards.

One may apply functions to the main chart, such as Position, Zoom Level and Time. To the right of the main chart, under the heading Weather, all Nowcast Data for the currently selected position is displayed.

Right-clicking on the main chart will reveal a popup menu offering the main functions (also found in the menu bar).
 

A set of display buttons, to the right of the Data Type buttons on the main display, provide the following functionality:

• Download Weather Forecast - will display the Download screen to effect a manual download.
• Hide Zoom Chart and Weather Text - will remove the Zoom Chart from the bottom right of the Nowcasting Pro main window.
• Show Lease Blocks - will add a Lease Block edit field, to the top left of the Nowcasting Pro main window, above Zoom Level.
• Show Range Rings - will add a Track Bar and Range Rings to the selected position (i.e. the position marked by the boat icon on the main chart). The Track Bar allows you to adjust the Range Rings in nm or km.

• Show Waypoints, Pipes and Regions
   
• Turn on Archive Viewer - This feature is not yet implemented.
• To disable, click the display button again.

The following section describes viewing the main display
 

A manual download is when the user forces Nowcasting Pro 5 to download new data - regardless of whether or not it is scheduled to do so. This may be required for a number of reasons:

• If you incorrectly entered your subscription details including login password when Nowcasting Pro was first run, you would re-enter them again and force a new download.
• If a download failed as a result of some easily correctable problem, such as the modem plugged into the wrong communications port, you may decide to start a download immediately after correcting the problem rather than wait 5 minutes for the automatic download to kick in.
• If there was some disk error that corrupted the file containing the downloaded Nowcast Data and you need a full download of all data.
• If you have configured the automatic downloads to only occur during specific hours of the day and you now require a one-off download of Nowcast Data outside of those hours.

To effect a manual download, click File | Download or right-click on the main chart and select Download from the pop-up menu.

Unlike an automatic download where the weather forecast is in effect 'topped-up', during a manual download the whole forecast for the entire time range is returned.
 

By default, Nowcasting Pro 5 will automatically download an updated weather forecast every 6 hours if left unattended. During an automatic download, Nowcasting Pro 5 will retrieve forecasts for all the hours of data that you are missing as well as updates to any data you already have on your system.

If a download fails to complete for any reason, Nowcasting Pro 5 will try again five minutes later. A download has succeeded when the connection to the Maritime Nowcasting Server is dropped and all the Nowcast Data has been stored in a local file.

You may cancel a download in progress at any time by clicking File | Stop Download, however the download will start again 5 minutes later. If you do not require updates at 6 hourly intervals, or if you do not require the service 24 hours a day, you may configure the forecasts to be downloaded only between certain times.
 

The Alerts / Units tab allows you to configure various aspects of your main display to suit your needs or your preferences. Typically this involves configuring settings such as your alert thresholds for the data you will download, or the the units that you wish to use for the data display, e.g. knots or km/h, metres or feet etc.

Alerts Configuration allows you to set alert thresholds for the data you download and which will be displayed. The following Data Types can be configured:

• Wind Speed
• 50m Wind
• Wave Height
• Wave Period
• Swell Height
• Swell Period
• Current Speed
• 50m Current Speed
• High Res Current
• Temperature
• Tide Height

The corresponding Data Type buttons are seen on the Nowcasting Pro main window, explained in Selecting Nowcast Data to View.

By default, alert settings are disabled. By ebabling above or below for a given alert, one can toggle the value of the alerts upper or lower limit, in terms of kts, ft, s, km/h, or degrees. e.g.

Having configured the alert upper or lower limit, for a Data Type, any data within the alert range is displayed in the download area of the Nowcasting Pro main window. Typically, alert data will be circled in red, in order to highlight the fact that it is an alert value.

Similarly, Units Configuration allows you to configure the preferred units you wish to work in. The following can be configured:

• Wind Speed
• Height
• Current Speed
• Temperature
• Direction
• Time Display

Each Data Type is set to it's default unit. By selecting a different unit, the corresponding alert threshold is set also, e.g.

Alerts Configuration is illustrated in the Vertical Profile display, by setting the option Show Alerts to above, e.g.

The following Preferences may be set: Audible Alert, Position Format and Date Time Format.