Hey everyone, I have not yet received an assignment or been invited to online basics, but I have gone ahead and started studying the enroute map posted above in my free time. After going through several sheets of paper drawing it by hand, I decided to move to my iPad using an app I have called Affinity Designer. It's been quite helpful, so I figured I would share my workflow in case any one else finds it useful.
Essentially, I created template files which are blank other than either the sector boundaries or all boundaries. I have pulled vector graphic assets from the chart PDF and compiled them into an assets file. These can be dragged, rotated, and resized on the blank chart. Then I go ahead and fill in the rest of the text-based info with the Pencil tool using either my finger or Apple Pencil. You could also do this with the Text tool, but I find using the Pencil tool slightly less cumbersome. While you're practicing, what you can do is drag all the image assets out, maybe fill in some constant info that you don't need to practice, then select everything and merge it into a single layer. Then lock both the new layer and the template layer, then you can easily delete everything that you're practicing and leave the rest on the screen.
I'm aware that not everyone has an iPad, Apple Pencil, and $9.99 for a specific drawing app. I already had these tools available and so I created this solution around my situation. I'm hoping at least a few of you can find it useful. These files can also be used for Affinity Designer for Mac/PC. I tried testing with Affinity Photo as well, but the graphics did not seem to scale well in a non-vector format.
Since pointSixtyFive doesn't allow attaching unrecognized file types,
here is a link to the template and asset files in a Google Drive folder.
To set up Affinity Designer for iPad (assuming you have latest iPadOS):
- Purchase and download Affinity Designer from App Store ($9.99).
- Open the above link in Safari on iPad and tap DOWNLOAD ALL. Confirm by tapping Download on the pop-up.
- Tap the Downloads icon in Safari, then the magnifying glass next to the .zip file to open it in the Files app.
- Tap the ... icon on the file inspector, and then Move into On My iPad/Affinity Designer.
- NOTE: If the Affinity Designer folder doesn't exist, open the app and create/save a blank document.
- Click the + icon in top-right, OK with defaults, return to main menu with the Arrow icon in top-left, click the hamburger icon on the Untitled document, click save.
- In the Files app, navigate to On My iPad/Affinity Designer, select the .zip file, tap the ... icon on the file inspector, then tap Uncompress. You may delete the .zip file if desired.
- In Affinity Designer, tap the + icon to create a new document, then choose New From Template.
- Tap Browse on the bottom of the screen, then navigate to On My iPad/Affinity Designer/Enroute Affinity Files.
- Choose either All Boundaries or Sector Boundaries template.
- Tap the Assets icon on the right (looks like 9 squares in a grid).
- Tap the hamburger icon on the top of the Assets pane, then Import Category.
- Navigate to On My iPad/Affinity Designer/Enroute Affinity Files, and select Enroute Assets.
- Scroll over to Enroute on the Assets pane.
Quick tips because they're hard to find: Undo is a 2-finger tap. To Deselect All, long press on the image (with finger, not AP), then tap Deselect.
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