Getting started with Patchly

The map carries a lot of controls, and almost everything in Patchly happens there. This tour rings them one at a time and says what each one is for.

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1. 01 Go full-screen Hide the on-screen controls for an edge-to-edge map. Tap again to bring them back.
2. 02 Search the map Look up a place, a find, a pin or a coordinate, and the map jumps straight there.
3. 03 Tilt into 3D Tip the map into a 3D view to read the lie of the land and the terrain around you.
4. 04 Tools Measure distances, mark out shapes and lines, and save map areas to the phone so they work without reception.
5. 05 Follow your location Tap so the map follows you as you move. Tap again to turn the map the way you are facing.
6. 06 Snap back Panned away from where you are? Tap to bring the map back to your location.
7. 07 Build your map Each dot is a stack: a saved set of map layers. Tap the active dot to open its layers, or another dot to switch. Tap the button at the top to manage stacks and browse the Library.
8. 08 Log a find Struck gold? Tap to record a find with its type, size and a photo, right where you are.
9. 09 Drop a pin Mark a spot to remember: a camp, a gate, or a patch worth another look.
10. 10 Record a session Tap to log a GPS track of your outing. It keeps running in the background while you detect.
11. 11 One last tip Press and hold anywhere on the map to log a find there, drop a pin, or navigate to that spot. Every tour can be taken again from Settings, then Help, then Tutorials.

A stack is a named set of map layers. This tour builds one from nothing, puts it on the favourites rail, then takes it back off, so the whole loop is familiar before you need it standing in a paddock.

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1. 01 Where stacks are managed A stack is a saved set of map layers. This opens the hub, where they are made, renamed and removed.
2. 02 Favourites and the rest Favourites sit on the rail beside the map, a tap away while prospecting. Everything else lives under More stacks: still there, just not taking up a slot on the rail.
3. 03 The rail is full The rail holds five stacks, and all five slots are taken. Taking one off keeps the stack itself — it moves down to More stacks, and its star puts it back any time.
4. 04 Make one A new stack starts either empty or from a template.
5. 05 Give it a name Name it for the ground or the job rather than the layers in it: a name like Palmer trip or Creek work still means something in six months.
6. 06 Put it on the rail Add to favourites is what puts a stack on the rail. Leave it on and the new stack goes straight there. Turn it off and it waits under More stacks until it is wanted. With five favourites already on the rail this choice is not offered, and the new stack lands under More stacks.
7. 07 Create it The stack is made and saved as soon as this is tapped.
8. 08 Your new stack is active A new stack becomes the active one the moment it is created, and its layers card opens straight away. Close the card to get back to the map.
9. 09 Back to the hub The rail is back, and with it the way into the hub.
10. 10 There it is The new stack is under Favourites if it went on the rail, and under More stacks if it did not.
11. 11 The star moves it Favourites are the stacks on the map's quick-switch rail. The star moves this one between Favourites and More stacks, and the list follows it to wherever it lands.
12. 12 There it went The stack has moved to the other list. The same star moves it back, so nothing is lost by trying it either way.
13. 13 Now clear it away This one was made for the walkthrough, so it may as well go. Swipe its row to the left to remove it.
14. 14 That is the whole loop Make a stack, name it, keep the useful ones on the rail, and remove the ones that have done their job. Every tour can be taken again from Settings, then Help, then Tutorials.

The Library holds every layer Patchly curates, from geology and magnetics to tenements and terrain. This tour takes one free layer from the Library onto your own map, then tunes how it draws.

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1. 01 Your stacks Each dot on the left is a stack: a saved set of map layers. The highlighted dot is a practice stack Patchly made just for this walkthrough, and the map is showing it now. The other dots are your own stacks, untouched.
2. 02 What is in a stack A stack is just this list of layers. The order matters: rows higher up draw over rows lower down. Drag to reorder, tap the eye to hide.
3. 03 Get more layers The Library holds every layer Patchly offers. Open it from here.
4. 04 Meet the Library This is where all layers come from: geology, tenements, terrain and the rest. Use search, or the filters for region and for free or Pro layers.
5. 05 Contours for your state Contour lines read the shape of the ground: gullies, spurs, benches and saddles. They are free.
6. 06 What a layer tells you Each layer describes itself: contents, publisher, licence, size, and last update. The Availability setting defaults to Automatic, which streams the layer and downloads only what you need from it.
7. 07 Download it This fetches the layer and adds it to your selection at the bottom of the screen.
8. 08 Put it on the stack One tap adds everything you selected. You can add multiple layers to the selection at once before adding it to the stack.
9. 09 Layer settings Every layer row has a sliders button hiding its settings: colour, what is drawn, and options specific to that layer.
10. 10 Fewer lines 10 m contours can crowd steep ground, and the 20 m setting thins them out. There is nothing to save: stack edits apply immediately.
11. 11 That is the whole loop Stacks hold layers, the Library supplies them, and each layer has its own settings. The practice stack stays around for now, so feel free to play with it. When you are done, tap your own stack on the rail, and the practice stack is removed.

Patchly can guide you to any point on the map, to a find or a pin you logged, or along a line such as a lead or a track. This tour covers all four.

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1. 01 Getting to a spot Patchly can guide you to a place: a find worth a second look, a gate, a camp, or a patch someone described over the radio. It points the way and counts down the distance rather than giving turn-by-turn directions, because out here there are rarely roads to turn onto.
2. 02 Pick a spot on the map Press and hold anywhere on the map. A callout opens for that point, with the ways to use it. Go to starts guiding you there.
3. 03 The navigation card The arrow points at the spot and the distance counts down as you close on it. Minimize it to a small compass when the map matters more than the card, and tap that to bring it back.
4. 04 Add another stop A route can be a string of places, not just one. Press and hold somewhere else and the callout offers Add stop instead of Go to, putting that point at the end of the route.
5. 05 The stops list Every stop on the route is listed here, in the order it will be walked. Stops can be reordered or removed, and only the ones still ahead can be changed: a stop already reached stays put.
6. 06 Put the list away The stops list sits over the navigation card while it is open. Close it to get back to the map and to the card's own controls.
7. 07 Finds and pins too Tapping a find or a pin opens its own card, carrying the same Go to. Anything already logged can be navigated to this way, which is the usual way back to a patch worth working again.
8. 08 Following a line A line drawn with the map tools can be followed rather than cut across, so the route keeps to a track, a creek or a fence line instead of pointing straight over a range.
9. 09 Ending the route This ends the guidance and clears the route. It asks to confirm first, in the card itself.
10. 10 That is navigation Press and hold for a point, tap a find or a pin, or follow a line, and add stops as you go. Every tour can be taken again from Settings, then Help, then Tutorials.

Good ground rarely has bars. This tour saves an area of the map onto the phone, so the map, the layers on it and your recording all keep working when the signal does not. Downloading the area is part of Pro.

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1. 01 Maps that work with no signal Most goldfields have no reception. An offline region is a patch of the map saved onto the phone, so it still draws when the signal drops.
2. 02 Where they live Offline regions sit in Tools, with the drawing and measuring tools.
3. 03 The row to take Tools opens with the drawing tools on top and offline regions underneath.
4. 04 Your saved regions Every area saved to the phone is listed here, with what it takes up. This is also where a region is deleted when the space is wanted back.
5. 05 Save a new area This starts a new region.
6. 06 Pick the ground The hub steps aside and hands the map over. Each tap on the map selects one block, and tapping a selected one puts it back. Bigger regions take longer and use more space, so trace the ground actually being worked rather than the whole district.
7. 07 Or paint a wider area Turn Paint on and one swipe selects every block it crosses, which is far quicker than tapping out a wide patch. Zoom is off while Paint is on, so turn it off again to move the map.
8. 08 Then download it This fetches the area and saves it. Downloading is part of Pro. A part-finished download can be picked up again from the region's own screen, so it is worth starting before leaving reception rather than after.
9. 09 That is the whole idea Save the ground before heading out, and the map still works when the signal does not. Every tour can be taken again from Settings, then Help, then Tutorials.