ELECTRONIC CHARTS - Vector

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"Electronic charts are not legal replacements for paper charts, and you must always have current and updated official paper charts on board and consult them frequently"

Vector Electronic Chart Formats

The main formats of Vectorised Electronic Charts are as follows:-

• S-57 (also sometimes refered to as S-57 Edn 3, ENC, SENC, SP-57, DX90)
• NTX

Other formats of Vectorised Electronic Charts are also created by the following private companies:-

• Navionics
• C-Map
• Transas
• Livechart

S-57

S-57 is the format of electronic charts that are designed to be suppied by the Hydrographic Offices to commercial vessels and, when used on a suitably approved system, can be used as a legal replacement of the paper charts. Hydrographic Offices and data producers around the world have started on the production of S-57/ENC datasets for use on ECDIS (and ECS systems) and conversion of some of their existing vector data to this format.

Companies who supply systems that can use S-57 are:-

• ICAN - Aldebaran II & Regulus II. This is a Canadian company based in Newfoundland and supply other add-ons to the systems including "Navigational Aids Module", "Radar Overlay Module" and a "Survey Module". Can also use BSB Raster charts. See the ICAN web site for more information

NTX

NTX is a vector chart format that is supplied by the Canadian Hydrographic office.

Companies who supply systems that can use NTX are:-

• ICAN - Aldebaran II & Regulus II. This is a Canadian company based in Newfoundland and supply other add-ons to the systems including "Navigational Aids Module", "Radar Overlay Module" and a "Survey Module". Can also use BSB Raster charts. See the ICAN web site for more information

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