FUGAWI Marine ENC - Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is "FUGAWI Marine ENC"?
FUGAWI Marine ENC is a new, marine-focused product that extends the use of the popular FUGAWI GPS Mapping Software by allowing users to
view charts and navigate with GPS using the new United States Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Electronic Navigation Charts (NOAA
ENC) and the United States Army Corps or Engineers Inland Waterway Electronic Navigation Charts (IENCs).
2. How can I benefit from FUGAWI Marine ENC?
With FUGAWI Marine ENC, your vector chart data is free. Of course, FUGAWI Marine ENC will still display your existing raster data, including MAPTECH®, SoftChart and NDI Digital OceanTM, as well as your own scanned paper charts.
FUGAWI Marine ENC is the only inexpensive, PC-based GPS navigation software that can read and display the new NOAA ENC and IENC format charts-which are available to boaters free of charge.
3. What are "NOAA ENCs"?
An NOAA Electronic Navigational Chart, or "NOAA ENC" is a vector chart format that can be displayed by FUGAWI Marine ENC on your computer in a familiar "chart"
form
Sample of an NOAA ENC as displayed in FUGAWI Marine ENC
Raster vs. Vector Charts
The structure and format of a vector-based NOAA ENC is defined by the International Hydrographic Office S-57 standard, which means that the NOAA ENC is in a non-proprietary, publicly available, and internationally recognized format. The NOAA ENC contains information about the location of each chart feature, as well as color, shape, depth, and the like. This information is used by FUGAWI Marine ENC Charting Software to draw a nautical chart display-one that has greatly enhanced functionality.
A raster chart, by contrast, is a facsimile of a paper chart-that is, a picture of a chart displayed on a computer screen. It is a file of information that can be thought of as dots (or pixels). The raster file tells the computer what color to draw at each pixel. Thus, the computer "knows" what color is there, but cannot distinguish a black pixel that is part of a sounding from a black pixel that is part of a dangerous wreck.
BSB Raster Chart (left) and vector-based NOAA ENC chart (right), showing user-defined depth contours. FUGAWI Marine ENC users can also switch off the display of soundings, lights or text, as well as change the sounding measurements from meters to feet.
The NOAA ENC stores the feature, its latitude and longitude, and its descriptive information. For example, when reading a NOAA ENC,
FUGAWI Marine ENC Software "knows" the depth of soundings, and can display it in feet or meters depending on your preference. Furthermore,
one can control the way FUGAWI Marine ENC Software displays the data
by switching off the display of soundings, lights, or text as desired
4. Who creates NOAA ENC charts?
The Office of Coast Survey (OCS) has been involved in the development of the NOAA ENC chart suite to support the marine transportation infrastructure and coastal management for a number of years. Every NOAA ENC is in the International Hydrographic Office (IHO) S-57 international exchange format, and complies with the NOAA ENC Product Specification. These NOAA ENCs, which support real-time navigation, are now being released to the public at no cost.
NOAA ENC updates will provide automatic corrections for Notices to Mariners and other changes. Once the updates have started, the NOAA ENC will be established as an official navigational product, and the announcement will be made on:
http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/.
5. What are the current and planned ENC coverage areas?
While the current dataset does not yet have complete national coverage, the good news is that the catalog of charts is continually growing. Better yet, the data and subsequent updates are available free-of-charge from the NOAA website. Information about current NOAA ENC coverage can be obtained from
http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/prodinfo.htm.
Currently, the regions indicated below have substantial ENC coverage. All of the available charts in these regions are included in the latest release of FUGAWI Marine ENC. Expanded coverage will be available for download from within the FUGAWI Marine ENC software itself.
Areas with substantial ENC coverage (as of October 2003)
6. What are IENCs?
The U.S. inland navigation system consists of 8,200 miles of rivers maintained by the Corps of Engineers. The shallow draft waterways have many unique characteristics and difficulties over coastal harbor and ocean navigation; river levels can change by over 30 feet in a seasonal cycle, the navigation channel can shift significantly within the river banks, and shifting yet ever present river currents pose constant challenges in these confined waterways.
Following recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board, the National Academy of Science and the American Waterways Operators, The United States Congress directed the Corps of Engineers to develop and publish electronic charts for the inland waterways. Development of Inland Electronic Navigation Charts (IENCs) to cover the Mississippi River and tributaries thus began in 2001 with pilot projects on the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana and Lower Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Mississippi. These projects involved the conversion of inland waterway data, commonly used for river and channel maintenance, into the international S-57 hydrographic data exchange. This highly structured data format is now used for Corps IENCs.
Following the pilot project, development of initial IENCs to cover most of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers began in 2002. IENCs currently under development are:
-
Lower Mississippi River, Mile 220 AHP to 985,
-
Upper Mississippi River, Mile 0 to 480,
-
Ohio River, Miles 0 to 981,
-
Black Warrior, Tombigbee, Alabama Rivers,
-
Atchafalaya River (update of pilot IENC), and
-
Red River.
Many of these IENCs are now available for FUGAWI Marine ENC. Eventually, all IENCs will be maintained with updates of new or corrected data available for download as it becomes available. However, until the update process is implemented, users should be aware that the IENCs reflect best available information at the time the data was collected.
7. Can the ENC and IENC charts be used for GPS moving map navigation?
Yes, FUGAWI Marine ENC contains all of the FUGAWI functionality (such as moving map navigation; GPS upload and download of waypoints, routes, and tracks; and sending maps and charts to a PDA), as well as the capability of displaying the vessel's position on vector-based NOAA ENC charts. Note that moving map navigation is only provided on FUGAWI Marine
ENC, not on FUGAWI View ENC.
FUGAWI Marie ENC plots the vessel position and course in real time
8. Can I query features on an ENC Chart?
Yes, with FUGAWI marine ENC, you can query every feature on the vector chart including lights, soundings, marks, channels, landmarks, etc. Further, depths at the cursor position are indicated on the status bar.
FUGAWI Marine ENC allows one to query all chart features
9. Will I be able to continue to use my existing BSB (raster) nautical charts?
Yes, FUGAWI Marine ENC supports the raster-based chart formats such as MAPTECH®, SoftChart, NDI Digital OceanTM, as well as your own scanned paper charts.
10. Can I get data for non-U.S. waters?
Non-U.S. hydrographic offices and data producers around the world are also producing S-57 ENC data, although not all charts will be free-of-charge. The S-57 ENC Chart format has been ratified as the international standard for vector-based marine charts.
11. Where can I download new NOAA ENC charts or IENC charts, or updates to existing data?
FUGAWI Marine ENC products include all the currently available NOAA ENC charts and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Inland Waterway Charts (IENCs) on CD-ROM as of the production date. Updates and expanded coverage will be available for download from directly within the software, or from www.fugawi.com.
12. What are the PC Requirements to run FUGAWI Marine ENC products?
FUGAWI Marine ENC products require:
-
Pentium processor or better,
-
Windows 2000, XP or NT4,
-
32 MB RAM,
-
30 MB on hard drive,
-
CD-ROM drive,
-
mouse or other pointing device, and
-
an optional Palm or Pocket PC organizer
(Palm OS 3.5 or greater, or Windows Pocket PC).
13. What is included with a copy of FUGAWI Marine ENC?
FUGAWI Marine ENC comes packaged with:
-
a CD-ROM installation disk for FUGAWI Marine ENC;
-
a CD-ROM containing:
all currently available NOAA ENC vector charts of U.S. Coastal Waters, and
all currently available IENC vector charts of Inland Waterways;
-
a CD-ROM containing all U.S. Coastal Water Nautical Planning Charts; and
-
digital US Street Maps.
|
Product
# |
Name |
Price |
Order |
|
FUG |
Fugawi Marine ENC
Navigator |
$219.95 |
|
