S-57 is a standard for electronic navigational charts defined by the IHO (International Hydrographic Organization). S-57 is used for most official hydrographic charts around. Hydromagic supports both unencrypted and encrypted (S-63) charts. It is a vector format which contains features (lines, areas and points) and attributes like depth, symbol, lights etc.
Example of a S-57 Electronic Navigational Chart or ENC.
S-57 charts are available online (for free) for the following countries:
A more detailed list of sources for S-57 data can be found on our website: https://www.eye4software.com/hydromagic/documentation/download-s-57-encs/. For other countries, data can only be purchased in S-63 format. S-63 is the encrypted version of S-57 charts, also called SENC's (System Electronic Navigational Charts). For more information on S-63, please refer to the next chapter.
When you need navigational charts for the United States, you can also use the built in ENC downloader function (from Hydromagic version 9.0). This map downloader can be launched by selecting the "Download ENC..." function from the "File" menu, or by clicking the "Download ENC" button in the tool bar.
For the United States, you can use the built in ENC download tool as well.
IHO S-57 charts can be loaded into Hydromagic by right clicking the "Maps" folder in the "Project Explorer","and selecting the "Import Map..." option as shown in the screen shot below. The file extension for both S-57 and S-63 charts is ".000". The software will auto-detect whether the selected chart is encrypted (S-63) or not.
Right click the "Maps" folder in the "Project Explorer"
to add a new ENC to the project.
The video tutorial shows how to load an ENC. Please watch the video and subscribe.
