NOAA Custom Charts

• Users now control the placement of compass roses shown on a chart.
• The NOAA Custom Chart application now works with the new NOAA Navigation Update application to determine the number and types of changes that have been made to NOAA ENC data since a chart was exported.
• Removed scale minimum (SCAMIN) toggle and set application to not honor scale minimum values. This will ensure that all ENC features are displayed on the chart.
• Added 42-by-60-inch plotter page size.
• More than five charts at a time may now be loaded from a chart catalog into the chart queue.
• The chart catalog viewer window is now resizable.
• Continuous improvements to use more traditional paper chart symbols.
• Fixed a bar scale display problem that existed for some paper sizes.
• Changed the default scale in chart settings to 1:22,000.
• Removed "_ags_" prefix on exported PDF file names.

• Continuous improvements to use more traditional paper chart symbols.
• More improvements to labels for aids to navigation and other features.
• Display of text associated with some features, such as Code of Federal Register (CFR) references for anchorages and restricted areas, which are not currently shown.
• Improved display of labels and other text within the chart, including text related to aids to navigation.
• Anchor berth swing circles will be shown. This is actually a change in how NOAA encodes anchor berths in its ENC data, not in the NOAA Custom Chart application.
• We are exploring different ways to make it easier for users to determine the exact extent and scale of the underlying NOAA ENC data that NCC uses to build custom charts.

• Depth contour labels are sometimes spaced too closely or too far apart. We are working on ways to improve the scale appropriate placement of contour labels.
• Fixing the spacing of the neatline dimensions shown in the corner of the chart, in which the height and width often overprint.

You can save custom chart parameters—scale, paper size, extent, etc.—in a chart catalog GeoJSON file. The file can then be input into the online NOAA Navigation Updates application to determine if any of the NOAA ENC data used by NCC to create the chart has been updated since the chart was last exported.

The NOAA Navigation Updates website identifies critical corrections published in the Local Notices to Mariners that have been applied to the NOAA ENC data, as well as routine non-critical corrections that are regularly released in NOAA ENC revisions. The application displays corrections in a map and provides textual information about each correction. Charts in the catalog are tagged as either having updates "available" or "none." Charts with updates available can easily be re-exported in the NCC application with the latest ENC data applied.

Unlike popular online maps or car navigation systems, which often provide a seemingly seamless map display as users zoom in, nautical charts only have large-scale data in particular areas, such as ports. You can only build a custom chart with the ENC data that is available and with the level of detail provided at the scale in which the data was compiled.

For example, if you wanted to build a 1:20,000 scale chart for a trip from Buhne Point in Humboldt Bay, California to the Pedrazzini Boat Ramp on the Eel River, you might set a chart extent, as shown by the green box below, for a 34-by-44-inch (ANSI E) sheet. A red outline covering Arcata Bay to the northeast and Humboldt Bay to the southwest shows the extent of a 1:25,000 scale NOAA ENC cell. This is a slightly smaller scale than the 1:20,000 scale in which the custom chart will be created, but the difference is fairly small and the top right corner of the resulting chart should look fine.

However, the largest scale NOAA ENC coverage available for the bottom and left sides of the custom chart is 1:200,000. This provides much less detail than would normally be used for a 1:20,000 scale chart that NCC is being used to create. The extent of the smaller scale, much less detailed NOAA ENC data that is available to fill in the rest of the chart is shown by the larger red outline in the image below.

This difference is readily apparent in the resulting chart, shown below. The density of the soundings in the northeast quadrant of the chart is much greater, there are more depth contours shown, and the delineation of the sloughs in Humboldt Bay are shown in more detail than the banks of the Eel River shown in the southern portion of the chart.

The U.S. Coast Guard has asked that questions and comments regarding nautical chart carriage requirements be directed to the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center at:
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/contact/contact-us

All recreational and professional mariners are encouraged to use NOAA's premier navigational product, the electronic navigational chart (ENC) for their primary means of navigation. NCC uses the latest up-to-date NOAA ENC data to create customized charts and these charts are especially useful for voyage planning and situational awareness.

There is a growing demand for ever more detailed nautical charts. To help meet this need, NOAA initiated a program to sunset its traditional paper nautical charts and the corresponding raster chart products and services. This has enabled NOAA to focus on improving the coverage and content of the digital chart format that is used throughout the world for navigation, the electronic navigational chart (ENC). ENC data is produced by over twenty other countries and used by mariners around the world.

Producing and distributing raster charts requires additional, separate computer software and data storage, as well as specialized cartographic training and processing beyond the resources needed to maintain ENCs alone. NOAA is carrying out an ambitious program to replace much of the existing NOAAA ENC coverage with more detailed (larger scale) data. When completed, the enhanced product suite will consist of over 7,300 ENCs in twelve standard scales. NOAA has only been able to create and maintain this enhanced suite of ENC products by redirecting resources previously used to update and distribute traditional paper and raster nautical charts.

Custom charts created for 8.5-by-11-inch letter or 8.5-by-14-inch legal size paper may be printed on an ordinary home printer, but these small paper sizes are not generally practical for navigation. Commercial printers are able to print large format custom charts and NOAA maintains a list of vendors that have experience in printing and shipping nautical charts.

Portable Document Format (PDF) is the only output provided by the NOAA Custom Chart application. The PDF is geospatially referenced, but NCC charts are not intended to be used in digital chart displays for navigation.

No, only specific paper sizes shown in the NCC chart settings control panel may be used. The placement of the chart grid, graphic scales, notes and other minformation must be pre-designed for each paper size and orientation used by NCC.

Yes, an updated User Guide was released with NCC version 3.0. This explains how the various application settings work and provides tips for creating the best customized charts. There is also a video that explains the basics of creating a custom chart and using the new personal chart catalog feature. Other resources are also available in the NCC Help & Feedback panel.

For further assistance or to suggest improvements for the NOAA Custom Chart application, questions or comments may be submitted through the Coast Survey's online ASSIST customer feedback tool.

If you have a question or suggestion concerning a particular custom chart that you are making, please let us know what area you are trying to build a chart for and attach the NCC geoJSON catalog file, the chart PDF or a screenshot of the area, if possible.

Canceled traditional nautical charts and any other previous versions of each chart are available in a JPEG (and sometimes PDF) formats in the NOAA Coast Survey Historical Map and Chart Collection. Canceled charts do not meet U.S. Coast Guard carriage requirements for regulated vessels and should not be used for navigation.