Common Questions

PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution provides a powerful, flexible, and efficient production environment to develop navigational products that meet hydrographic standards. Nautical Solution is a complete system that can ingest nautical data in a variety of formats, including IHO S-57 standard; manage and edit features; and create navigational products either in an enterprise or a desktop GIS environment. At the cornerstone of the solution is Product Library, a powerful, integrated product management framework that creates, tracks, and updates navigational products in a logical, well-organized manner. A series of nautical-specific tools have been developed to address complex geometries, S-57 object characteristics, chart production needs and symbology, and exporting and publishing to international standards. It provides a single application interface, ArcMap, for all source compilation, product finishing, and publishing. PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution is scalable from the desktop to the enterprise and utilizes the same suite of tools and processes for both, as well as takes advantage of proven ESRI technology that is used globally by production agencies.

PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution is used by

• National hydrographic offices and institutions and their contractors
• Commercial chart producers
• Naval commands

PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution can be used to produce and maintain

• S-57 Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC)
• Paper charts
• Digital Nautical Charts (DNC)
• Additional Military Layers (AML) v2.1
• Inland ENC (IENC) with additional configuration
• Other specialized chart products

Yes. PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution operates directly and dependently with ArcGIS Desktop (ArcInfo license). Please refer to System Requirements for further information.

Yes. PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution training courses are offered through ESRI's Learning Center. We highly recommend that training be given to key staff who will be using these tools. Customized training is also available and can be conducted either at ESRI Learning Centers or any appropriately equipped client site. Please visit our training section for further details.

Yes. PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution integrates seamlessly with other ArcGIS extensions.

PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution runs on ArcGIS Desktop, which is not available for UNIX.

No. To install and function correctly, the versions for each must be in sync. For example, PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution 9.3.1 only works with ArcGIS 9.3.1.

Yes. Besides Oracle, the solution is supported on other databases such as SQL Server, Informix, DB2, and Postgres.

No. The solution is designed to produce nautical chart products for planning purposes. You would have to purchase some "chart viewing" technology/software to be used in conjunction with your GPS to navigate with products made from ESRI software.

Product Library is an integrated framework within ArcMap for creating, updating, and publishing products. It is configurable with user permissions and roles and centrally stores information about product data models, files, spatial references, and product versions.

See additional information in the "How does Nautical Solution manage products?" question.

Nautical Information System (NIS) is the enterprise implementation of PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution for the production of navigational products. NIS includes a central database that contains all the feature geometry within a product-neutral nautical data model for the updating or creation of navigational products that are linked to NIS through ESRI replication or created as a new product with each transactional update.

A central database repository is a relational database management system (RDBMS) (whether versioned or not, enterprise or personal) that houses geospatial data. In PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution, the central database repository is the source of all validated data that is used for the creation of navigational products and updates that are transferred to them. An example is the NIS central database.

Yes. PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution supports ENC New Edition (EN) and ENC Revision (ER). An ER is an update to the base file (EN). One of the strengths of Nautical Solution is its ability to create an EN baseline and provide many editions of updates to an S-57 cell. ENs and ERs can be produced from either the centralized database environment (enterprise) or the desktop environment.

Users will be able to produce S-57-compliant New Edition, Update, Reissue, and Cancel files from the nautical geodatabase. This functionality has been thoroughly tested both internally at ESRI and externally at our customer locations. The PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution can map S-57 objects and attributes stored on an S-57 file to the applicable feature class table and field stored within the nautical geodatabase.

PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution is extremely flexible for customization in a variety of ways:

• Symbology can be customized.
  • Symbology requirements are unique for each hydrographic office worldwide, therefore PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution provides a baseline of INT1 symbology. The symbols are stored in a style file. From here, the agency can either use existing symbols or generate its own style. Included in the style are cartographic representations, which are applied to charts via a geoprocessing tool and a visual specification database. Both the style and the specification are not specific to one agency. They can be customized as needed by each agency to produce its proprietary style nautical charts.
• Specifications are expandable.
  • The specification, along with a geoprocessing tool, assigns cartographic representations and calculated text fields based on rules. These SQL-based rules determine which feature is assigned which representation stored in the style file, as well as specific fields that will be used for labeling purposes. The specification included with the solution is expandable. Each agency can also create its own customized specification to correlate with its customized style to produce proprietary nautical charts.
• The data model is extendable.
  • The nautical data model is S-57 object based with logical groups derived from the IHO cartographic symbol categories. It is easily extendable to support additional features and products through "data model wraps." These wraps allow nautical data model updates without compromising existing data and products.
• Enterprise implementation is configurable with different approaches.
  • An example is the Nautical Information System Database (NIS DB) implementation whereby all features are stored in a product-neutral, seamless database. Selected point features, such as navigational aids, can be stored only once and represented on many products across multiple scale bands. Other features can be stored within scale bands and represented on both ENC and chart products simultaneously.
• Workflow management is configurable to suit organization business needs.
  • The Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX) extension is used to track and manage database production workflows. It provides the ability to define tasks, set up production environments, manage geodatabase versioning, and track database changes at the feature level. JTX also provides tools for allocating resources and tracking the status and progress of jobs. Job types, workflows, reporting mechanisms, security, and database settings are all configurable with this application.
• Product management is easier.
  • Product Library is used to organize products and associated map/chart documents. It can be configured to store and manage an organization's data—from a variety of data sources. There is a customizable structure that can reflect how an agency wishes to manage and store navigational products.
  • For improved data quality management, the solution comes with a set of preconfigured S-58 and spatial validation checks—some done on the fly and others done through GIS Data ReViewer. In addition to these checks, you can create your own, store them, and distribute them for reuse.

Yes, the PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution supports a desktop environment. It is essentially the same as the enterprise production environment. The source data for navigational products is stored within the product geodatabase and all changes and edits are made there. The interface and toolsets are identical in both the enterprise and desktop production environment. Furthermore, the desktop production environment can be migrated to the enterprise production environment with some additional configuration. Product Library can also manage the desktop production environment. This type of deployment of the Nautical Solution would be most appropriate for small production facilities, agencies maintaining less than a dozen nautical products and special purpose charts.

Product Library (described above) is an integrated part of PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution. This component manages both data and cartographic information related to products. It provides a means of organizing and interacting with the various parts of your products. Information is presented in a tree view to represent the hierarchical relationship between the different parts of your products.

Organizations can use the standard job types available with the workflow component of PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution or they can configure custom job types based on their business requirements. In addition, organizations can configure more in-depth job tasks with Task Assistant. This component aids in workflow management by providing you with a toolset to define a series of steps required to complete a task within ArcMap. The use of Task Assistant helps standardize workflows within an organization and can be implemented by more experienced users to help guide novice users through complicated workflows.

GIS Data ReViewer is a quality assurance/quality control component integrated with PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution. This component allows you to conduct visual and automated quality review of data in support of database production. It is a set of tools that supports the visual review of geodatabase data quality. The available tools can be used to identify where corrections, additions, and deletions must be made to spatial data and its attributes; analyze data in your geodatabase; and find possible anomalies that exist in your data.

The solution supports all six intended usage bands (Berthing, Harbor, Approach, Coastal, General, and Overview). The nautical enterprise system supports data of all intended usage bands within the same database. All features are coded with the compilation scale (attribute field name: CSCL) value of the source cell, so definition queries can be leveraged to view data of only one scale or extract data based on a scale to another database for finishing.

ESRI teams with business partners to help refine our end-to-end workflow for bathymetry. We are currently engaging in an integration effort to assist with a seamless transition of data into ArcGIS. The Nautical Solution does not currently manage raw sounding data; it is assumed that the data coming from the hydrographic survey parties has been postprocessed prior to its arrival in the cartographic department.

ESRI is actively engaged in research and development to expand our capabilities for bathymetric data management, modeling, and product generation.

X,y,z data can be imported and used for gridding the data. For bathymetric data, z-values can be inverted to take care of positive values. Custom projection can also be applied dynamically while converting this data.

The solution provides an interface to manage horizontal and vertical datum dataset parameters. In addition, ArcGIS Desktop allows you to change depth values associated with a vertical datum change through the use of a geoprocessing tool called Calculate Field, which bases the calculation on a user-defined expression of the datum change.

PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution supports AML at v2.1 for the six AML vector products; however, the AML data model can be configured to support v1.0 and v2.0. All AML features stored within the AML data model can be auto-symbolized using the Visual Specification Toolset (VST). With VST, you can build and use a symbology set that adheres to certain specifications (e.g., S-52 and MIL-PRF-89045). PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution has the Chart1 symbology standard preconfigured that a user can apply to S-57 data without any additional configuration. The solution supports the Exchange Set and file naming conventions as defined in sections A.1.1.5.2 and A.1.1.7, respectively, which can be found in all six vector product Annex documents.

The S-100 standard is still in the approval stages by the International Hydrographic Organization. ESRI participates on the standard working committee (TSMAD) and is keenly aware of the changes that will come as a result of S-100.

As soon as the standard is approved by IHO, ESRI will commence development to support it.

Symbology and grids are based on INT1 and INT2. The positioning of the symbols (the anchor point) varies based on the symbol. INT3 is a comprehensive collection of objects over a fictitious area that is published by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) in the form of a .000 file or series of .000 files.

Yes, advanced customizable options are available to easily tailor the solution for unique and specific requirements for charting.

For more information, please see the question "Is PLTS for ArcGIS—Nautical Solution customizable?."

You can use graphic table elements to create notes, and the information from those notes can be pulled from some data source. If that data source is updated, the notes will update. Notes that have already been placed on charts will need to be replaced with the updated versions.

It is a graphic representation of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions. Nautical charts are essential tools for marine navigation; many countries require vessels, especially commercial ships, to carry them. Nautical charting may take the form of charts printed on paper or computerized Electronic Navigational Charts.

A map is a graphic representation of an area depicting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, themes, and preestablished routes (roads, freeways, railroads, footpaths, bike paths, etc.).

A chart is used to plot a course for navigation. It is a graphic representation of tabular data, a diagram showing the relationship between two or more variable quantities, usually measured along two perpendicular axes, and may be in print or digital form. A chart may show natural and man-made hazards, as well as navigational aids and recommended routes.

ENC stands for Electronic Navigational Chart—a digital product that acts as a road map for vessels, allowing mariners to have real-time navigation capability through an onboard computer interface called an electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS).

The solution supports the latest version of ENC available, ENC version 2.0. This includes the format S-57 3.1 and S-57 3.1.1. The ENC data model supports all the S-57 objects and is available at all six scales: Berthing, Harbor, Approach, Coastal, General, and Overview.

Inland Electronic Navigation Charts (IENC) are digital navigational charts in vector format that provide river transportation information similar to ENCs.

Digital Nautical Chart (DNC) essentially does the same thing as ENC. It is just another specification that is proprietary to the United States military. Digital Nautical Charts are produced by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). DNC data is stored in Vector Product Format (VPF) as an unclassified vector-based digital database containing maritime significant features essential for safe marine navigation. It is based on a tiled data structure and consists of four navigational purpose scales: Harbor, Approach, Coastal, and General.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officially defines AML as a unified range of digital geospatial data products designed to satisfy the totality of NATO nonnavigational maritime defense requirements.