January 17, 2011 -- With a brand new year, CARIS is introducing a revolutionary solution to the problems of converting Digital Nautical Charts (DNC’s) to Electronic Nautical Charts (ENC’s) and vice versa.

CARIS, with S-57 Composer 2.2, now offers a DNC Plug-in available through an optional license. The DNC Plug-in has a unique capability of automatically converting, with a first-pass success rate of 80%, DNC to ENC.

“Not only do we believe that this capability is unique, but we have designed it to be simple to use. A couple of simple steps are all that is required,” said Cameron M^cLeay, product manager for S-57 Composer.

The DNC Plug-in allows for further refinements to the conversion with user customized mapping support and built-in editing and quality assurance tools.

CARIS has been at the forefront of working on the issue of conversion between DNC and ENC with international groups like the Hydrographic Information Harmonization Working Group (HIHWG). HIHWG was established to identify a solution to harmonize digital vector hydrographic data.

Cameron M^cLeay added, “We have been releasing software with DNC export capability for more than a decade, first launching the CARIS DOM application on Windows in 1998.  The early DNC to ENC conversion tools were quickly enhanced, but this new capability in S-57 Composer transcends those tools.  Clients still using DOM will greatly benefit by upgrading to the new S-57 Composer with DNC Plug-in.  This offers an easy transition to the modern, feature-rich CARIS electronic chart production workflow.”

For more information on how S-57 Composer 2.2 can benefit your organization visit www.caris.com/s-57composer

About CARIS
Established in 1979, CARIS is a leading developer of geospatial software. The CARIS Ping-to-Chart™ product line delivers an integrated software solution for the entire workflow of hydrographic information from the echosounder "ping" through to the production and distribution of the "chart". CARIS products are continually selected by hydrographic offices, military agencies, survey contractors, ports and harbours, municipalities, land administrators and academia among others. In addition to its Canadian headquarters, CARIS has offices in The Netherlands, United States, Australia and United Kingdom. There are also more than 20 resellers bringing sales and support of CARIS brand software to more than 85 countries.

For more information, or to schedule an interview, please call Alex Palmer, +1 (506) 458-8533, or email Email Contact