Compatible charts
PassagePlus is compatible with the following chart series:
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‣ARCS (Admiralty Raster Chart Service): about 3,200 charts covering the whole world, published by the UK Hydrographic Office.
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‣NZMariner: about 160 charts covering New Zealand and surrounding waters, produced by Land Information New Zealand.
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‣Seafarer RNC: about 430 charts covering Australia and surrounding waters, produced by the Australian Hydrographic Service.
In all three cases these are precisely scanned facsimiles (raster images) of the relevant hydrographic office's official paper charts. On screen, therefore, they appear identical to the paper charts. It is precisely because of their instant familiarity to those accustomed to using Admiralty paper charts that raster electronic charts remain popular, despite the advances in vector charts.
PassagePlus is not compatible with other raster chart series (such as Maptech) and is not compatible with vector charts.

ARCS, NZMariner and Seafarer RNC all use the HCRF chart file format and they are identical in appearance and function. PassagePlus allows you to mix charts from all three publishers seamlessly in one overall portfolio.
In addition to the actual chart image, each chart comes with a considerable amount of other data (metadata) providing information about the chart. PassagePlus allows you to access all this information. As well as simple things like chart scale and depth units, this includes more complex data such as the georeferencing formulae that allow each pixel in the image to be referenced to a precise latitude and longitude. Colour data allow each chart to be viewed in three different palettes—one for daytime use, one for dusk and one for nighttime.
You also get access to the electronic chart catalogue for the chart service(s) you are using. Using this, PassagePlus helps you manage your charts and see whether they are up to date. It is also used in determining which other charts are related to the one you are currently viewing. Furthermore you can use it to find out whether there are charts available for a given location in addition to those you already own.
All current Temporary Notices to Mariners (NMs) are included. These contain information about matters that have not yet been incorporated into the actual chart image and other general information. PassagePlus allows you to inspect the NMs relevant to the chart you are currently viewing.
Chart updating is an important feature of HCRF. Charts are updated frequently—weekly in the case of ARCS, and monthly for NZMariner and Seafarer RNC. When this happens, rather than issuing an entire new set of files for every chart, an Update CD is provided which updates only the relevant parts of changed files. The Update CD always contains the cumulative updates (if any) for every chart in the series since the last full Charts CD was issued, so you can update less often if you wish yet still be brought fully up to date with a single CD.
Differences between ARCS, NZMariner and Seafarer RNC
As already mentioned, ARCS, NZMariner and Seafarer RNC all use the same HCRF file format, all operate identically when opened and can be mixed freely. The differences lie in how they are distributed and updated: