Nearly all of the RNC charts for the Pacific Northwest were cancelled out of CE at the last update. Where did they go? Can I get them back?
Hi there,
This is part of the ongoing retirement of raster charts by NOAA, you can find more info here Coast Survey to shut down the Raster Navigational Chart Tile Service and other related services
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Cay, I would like to keep the last version of the RNCs. Is there an active deletion going on and, if so, can I preserve those I have already downloaded?
You can inhibit updates:
Settings → Charts and Add Ons → NOAA RNC
Each chart group should have a choice to inhibit updates.
I found numerous charts with the notation “this chart has been cancelled”. Displaying the area with the cancelled chart, it was not showing. However, clicking “charts here” showed the missing chart listed but unchecked. Checking the chart caused it to redisplay. When C.E. is closed and reopened, it is again unchecked and needs to be rechecked to display.
Charts that are automatically installed and updated by Coastal Explorer (like the NOAA RNC and NOAA ENC) are considered “Managed Charts”. When you copy arbitrary chart files into Coastal Explorer’s Charts folder (usually “C:\Charts”), they are “Unmanaged Charts” since Coastal Explorer doesn’t know where they came from or how to update them.
Managed Charts are not deleted when they are cancelled; they are only hidden. However, since they no longer appear in the chart catalog from NOAA, they aren’t listed on the “Settings > Charts and Add-Ons” page so it can be tricky to display them again. The context (right-click) menu can be used, but only for one chart at a time and the option only lasts until you restart Coastal Explorer.
Coastal Explorer uses folder names inside of the main Charts folder to determine if charts in that folder are managed or not. If the folder name matches a known managed chart type, then those charts are managed; otherwise they are not.
So if you rename the folder called “noaa_rnc” folder inside your main Charts folder to something like “old_noaa_rnc”, those charts will be added to your portfolio as “unmanaged charts” and Coastal Explorer will stop updating them (and will not be able to tell they have been cancelled). This will let you see all of the old charts by switching the chart panel to show Raster Charts. You will also be able to see a list of these charts in “Settings > Charts and Add-Ons” in the “Unmanaged Charts” section.
Of course you should not plan or navigate using these expired charts, but they can be nice to look at sometimes.
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