How to Integrate S-63 Encrypted Charts (ENC) into QGroundControl?

Blue Robotics Software QGroundControl
1

Hi all,

We are currently working on a marine project where we would like to integrate S-63 encrypted Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) into QGroundControl, similar to how you see map overlays in Google Maps. Our requirement is to display these charts for precise mission planning and navigation on water.

We’ve explored QGC’s support for offline tiles and basic map overlays, but couldn’t find any documentation or plugin support for S-63 chart integration. A few specific questions we have:

  1. Does QGC natively support S-63 ENC format?

  2. If not, is there a plugin or workaround (e.g., converting S-63 to a supported format like MBTiles or GeoTIFF)?

  3. Can QGC’s map rendering engine be extended to support maritime chart features like depth, buoy, and other marine markers?

Has anyone tried using S-57 charts instead, or converting S-63 to S-57 for this purpose?

Any guidance, documentation, or examples would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

2

Hi @Chandan -
Blue Robotics does not develop QGround Control, and generally has been moving away from using it at all - instead, placing our efforts into Cockpit, an open source and highly configurable solution. While Cockpit does not yet have the features you’re after, it does have bathymetry on charts and so support for other tiles / offline tiles should be possible - the developers are definitely thinking of supporting many types.

For now, your questions are better suited to the QGround Control developers… I saw your post on the ArduPilot forums, maybe the project Github is another way of submitting your request? Best of luck!

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