Water Depth Grouping is the process of grouping water depth points with the same attributes (except depth). This enables more efficient management of bathymetric data and ensures that the resulting Chart Data complies with international standards. Through grouping, related water depth points share specific attributes or representation forms, which is convenient for Data Management and modification, and improves the standardization and accuracy of Chart Data.

• Reason for using water depth grouping: In the Chart Data storage structure, each feature object (such as a light) is usually stored with a feature record and assigned a unique feature object identifier (FOID). However, the situation of water depth points is special, a chart often contains a large number of water depth points, and the attributes and attribute values of these points (except depth) are mostly the same. If each water depth point is stored separately, it will lead to a large amount of data redundancy and reduce the efficiency of management and processing. Therefore, in the S-57 data structure, the water depth points with the same attributes are merged into one characteristic record to improve the efficiency and consistency of Data Save.
• Storage method of water depth grouping: In the SuperMap chart, the water depth is stored in the Dataset as a feature Object Type, and each water depth point is an independent object. Therefore, one bathymetric signature in the S-57 data may correspond to multiple bathymetric objects. The water depth grouping management is completed by assigning the same FOID and RCID to the water depth points with the same attributes. Make Edit Data, display, and export more standardized by reducing redundancy and improving management efficiency.

Examples of application scenarios of Sounding Management in chart production:

• Chart drawing and updating: In the process of chart production, ensure that the storage and management of newly added or updated water depth points conform to the specifications and avoid data redundancy.
• Automatic Grouping and Attribute Consistency: Automatically allocate newly added or ungrouped water depth points to maintain attribute consistency and reduce manual management work.
• Export conforming to standards: ensure that the exported chart files in S-57 format conform to standards, and improve the standardization and availability of data.
• Data optimization and storage: Reduce the storage space by grouping, and improve the efficiency of data query and processing.

Through the water depth grouping management, the chart drawing work can be completed more efficiently and accurately to ensure that the output charts meet international standards and use requirements. This section will introduce you to the following:

• Add/delete water depth point : introduce the specific operation of adding or deleting water depth point.
• Edit Grouping properties : This section describes the specific operations of editing and modifying the grouping properties of water depth, which can be used for properties other than depth value at the Uniform Settings water depth point.
• Edit water depth value : introduces the specific operation of editing the depth value of water depth point.