Hi Everyone,
I suppose this is preaching to the converted but I think it is worth
getting positive feedback about your product, rather than "What about
this?" or "Do you know about this bug".
I am a environmental consultant. Every job requires the acquisition and
creation of geospatial data, simple geospatial analysis and the
preparation of maps. Every job has variations on the theme with clients
providing information in various datums and formats. Output is
relatively constant with maps being used as JPGs in reports or supplied
as shapefiles to the client. OK, this gives you some background to my
situation and needs.
Originally I used ArcView, but have over the last year been searching
for a reliable and robust alternative. I have tried QGIS, Grass, Kosmo,
OpenJUMP, JUMP, llwis, OpenEV, etc to carry out what I needed. I tried
early versions of gvSIG but found some basic requirements were not meet.
Beta versions of 1.9 looked OK but they were unstable with regular
crashes making it difficult to justify the time to learn the program.
Now that the stable version of 1.9 has been made available I have
started using it in production. My belief is that the only way to verify
if some thing is going to work is feed it real data and try to do real
things with it. You will have noticed I have been regularly posting to
the list server as I (a) explore the interface and try and understand
how things are done, and (b) as I have uncovered various little glitches.
OK, my initial feedback after working with the program for several weeks
is...
1) the transition from ArcView to gvSIG was seamless with most functions
being found in similar locations. I had a similar experience when
trialling Kosmo, but not with any of the other packages mentioned.
2) gvSIG uses ECW, Shape, DWG, DXF -- all file formats I regularly
encounter.
3) gvSIG can convert from AGD66 geo/AMG55 to GDA94 geo/MGA55 --
something I need to do regularly. I did note however that the gvSIG
files created varied slightly from files reprojected in ArvView. I will
need to do some testing of both systems to verify that the output is
comparable.
4) gvSIG could handle quite a lot of data, files, annotations, etc. The
only time I noticed the system slowing down was in producing a map. Slow
but it did not crash.
5) I have only had gvSIG crash a couple of times. These instances appear
to be related to small bugs. In comparison with ArcView this is quite
good - for some largish projects ArcView would crash 3-4 times a day
(bad memory management). It is worth noting that I was using ArcView 3.1
which is currently not still supported and is struggling to keep up with
Operating System changes (XP service packs, Vista).
6) I am keen to eventually migrate from Windows XP to Ubuntu or Debian,
so am keen to ensure the system I use is suitable for these operating
systems. gvSIG does, so this is great.
7) I am still keen to see the map production facility improved.
especially the output. I found I got a much better output file by
capturing the screen and manipulating in GIMP, than use of any of the
output options. I have not printed directly to a printer so can't
comment on the ability to gvSIG to render a map properly. My needs are
primarily generation of a file than can be imported into OpenOffice Writer.
8) Coupled with Sextante, gvSIG captures most of the tasks that I have
done over the last 15 years. Table 1 shows my checklist of things I
commonly do and whether I have figured out if gvSIG does them. Any help
filling in the blanks would be appreciated. I will update my post with a
completed table if I receive any feedback.
9) I have not been able to find any good tutorials on how to use the
command box when editing a shapefile or the JPython Console. These
features look very promising but without some sort of tutorial, examples
or manuals it is impossible to evaluate these facilities. This was the
old aspect that ESRI has over the open source communities -- they have a
quite large and easily navigated script library which allows for people
to contribute scribes for manipulation of spatial data and extensions
that can be downloaded.
All in all what I am trying to say is gvSIG is fantastic. Everyday I
learn about some new feature and I can't stop smiling. I think that
finally I can legitimately say I have found an open source GIS system
that has surpassed ArcView 3. Considering the plethora of open source
packages available it has been frustrating that no one package bundled
the core elements required by users like myself into one place. gvSIG
has now done this and included a range of other features to boot. I am
very pleased and want to congratulate the developers and the Generalitat
Valenciana on a fantastic product. I look forward to being part of this
dynamic open source community, and helping further the development of
this product.
Table 1. Things I need a GIS system to do. If people can provide comment
on any of the functions flagged with '?', I would appreciate it.
*Broad Category* *Function* *gvSIG 1.9
*
PLATFORM Familiar program structure YES
PLATFORM Intuative structure YES
PLATFORM Linux Compatible YES
PLATFORM Project file to retain previous settings YES
PLATFORM Windows compatible YES
SUPPORT Able to be extended through scripts YES
SUPPORT Active script library NO
SUPPORT Manual YES
SUPPORT Forums YES
LEXICON SHP Support YES
LEXICON CAD Support YES
LEXICON DGN support ?
LEXICON DXF Support YES
LEXICON ECW Support YES
LEXICON JPEG Support YES
LEXICON MapInfo Support ?
LEXICON MrSID Support APPARENTLY
LEXICON GDA94 Support YES
LEXICON AGD66 Support YES
VECTOR Features in shapefile - add, edit, delete YES
VECTOR Points Images/fonts, scaleable YES
VECTOR Polygon Area, Cleaning tools, centroids YES
VECTOR Projections on the fly NO
VECTOR Shapefile - add, edit, delete YES
VECTOR Warp line files ?
RASTER Change header data in supported image types (georeference) YES
RASTER Use or convert TAB world files ?
CONVERSION Cut-and-paste sections of aerial photographs and retain
georeferencing YES
CONVERSION Graphics to Shape, Shape to Graphic NO
CONVERSION Polygon to Polyline ?
CONVERSION Polyline to Line ?
CONVERSION Reproject AGD66 --> GDA94 YES
ANALYSIS Address location along polyline ?
ANALYSIS Buffer Features - field, value YES
ANALYSIS Explode complex polygon files ?
ANALYSIS Get coordinates for vertices ?
ANALYSIS Identify features within distance ?
ANALYSIS Image pattern analysis to extract vegetation types ?
ANALYSIS Insert northing, easting, latitude and longitude YES
ANALYSIS Get distance between objects ?
ANALYSIS Intersect Lines ?
ANALYSIS Line length YES
ANALYSIS Line or polygon intersect
YES
ANALYSIS Nearest Feature Sextante?
ANALYSIS Nearest Neighbour Analysis
Sextante?
ANALYSIS Update areas, perimeters, hectares and length YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Map production facility YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Ability to create or import legend symbology YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Legends complex - based on more than one field NO
CARTOGRAPGHY Export maps JPG NO
CARTOGRAPGHY Export maps WMF NO
CARTOGRAPGHY Export maps SVG NO
CARTOGRAPGHY Gradicules and measured Grids YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Gradicules - dynamic YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Labels - add, edit, delete YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Legend categories - unique value, graduated colour or
single YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Legends Auto Label YES
CARTOGRAPGHY Text - add, edit, delete YES
--
Cheers Simon
Simon Cropper
Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
PO Box 160, Sunshine, Victoria 3020.
P: 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437.
mailto: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
web: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au <http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au>
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