Maptitude - http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/maptitude.html
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Kevin:
>We are all beginning to hear ESRI beat its drum about the "latest
>enhancement" of ArcView to be roled out as "ArcGIS 8.1". From a
>presentation I heard yesterday, I am more convinced than ever that
>Maptitude still represents superior value as a desktop GIS.
That is good to hear!
>While I'm not tempted at all by ESRI's "siren song", it might be useful
>for existing Maptitude customers to get a comparative chart of the
>expected functional capability of MT 4.5 vs. ArcGIS 8.1...for example,
>ArcGIS 8.1 apparently will finally be offering import/export of multiple
>(up to 40?) geographic formats...a feature of Maptitude for a number of
>years (but a format for format comparison would be useful).
Once we are aware of the capabilities of ArcGIS 8.1 (or, more specifically,
ArcView 8.1), we could do a comparison. Any help you could offer would be
appreciated.
>We keep getting from you these "snippet" insights to the improved features
>of the 4.5 product (and I know you don't want to promise something that
>you might not be able to deliver), but it would be nice to know what the
>whole package will offer...
The Maptitude 4.5 capabilities are set, and the first incarnation of
Version 4.5 will be shipped very soon as Maptitude for Redistricting 4.5. A
quick summary (not complete):
- File-Open: new file types, including reading Shapefile, MapInfo TAB, and
Oracle Spatial directly
- Map-xxx Theme: Save and Load buttons for reusing theme settings (Margie's
ideas helped with this one)
- Map-Map Coloring: new command that solves the four-color map problem
(based on one of our software developer's PhD dissertation)
- Map-Feature Display: new command that manages assignment of style and
label settings to map features based on a code in a CCSTYLE field (no more
huge selection sets in .MAP files!)
- Dataview-Table Structure: new command that displays the field name, type,
width, decimals and index flag for the current layer/dataview, which can be
saved into a table
- Tools-Surface Analysis: new submenu with improved surface analysis,
including draping a map on a DEM and computing a shortest path over the
terrain (do I go over the mountain, or around it?); display done with
OpenGL (same for prism maps)
- Tools-Locate-Index Locations: new command that creates Location indices,
an alternative to Streets files for locating addresses
- Tools-Geographic Utilities-Rubbersheet: new command that rubbersheets a
geographic file, based on pairs of control points
- Tools-Geographic Utilities-Clip by Area: new command that clips the
working layer based on some or all features in an area layer, with control
over how attributes are handled (like copying speed on a highway but
splitting the travel time)
- Tools-Geographic Utilities-Merge Geography: new command that merges some
or all features in a layer into the (DBD) working layer, with control over
how attributes are handled (i.e., how to match up fields with different names)
- New user's guide
- New help format, using frames, links to web pages, a table of contents,
and an index integrated across sub-help files; those who have GISDK help
know what I mean
>...and how "backward" compatible it will be (e.g. old add-ins which
>worked with 3.0 were rendered useless with the migration to MT 4.0).
Remember, Version 3.x was for Windows 3.x, and Version 4.x is for Windows
4.x (Win95) and above. That and other factors created a lot of changes in
the GISDK for Version 4.0. The number of changed GISDK functions (in terms
of breaking add-ins), going from Version 4.0 to Version 4.5, is quite small.
Peter
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Peter Van Demark
Director of GIS Products and Training Phone: 617-527-4700
Caliper Corporation Fax: 617-527-5113
1172 Beacon Street E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Newton MA 02461-9926 Web site: http://www.caliper.com
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