Jeff Hobbs’ Intergraph and GIS Technology Blog

“A picture is only worth a thousand words. A map may be worth a thousand numbers. But a GIS is worth a thousand tables.”

Archive for January, 2008

Using the Define Text File Server Format Utility

Posted by jeffhobbs on January 16, 2008

I do want to get back to my MapText discussions, but thought I’d first discuss the Define Text File Server Format Utility. For those that haven’t used it, it’s the utility used to create the .tfd file for the Text Data Server inside of GeoMedia. I’ve used it a number of times over the years. Initially to create data from a matrix I developed in Excel. However more recently (the last couple of years) I use it quite often to move data from the GPS.

In the past I’ve worked with Leica’s GIS DataPRO software and very recently have begun working with Trimble’s Pathfinder Office software. Both work much the same way. Both will output the GPS data in a myriad of formats including .dgn, .shp, and .txt. Although a shapefile is the most common way to move data between different GIS environments. In fact, I’d argue that it’s really the de facto standard for sharing GIS data files for points, lines, and polygons (areas). The biggest challenge I have with shapefiles is their limitation of ten-character column names. Sure, that’s not a showstopper, but it can get annoying. Additionally I like the flexibility of being able to “fine-tune” the data to exactly how I want to see it in GeoMedia. So, instead of shapefile, I use the export to text file option. So, after setting up Pathfinder Office to export the text file with the columns that I want to capture, I exported this test text file. Here’s the output from the test text file:

“MSLINK”|”SIO_NUMBER”|”SIZE”|”DATE_CAPTURED”|”TIME_CAPTURED”|”PHOTO_NAME_1″|”PHOTO_NAME_2″|”PHOTO_NAME_3″|”PHOTO_NAME_4″|”PHOTO_NAME_5″|”PHOTO_NAME_6″|”PHOTO_NAME_7″|”PHOTO_NAME_8″|”PHOTO_NAME_9″|”PHOTO_NAME_10″|”COMMENTS”|”Max PDOP”|”Max HDOP”|”Corr Type”|”Rcvr Type”|”Datafile”|”Unfilt Pos”|”Data Dictionary Name”|”Vert Prec”|”Horz Prec”
“ID”
“Easting”|”Northing”|”MSL”
“thhuj”|”123456″|”1.5″|”01/09/08″|”14:58:25″|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|2.5|1.2|”Postprocessed Carrier Float”|”GeoXH 2005″|”R010914AIM.cor”|238|”SJWC_GPS”|0.4|0.2
76
6144978.736932|1935684.581430|174
“”|”123456″|”.75″|”01/09/08″|”15:10:47″|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|2.5|1.2|”Postprocessed Carrier Float”|”GeoXH 2005″|”R010914AIM.cor”|345|”SJWC_GPS”|0.5|0.3
77
6144982.060934|1935722.122493|173
“”|”123457″|”.75″|”01/09/08″|”15:17:22″|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|2.5|1.2|”Postprocessed Carrier Float”|”GeoXH 2005″|”R010914AIM.cor”|51|”SJWC_GPS”|0.5|0.3
78
6144961.530386|1935706.585739|174
“23456″|”123456″|”1″|”01/09/08″|”15:20:41″|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|”"|4.2|2.1|”Postprocessed Carrier Float”|”GeoXH 2005″|”R010914AIM.cor”|150|”SJWC_GPS”|0.5|0.3
79
6144983.516451|1935710.679456|171

So, once I had the text file output in a delimited format (pipe delimited in this case), I began the creation of my .tfd file using the Define Text File Server Format Utility.

So the first screen asks you to browse for your sample text file. Furthermore, it want to know how the columns are formatted, and the row from which the actual text values begin (this is useful if you have column headers at the start of the file like in the example). I also selected a non-uniform row format since I have attributes (not including coordinates) on two separate rows.

tfd1

Once you hit the Next button, you’re brought to the non-uniform row definition dialog. Note: This only comes up if you selected Non-uniform row in the first screen. Here I tell the utility that I have two rows of attributes (not including geometry) for every point shot.

tfd2

After hitting the next button, I’m brought to the third screen. here I define the type of delimiter used in the text file. In my case it’s an “Other” delimiter because I use the pipe (|).

tfd3

After hitting the next button I’m brought to the fourth screen. This screen just simply want me to define my easting (long)/Northing (lat) and optionally an elevation value.

tfd4

Finally on the last screen I begin to define my attributes. Here I can define column names and data types. This is what I really like about the the Define Text File Server Format utility. I can really customize the what I’m going to see in GeoMedia. A couple of notes about the interface. In my opinion, the GUI is a little awkward. It wants you to select the column, give it a name, give it a data type, and then make sure to push the Set attribute definition button. If you don’t push that button, the definition will not be saved and the column will default back to <skip>. Note: This <skip> can be useful. Especially if you’re not totally sure what types of values are going to come out of the GPS software. You might export more values than you actually might want. Instead of modifying the Trimble side, you can easily just tell the utility to skip the column and not show it in GeoMedia. I could also see this being of great value if you’re being provided a text file from a third party.

tfd5

So, after you’ve defined all of your attributes, push the Finish button and save your .tfd.

Now it’s time to read the .tfd into GeoMedia. In GeoMedia go to Warehouse > New Connection. Choose Text File. That will bring up the following dialog

Text Data Server dialog

In the first text box, navigate to your text file. This is the text file that you used to create your.tfd file.

In the second text box, navigate to your .tfd file.

In the third text box, navigate to a coordinate system file that defines the coordinates in the text file.

After that, hit OK button. Then add your feature class using Legend > Add Legend Entries…. If all went well you should see the points in the correct position.

My Points in GeoMedia

All in all, the functionality isn’t going to make or break a purchase of GeoMedia, but I do really think it’s a valuable tool to have in the GeoMedia toolbox.

You can download my tfd, csf, and .txt files to try it yourself.

Posted in GeoMedia, Intergraph, Trimble | 3 Comments »

MapText Label-EZ – Part 1

Posted by jeffhobbs on January 7, 2008

One of the most time consuming aspects of creating a map is creating the labels. Yet, to be honest, labels are probably one of the most important pieces of most maps. Now, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say that the native labeling tools inside of GeoMedia 6.0 leave “something to be desired”. Before going any further, I did want to note that the labeling tools inside of 6.1 are better…but they still leave a lot to be desired. So outside of the native GeoMedia labeling tools (and a lot of manual user interaction), what else is out there to make the labeling job easier? MapText’s Label-EZ, Label-Edit, and as of very recently, Geolabel.

Label-EZ is MapText’s flagship product. You can think of it in a way as GeoMedia’s native labeling tools on some really strong (and I mean strong) steroids. A Label-EZ job is divided into two components

  1. Specification file – This is where you define the layers to be labeled, the attribute columns that will be used for the label contents, the scale of the map, where to place the text (output warehouse), the style properties of the labels for each feature class, along with many other settings.
  2. Configuration file – This is where you set the rules on how to label each feature class you’ve defined in the specification file. And let me tell you, there are quite a few rules you can modify to fine-tune the labeling for any feature class on the map. Here are a few screenshots of the LabelConfig utility (the utility used to create and modify the configuration file)

config1

 

config2

config3

config4

From taking a fast look at the screenshots, you can fairly easily tell that there are a ton of options. Now although there are a ton of options, MapText includes very helpful inline help so that you know what each option does either before or as it’s selected. Furthermore, the product is delivered with a 150 page manual that goes into even more detail. Additionally, MapText delivers a few “common” templates that can be selected for general labeling of different types of features. For instance, for area features, you have the option of four different templates:

  1. Parks
  2. Parcels
  3. Curving-Placement
  4. Parks-with-Leadering

Here’s a description of the parks template:

This template will exhaustively attempt to place the text inside, outside, or partially inside the park.

To be continued….

Posted in GeoMedia 6.1, MapText | 16 Comments »

GeoMedia Professional 6.1 – To Be Released Soon

Posted by jeffhobbs on January 7, 2008

I’ve gotten a couple of inquiries into the release date for GeoMedia Pro 6.1. I don’t have an exact release date, but I’ve bee told that it should be sometime within the next month. I hope to get a more firm data soon and will post it here.

On a side note, I hope to get the Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community (NCIGUC) to host a 6.1 product launch. I’m thinking this would happen in early to mid March. I’ll post more on the product launch as January moves forward.

Posted in GeoMedia, GeoMedia 6.1, Intergraph, NCIGUC | 7 Comments »

MapText Label-Web

Posted by jeffhobbs on January 3, 2008

When I first heard about Label-Web probably four years ago, I really thought it was a must-have application. Back then, if I recall correctly, the native GeoMedia WebMap labeling wasn’t available. So, outside of creating the labels for the site manually, there was absolutely no way to get a GMWM site labeled. And even if you created the labels manually, since a web site has a endless number of different views, you really couldn’t do a decent job of labeling the map on the screen in all instances. Not to mention, there’s a giant overhead in creating the different labels for the different scales, the labels constantly need to be updated, etc.

Back with the release of GeoMedia WebMap 5.2 (I believe), Intergraph introduce the annotation rule (I think that’s the correct name). Anyhow this object can be called when writing a custom GeoMedia WebMap site and will do an alright job of labeling the map. So…when Intergraph introduced the annotation rule I was excited. Finally a way to get my maps labeled without having to maintain a myriad of text feature classes. But alas, the annotation rule does NOT work with GeoMedia WebMap Publisher. Now, for the life of me, I have NO idea why it hasn’t been integrated in GMWM Publisher…but it’s not. So, once I decided to go with GeoMedia WebMap, I needed to once again figure out how to get my GeoMedia WebMap Publisher maps labeled without maintaining the text feature classes. As it turns out Label-Web works with GeoMedia WebMap Publisher. Better yet – it’s extremely easy to integrate it into any WebPub site. Better yet, the output it produces is fantastic. Although I’ve only played with it for maybe an hour, I got it working against the WPDemo site in the Overview map under the General section. Here’s a sample of very simple output that’s been generated with Label-Web:

labelweb1

labelweb2

labelweb3

The setup is quite easy. You just need to place the rule file in the System folder of the WebPub site. They deliver a very nice rule editor that allows you to control how the map is labeled, what features are labeled, etc. There’s very little learning curve and the results are really tremendous.

A couple of final notes:

  1. Although the labels are being generated dynamically, the labeling engine is extremely efficient. As a result there is VERY little time (way under a second) that’s added to the map generation process.
  2. A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to compare the output from GeoMedia WebMap’s annotation rule to the output from Label-Web. As you’d expect the output is better…much better. The annotation rule does an alright job of labeling the map. And to be honest, if you aren’t going to be using WebPub at all, you might be able to get by just with the native GMWM labeling. However if you are going to be using WebPub, this piece of software really is a must have.

Posted in GeoMedia, Intergraph, MapText | 5 Comments »

A Few New Purchases Towards the End of Last Year

Posted by jeffhobbs on January 2, 2008

Towards the end of last year I received quite a bit of new software and hardware. On the hardware side were a couple of new Trimble GeoXH GPS units. These can deliver sub-foot GPS points once post-processed. With time, the goal is to slowly but surely adjust our maps to be GPS quality. This will definitely take at least three years and a lot of learning. So…expect some postings on GPS usage in the future….

On the software side, I purchased the following:

  1. GeoMedia WebMap (finally)
  2. Oracle Spatial upgrade
  3. MapText Label-Web
  4. MapText Label-EZ
  5. MapText Label-Edit

I’ve spent time on #1 and #2 before on my blog, but don’t think I’ve ever touched on the MapText products. So, over the next couple of days I’m going to spend some time on both products. Needless to say, if you haven’t heard of the company or its products, I HIGHLY encourage you to take a look at their web site and a few of their samples. To put it simply, MapText produces the best software on the market (without a doubt) for the labeling of maps – both on the web (via Label-Web and GeoMedia WebMap) or on paper (via Label-EZ and Label-Edit).

Tomorrow I’ll go over Label-Web and then I’ll touch on Label-EZ and Label-Edit next week.

Until then…

Posted in GeoMedia, Intergraph, Oracle Database, Trimble | 2 Comments »

Happy 2008! and an Invite to All

Posted by jeffhobbs on January 2, 2008

After a month or so hiatus, I’m back. I want to wish all a Happy New Year and hope you all had a great holiday season. Although I will definitely continue to update the blog on a (semi) regular basis, it really is quite a bit of work. With that said, I invite anybody else to help contribute to the blog. If you are interested, please contact me using the contact page. I can setup an account for you and you can create your own content. Alternatively, you can submit content to me and I can post.

So…if anybody is interested, please contact me….

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.