11g released too late to be certified but I have been testing with the 6.1 beta for a few months. Oracle broke the ANYINTERACT spatial operator in the released version of 11g but they did fix some spatial filter problems.

So, although 6.1 will NOT be certified against 11g, it has, and will continue to be tested against 11g. I would have to guess that an upcoming 6.1 hotfix will actually be certified against 11g.

For those that are unaware, one of the biggest additions to 11g was the native support for text in the Oracle database. What does this mean? Basically, if you store your text as an Oracle text object (not sure of the proper terminology), you should be able to see that text in ANY client that will read the standard Oracle text object. GREAT for those multi-GIS/CADD client agencies that need to look at GIS data in multiple applications like Bentley Microstation and Intergraph GeoMedia.

Unfortunately, 6.1 is not taking advantage of this new functionality. However, I’m hoping that we’ll see the support for Oracle native text before the release of 6.2.

On a side note, Intergraph did recently release an expansion pack to support Oracle’s GeoRaster datatype. For those that aren’t aware, with the release of Oracle 10g, you can now store imagery (think orthophotos) in the database. Very cool if you have the storage space and Oracle Spatial. The expansion pack can be downloaded from the Intergraph web site (requires a login).

1. Updated Oracle data server – With this new data server, graphics are supposed to draw much faster
2. Updated spatial filter command – Filtering performance has gone up dramatically
3. A new selection tool – Where before you could only select in a square/rectangular fashion, you now have a polygonal select option as well
   
   
4. Geocoding tools – They’ve rolled the geocoding engine into the core product (no longer an expansion pack)
5. New Construction Aid – You can now place a deflection angle construction aid
   
   Additionally, the move command now supports construction aids as well
6. Picklists – Picklists can now be used in the data window
7. Categories – Categories have been implemented throughout the application. As opposed to 6.0 where Categories where in most of the product but were still missing from certain area
8. Keyboard navigation with the QuickPick command
9. The define symbol utility can now be used in batch

I haven’t had a chance to use the beta in quite sometime. However I believe I’ve covered the majority of the key points on 6.1 that I’ve read about or personally experienced. We’ll be organizing a GeoMedia Pro 6.1 product launch through NCIGUC once 6.1 is released to manufacturing (hopefully sometime soon). Once we have the launch, I’ll be able to provide additional information.

That’s not to say that things aren’t going as planned and documented. But I was asked to let you all know that nothing is set in stone until the product is released to manufacturing.

I’ve since this before in products like Adobe Illustrator and the former Macromedia Freehand. Though they probably aren’t too useful strictly in a "GIS" sense, they can be very useful when looking at cartographic output.

I’ve uploaded a video showing the functionality to YouTube.

Although I plan on having my primary source for data viewing to be GeoMedia WebMap and GeoMedia WebMap Publisher, I still want to be able to provide client access through a heavy client like GeoMedia Viewer to some people. Additionally, since it’s free, there’s really no reason to not install it on every machine in the company. Finally, it will also now provide access to enterprise libraries stored in Oracle and SQL Server. Very cool…can’t wait!
It should also be noted that theoretically, since Oracle XE has such a small footprint, you should be able to run GeoMedia Viewer and Oracle XE on a disconnected system. This might be useful for GIS Administrators that need to support people that are typically not online e.g. maintenance crews, operations, etc. I’ve done quite a bit of testing with Oracle XE and the footprint is very small. So, if done correctly, I am thinking/hoping that I can use Oracle XE on field laptops and write materialized views to sync the Oracle data nightly. Sounds doable …assuming the Oracle process stays reasonable.

Here’s a link to the movie.

• Place at angle
• Rotate dynamically
• Orient to geometry
• Place along arc
• Place along existing geometry

For those that are familiar with the command, the Place along existing geometry is new. With this orientation method, you’re able to get the text to nicely follow the respective linework. Take a look at these examples to see what I mean:

Additionally, as you move the text, it continues to follow the linework. Very neat. Reminds me of MapText’s Label-Edit product.

It should also be noted that the same functionality was rolled into the Insert Text command.

Did want to point out that one of the "post-6.1" but before 6.2 enhancements will be tighter integrations with Google Earth, Google Maps, and Microsoft Virtual Earth.

On the Google Earth side, there will be a finalized Export to KML command. I say finalized because there’s a beta version of the command that’s been floating around in different circles for the last six+ months.

There will also be a KML Data Server…very cool if you ask me! 

Finally, Intergraph will also be doing a lot more with Microsoft Virtual Earth. In fact, looking at an AVI, it appears that you will be able to load Virtual Earth inside of the legend window inside of GeoMedia. Then, you can interact with Virtual Earth and your map window will move pan and zoom as you pan and zoom in Virtual Earth. Looks very cool.

I’ve placed an AVI of the Virtual Earth/GeoMedia demonstration on YouTube. It can be viewed here.

In the past, with Intergraph, I’ve developed a couple of mapbooks for different customers. In these past cases, the mapbooks have all had a large number of layers, but have all been referencing an Oracle database. This makes it nice because you can build a lot of the logic into the Oracle database. Furthermore, you don’t need to hunt and peck to try and find the right data.

With my most recent mapbook for San Jose Water Company, I needed to use data from a number of different sources including MGE, SmartStore, CAD, Access, and Oracle Locator. Additionally, I probably have over 100 different feature classes in the legend. Now, although the mapbook design is relatively straightforward, there are still 672 maps that make up the mapbook. Before this mapbook, the most sheets I had ever created was approximately 300.

Here are some of my findings from getting this kind of output from the Batch Plotting Utility:

1. Depending on the volume of the data, you may need to look at working with multiple geoworkspaces with different spatial filters. GeoMedia is known for being a bit of a RAM hog. Typically I find that if my geoworkspace gets over 1gb, then things start to get a bit volatile. With the shear volume of data, whenever I’d try and batch plot all 672 maps at once (sequentially), GeoMedia’s RAM usage would get to about 1.2gb and then GeoMedia would crash. As a result, I eventually needed to break my data (most of Santa Clara County) into three geoworkspaces and create five batch plotting files. With this breakdown, I’m able to keep the RAM usage below 1gb and this seems to keep GeoMedia happier. It should be noted (and I have experienced it personally) that Intergraph has really reduced the amount of RAM GeoMedia 6.1 uses for many things. As a result, I hope to be able to reduce the number of .gws when I move my mapbook to 6.1 later this year.
2. PDF Output can be tricky. In one of my previous mapbooks, all of maps printed out fine except for one page where I was getting about 99% of the map, but the PDF would come up with an error before drawing the marginalia. Worse yet, when printing to TIFF or another raster format…no errors! When working on the SJWC mapbook, many of the maps would print fine but there were a handful that did not. And, when they didn’t, it was the same problem of an invalid PDF. Again – all printed out fine when printing to a TIFF.
   In case number one, the error was resolved by trial and error. Once the offending graphic was identified, it was redrawn and all was fixed. In the case with my current mapbook, it wasn’t that easy. I found the offending layer (it was more than one map), but even after redrawing the graphics, nothing was fixed. It wasn’t until I started playing with the symbology that I finally found the problem. Basically, I was using a dashed line style. When the dashes had a flat cap,
   
   I was getting the error. As soon as I changed the cap to triangle,
   
   
   
   the error went away. How’s that for debugging! Believe me, that took some time to figure out!
3. There are a few bugs in both GeoMedia Pro 5.2 and 6.0 that prevent you from reliably scheduling the utility to run at night. I say reliably because I’ve heard that some people have had success. In fact, when Intergraph tested my issue, they reported it working fine for them. The basic problem I’ve encountered is that when you set the printer with the default settings (in printing preferences) like a landscape layout, 24×36 size sheet of paper, best output, etc.; the page will still print portrait. Now, this is NOT a problem when printing manually – ONLY when using the task scheduler. I have filed a worksheet against this problem and I’m told it will be resolved before GeoMedia Pro 6.1 is released.
4. When a column that is being used for variable text string substitution is empty (null), the variable (the column name enclosed in brackets) will print instead of nothing. In other words, if I wanted the name of a zone to print when the map fell in a zone, I would use the variable [zone_name]. Now, if that zone_name column were populated (not null), I’d get the respective zone name. However if the zone_name column is null, then the utility is giving me back the variable "[zone_name]" where it should really be null. I’ve filed this worksheet and believe this bug should also be fixed before the release of 6.1.

Tomorrow I’ll get into creating PDFs from the batch plotting utility.

My first attempt to do this was with GeoMedia Pro 6.0. This worked GREAT when working with spatial filters. However as soon as I removed the filter and tried to do the entire data sets (approx 150,000 parcels being aggregated to 225,000 lines), GeoMedia starts to crash OR the values it returns are all NULL. I’ve filed the issue as a worksheet. It’s apparently a known problem that they’re trying very hard to resolve in 6.1. Unfortunately with my beta of 6.1, it’s not yet fixed .

So off to "Plan B". I decided to do it in Oracle using the Oracle Locator functions. To keep things more simple… at least in my mind, I decided to break this up into two steps:

1) Aggregate the geocoded points to my parcel boundary. I then created a materialized view to store the result data set. The view took maybe two or three hours to create.

2) I then aggregated of few of the attributes from the parcel boundary (from step 1) to my lines (waiting on this to complete as I write this). Again, I’m expecting this to take probably two or three hours. And again, I’m creating a materialized view to make interacting with the result much faster.

On a side note, Simon Greener wrote a FANTASTIC blog entry titled "Fast Refreshing of Oracle Materialized Views Containing SDO_GEOMETRY Columns". If you have any interest in using materialized views inside of the GeoMedia environment (or really anywhere for that matter; this is a MUST read).

Anyhow, when I first tried to do step 2, I kept getting an error about needing to create a spatial filter on my line feature. Now…it was confusing because I KNEW there was already a valid spatial index on this line feature…. So, after playing with my query some, I finally figured out the problem. Apparently you can not run spatial queries between tables that are located in two different databases. This is important to note for those looking to do this in the future.

Basically, I had created an Oracle database link to the database that contained my line feature/table. I was then referencing the linked table through my query. When doing this (at least with Oracle 10GR2), Oracle can not read the spatial index. As a result, the spatial query will not work. As a workaround, I imported the line table into the same database as my parcel table. Then…all of the sudden the query worked!

If anybody is interested, I can post the queries; just let me know.

Will be heading to BAAMA tomorrow if anybody else is going – hope to see you in Oakland, CA!