With the last blog post on Safe Software’s FME suite, I would be remiss to not discuss Intergraph’s own Schema Remodeler utility. The Schema Remodeler utility comes as part of GeoMedia Fusion.

[RANT]On a complete side note…IF Intergraph would NOT hide their marketing information behind a login and password, then I’d have links to the products. The last I heard, David Holmes had said that he hoped to have at least the splash pages out from login/password shortly after the end of the conference. We’re going on almost a month now…anytime soon would certainly be nice. Actually, I found what I think is a hidden link to a bit of literature on the software.[/RANT]

Anyhow, GeoMedia Fusion is a great tool for doing data cleanup, attribute validation,  and conflation. The schema remodeler utility comes with GeoMedia Fusion and is a stand alone utility that provides you with the ability to migrate data from one source to another and to bulk export from the GeoMedia environment. For those that have heard of Intergraph’s Data Warehousing Tools, the schema remodeler utility is the re-branded (and enhanced) Data Warehousing Tools. Schema Remodeler is one of my favorite Intergraph tools and I almost always use it at least once a week.. As of late I’ve set it up to take my Trimble GPS text files and load them into my Oracle Locator database. In the schema remodeler utility, you can do a number of things including re-mapping and reordering columns from one source to another (think migrating a database from Access to Oracle or SQL Server); exporting a seamless Access feature class into a gridded Bentley Microstation V7 environment; and updating columns using functional attributes, creating a subset of the the data using temporal and attribute queries, and modifying the source geometry using an analytical merge so you can export the Oracle data to create a shapefile (all in one transaction).

When you look at the functionality of Schema Remodeler, it’s really pretty amazing at how much you can do with the utility. Now, how do I compare it to FME? It’s hard to say as I’ve used Schema Remodeler off and on for the last five years and I’ve only use FME a handful of times. In my eyes, they both attempt to do similar things. The biggest difference in my eyes has to do with the number of file formats supported (Schema Remodeler only supports the standard GM data server while FME supports at least 150 different GIS data types) and how detailed you need to get. Schema Remodeler is great for many things, however it’s only a utility. FME on the other hand is a complete software solution. Its so goal is “spatial ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load”. It should also be mentioned that since you can’t buy Schema Remodeler by itself (it only comes with GeoMedia Fusion), FME is actually quite a bit cheaper than Schema Remodeler. So, if you’re looking exclusively for “spatial ETL” functionality, I personally would go with FME. However if you need to do some pretty advanced conflation, a lot of automated data cleanup, and attribute validation, you really should be looking at GeoMedia Fusion. If you do that, it’s really nice to know that Schema Remodeler comes as part of Fusion and may answer many of your ETL needs.

A little while ago, I was passed a couple of utilities that I wanted to share with the community.

1) CSF2ASCII.exe - This tool will read any .csf file and write out the contents (projection information out to a a ASCII text file or an HTML file. This is also available in the download widget on the left hand side of the screen.

2) Database Inventory - This will analyze any warehouse connection and provide a complete list of the GeoMedia objects that are available in the connection. I found this one a bit hard to use…but it could definitely be useful if you needed to get a better feel for the contents of a new connection…especially a database. Great for documentation and learning. This too can be downloaded from the widget on the left hand side of the screen.

Just found out my travel for Intergraph 2008 has been approved! So, I’ll be heading out to Las Vegas, NV probably on Monday, June 1. Who else is going? Maybe some folks want to get together for drinks one night?

Reply and let me know!

Was reading a post made by Zym in reply to one of my entries. It mentions using Google as a reference for a good source of documentation. He also mentions the idea of developing a wiki. There has been talk of developing a wiki focused on GeoMedia suite. I envision it to be a centralized place where users can find examples, documentation, and pointers for more ideas. Additionally, I envision it being a collaborative effort with some content coming from Intergraph but also quite a bit of content coming from the users.

As I’m sure you all know, the real power of a wiki is the ability for many people to collaborate. So, with that said, I’d like your feedback.

1. Would you find it useful?
2. Would you help edit it?
3. Would you add your own content (e.g. examples, workflows, ideas, etc).
4. Would the requirement that you had to login turn you off from editing/adding content?

Please provide your feedback as I could really see this happening…if there’s enough interest.

Thoughts?

I will be posting different things that were covered at the GeoMedia 6.1 product launch soon… However one thing that was covered was the idea of “minor releases”. They are new with the 6.1 release and have replaced the “hotfix” nomenclature…with one big difference. With few exceptions, hotfixes were designed to just be a set of patches/fixes to GeoMedia. On the other hand, minor releases are designed to be both patches AND new functionality. As far as I understand it, Intergraph is trying to get the users functionality much faster (which is always very nice). So, to do this, they will be rolling the functionality in minor releases. Now, it sounds like Intergraph might also be rolling future expansion packs into a minor release. Not totally sure on this one (any comments from Intergraph??).

Anyhow, with that said, I’m a little late in posting. However Intergraph has released minor releases for GeoMedia 6.1, GeoMedia Pro 6.1, and GeoMedia Viewer 6.1. Here’s the complete this of fixes and enhancements for GeoMedia Pro 06.01.03.08. This was copied right from the web site. You can assume the enhancements will change depending on your version of GeoMedia.

The problems summarized below have been fixed in GeoMedia Professional Minor Release #1 version 06.01.03.08.

• Resolved a problem where a Double Click of the mouse would add extra points if coincident. JTS TR# 39108

• Resolved a problem where the results of a Spatial Query were incorrect after unloading and loading of the query. JTS TR# 64432

• Resolved a problem where new Mapwindow names were not being honored with a Spatial Intersection Query. JTS TR# 65490

• Resolved a problem where the Generate Base Geometry command was returning incorrect results when the source was a DynSeq query. JTS TR# 69778

• Improved memory usage in the Library system. JTS TR# 70495

• Resolved a problem where the Unload command would not release an application command from memory. JTS TR# 70650

• Resolved a problem where a Resolve Text Conflicts query was not handled by Geomedia WebMap Publisher. JTS TR# 76668

• Resolved a problem where Show Legend Entries returned an error for GeoMedia Grid raster objects. JTS TR# 76710

• Resolved a problem where the application would crash when attempting to load a SQL Server SLOPE feature. JTS TR# 80793

• Resolved a problem where the application would crash with a Dr. Watson error when re-projecting a WMS raster to the Layout sheet. JTS TR# 82250

• Resolved a problem where a PPInsOps dialog was being displayed when data was loaded. JTS TR# 82739

• Resolved a problem where a ‘remote server machine does not exist’ error message was displayed when invoking the Style Definition dialog within Batch composition. JTS TR# 82763

• Resolved a problem where importing a GLS where the map frame contains only thematics in the legend would fail with a ‘No geometries found’ error message. JTS TR# 82831

• Resolved a problem where an automation error would be observed when digitizing a feature using the Arc by start, Point on Edge, End placement mode. JTS TR# 82993

• Resolved a problem with HKLM R/W Access affecting the use of analytic merge and functional attributes. JTS TR# 83012

• Resolved a problem where a ‘PProServiceApplication-defined or object-defined’ error message repeatedly occurs when the Redigitize command is continued. JTS TR# 83026

• Resolved a problem where the Batch Plotting utility crashed when the Y value was deleted on the setting dialog. JTS TR# 83054

• Resolved a problem with the queuing options locator box width field on a machine running a German operating system. JTS TR# 83058

• Resolved a problem where the user could not place an area feature if the default height was changed during placement. JTS TR# 83091

• Resolved a problem where an ‘Object variable or Width block variable not set’ error would display when the user clicked in the Map window after a Continue geometry was invoked. JTS TR# 83160
  1. Create an Access Read-Write connection to USSampledata.mdb.
  2. Add RouteShield feature class to the map Window.
  3. Select Route Shield legend and from right click menu select Style Scaling as Paper.
  4. Zoom to a single feature in Map window .
  5. Select the single feature and invoke Edit > Geometry > Continue
  6.Click in Map window before Place Point at Angle dialog appears.

• Resolved a problem where the Text File Preview pane would display three dots at end of line that do not exist. JTS TR# 83172

• Resolved a problem where a spatial filter by select set was failing in some cases with a WFS connection. JTS TR# 83187

• Resolved a problem where no feature classes were displayed for a GML File that would display in other applications. JTS TR# 83189

• Modified the WMS dataserver to support WMS 1.3.0. JTS TR# 83201

• Resolved a problem where an automation error would occur when the backspace key was pressed during a continue geometry function. JTS TR# 83212

• Improved scalability of data loading (Add Legend Entry). JTS TR# 83216

• Resolved a problem where a Patterned Line with Offset could not always be located. JTS TR# 83338

• Resolved a problem where a blank error message would be displayed when performing a copy parallel on an edited Cartographic Geometry feature. JTS TR# 83349
  Steps To Reproduce:
  1. Invoke GMPro and connect to USSampelData.mdb.
  2. Add States to Map Window.
  3. Select a States feature and invoke ‘Create Cartographic Geometry’ command. Hit ESC.
  4. Perform Copy Parallel operation on any of the States feature displayed in Map Window with target set to ‘States’.

• Implemented support for ARCS image format. JTS TR# 83358

• Resolved a problem where using the Options command (via the File Locations tab) to change the default GeoWorkspace or Warehouse folder location to a folder named with the Japanese hyou character results in the error message “Error displaying the file location for GeoWorkspace Files” or “Error displaying the file location for Warehouse Files” respectively. JTS TR# 83396
  1. In the folder Warehouses create a folder with the name the Japanese character hyou, Unicode 0×8868, SJIS 0×955c
  2. Initialize GeoMedia Pro.
  3. Invoke the Tools > Options command and select the File Location tab.
  4. Select Warehouse Files from the File Types list and click the Modify button.
  5. Browse to the folder with the hyou character name as created in step 1. Click OK to save the change. This will result in the message “Error displaying the file location for Warehouse Files” will be displayed and the default warehouse location will not be changed.

• Resolved a problem where Arabic Unicode text would display backwards JTS TR# 83398

• Resolved a problem where the Precision Coordinate and Spatial Filter dockable controls displayed blank in gws. JTS TR# 83484

• Resolved a problem where non-existing lines display as the user zooms in and out. JTS TR# 83509

• Resolved a problem where Japanese characters were displayed incorrectly if the text file that contains them was saved as ANSII. JTS TR# 83510

• Resolved a problem where ‘Read-only features cannot be edited’ error message would display when the user attempted to Insert Text with the Place Along Existing Geometry orientation. JTS TR# 83518
  Steps to reproduce:
  1.Invoke GMPro blank GWS; make an access R/W connection to USSampleData.mdb
  2.Add States FC to the MW.
  3.Invoke Insert>Text command.
  4.Select StateNameLabels FC from dropdown, key in ‘Test’ named text to insert and select ‘Place along existing geometry’ as the orientation mode.
  5.Once click on the Texas state and move over the state to place the label.
  6.Now at some point the label comes very much closer (even the label may be disappeared), click on that particular point to place the label.

• Added OGC with GML 3.2 compliancy for the GML data server, WFS data server, and the ExportToGML commad. JTS TR# 83523

• Resolved a problem where the user could not move or delete Cartographic geometries with an Arcview connection. JTS TR# 83552

• Resolved a problem where Japanese text was rendered incorrectly in the map window. JTS TR# 83579

• Resolved a problem where GMPro cannot display 2525B fonts from GeoDex. If the user uses the font inside of a style for a point feature, the symbol display is blank. Also, the style dialog cannot display the characters in its character map. JTS TR# 83603

• Resolved a problem where inserting a feature would not permit the selection a feature class from a category. JTS TR# 83608

• Resolved a problem where a search would fail when a Spatial Filter was applied and then removed. JTS TR# 83613

• Resolved a problem where the application would crashes when copying a legend from a Resolve Text Conflict query in the GWS to the library JTS TR# 83615
  Steps to reproduce:
  1.Open a blank GWS; Make an Access r/w connection to USSampleData.mdb.
  2.Invoke Tools>Resolve Text Conflicts command.
  3.Select StateNameLabels from ‘Resolve Text Conflicts in’ field and click OK on the Resolve Text Conflicts dialog taking default inputs for others.
  4.Invoke Legend>Name Legend command and name the legend as ‘Legend1′.
  5.Create a new Access library named ‘Test’ and invoke library organizer dialog.
  6.Check the Legends check box in GWS contents pane and try to copy Legends to Library contents pane.

• Resolved a problem where creating a patterned line, the symbol placed along a line is rotated by twice the amount of the mapview JTS TR# 83627
  When
  Steps to reproduce the problem
  1. Invoke a blank geoworkspace and connect to USSampleData.
  2 Add the interstates feature class to the legend.
  3. Insert a new interstate feature that has a horizontal line and a veritcal line.
  4. Zoom in on this feature
  5. Edit the line style for the interstate feature by leaving the existing line style and adding a new line style.
  6. Move the new line style to the top and make it a pattern line style.
  7. Change the point style to a FSM symbol with the symbol file Transportation and select the symbol “Interstate Route Shield (color)” with a point size of 16.
  8. On the pattern style GUI select a spacing of 10 mm, and okay out of all the dialogs.
  9. Rotate the view by 45 degrees.

• Resolved a problem where the Cartographic grid was placed incorrectly in the batch plotting- compose workflow. JTS TR# 83646

• Resolved a problem where the display of characters with a Library grid was not correct JTS TR# 83647

• Resolved a problem where the WFS data server can’t connect to a public WFS site. JTS TR# 83697

• Copying a search query from a library and performing search operation throws a ‘Method of Object Failed’ error message when pressing the key for first time JTS TR# 83706.
  Steps to reproduce:
  1.Open a Blank GWS; make an access R/W connection to USSampleData.mdb.
  2.Invoke View>Searches cmd and create a new search ‘Search of Counties’ with filter value ‘ANNULRAIN >= [value] AND STATE_NAME = ‘[StateName]‘;’
  3.Create a new Access Connection library named ‘Test’ and copy ‘Search of Counties’ from GWS to Test Library through Library Organizer dlg and dismiss the same by clicking Close button.
  4.Invoke a new GeoWorkspace through File>New GeoWorkspace command.
  5.Create a New Library Connection to the Test Library and copy search ‘Search of Counties’ from Test Library to GWS contents through Library Organizer dlg and dismiss the same by clicking Close button.
  6.Invoke View>Search command, Select ‘Search of Counties’ from the drop down tree view.
  7.Enter ‘10′ in value field and press tab to enter into StateName field.
  8.Enter ‘Texas’ in StateName field and press key.
  9.Repeat steps from 4 to 8.

• Resolved a problem where the Symbol file editor would incorrectly display Japanese symbol names. JTS TR# 83721

• Resolved a problem where a Select Locatable Off on a Legend Thematic and GWS would terminates the session. JTS TR# 83756

• Resolved a problem where the user was unable to dismiss an error message when performing a Redigitize Text operation. JTS TR# 83769

• Resolved a problem where an ‘An error occurred during copy’ message on invoking Copy attributes for a newly created feature class. JTS TR# 83811
  Steps to reproduce:
  1.Open blank GWS; make an access R/W connection to USSampleData.mdb
  2.Create a new feature class named ‘Line’ of geometry type Line.
  3.Add Interstates FC to the MW. Select any of the features on the MW and invoke Edit>Feature>Change Feature Class.
  4.Select Target feature as ‘Line’ and dismiss Change Feature Class dialog by clicking OK button.
  5.Delete Interstates and add Rivers FC to the Legend.
  6.Invoke Edit>Attribute>Copy Attribute Definition dlg and set the below following, then dismiss the dlgs by clicking OK button
  Line: Target Features
  Rivers: Source Features
  Rivers Type, River Name: Attributes to copy
  7.Select the Line feature and any one of the Rivers feature on the MW using key.
  8.Invoke Edit>Attribute>Copy Attributes.

• Resolved a problem where the WMS Data Server was incorrectly serveing WMS 1.3.0 data. JTS TR# 83842

• Resolved a problem where hidden legend entries would remain selected. This caused the Fit by Legend Entry and Select by Legend Entry commands to return invalid results. JTS TR# 83847

• Resolved a problem where invoking LRS Precision and QE dockable controls would result in an ‘Object Variable’ error message. JTS TR# 83883
  Steps to reproduce:
  1.Invoke GMPro blank GWS; make an access R/W connection to LRSMorgan.mdb
  2.Invoke Tools>LRS Precision Location dlg and set ‘LRS’ feature from LRS features in drop down list.
  3.Click on Properties button and set the following
  Primary: nlfid
  Start measure: frommeasure
  End measure: tomeasure
  4.Dismiss both LRS Properties and LRS Precision dialogs by clicking OK button.
  5.Invoke Tools>Queued Edit.
  6.Select File>Exit and click ‘No’ on the confirmation message displayed.

• Resolved a problem where digitizing a feature(relatively big) in the map window using ‘Arc by Start, Point on Edge, End’ placement mode with the insert feature command active, the user would observe that the feature was not displayed properly. JTS TR# 83891
  Steps to Reproduce
  1)Invoke GMPro, make an access r/w connection to ‘USSampledata.mdb’
  2)Invoke Insert> Feature cmd, select ‘Interstates’ feature from insert feature dockable control and change placement mode to ‘Arc by Start, Point on Edge, End’.
  3)Digitize a contiguous arc feature in map window, double click to end feature and make sure that command is active.
  Observation:
  Digitized feature is not displayed properly in map Window. Here mainly problem with refresh. Use ‘Select Tool’ command to terminate insert feature command and perform Fit All operation. Observe that feature is displayed properly. Some times while performing an Undo operation using Edit > Undo command, observe some part of feature is still displayed in map window. Now perform ‘Fit All’ operation then feature disappears from Map window.

• Resolved a problem where the full syntax for DISTANCE was not shown at the bottom of the dialog. JTS TR# 83907

• Resolved a problem where the DISTANCE function would not accept a Boolean for a 2D parameter. JTS TR# 83908

• Resolved a problem where the user would get a ”One or more selected image files did not support the selected georeference mode’ error when using Insert Georeferenced Images with a standard TIFF with a world file. JTS TR# 83913

• Resolved a problem where the application would crash with an ‘Invalid procedure call or argument’ error while digitizing a feature in map window using the Insert Traverse command after previously digitizing a feature with default settings using Insert Traverse. JTS TR# 83942
  Steps to Reproduce
  1)Invoke blank GWS, Make an access r/w connection to ‘Sanfran.mdb’
  2)Invoke Insert>Traverse command, select ‘Alleys_NR’ FC from “Primary Feature class” and “Component Feature class” list box control
  3)Digitize feature using “Use Map” option, Click on ‘Close feature’ to close digitized feature and select ‘Apply’ button to apply insert traverse entries into feature. Observe that feature is displayed in map window.
  4)Click on ‘Save’ button in ‘Insert Traverse’ dialog then ‘Save as’ dialog is displayed. Give name of file as ‘Test’.
  5)Now again Invoke Insert> Traverse cmd, Make sure that keep values as default values and select ‘Load’ button then load ‘Test’ file which is saved in earlier.
  6)Click ‘Close feature’ button to close feature and Click ‘Apply’ button to apply insert traverse entries to feature.

• Resolved a problem where the EditBoxes on the Placement Mode dialog were not displayed properly. JTS TR# 83972

• Resolved a problem where the application would crash with an ‘Invalid procedure call or argument’ error message while digitizing feature using the Insert Traverse Command. JTS TR# 83988
  Steps to Reproduce
  1)Invoke blank GWS, Make an access r/w connection to ‘USSampledata.mdb’
  2)Invoke Insert>Traverse cmd, select ‘Inter States’ FC from “Component Feature class” list box control
  3))Digitize feature using “Use Map” option, Make a click on map window observes start point values are displayed. Make sure that change value of start point to “90,90″ , keep focus on same start point row and press Right arrow button.
  4)Observe that two “Start points” are displayed in ‘Insert Traverse” dialog. Digitize feature on map window from second “start point”. Click on ‘Close feature’ button to close digitized feature and select ‘Apply’ button to apply insert traverse entries into feature.

• Resolved a problem where the application would crash while using Search. JTS TR# 83989 and JTS TR# 83990
  Steps to reproduce:
  1.Invoke GMPro blank GWS; make an access R/W connection to USSampleData.mdb
  2.Invoke View>Search command.
  3.select any one of the FC say States and enter value ‘3′ in value to search field. Click the Search button.
  4.Invoke the ‘Search Data Window’(if not displayed) and using the ‘X’ button dismiss the DW.
  5.Now enter value ‘4′ in value to search field and click the Search button

• Resolved a problem where the SmartStore data server does not read the TextPointGeometry blobs correctly. The data server has to strip-off the extra bytes used for G/Tech while reading the text point geometry blobs from the DDC files. JTS TR# 84041

• Resolved a problem where the Search button remains disabled after keying in values. JTS TR# 84089

• Resolved a problem where an ‘Invalid geometry field name for the given recordset’ error message displays while exporting reference features with a geographic corrdinate system. JTS TR# 84109
  Steps to Reproduce
  1)Invoke GMPro, Make an access r/w connection to ‘USSampledata.mdb’.
  2)Invoke warehouse Spatial filter > Spatial filter reference features, check all features and click on ‘ok’ button to dismiss spatial filter reference features dialog.
  3)Invoke View> Geoworkspace coordinate system, change co-ordinate system type to ‘Geographic’ and click on ‘ok’ button to dismiss ‘Geoworkspace coordinate system’ dialog.
  4)Invoke Export> Export Shape File command, Check all features from ‘Reference features> access connection” under ‘features to export’ frame.
  5)Click ‘Apply’ button to export records into mentioned paths.

• Resolved a problem where moving the search Properties dialog separates from the drop down list. JTS TR# 84110

• Resolved a problem where all the fields were not being listed in the predefined search. JTS TR# 84160

• Resolved a problem where Insert Georeferenced Images would crash with a ‘general protection’ error when attempting to load a NITF 2.1 image. JTS TR# 84258

• Resolved a problem where the Continue Geometry two point mode would not exit the command properly if endpoints were used. JTS TR# 84280
  1. Make connection to USSampleData.mdb
  2. Add Legend Entry for feature class “Rivers”
  3. Select a single river feature.
  4. Select the Continue Geometry command using the Two Point mode.
  5. Digitize two points that are discontiguous from selected river, command terminates normally after two points and discontiguous line is drawn.
  6. Select the same river feature again.
  7. Select the Continue Geometry command using the Two Point mode.
  8. Digitize two points this time making the first point coincident with the endpoint of the existing river, after the second point is captured, user is still in command even though 2 points have been captured, user still sees prompt which states “Click to place next point. Double Click to End”. If the user clicks an additional point in the map window, the following error occurs, “Geomedia Professional: PPro Service, Invalid procedure call or argument”. This seems to only happen when using the two point mode if the continued geometry is coincident with the existing geometry

• Resolved a problem where attempting to insert a georeferenced image would crash the application to the operating system. JTS TR# 84408

• Resolved a problem where tiling would cause an opaque image to be overridden by a white background when Export2GeoPDF was run. JTS TR# 84446

• Resolved a problem where WMS server would fail with German regional settings on specific URL. JTS TR# 84451

• Resolved a problem where attempting to use the Database Utilities ‘Create Metadata Tables’ command to create metadata for a SQL Server database with the Collation set to ‘Czech_CS_AS’. The command would fail with a ‘Database Utilities’ error for case sensitivity testing. JTS TR# 84593

• Resolved a problem where attempting to keyin the following expression, will crash the application: CREATEPOLYLINE(Input.Geometry,FIRST(Detail.Geometry))
  JTS TR# 84599

• Resolved a problem where a patterned line style symbols would shift when zooming in and out. JTS TR# 84647

• Resolved a problem where a static queue name with a special character [like $ or &] would not validate correctly. JTS TR# 84662

• Resolved a problem where Variable Text Strings were getting set to the Map Window Sizing Method. JTS TR# 84667

• Resolved a problem where the results of Text Properties dialog edits were different than Ribbon Bar edits. JTS TR# 84672

• Resolved a problem where an ‘Invalid geometry field name for the given recordset’ error message was returned while exporting spatial filter reference features using ‘Export to OOM model’ command with a geographic co-ordinate system. JTS TR# 84674
  Steps to Reproduce
  1)Invoke GMPro, Make an access r/w connection to ‘USSampledata.mdb’.
  2)Invoke warehouse > Spatial filter reference features, check all features and click on ‘ok’ button to dismiss spatial filter reference features dialog.
  3)Invoke View> Geoworkspace coordinate system, change co-ordinate system type to ‘Geographic’ and click on ‘ok’ button to dismiss ‘Geoworkspace coordinate system’ dialog.
  4)Invoke Export> OOM model command, Check all features from ‘Reference features> access connection” under ‘features to export’ frame.
  5)Click ‘Apply’ button to export records into mentioned paths.

• Resolved a problem where an ‘Invalid geometry field name for the given recordset’ error message was returned while exporting spatial filter reference features using ‘Export to SQL server’ command with geographic co-ordinate system. JTS TR# 84675
  Steps to Reproduce
  1)Invoke GMPro, Make an access r/w connection to ‘USSampledata.mdb’.
  2)Invoke warehouse > Spatial filter reference features, check all features and click on ‘ok’ button to dismiss spatial filter reference features dialog.
  3)Invoke View> Geoworkspace coordinate system, change co-ordinate system type to ‘Geographic’ and click on ‘ok’ button to dismiss ‘Geoworkspace coordinate system’ dialog.
  4)Invoke Export> Export SQL server command, Check all features from ‘Reference features> access connection” under ‘features to export’ frame.
  5)Click ‘Apply’ button to export records into mentioned paths.

• Resolved a problem where Legend entries with sub entries returned a ‘Unmatched # of items between the legend and the tree view’ error in the Show legend Entries command. JTS TR# 84693

• Resolved a problem where WFS would give a connect error with certain test data. JTS TR# 84786

• Resolved a problem where a busy cursor state continued when the Filter button was clicked. JTS TR# 84795

• Resolved a problem where publishing the GWS from metadata fails and did not copy the connection info. JTS TR# 84851

• Updated the Help documentation for the Library Organizer Select References Command. JTS TR# 84953

• Resolved a problem where the DefSymFile command line and GUI generated SVG files that did not match. JTS TR# 85688

• Resolved a problem where an admin error would display when trying to update Lengen Entry style for a second time. JTS TR# 85744

• Implemented the ability to allow the user the selection of a disk for storage of temporary setup files. JTS CR# 52828

• Implemented the use of an .MSP installation process to provide fixes. JTS CR# 60477

• Implemented the use of an .MSP installation process to provide silent install of fixes. JTS CR# 70697

• Implemented the use of an .MSP installation process to provide fixes. JTS CR# 73693

• Updated Appendix E in the user documentation to reflect support for multibyte B/W, RGB and 4band data. JTS CR# 83652

• Implemented support of the MapFile3D component to read both G/Tech 9.x and 10.x DDC files. JTS CR# 84042

• Implemented the ability to publish 3D DDC files for G/Tech 10.x. JTS CR# 84043

• Improved the caching of the GeoMedia Raster Engine. JTS CR# 84505

Received an email today. GeoMedia Image 6.1 has been released. As usual, assuming you have support, make a request through http://esupport.intergraph.com

For those that haven’t used the extension, it’s a great add-on for very niche imaging requirements. Most folks probably won’t have a need for it, unless you work a lot with images. However if you do run into different challenged when working with imagery in GeoMedia, this extension definitely has some benefits.

Had a very interesting question today on the Directions Magazine GeoMedia list.

Hi fellow ‘GeoMediars‘.
One of my colleagues has asked me about the possibility of doing proportional circles maps in GeoMedia.
Since I don’t know if/how it’s possible, I come once more seeking your help, asking if anyone has ever done this kind of maps?
Best regards
Jorge

There were a few replies. However I did want to highlight one from Phil Hardy as I thought his attached diagrams were very good. He did make sure to let me know that he didn’t create the images himself…so he can’t take all the credit

1) OK, by Proportional Circle map I assume you mean something like this.

2) First, use Functional Attributes to create centerpoints.

3) Then use the legend to change the style of the centerpoints.  In this case I assigned size based on the Population attribute.

4) And the end result:

Simple, but I thought very well diagrammed. It should also be noted that a nice example of this can be seen on the USSample.gws that comes with every version of GeoMedia and GeoMedia Professional  in the GeoWorkspaces folder.

As many of you are aware, SVG (scalable vector graphics) is currently Intergraph’s preferred way to render vector graphics in a GeoMedia WebMap (GWM) site. There has been a lot of discussion as of late in the comments section reference this post as an example discussing what Intergraph will do now that Adobe (the largest maker of a SVG plug-in) has announced that they will no longer support the SVG Viewer plug-in as of January 1, 2009. Additionally, as far as I know, Adobe is no longer developing the plug-in. I believe this decision was made soon after Adobe completed their purchase of Macromedia and Macromedia’s web technologies (namely Flash, Dreamweaver, and ColdFusion). Well, with Adobe’s decision left Intergraph in a bit of a bind…what to do now that the SVG Viewer has been discontinued??

After talking with a few folks at the GITA booth, I can say that Intergraph looks very close to adopting Microsoft Silverlight as their next vector engine. With the pending release of Silverlight 2.0, Microsoft has come a long way in expanding the flexibility and functionality of Silverlight. In fact, version 1 was very much designed for delivering movies over the web (think Youtube’s use of Flash to serve all of the movies on www.youtube.com). Version 2 is being designed with the idea of building rich internet applications using XAML, .NET, and other technologies. You can take a look at roadmap I found on Silverlight 2.0 here if your curious to see just what Microsoft is planning for this eventual “Flash killer”.

So…what does this means for GMWM users? Well…initially (hopefully before January 1, 2009) it means that we should see Silverlight as a replacement (or addition) to the choices we have for rendering the actual map object window. This probably won’t be a giant enhancement by itself EXCEPT for the cross-browser (think Firefox and Safari) and cross platform support (think Mac and Linux). However down the road, I’m hoping we’ll begin to see a much better overall user experience. This will include more intuitive tools, better user feedback, and an overall much better “web 2.0″ interface. With time, we might even have the flexibility to more easily develop those “web 2.0″ dashboards (the Oakland Explorer demo is very cool) that more and more of us our seeing at conferences and other demonstrations.

Personally, I was hoping Intergraph would adopt Adobe’s Flex technology. In large part because it’s a much more mature technology. Not to mention Flash is  really at this point almost ubiquitous with any modern computer and browser. But, Silverlight does look very promising and Microsoft is really coming on strong. In other words…life could be much worse.

I recently had a conversation with a blog reader via email. I haven’t asked the gentleman’s permission to post his letter, so I won’t use names. However here is what he wrote:

Jeff, I am contacting you because I am frustrated that GeoMedia Pro 6.1 appears to have no way of creating a one-to-many relationship between records in two tables based on a unique identifier without generating more features in the feature table. An example of this would be eg. a tax parcel has more than one deed, each showing the succession of ownership, and by selecting the parcel I would like to see all deeds related to this parcel by selecting this parcel in the map window or from the record in the feature table. I do not want to join the tables because I do not want an overlapping polygon parcel for each deed record.

I have filed a request with Intergraph each year since version 5.2 of GeoMedia Pro requesting some kind of one-to-many relate and they can not tell me how to do it and don’t seem to be interested in adding it to GeoMedia. This can be achieved in MS Access 97 and above and I was using it in ArcView back in 1994 as “linked tables”, and now I use it in ArcMap as the “relate tables” command, but GeoMedia Pro 6.1 appears still to have no way of implementing such a basic database concept.

And here was reply:

I’ve run into that issue before as well. You basically want a parent (polygon) child relationship type of implementation. I don’t believe there’s a way to do that without customization in GM 6.1. Although I don’t have GeoMedia Parcel Manager, I do believe it’s in that product. That maybe the reason why they don’t put it in the core.

Not sure if you’re looking for workarounds, but you could probably do something with hyperlinks and calling a web page or outside application.
For instance, click on a link in the GM properties dialog and that will call a web page that shows the information. Not ideal I realize, but a possible workaround nonetheless.

I then forwarded on the email trail to someone I know at Intergraph. The person would not confirm, but did offer the following feedback to me:

I hear there may be a data modeling initiative involving all three of Intergraph’s SG&I product families, GeoMedia, G-Technology and CAD/Security, that will allow this type of relationship to be defined and used with the next major release of GeoMedia.

So, like any product; until you can see the functionality in the product, don’t rely on it being in the product. However it does look somewhat promising that we’ll see (finally) a way to handle this type of relationship in the GeoMedia core.

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.

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.

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 (|).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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…

Now that you have the symbol file created (.sym), you can place it into a GeoMedia Feature Symbol File (.fsm). To do this:

1) Launch the Define Symbol File Utility in Start > Programs > GeoMedia Professional > Utilities

2) Here you can either open up an existing .fsm or you can create a new .fsm. For organization sake, I would recommend storing all of your .sym files in one .fsm. If you don’t already have a .fsm for your organization, then create a new .fsm at this step. If you have an existing .fsm for your organization, use the Open button and navigate to the existing .fsm. In my case, I’ll open up our .fsm.

3) I would now recommend playing with the different buttons to get a better fell for what they do. Most are pretty self-explanatory, but spend a few minutes getting accustomed to the utility.

4) In this tutorial, I’ll just show you how to add the .sym you create in Part 1 to your existing .fsm.

5) Push the “Add” button. This will launch the Add From File dialog box

6) You will notice that if you push the drop-down for the “Files of type” section (see screen shot above), you can insert four different types of symbols into a .fsm file

a) GeoMedia Feature Symbol File - This mean you can select a symbol from a single symbol from an existing .fsm and bring that symbol into your new .fsm. (Reference #2 above for additional feedback on that option). It should also be noted that you can create a “master” .fsm by copying .sym files from the different .fsm files delivered with the GeoMedia product and placing them into your organization’s .fsm.

b) GeoMedia Layout Symbol File - This is what we’ll use to import the symbol file we create in the layout window in part 1 and exported to .sym. Note: This is the option that you’re most likely to use if you need to create symbols from scratch.

c) Microstation Cell Library - This allows you to import individual cells from a cell library.

d) AutoCAD Drawing File - Although I have never used this one, I believe this allows you to import individual symbols from a AutoCAD block file.

It’s important to note that the only type of symbol that can actually be edited in GeoMedia is a GeoMedia Layout Symbol File (.sym). I mention this because you’ll need the source applications (AutoCAD or Microstation) if you want to edit a block or cell library. This is important because often times the cells and blocks don’t import into a .fsm all that well. So it might take a lot of tweaking in the native application before you’re happy with the results. Alternatively, if I recall correctly, the Intergraph product SmartSketch can actually create .sym files from any .fsm file. So, if you import all of your blocks or cells into a .fsm, you should theoretically be able to have SmartSketch translate all of the different symbols in the .fsm into individual .sym files. These individual .sym files can then be imported into the GeoMedia layout window and modified one at a time. You can then re-export the graphics in the layout window back to individual .sym files. Yes, the workflow is a bit painful. But, to be honest, it’s probably a better option over drawing the symbols from scratch in the GeoMedia layout window.

7) To import the .sym created in Part 1, select GeoMedia Layout Symbol file from the file type section, and then navigate to the .sym file you create in Part 1.

8 ) Select the .sym file and hit the Open button. This will bring up the following dialog box

9) Here you can push the Insert button and it will insert the symbol you created into your active .fsm file.

10) Finally, you can use the Edit button to rename and provide comments about the symbol. This can be very useful if you have many symbols that look similar or only differ by color or other very minute details.

11) After you’re through, save your new .fsm. Your new .fsm can then be used in GeoMedia to symbolize any point feature.

It should also be noted that you can convert your .fsm file to .svg using the Save As button. SVG does have its benefits over an .fsm file. You can search the “Working with GeoMedia Professional” book if you’d like additional information on SVG symbols.

I bring it up here because you can theoretically create .svg symbols using a free product like Inkscape. Although I’ve never done it myself, I’ve heard of a few people that have tried this method of symbology creation. The biggest benefit I can see is that you have a much more robust editing tool to create your symbols. Not to mention SVG is an open standard as opposed to the proprietary .fsm file format. This, with time, could prove to be an advantage if you’re ever looking to share your symbol files among different applications (all of which support the open standard).

If anybody is looking to work with SVG symbols and decides to try a product like Inkscape, please let me know as I’d be interested to hear about your findings.

GeoMedia,FSM,SYM

Saw a posting on the GeoMedia email list today inquiring on how to create a symbol that can be used for a point in the map window. I provided a brief answer on the list, but thought I’d run through a quick tutorial here as well.

1) Go to the layout window in GeoMedia.

2) Using the standard drawing tools available in the Draw toolbar, create your symbol.

In my case, I’ve drawn a symbol for a fire hydrant.

3) Select the symbol using the Select Tool

4) Group the symbol using the Draw toolbar

5) With the grouped graphic still selected, use the Create Symbol command in the Draw toolbar.

6) The command will then prompt you to define the symbol’s origin. The origin is the exact location where the point would appear if the symbol were removed and only the point remained. This origin is most often the center of the symbol.

7) As soon as you define the origin, you get a Save As dialog box prompting you for the location to save your new symbol. The symbol will have a .sym extension.

8 ) After you’ve created the symbol, you can place it in a GeoMedia symbol library or in an SVG file. I’ll go over those steps tomorrow.