GTViewer Blog

DistribuTECH 2012

2012-01-25T08:41:00.000-06:00

You can try it out as well, visit here.

Come see us at DistribuTECH 2012 in San Antonio!

2012-01-19T10:06:00.000-06:00

GTI will be at DistribuTECH 2012 in San Antonio, Texas on January 24-26.

We are at booth 957 and will be showing GTWeb on the iPhone and iPad, Android Phones and Tablets, and the new Browser Client.

We will also be showing the new Version 11 of GTViewer, GTField, and much more.

GTViewer 11.0.0.9 is Available

2012-01-18T11:04:00.000-06:00

GTViewer version 11.0.0.9 is available.

-----------------------
11.00.00.09 - 01/18/12
-----------------------

- FIX - #6934 - Hatch Fills will no longer obscure raster underneath.

- FIX - #6937 - Double Arc and Double Ellipse elements were not working. Problem introduced in 11.0.0.8.

- NEW - #6938 - Toolbox support for Dynamic Graphics Actions: ToggleDGAction, DGActionOn, and DGActionOff.

GTWeb Demo on the iPhone

2011-12-30T15:57:00.000-06:00

We have had several videos of GTWeb running on iOS devices including the iPad and the iPod Touch. However, we did have a video showing it on an actual iPhone until now. Here you go:

If you can't view the video above, try going directly to YouTube, or you can also try getting the .mp4 file here.

GTViewer version 11.0.0.8 is Available

2011-12-30T14:56:00.000-06:00

GTViewer version 11.0.0.8 is available.

-----------------------
11.00.00.08 - 12/30/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6926 - Custom Line Styles (dash patterns) were not correctly scaled for printing and they looked solid.

- FIX - #6927 - The Line Syle property in the Style Rule section of the Element tab of the Attribute Info dialog will now say Using Dash Pattern instead of 10.

GTVx version 11.0.0.5 is Available

2011-12-30T14:54:00.001-06:00

Version 11.0.0.5 of GTVx is available.

-----------------------
11.00.00.05 - 12/30/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6928 - Custom Line Styles (dash patterns) were not correctly scaled for printing and they looked solid.

- FIX - #6930 - The Line Syle property in the Style Rule section of the Element tab of the Attribute Info dialog will now say Using Dash Pattern instead of 10.

GTWeb Updates

2011-12-20T16:54:00.004-06:00

4 Updates are available for GTWeb

- GTWeb Server - Version 11.0.0.2 - This update includes fixes to improve performance and reliability with many simultaneous requests.

- GTWeb Browser - Version 1.0.15 - New wait indicator added that works across all browsers, fix for presets not being remembered correctly when switching between projects, keyboad panning problem in IE9 has been resolved, and toggling the raster when no raster is available will now give an appropriate alert.   Go check it out here. User: demo   Password: demo

- GTWeb for iOS - Version 1.0.24 - Simple Note functionality added (to match and share with the Android and Browser versions), indicator added after long press to show where the select point was, and fix for the long press context menu in the query results.

- GTWeb for Android - Version 1.0.49 - support for Google TV.

This update pack includes a variety of different fixes and new functionality. The iPhone/iPad version of the GTWeb Client is now pretty much on par with the Android version (with the addition of notes and the long touch indicator).   The Browser version had several fixes and some polishing, but the most unusual new feature is the support for Google TV in the Android version. Will GTWeb be running on a lot of Google TVs? Probably not, but if what Eric Schmidt said about Google TV being on 'majority' of new TVs by summer of 2012, then there will be a large base of devices out there that can run the full featured GTWeb Client.   Update: It looks like there is more truth to what Eric Schmidt said than I previously thought: Google TV Boldly Tells World It Will Survive.

Google TV currently runs a flavor of Honeycomb (Android for the tablet), but it does have a few differences.   In regard to GTWeb, the differences that affect the application are not having a touch screen and the mouse track pad not having multi-touch support. To compensate, GTWeb for Android now supports a few keys strokes for zoom in and out (double tap still works and panning can be done the with the mouse track pad). Other than that, it look gorgeous on a giant screen.   It also has a full keyboard remote making it very easy to query and do anything else that requires typing.

GTVx version 11.0.0.4 is Available

2011-12-02T11:11:00.004-06:00

Version 11.0.0.4 of GTVx is available.

-----------------------
11.00.00.04 - 12/2/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6903 - BGMasks now support Fill Styles.

- NEW - #6904 - BGMaskDisplayFlag now supported with Get/SetDataProperty.

- FIX - #6906 - The Highlighted BGMask elements were using the last BGMask fill style used instead of the element's fill style. Also changed from always drawing a solid fill highlight to the element's fill style.

- FIX - #6915 - Complex Shape and Complex Shape with Holes elements could render the wrong linestyle.

- FIX - #6922 - BigButtonFlag now supports two more sizes (2 and 3).

-----------------------
11.00.00.03 - 11/11/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6902 - Documentation updates.

-----------------------
11.00.00.02 - 11/07/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6892 - Export to Shapefile was not converting Arc Elements correctly.

- CHG - #6895 - The GIS: tags in the filter file descriptions will no longer use the colon (:) as a delimiter.

- NEW - #6898 - New Method: GetFilterListFromFeatureString

- NEW - #6900 - The Name() tag is now supported by the filter and feature string descriptions to search for Filter Name, Feature Name, Feature Num, Component Name, Component Num, and Style Name by wildcarded strings when selecting filter ids.

-----------------------
11.00.00.01 - 10/29/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6852 - The Current View Filter on the the Display Filter Dialog was allowing you to change the status of filter ids that were
thresholded off. You shouldn't be able to change these and if you turned them off, it would be confusing since they would disappear at the threshold they should be displayed at.

- NEW - #6853 - Current View Filter will now show the Min and Max thresholds for each filter id.

- NEW - #6864 - Support for embedded data with Dynamic Graphics.

- FIX - #6869 - Complex Linestring would not render the standard linestyle correctly when specified in a style rule.

- NEW - #6884 - Style Definition/Mapping info is now stored in the session, if it is changed.

- NEW - #6885 - Feature Tooltips will now support Dynamic Graphics items.

- NEW - #6886 - New Methods: HighlightSetLinkageInfo and HighlightClearLinkageInfo.

- NEW - #6887 - The Attribute Info dialog will now show Feature Tooltip and Dynamic Graphics info on the Element Tab.

- FIX - #6888 - The GetGisInfoFromFilterId method was not returning the correct information.

- FIX - #6889 - GetDisplayFilterString will now longer return filter ids for group entries.

GTViewer version 11.0.0.7

2011-12-02T08:39:00.004-06:00

GTViewer version 11.0.0.7 is available.

-----------------------
11.00.00.07 - 12/1/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6920 - Better handling of mouse events for some tablets.

- NEW - #6921 - BigButtonFlag now supports two more sizes (2 and 3).

-----------------------
11.00.00.06 - 11/23/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6911 - The -Register_App command-line option has been added so that the GTViewer automation server can be registered without bringing up the app.

- FIX - #6914 - Complex Shape and Complex Shape with Holes elements could render the wrong linestyle.

-----------------------
11.00.00.05 - 11/11/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6900 - Documentation Updates.

-----------------------
11.00.00.04 - 11/07/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6890 - The Keys Ctrl-Alt-R will toggle the View Rotation settings.

- FIX - #6891 - Export to Shapefile was not converting Arc Elements correctly.

- CHG - #6894 - The GIS: tags in the filter file descriptions will no longer use the colon (:) as a delimiter.

- NEW - #6896 - The Filter String parsing now supports a N() and Name() to select filter ids by filter name (with wildcards).

- NEW - #6897 - New Method: GetFilterListFromFeatureString - NEW - #6899 - The Name() tag is now supported by the filter and feature string descriptions to search for Filter Name, Feature Name, Feature Num, Component Name, Component Num, and Style Name by wildcarded strings when selecting filter ids.

-----------------------
11.00.00.03 - 10/29/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6870 - Installation was showing the wrong splash screen.

- NEW - #6879 - Style Definition/Mapping info is now stored in the session, if it is changed.

- NEW - #6880 - Feature Tooltips will now support Dynamic Graphics items.

- NEW - #6881 - New Methods: HighlightSetLinkageInfo and HighlightClearLinkageInfo

- NEW - #6882 - The Attribute Info dialog will now show Feature Tooltip and Dynamic Graphics info on the Element Tab.

- NEW - #6883 - The Properties Dialog (File/Properties) and Post Status Dialog have been updated to include a copy line feature (double click) and copy all (Copy button) to get information to the Windows Clipboard. The dialogs are now resizable and use a grid style display.

-----------------------
11.00.00.02 - 10/18/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6863 - Support for embedded data with Dynamic Graphics. - FIX

- #6868 - Complex Linestring would not render the standard linestyle correctly when specified in a style rule.

-----------------------
11.00.00.01 - 10/15/11
-----------------------

- FIX- #6850 - The Current View Filter on the the Display Filter Dialog was allowing you to change the status of filter ids that were thresholded off. You shouldn't be able to change these and if you turned them off, it would be confusing since they would disappear at the threshold they should be displayed at.

- NEW- #6851 - Current View Filter will now show the Min and Max thresholds for each filter id.

- NEW- #6854 - Additional Custom Coordinate Conversion Support. - NEW- #6859 - The SW: tag will now recognize an optional 3rd parameter for the style name.

- FIX- #6862 - To better support Windows 7, the location of the GpsInfo.ini file created by the GPS Dialog has been changed to the User's AppData directory under \Graphics Technologies Inc\GTViewer.

GTWeb now supports HTML5 Browsers

2011-11-14T17:04:00.004-06:00

In addition to Android, Apple iOS, and Blackberry, GTWeb now supports HTML5 capable browsers. The screencast below shows a variety of features provided by GTWeb on an HTML5 Browser including queries, panning, zooming, attribute info, and favorites.

Here is a larger version of the video.

The following screencast shows GTWeb running on various HTML5 Browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer).

Here is a larger version of the video.

On 11/11/11, GTViewer Version 11 is Released!

2011-11-11T11:11:00.002-06:00

What’s New in GTViewer 11

There are many new features in GTViewer 11. Some of these features, like View Rotation, have been available in GTViewer 10 updates, but there are a variety of new features that haven’t been seen before. The list below shows the major new features:

Rotated View Capabilities - This new functionality has been added to meet the requests of several customers who wanted support for rotated prints and orienting the map to the GPS heading.

Rotate View

Ctrl-Alt-R - enable or disable View Rotation
Alt-Left Arrow - Rotate Left
Alt-Right Arrow - Rotate Right
Alt-Up Arrow or Esc- Resets View Rotation
Alt-Down Arrow - Rotate View to 180 degrees
See it in Action.

Rotate Prints

With the Standard Print Command
With the Print to Scale Command

GPS

New Indicator Mode: Orient to Heading
See it in Action.

Dynamic Graphics Upgrades –The Dynamic Graphics functionality provides a powerful visualization tool for analyzing data, creating more informative or alternate views of data, and giving the user the ability to explore various decision making aspects of the data. A year after being introduced, the Dynamic Graphics has been enhanced using customer feedback to make it even more powerful:

Feature Tooltips will now support Dynamic Highlights and Labels.
Dynamic Graphics can now use Embedded Data in the Criteria and Label Expressions.
Shape, Circle, and Ellipse elements can now use their geometric area in Criteria and Label Expressions (with DG.GTI_AREA).
Any closed shaped can now be used with Polygon Labels as well as shapes, circles, and ellipses.
Point Labels now support a Keep Rotation option so alternate symbols can be created with the original feature’s rotation.
Dynamic Labels now support a Remove Partial option to hide labels that are partially out of the view.
Action items can now be interactively reordered to control the order they are drawn.
Highlight and Simple Highlight now support a Fill Option to fill or not fill shapes, ellipses, and circles. This option allows fillable elements to be filled or not filled as part of their highlighting regardless of the original element’s fill status.
Two versions of the Dynamic Graphics interface are now available: Administrator Mode and User Mode. Administrator mode is the original interface introduced in GTViewer 10; User Mode is a scaled down interface that allows the user to toggle the display of Actions and change the Action drawing order, but it prevents modifying, importing, and exporting Action items.
Administrator Mode now has a collapsible dialog (making it optionally smaller like User Mode).
Pretty() function added to Expressions to Clean up strings (Capitalize first letter, change underscores and dashes to spaces).

Attribute Info

The Element Tab now shows Dynamic Graphics information for selected features including all Actions that affect the feature.
The Element Tab now shows Feature Tooltip information for selected feature.

Style Manager

Changes made with the Style Manger are now stored in the session.

Coordinate Systems

Additional Coordinate System support has been added to greatly increase the number of coordinate systems available to the GPS, Coordinate Readout, and Locate by Latitude and Longitude functionality.

Queries

Multi-Category support has been added for basic Query Types. A single query can now span features across multiple categories.

Fonts

The GTViewer Font Format (.dfn) now supports Shape with Hole elements as a primitive font stroke. These new elements can provide better looking symbols in many circumstances.

GTVx version 11 is Released!

2011-11-11T10:11:00.003-06:00

Version 11.0.0.03 of GTVx is available.

-----------------------
11.00.00.03 - 11/11/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6902 - Documentation updates.

-----------------------
11.00.00.02 - 11/07/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6892 - Export to Shapefile was not converting Arc Elements correctly.

- CHG - #6895 - The GIS: tags in the filter file descriptions will no longer use the colon (:) as a delimiter.

- NEW - #6898 - New Method: GetFilterListFromFeatureString

- NEW - #6900 - The Name() tag is now supported by the filter and feature string descriptions to search for Filter Name, Feature Name, Feature Num, Component Name, Component Num, and Style Name by wildcarded strings when selecting filter ids.

-----------------------
11.00.00.01 - 10/29/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6852 - The Current View Filter on the the Display Filter Dialog was allowing you to change the status of filter ids that were
thresholded off. You shouldn't be able to change these and if you turned them off, it would be confusing since they would disappear at the threshold they should be displayed at.

- NEW - #6853 - Current View Filter will now show the Min and Max thresholds for each filter id.

- NEW - #6864 - Support for embedded data with Dynamic Graphics.

- FIX - #6869 - Complex Linestring would not render the standard linestyle correctly when specified in a style rule.

- NEW - #6884 - Style Definition/Mapping info is now stored in the session, if it is changed.

- NEW - #6885 - Feature Tooltips will now support Dynamic Graphics items.

- NEW - #6886 - New Methods: HighlightSetLinkageInfo and HighlightClearLinkageInfo.

- NEW - #6887 - The Attribute Info dialog will now show Feature Tooltip and Dynamic Graphics info on the Element Tab.

- FIX - #6888 - The GetGisInfoFromFilterId method was not returning the correct information.

- FIX - #6889 - GetDisplayFilterString will now longer return filter ids for group entries.

-----------------------
10.00.00.12 - 9/22/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6838 - Additional Logging added to QueryInitialize.

- NEW - #6842 - Multi-Category Support for basic Query Types.

- FIX - #6845 - When opening a .gtx file, the style id in the style definitions could be ignored in certain situations.

GTData version 11 is Released!

2011-11-11T10:04:00.003-06:00

GTData version 11.0.0.1 is available.

-----------
11.00.00.01 - 11/09/11
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- CHG - #6768 - GTConfig - Global operation no longer uses a space for a delimiter allowing attribute names with spaces to be specified. You can still use pipe, semicolon, or comma.

- NEW - #6818 - GTFontEdit - Support for Polygon with Holes. Create Polygon with Holes and Break Polygon with Holes commands added to toolbar.

- NEW - #6834 - GTConfig - A Ctrl-double click on a row on the Attribute Page will now apply the Pretty 2 function to the attribute name. A regular double click will still iterate through the display options.

- NEW - #6840 - GTFont - Support for ShapeWithHolesElement type has been added.

- NEW - #6841 - GTQuery - Multi-Category Support for basic Query Types.

- FIX - #6893 - GT2Shape - Export to Shapefile was not converting Arc Elements correctly.

Middle Tennessee Forum on Geographic Information Systems

2011-11-02T10:58:00.001-05:00

Come see us today at the 10th Annual Middle Tennessee Forum on Geographic Information Systems.

BGMasks in the GTV .NET Control

2011-10-23T18:20:00.000-05:00

GTViewer and GTVx have had Background Masks (BGMask) for sometime, but they are new to the GTV .NET Control. BGMasks are a cleaver way to highlight an area in the view without covering up anything on the map. They highlight from the bottom instead of the top, so the features in the map are drawn on top of the highlighted area instead of being covered up; similar to drawing a transparent area on top of your features but with the benefit of not washing out the features with.

The BGMask are better to show than to talk about, so here are some screenshots of a demo app. Demo source code is available upon request:

GTV .NET Control verison 9.0.0.21 is Available

2011-10-23T18:15:00.000-05:00

The GTViewer .NET Control for Windows version 9.0.0.21 is Available.

------------
09.00.00.21 - 10/22/11
------------

- NEW - #6777 - Vertex Move mode for Line and Area redlines.

- NEW - #6779 - VertexSelectionTolerance property added.

- NEW - #6872 - Background Mask functionality added: BGMaskAddArea, BGMaskAddFeature, BGMaskClear, BGMaskDelete, BGMaskSetProperty, BGMaskGetProperty, BGMaskMoveToFront, BGMaskMoveToBack, BGMaskGetRange, BGMaskGetList, BGMaskClearHighlight, BGMaskSetHighlight, BGMaskGetPointList.

- NEW - #6873 - Support for Fill Styles.

- NEW - #6874 - The Point_with_Zoom and Point_with_Confirmation_And_Zoom captures mode will now support the CaptureModeMouseMoveEvent.

- NEW - #6875 - Mode 8 added to GetFeatureGeometry method to. Same as mode 1 (all points), except that it only returns the primary shape for Shape with Holes elements and the first sub-element in a group.

- NEW - #6876 - Data Methods added: DataGetDataId, DataGetTableId, DataGetTableAttrPos, DataInitializeFetch, DataInitializeFetchAll, DataFetchRecord.

GTVx version 10.0.0.11 is Available

2011-09-16T14:07:00.000-05:00

Version 10.0.0.11 of GTVx is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.11 - 9/16/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6783 - New Methods: GetComputedCoordinate, GetSystemX, GetSystemY.

- FIX - #6785 - Setup was naming the shortcut to the documentation as Documentation instead of GTVx Documentation.

- NEW - #6820 - Support for Polygon with Holes in .DFN fonts.

- FIX - #6823 - If a DashPattern has 0 for all of the gaps, then it should be treated as a solid line.

- NEW - #6826 - Support for Feature Tooltips on embedded data to match GTViewer.

- NEW - #6828 - ActivateSelectedElementMoveEx method added so that when a single text element is selected, its style origin will be used.

- FIX - #6830 - DGN Export was not applying filter mappings to the sub-elements of a Group Element.
- FIX - #6832 - Snapping was not working with selected element moves.

- NEW - #6833 - Change to snapping so that if a text element with a style origin is used, the style origin will be used instead of the element's real origin.

-----------------------
10.00.00.10 - 06/23/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6754 - RestrictPresetExport added as Data Property and to Additional Properties section of the .GTM.

- NEW - #6755 - New Data Properties: MeasureFactor, MeasureDegreeFactor, MeasurePrecision, MeasureUnitLabel

- NEW - #6756 - Print to Scale will now support the Shift-Plus and Shift-Minus not increase or decrease the scale by 5%.

- NEW - #6757 - New methods added: BGMaskChangeBorderWeight, BGMaskChangeBorderStyle, BGMaskChangeBorderColor, BGMaskChangeFillColor, BGMaskChangeFillStyle.

- NEW - #6758 - New method added: DGFit

- NEW - #6762 - If a RasterFileList entry is defined along with a RasterPath entry in a Raster Category section of the .GTM and multiple RasterPath items are specified (delimited by semicolons), each file in the list will be search for in each of the RasterPath directories until it is found.

- FIX - #6765 - Support Added to Feature Tooltip expression for multiple record occurrences.

- FIX - #6766 - Added FT and FT_Pre entries to the Additional Properties section of the .GTM to support Feature Tooltip entries that contain long entries. The FeatureTooltip and FeatureTooltip_Pre entries can only support 200 character per property.

- FIX - #6769 - The DG.GTI_Area variable for the Dynamic Graphics expressions will now compute the area for a Shape with hole element using only the primary shape.

- CHG - #6771 - Thresholds for Highlighted elements behaved differently than thresholds for Filters, Styles, and Dynamic Graphics. They have been changed to match.

- FIX - #6774 - Problem when selecting elements and moving large distances. Element ranges would sometimes get correct because of roundoff error.

- NEW - #6782 - New methods: HighlightedListSave, HilightedListClear, HighlightedListGetItem, HighlightedListSetTag, HilightedListHighlightByTag, HighlightedListGetItemCount.

GTViewer version 10.0.0.16 is Available

2011-09-16T11:55:00.000-05:00

GTViewer version 10.0.0.16 is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.16 - 09/16/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6819 - Support for Polygon with Holes in .DFN fonts.

- FIX - #6822 - If a DashPattern has 0 for all of the gaps, then it should be treated as a solid line.

- FIX - #6829 - DGN Export was not applying filter mappings to the sub-elements of a Group Element.

- NEW - #6837 - The -ind command-line option has been added to draw an indicator when you do a locate from the command-line interface.

Should I Upgrade GTViewer to a newer Version?

2011-09-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

I frequently see customers running older versions of GTViewer. Granted, there is an update to GTViewer on a fairly regular schedule, so it would be impossible to be on the latest version all the time. If you haven't upgraded GTViewer in a while, it might be time to take a look at what you missing out on.

There are many reasons customers stay on older versions of GTViewer. The main reason is that it does what they want and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” However, the current version of GTViewer is 10 (with 11 around the corner) and there have been significant new features added in the last few years. If you are currently on Version 5 or Version 7 (there was not a version 6), then you should probably take a look at what is new in the last several major versions. Even if you are on versions 8 or 9, it would be worth looking at what is currently available.

The list of enhancements since GTViewer version 8 was released is lengthy (539 items in the Readme.txt), but I am restricting my list below to new features that are visible, offer something that is substantially new, and will be beneficial to many users.

GTViewer Version 8:

Features Tooltips – Feature Tooltips are pretty much exactly what their name says. You can hover the mouse cursor over a feature and see its attributes in a tooltip without having to select the feature or change modes. Unfortunately, you have to define which features can have tooltips and what these tooltips will contains, so many users may not be aware that this feature exists. However, it is a very powerful tool that can provide a great increase in user productivity without much effort.
GPS Reference Point – The GPS Reference Point came from Pocket GTViewer. It is simply a marker you can place in the view, and the GPS Indicator will point (and/or draw a line) to the marker wherever it may be. The GPS Reference Point has evolved somewhat from what it started out as in Pocket GTViewer. You can place one when you locate a feature with a Query, you can Right Click and place one, or you can use the GPS Reference Point dialog to place one. You can also automatically fit the Reference Point and the GPS Indicator providing a “poor mans” navigation tool (and is surprisingly useful when trying to get from Point A to Point B and you don’t have sophisticated enough data to support our street routing applications).
Enhanced Redline editing – GTVx had more sophisticated redline editing capabilities than GTViewer for several years, but the best of these features (Delete Vertex, Break at Vertex, Add Vertex) were brought over to GTViewer to give more control over the redlines. Simply select a redline and right click on it to access the new features.

GTViewer Version 9:

Favorites – Favorites were a much requested feature and have turned out to be a very useful addition to GTViewer. Think of them as Bookmarks in your Internet Browser. You can create a Favorite and it will store your Display Settings and current location along with a user provided name. Then simply select the named Favorite from the Favorites menu to return to that location and display settings. Favorites also allow the administrator to define a static set of Favorites in the .GTM file that will be made available to everyone.

Applications Menu – Prior to GTViewer Version 9, all custom applications were placed under the Query menu. The Applications menu was added to provide an alternate location for your custom applications, and it is often very useful when the custom application doesn’t fall under the “Query” category. You can now place a custom applications under the Query menu, the Applications menu, or both.
ToolBoxes – Truth be told, Framme Field View supported a feature to create Palettes which assign Queries or Applications to buttons on floating panels. The desire to have such constructs undoubtedly came from Microstation and Framme with their plethora of tool palettes. When upgrading customers from Field View to GTViewer, some users expressed the desired to have their Palettes (obviously they weren't used to seeing so much of the map at one time, ha ha). So, to make everyone happy, GTViewer got a shiny new set of ToolBoxes (which is what we call them). You define them in the .GTM file and they can activate Queries and launch custom applications just like Field View, but we didn’t stop there. ToolBoxes can activate Display Presets, activate GTViewer Commands (toggle raster, toggle emphasize mode, set the active mode, fit, start GPS, and much more), Toggle Feature Display (which turns on or off sets of categories or features), modify the background color, change the current style map and def files, and individually control the display of non-category raster files. On top of that, one or more of the above actions can be strung together to form complex actions tied to a single button click. The buttons are also able to change color based on their state, so Display actions will be one color when its items are displayed, and another when they are not. The same for the GPS Tracking, Raster Display, and Emphasize Mode making the ToolBoxes more tightly integrated into GTViewer. As it turns out, ToolBoxes have been a very useful feature in GTViewer, and we see new and creative uses for them all the time.
Custom Print Labels – GTViewer has always had standard labels that the user can specify for the print border (including date, time, filename). There is also a Note field the user can use to add any other information to the border. You can now have up to 10 custom label prompts on the Print Dialog. They are defined in the .GTM file with the Name and a Default Value. They can also be set to remember the last value entered as well.
Hatch Fills – Style Definitions can now specify a Fill Style for fillable elements (shapes, ellipses, circles). The Fill Style can be the default solid that it has always been or Downward Hatch, Cross Hatch, Diagonal Hatch, Upward Hatch, Horizontal Hatch, and Vertical Hatch. Hatch Fills are special in that you can see what is underneath them.
Custom Attribute Info Tabs – Sometimes a feature will have a dozen tabular components with the important information spread across several records. The Attribute Info dialog will allow you to easily flip through the different records by going through the tabs; however, wouldn’t it be nice if you could pick out the important information and put it on the first tab? That is what a Custom Attribute Info Tab does. For a feature, you must define a list of attributes (from any of the feature’s associated records) and they will appear on a synthesized tab that always appears first. All of the important information can be made available at a glance, while the complete records are still available on the other tabs.

GTViewer Version 10:

Dynamic Graphics –This feature is probably the single biggest addition to GTViewer since it was created 10 years ago. Dynamic Graphics is composed of two distinct components: Dynamic Highlighting and Dynamic Labeling. Dynamic Highlighting allows the user to specify rules for highlighting graphics in the view using one or more of the feature’s tabular attributes to determine the highlight style (color, weight, style, fill). This highlighting can be used to emphasize certain features (such as all gas mains of a certain size or pressure, primary conductor by phase, etc.), or it can be used to render an alternate view that is independent of the GIS’s defined symbology. The second component, Dynamic Labeling, allows the user to specify rules for labeling features using one or more of the feature’s tabular attributes (both in the criteria and the label itself). These labels can be used to augment the display with additional labels that were not defined in the GIS or with labels that are specific to a task. Dynamic Labels can also take into consideration the part of a feature that is visible in the current view and adjust the labels position accordingly.
Extensive Command-Line options – GTViewer has had minimal command-line option support up until this version. In the past, you could specify a .GTM, .GTX, or Session file (.GTS) to start up with, but that was it. We had multiple requests for the ability to integrate GTViewer with various other systems (work order management, ticketing systems, etc.). These systems could launch an external application and supply information on the location via command-line parameters. So a variety of command-line options were added to GTViewer allowing you to locate on an X/Y coordinate or a latitude/longitude coordinate, run a query with provided prompt information, set a GPS Reference Point, activate a Display Preset, set the Emphasize state, activate a Favorite, Start the GPS, and set the active mode. GTViewer will also respond to the command-line options even if it is already running, so a nice integration is now available with other systems with very minimal effort (and no custom coding).
Expression support in Custom Attribute Info Tabs and Feature Tooltips –The Dynamic Graphics addition to GTViewer included an extremely powerful expression evaluator (which can process rules on the fly using feature attribute values to determine what a label will be or if something will be highlighted). Consequently, this expression evaluator can be used for other things such as allowing you to define expressions in the Custom Attribute Info Tabs or in Feature Tooltips. This subtle leap in capability now allows you to do formatting of the data you want to display in a much more sophisticated fashion. Instead of just listing a single attribute on a line with its values, you can now build a string to display by concatenating one or more attributes and constants together and checking to see if something is blank or if it meets a certain value.
Custom Raster – While not currently in widespread use, this is an interesting feature that allows images to be embedded in the main geographic view. These images could be detail drawing or any image to enhance the usability of your data.

GTViewer Version 11: (available before the end of the year)

Rotated Views– (Available now in the latest Version 10 updates.) We have been asked about rotating the view in GTViewer almost from the beginning. There are a couple of specific uses for this feature that we tried to address. First, data may have streets at let’s say a 45 degree angle, but you want to print this data with the streets at right angles. You can now do this by rotating the view 45 degrees and printing. Second, GPS Tracking has been available in GTViewer for some time; however, users want the tracking to work like it does with a handheld navigation GPS where the map is rotated so the current heading is always at the top of the map. This feature is now available as well.

There are many new features that I didn't list above. Many of those that I left out were to help out a customer with a specific problem; however, it is very common for one of these enhancements to be useful to someone else (more times than not it seems). See the current GTViewer Readme.txt for the comprehensive list of enhancements.

GTWeb Client is now available from Apple's App Store

2011-09-06T14:27:00.000-05:00

Okay all you Apple Fan Boys (and Girls), GTWeb is now available from Apple's App Store. It will run on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 4.0 or higher.

If you have access to one of these Apple devices, you can go to the App Store on your device and search for GTWeb. Feel free to install it and play with our Demo dataset (electric, gas, fiber data). We have TIGER data (for Madison County, Alabama) available as well.

Unless you are in the Huntsville area, you won't be able to use the GPS features in GTWeb with these sample datasets, but that is the only limitation.

If you want to see your own data on GTWeb, contact us and we will arrange a demo.

We have a variety of Video Demos available, and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Don't forget that we have GTWeb clients for Android and BlackBerry devices too.

GTWeb Demos

2011-08-30T12:01:00.001-05:00

We have several posts on the various GTWeb Clients that are now available. To simplify finding more information on the particular flavor of GTWeb you are looking for, this post will serve as a jumping off point:

GTWeb on the iPhone **Newest**
GTWeb on the iPad
GTWeb on the iPod Touch

GTWeb on Android Phones
GTWeb on Android Tablets (Honeycomb)

GTWeb on BlackBerry

GTWeb on the Desktop (HTML5 compatible Broswers)

GTWeb Client running on the iPad

2011-08-26T12:38:00.002-05:00

Here is another video of the GTWeb Client running on Apple's iOS. This time it is running on the iPad. The iPad's larger screen size provides a few extra features not seen when running on the iPhone such as Attribute Info being inset in the Map view and more commands on the Toolbar.

Here is a video demo of GTWeb on the iPad:

http://gti-us.mobi/video/ipad/gtweb-ipad.html

If you are on an iPad, you can view the video her e.

Also check out our other videos of the GTWeb Client running on iOS, Android, Honeycomb, and BlackBerry.

Preview: GTWeb Client running on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod)

2011-08-16T09:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a preview video of our latest GTWeb Client running on Apple's iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod):

http://gti-us.mobi/Video/ios/GTWeb-ios-hires.html

Also check out our other videos of the GTWeb Client running on Android, Honeycomb, and BlackBerry.

GTech Loader versions 9.0.0.2 and 10.0.0.2 are Available

2011-07-19T14:56:00.000-05:00

GTech Loader versions 9.0.0.2 and 10.0.0.2 are available.

The GTech Loader now supports G/Technology versions 9 and 10. GTech Loader version 9 is for G/Technology version 9 and its relational spatial geometry format while GTech Loader version 10 is for G/Technology version 10 and its Oracle Spatial geometries. Both use the same configuration file format and migrating from one version to the other is trivial.

Both versions of the GTech Loader have an upgraded interface to more closely match GTI's Oracle Spatial Loader's interface.

Version 9.0

-----------
09.00.00.02 - 07/19/11
-----------

- FIX - #6806 - Delete buttons on the Category and Group lists were not clearing the sublists.

- NEW - #6808 - Connection Configuration dialog can now save the current settings to a Connection .ini file used with the command-line mode.

- CHG - #6811 - The Save As toolbar icon was changed to Save. The Save As functionality is now under the File menu.

- NEW - #6812 - MRU List keep the last 5 most recently used files under the File menu.

- NEW - #6813 - Main Dialog is now resizable.

- NEW - #6814 - New and About added to Toolbar.

- NEW - #6815 - File and Help menu added. File includes: Open, Save, Save As, and Exit.

- NEW - #6816 - Cancel button has been added.

-----------
09.00.00.01 - 07/4/11
-----------

- FIX - #6471 - Feature Name was being carried over as Feature Legend Entry name.

- CHG - #6472 - Filter descriptions will now be regenerated the first time the filterId is used for each run.

- FIX - #6494 - Legend leaf node without a parent (level greater than 0) are now included. These items were previously ignored as being invalid.

- FIX - #6521 - Lpad and Rpad functions were not handling the pad string correctly when it contained more than 1 character.

- FIX - #6526 - Expression Evaluator was not handling nested expressions correctly if functions with more than one parameter were used as a parameters.

- CHG - #6528 - Concat function will now support up to 10 parameters.

- FIX - #6534 - Expression containing internal parentheses and commas in literal strings could cause problem with the expression parsing.

Version 10.0

-----------
10.00.00.02 - 07/19/11
-----------

- FIX - #6817 - Fix for loading settings file.

-----------
10.00.00.01 - 07/15/11
-----------

- NEW - #6792 - Support for G/Technology version 10 and Oracle Spatial Geometries.

- NEW - #6793 - Status Listbox has been split into two tabs. One shows the regular status (as in previous verions) and the other shows only errors.

- NEW - #6800 - New and About added to Toolbar.

- NEW - #6801 - File and Help menu added. File includes: Open, Save, Save As, and Exit.

- NEW - #6802 - Main Dialog is now resizable.

- NEW - #6803 - Cancel button has been added to stop a conversion.

- NEW - #6804 - New log file is created with a .error extension that only show errors that occurred during a conversion.

- NEW - #6805 - Delete buttons on the Category and Group lists were not clearing the sublists.

- NEW - #6807 - Connection Configuration dialog can now save the current settings to a Connection .ini file used with the command-line mode.

- NEW - #6809 - MRU List keep the last 5 most recently used files under the File menu.

- CHG - #6810 - The Save As toolbar icon was changed to Save. The Save As functionality is now under the File menu.

GTViewer version 10.0.0.14 is Available

2011-07-15T17:13:00.000-05:00

GTViewer version 10.0.0.14 is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.14 - 07/15/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6784 - GetCoodinateFactors method added.

- NEW - #6787 - If you set ShowRasterStatus to 1 in the Additional Properties section of the .GTM file, the raster filename will be displayed in the status bar when it is being initialized.

- NEW - #6789 - External Apps using the External Type can now use token as parameters: %cenX%, %cenY%, %zoom

- NEW - #6791 - Rendering Raster message added to status bar.

- FIX - #6794 - Fixes to the Session Links had broken people using then them when session links were not working correctly. Additional logic has been added to work the old way if the new way doesn't find a session link entry.

- NEW - #6797 - Setting added to Options/Settings to prevent multiple RasterPaths from being searched.

- NEW - #6798 - AddLocationHistory method added.

Creating GTViewer Data with Embedded Data Using FME

2011-07-14T17:09:00.000-05:00

In my last post, I covered programmatically embedding data into Session Graphics with GTViewer and GTVx. This post will also cover Embedded Data, but it will use FME to create it instead of VB6 or VB.NET.

The GTViewer Writer Plug-In for FME can easily create embedded data in GTViewer Data. You must expose two Format Attributes in the destination GTViewer Writer: gti_embeddedData and gti_embeddedDataType.

There is currently only 1 valid Embedded Data Type for GTViewer data, so you can set gti_embeddedDataType to a Constant 1. The gti_embeddedData attribute is then set to the string you want to embed. The \t\a\v format for embedded data that I described in the previous post, can also be used here to format the embedded data so that the Attribute Info dialog in GTViewer and GTVx will recognize the embedded data as if it came from a database.

For an example, I will take a TIGER street file and convert it to the GTViewer format. Instead of letting FME create tabular data in the GTViewer format and link it to the graphic elements it creates (which is the default and is usually the desired process), I will delete the tabular attributes from the destination and use only embedded data.

The StringConcatenator transformer (shown above) is used to build the \t\a\v string. There are many ways you could go about building this string in FME, but this approach seemed the easiest and my visual for a blog posting. In the screenshot below, I simply build the embedded data string using constants and attribute values from the TIGER data. One item to note is that the backslash (\) is an escape operator in this FME transformer, so you need to use two backslashes to represent one (\\), and \t becomes \\t, and so on.

You can convert the data to the GTViewer format and open it up in GTViewer. Then review one of the streets:

If you look on the Element Tab for the reviewed street, you will see the Embedded Data property is set to the string we created with FME. Also note that the Attribute Info tab has a red drum indicating that it is Embedded Data instead of Linked Data.

This example is somewhat contrived since if you were really converting street data, you would almost definitely be using Linked data (the default that the GTViewer FME Writer Plug-in provides); however, there are other cases where embedded data might be very useful.

Programmatically Creating Session Graphics with Embedded Data

2011-07-14T15:11:00.000-05:00

When drawing session graphics in GTViewer or GTVx, it is very simple to added embedded data. This is also true if you are using the GTDataObjects, the GTV .NET Controls, or GTCreate (but the syntax is slightly different than what I will show in this post).

Creating Session Graphics in GTViewer or GTVx uses a standard process. First set the Drawing Properties to your desired values, then draw the session graphics element (redline) with one of the Draw methods. The newly created session element will use the Drawing Properties you set.

There are two kinds of Drawing Properties that can be set. First, there are the Current Drawing Properties such as Filter Id, Color Id, Style Id, Weight, Fill, and Extended Style. These properties are set with methods like SetCurrentFilterId, SetCurrentColor, SetCurrentStyle, SetCurrentFill, and SetCurrentExtendedStyle. These properties will remember the value you set until you change them. So, you can set your filter id, color, and weight to specific values and all session elements that you create with the Draw methods will use these properties. You can also set these properties before each call to a Draw method if you choose (it will take slightly longer performance-wise if you set every property before each draw, but probably not enough to worry about).

Instance Drawing Properties are the second kind of Drawing Property. These properties will only be applied to the next session graphic created with a Draw method, then they reset themselves to a neutral state. There are really just two Instance Properties: Linkages and Embedded data. Linkages are two 32 bit integer keys on an element that will be automatically be used to look up records in the tabular data. Embedded Data is a string that is embedded on the session graphics element (and the data is available without going to the database and is also portable if you export the session graphics as a .gtg file).

Embedded Data has both a Type value and a string data value. Currently, the Embedded Data Type must always be set to 1. The Embedded Data String value can be any string value (size is not restricted, but their may be practical limits). However, if the string follows a specific format, it will be interpreted as tabular data and will work seamlessly with the Attribute Info functionality in GTViewer and GTVx. This format is called the \t\a\v format. Not a very catchy name, but it is what it is:

{\tTableName{\aAttrName\vValue}}

You must have one record (table) specified with \t followed by the table name. You then need 1 or more attribute/value pairs where each pair is \a and the attribute’s name followed by \v and the value. In this format notation, the curly braces mean that that the enclosed portion can repeat, so you can have one or more attribute/values pair per table, and you can have one table or more tables. An example is shown below:

\tPole\aPole_Number\v1234\aHeight\v45\aClass\v1

Would represent:

Table: Pole

Attr 1: Pole_Number=1234

Attr 2: Height=45

Attr 3: Class=1

The following VB6 code is for GTViewer. It will create a filled circle in the center of your view and embed some data on it:

Dim cenX As Double
Dim cenY As Double

viewObj.GetViewCenter 1, cenX, cenY

docObj.SetCurrentFill True
docObj.SetCurrentFilterId 0
docObj.SetCurrentColor docObj.GetNearestColor(255, 0, 0)
docObj.DrawSetData 1, "\tMyTable1\aMyAttr1\vMyValue1\aMyAttr2\vmyValue2\tMyTable2\aMyAttr3\vMyValue3\aMyAttr4\vmyValue4"

docObj.DrawCircle32 1, cenX, cenY, 25

viewObj.RefreshView

This code is for GTViewer, but you can swap the viewObj and docObj with GTVX1 and it will work with GTVx as well. The embedded data contains two tables with two attributes on each table, so if you review the circle in GTViewer, it will show you something like this:

There are a few things to note in the above screenshots. First, the Red Drums on the tabs mean the data is Embedded Data and not retrieved from the database (they show as Blue Drums). The Table Names show on the tab. The first table name will show on the right mouse menu when you review one of the session graphics with embedded data. The Element tabs show the first few characters of the embedded data on the Embedded Data line.

The next example uses VB.NET and GTVx to illustrate something a little more realistic than the first example.

Imports GTVXLib
Imports System.Text


Public Class Form1

Dim docObj As AxGTVXLib.AxGTVX
Dim appObj As AxGTVXLib.AxGTVX
Dim viewObj As AxGTVXLib.AxGTVX

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

AxGTVX1.OpenFile("l:\electgasdemo\electgas.gtm")
AxGTVX1.SetHideRaster(1)

docObj = AxGTVX1
viewObj = AxGTVX1
appObj = AxGTVX1

End Sub


Private Sub ButtonPlaceMarker_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles ButtonPlaceMarker.Click

Dim cenX As Double
Dim cenY As Double

viewObj.GetViewCenter(1, cenX, cenY)

docObj.SetCurrentFill(True)
docObj.SetCurrentFilterId(0)
docObj.SetCurrentColor(docObj.GetNearestColor(255, 0, 0))

Dim data As New StringBuilder

data.Append("\t")
data.Append("Marker")
data.Append("\a")
data.Append("Time")
data.Append("\v")
data.Append(Now.ToLongTimeString)
data.Append("\a")
data.Append("Data")
data.Append("\v")
data.Append(Now.ToLongDateString)
data.Append("\a")
data.Append("User")
data.Append("\v")
data.Append(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("USERNAME"))

docObj.DrawSetData(1, data.ToString)

docObj.DrawCircle32(1, cenX, cenY, 25)

viewObj.RefreshView()

End Sub

End Class

The screenshots below show the demo app running after a marker has been placed followed by the Attribute Info dialog you get when reviewing the session graphics.

There are a few items to note in the above demo app. Again the DocObj and ViewObj are just used to simpify moving the code between GTViewer and GTVx. Since these objects are set to the AxGTVX1 object, the same code will work the same in GTVx and GTViewer. I used a StringBuilder to compose my embedded data. You can just as easily use a regular String instead. I think breaking the lines up with the StringBuilder makes it easier to read as well as being theoretically faster when running (versus just using the immutable String type). This example only uses one Table in the embedded data (the first example used 2).

I hope this helps to clarify using embedded data.

GT/Metadata Explorer Version 2.0

2011-06-22T20:38:00.000-05:00

GTI announces the beta release of GT/Metadata Explorer version 2.0. This new version has been enhanced to support Intergraph's G/Technology version 10 data as well as continued support for G/Technology version 9 data.

The following functionality is provided by GT/Metadata Explorer:

Navigating the Metadata - Point and click from one type of metadata to another, such as moving from Legend to Feature to Style Rule to Style, or moving from Feature to Component to Attribute to Picklist. You can also query and explore Styles, Features, Components, and Ownership Relations.

Metadata Validation - Routines are provided to identify problems in Legend Entries, Style Rules, Label Rules, and Rule Usage.

Style Usage Reporting – See which Style and Label Rules are being used in your data. Each feature in the dataset will be evaluated against the Style and Label Rules while statistics are kept and then used to produce a summary report.

Query Features – Search for Features by attributes or by FID and show all of the feature’s associated Tabular data or a preview of the feature’s Geometry. Get detailed information on how geometries are composed as well as a visual preview of the geometry information (supports both the G/Tech 9 relational geometry structure and the G/Tech 10 Oracle Spatial SDO_GEOMETRY attributes).

Style and Label Rules Explanation – Query to find a feature, and then see which Style and Label Rules it triggers along with an explanation (similar to Explain Plan in Oracle).

Trace Connectivity - Query to find a feature, and then incrementally trace out from the feature using its connectivity information. Use this information to quickly diagnose connectivity issues.

Trace Ownership – Query to find a feature, and then trace its ownership relationships from parent to child and from child to parent.

Metadata Export – Export key metadata information on Legends, Features, Components, Style Rules, Label Rules, Styles, and Picklists. Exports can be made as an Access file (.mdb) or as a Comma Separated Value file (.csv).

GTViewer version 10.0.0.12 is Available

2011-06-22T17:31:00.000-05:00

GTViewer version 10.0.0.12 is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.12 - 06/15/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6753 - RestrictPresetExport added as Data Property and to Additional Properties section of the .GTM.

- NEW - #6759 - New method added: DGFit

- NEW - #6760 - New Data Properties: MeasureFactor, MeasureDegreeFactor, MeasurePrecision, MeasureUnitLabel

- NEW - #6761 - If a RasterFileList entry is defined along with a RasterPath entry in a Raster Category section of the .GTM and multiple RasterPath items are specified (delimited by semicolons), each file in the list will be search for in each of the RasterPath directories until it is found.

- FIX - #6763 - Support Added to Feature Tooltip expression for multiple record occurrences.

- FIX - #6764 - Added FT and FT_Pre entries to the Additional Properties section of the .GTM to support Feature Tooltip entries that contain long entries. The FeatureTooltip and FeatureTooltip_Pre entries can only support 200 character per property.

- NEW - #6767 - AlwaysHideRaster entry added to the Additional Properties section.

- FIX - #6770 - The DG.GTI_Area variable for the Dynamic Graphics expressions will now compute the area for a Shape with hole element using only the primary shape.

- FIX - #6770 - The DG.GTI_Area variable for the Dynamic Graphics expressions will now compute the area for a Shape with hole element using only the primary shape.

- CHG - #6772 - Thresholds for Highlighted elements behaved differently than thresholds for Filters, Styles, and Dynamic Graphics. They have been changed to match.

- FIX - #6773 - Problem when selecting elements and moving large distances. Element ranges would sometimes get correct because of roundoff error.

- NEW - #6775 - The Ctrl-0 to Ctrl-6 will set a multiplier for the Move Interval. The Ctrl-7 to Ctrl-9 will set a multiplier for the Scale Increment.

Rotated View and Rotated Printing Functionality in GTViewer

2011-05-13T11:57:00.001-05:00

The latest update to GTViewer (verison 10.0.0.11) has a significant new feature: you can now rotate the view to any orientation. This new functionality has been added to meet the requests of several customers who wanted support for 1) rotated prints and 2) Orienting the map to the heading of the GPS. Two screencast videos are listed below to demonstrate this new functionality in action:

Rotated View and Rotated Printing

http://gti-us.mobi/video/rotatedviewdemo/rotatedviewdemo.html

GPS Orienting to Heading:

http://gti-us.mobi/video/gpsdemo/rotatedviewgpsdemo.html

Rotated Views and Rotated Printing do come with a higher demand for memory and processing power, and this functionality may not run on older machines with minimal resources. There are also some features disabled when the view is rotated, like drawing redlines and extract file creation; however, these features may support rotated views at a later date. Also, if you do not rotate the view, GTViewer works as it always has.

To prevent widespread panic, the View Rotation functionality is disabled by default. To enable it, you simply need to add the following line:

AllowViewRotation=1

to the [Additional Properties] section of the .GTM file or to an AddProp.ini file if using a .GTX file.

With version 11.0.0.4, you can also press the key combination Ctrl-Alt-R and enable or disable the View Rotation. However, this command does not permanently enable the view rotation for the dataset as the AllowViewRotation entry does.

The view rotation controls are simple:

Alt-Left - rotates the view to the left by 5 degrees
Alt-Right - rotates the view to the right by 5 degrees
Shift-Alt-Left - rotates the view to the left by 1 degree
Shift-Alt-Right - rotates the view to the right by 1 degree
Shift-Up or Esc - exit the rotated view mode

When the view is rotated, an indicator appears at the top right corner of the view and points to the normal top of the map. The amount of rotation is also specified on the status bar along with the XY coordinates and Zoom level.

Rotated View

Normal View

The rotated view and rotated printing capabilities have also been added to the latest version of GTVx (version 10.0.0.9).

GTViewer 10.0.0.11 is Available

2011-05-13T11:49:00.000-05:00

GTViewer version 10.0.0.10 is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.11 - 05/13/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6749 - AllowViewRotation entry added to both the DataProperties and to the Additional Properties section of the .GTM. Default is to not allow (0), can also be set to allow (1).

- FIX - #6750 - Better Error Handling for Rotated Views and Rotated Printing.

- NEW - #6751 - RestrictStyleManagerExport Data Property Added and Additional Properties section of the .GTM.

-----------------------
10.00.00.10 - 05/06/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6690 - ExportFontAsBitmaps method has been added.

- CHG - #6694 - Dynamic Graphics Shape Actions will now get centroid from any shape, not just closed elements.

- CHG - #6695 - Dynamic Graphics will now adjust the Clipping Rectangle to the Extract range when using a .GTX file.

- FIX - #6698 - Bogus error message logged when Data Id is 0 and only embedded is present for Feature Tooltips.

- FIX - #6701 - GetDataProperty was returning incorrect values for MouseWheelIncrement.

- NEW - #6702 - Support for Editing Session Links.

- CHG - #6703 - Session Links with no file name will now carry the session link name to support editing session links.

- CHG - #6706 - Session Links show up as [Session Link] instead of ~link~ in Right Mouse menu.

- FIX - #6709 - Dimension Elements dialog now sorts the fonts alphabetically.

- NEW - #6712 - HighlightAddText method added.

- NEW - #6713 - HighlightAddFilledCircle method added.

- NEW - #6715 - Rotated View, Print, and Print to Scale functionality added.

- NEW - #6717 - Keep Rotation option added for Point Labels in Dynamic Graphics.

- NEW - #6718 - Option to keep or omit Dynamic Graphics labels that are partially out of the view. The previous method was to omit them.

- FIX - #6726 - Dimension Element Dialog was showing the wrong options for Left/Top and Right/Bottom.

- FIX - #6727 - Dimension Element Dialog was sorting the Terminator Option list alphabetically causing the associated values to not match the named item.

- FIX - #6728 - Drawing a redline could take on the last used Style Definition in certain situations until a view refresh.

- FIX - #6730 - Dimension Dialog will now remember the last Terminator setting.

- FIX - #6732 - The current Weight was not being set in the Dimension Dialog.

- FIX - #6733 - The Color in the Draw Dimension Dialog was not set to the Current Color value or the selected elements current color.

- FIX - #6735 - Dimension Dialog had the Size value 30 twice instead of 30 and 35.

- FIX - #6738 - Dimension Dialog would not select the right font from the list.

- FIX - #6739 - Dimension Dialog did not set the correct Terminator style when editing the properties of a dimension element.

- FIX - #6742 - Dimension Elements using TrueType Fonts did not position the text correctly for Left/Top and Right/Bottom modes.

- NEW - #6744 - SaveViewAsBmp method added.

GTVx version 10.0.0.9 is Available

2011-05-13T11:45:00.000-05:00

Version 10.0.0.9 of GTVx is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.09 - 05/13/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6746 - AllowViewRotation entry added to both the DataProperties and to the Additional Properties section of the .GTM. Default is to not allow (0), can also be set to allow (1).

- FIX - #6747 - Better Error Handling for Rotated Views and Rotated Printing.

- NEW - #6748 - RestrictStyleManagerExport Data Property Added and Additional Properties section of the .GTM.

-----------------------
10.00.00.08 - 05/08/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6689 - Fixes to the TrueType Font bitmap render so that the Symbol Selection dialog and the ExportFontAsBitmaps will represent the TrueType characters better.

- CHG - #6691 - ExportFontAsBitmaps will now uses a 3 digit character for using preceeded zeros for number less than 100.

- CHG - #6692 - Dynamic Graphics Shape Actions will now get centroid from any shape, not just closed elements.

- CHG - #6693 - Dynamic Graphics will now adjust the Clipping Rectangle to the Extract range when using a .GTX file.

- FIX - #6699 - Bogus error message logged when Data Id is 0 and only embedded is present for Feature Tooltips.

- FIX - #6700 - GetDataProperty was returning incorrect values for MouseWheelIncrement.

- CHG - #6704 - GetColorTableInfo has been changed to return the background color as the first item in the color array.

- FIX - #6705 - The CurrentColor was not being correctly used when the Select Symbol dialog was used and had the symbol color set to -1 (the default).

- FIX - #6707 - The Dimension Element dialog was not listing TrueType fonts.

- FIX - #6708 - Dimension Elements dialog now sorts the fonts alphabetically.

- NEW - #6710 - HighlightAddText method added.

- NEW - #6711 - HighlightAddFilledCircle method added.

- NEW - #6716 - Print using View Center command added to Print to Scale dialog.

- NEW - #6719 - Keep Rotation option added for Point Labels in Dynamic Graphics.

- NEW - #6720 - Option to keep or omit Dynamic Graphics labels that are partially out of the view. The previous method was to omit them.

- FIX - #6722 - The Color in the Draw Dimension Dialog was not set to the Current Color value or the selected elements current color.

- FIX - #6723 - Dimension Element Dialog was showing the wrong options for Left/Top and Right/Bottom.

- FIX - #6724 - Dimension Element Dialog was sorting the Terminator Option list alphabetically causing the associated values to not match the named item.

- FIX - #6725 - Drawing a redline could take on the last used Style Definition in certain situations until a view refresh.

- FIX - #6729 - Dimension Dialog will now remember the last Terminator setting.

- FIX - #6731 - The current Weight was not being set in the Dimension Dialog.

- FIX - #6734 - Dimension Dialog had the Size value 30 twice instead of 30 and 35.

- FIX - #6736 - Dimension Dialog would not select the right font from the list.

- FIX - #6737 - Dimension Dialog did not set the correct Terminator style when editing the properties of a dimension element.

- FIX - #6740 - Draw Text Dialog was not using the current weight.

- FIX - #6741 - Dimension Elements using TrueType Fonts did not position the text correctly for Left/Top and Right/Bottom modes.

- NEW - #6743 - Rotated View, Print, and Print to Scale functionality added.

- NEW - #6745 - SaveViewAsBmp method added.

Demo of GTWeb Client for Android Tablets (Honeycomb)

2011-04-19T13:21:00.001-05:00

You may have seen our video demonstrating the GTWeb Client on an Android phone, but we have a new video showing off the app on a Motorola Xoom tablet which is running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).

http://gti-us.mobi/video/honeycomb/gtweb-honeycomb.html

For more information on the GTWeb Client, see this post.

And for a demo of the GTWeb Client on a BlackBerry phone, see this post.

GTViewer Plugin for 64 Bit FME is now Available

2011-04-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

The GTViewer Reader/Writer plugin for FME is now available in both 32bit and 64bit versions.

The new 64 bit version will work with FME 2011 and higher. This version will be delivered with future versions of FME, but it can also be added to a current installation. Contact support for more information.

GTWeb Client for BlackBerry Demo

2011-04-06T17:59:00.000-05:00

GTI announces GTWeb Client for BlackBerry.

Here is a short video showing some of the features:

http://gti-us.mobi/video/bb/gtweb-bb.html

GTWeb Server provides a geospatial viewing solution for internet and intranet clients. GTWeb is centrally managed and can support a large number of clients requiring frequent or occasional access to both graphical map data and tabular database records.

GTWeb Server can be accessed using a browser on any platform; however, the GTWeb Client for BlackBerry provides a rich experience tailored specifically for the BlackBerry device and supports supports GPS location, locate queries, favorites, map panning and zooming, display presets, attribute info review, and linked detail files.

If you would like to be part of the GTWeb Client beta program, please contact GTI.

Also, watch the demo of GTWeb Client for Android.

GTViewer version 10.0.0.9 is Available

2011-03-30T17:20:00.000-05:00

GTViewer version 10.0.0.9 is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.09 - 03/30/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6677 - Problem parsing embedded data with escape sequences.

- FIX - #6678 - Problem computing range for group element in Session File when sub-element were not displayable elements.

- FIX - #6679 - Problem with StyleDefinitionId and Override flags being read in from .GTS files no using the enhanced format.

- CHG - #6680 - Changes to the MrSid printing so that it will support larger format prints.

- NEW - #6682 - The command-line option -startMode can now be specified.

- FIX - #6683 - Magnify window could get the wrong initial setting when using session files from GTField.

- FIX - #6684 - Highlighting priority element with Magnify could cause problems. Introduced with #6632.

- FIX - #6687 - The -GpsOn flag was overriding the default Startup Mode.

-----------------------
10.00.00.08 - 03/19/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6634 - MoveActionUp and MoveActionDown have been added to the list of commands supported by DGProcessCommand.

- NEW - #6635 - The Pretty function for the Dynamic Graphics expression will now capitalize words after '_', '-', and '/'.

- NEW - #6636 - The following methods have bene added: SaveCurrentStyleMapFile, SaveCurrentStyleDefFile, SaveCurrentLinestyleDefFile.

- NEW - #6637 - Fill option added for Dynamic Graphics Map entries, Simple Highlight mode, and the Highlight Mode's default values.

- FIX - #6638 - The Info1 and Info2 properties were not handled correctly by the Dynamic Graphics.

- FIX - #6641 - Priority Display has been disabled for Dynamic Graphics since this conflicts with the Action drawing order.

- NEW - #6645 - User Mode has been added to Dynamic Graphics Interface.

- NEW - #6646 - The Dynamic Graphics Admin form is now collapsible.

- NEW - #6647 - The Expression Form in the Dynamic Graphics Interface now includes a Clear
and a Set to TRUE button.

- FIX - #6654 - Justification combobox has wrong label for Center/Right in Dynamic Graphics Interface.

- FIX - #6656 - Problem with styles on Complex Elements (Type 1, 2, 3).

- FIX - #6660 - Pressing the Add Attribute on the Expression dialog without an attribute being set would cause problems.

- FIX - #6662 - Dynamic Graphics was not considering Complex Lines as Linear element and Complex Polygons as Polygons.

- FIX - #6665 - Extracting by Shape would not get Shape with Holes elements (type 114).

- FIX - #6667 - Map entries were not correctly saving and restoring the Linestyle and fill values.

- FIX - #6671 - Problem with embedded data in Session Files (.gts).

GTVx verison 10.0.0.7 is Available

2011-03-30T17:15:00.000-05:00

Version 10.0.0.7 of GTVx is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.07 - 03/29/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6685 - Highlighting priority elements with Magnify could cause problems. Introduced with #6632.

- FIX - #6686 - Changes to the MrSid printing so that it will support larger format prints.

- NEW - #6688 - The ExportFontAsBitmaps method has been added.

-----------------------
10.00.00.06 - 03/19/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6629 - MoveActionUp and MoveActionDown have been added to the list of commands supported by DGProcessCommand.

- NEW - #6630 - The Pretty function for the Dynamic Graphics expression will now capitalize words after '_', '-', and '/'.

- NEW - #6631 - The following methods have bene added: SaveCurrentStyleMapFile, SaveCurrentStyleDefFile, SaveCurrentLinestyleDefFile.

- NEW - #6632 - Fill option added for Dynamic Graphics Map entries, Simple Highlight mode, and the Highlight Mode's default values.

- FIX - #6633 - The Info1 and Info2 properties were not handled correctly by the Dynamic Graphics.

- FIX - #6639 - Priority Display has been disabled for Dynamic Graphics since this conflicts with the Action drawing order.

- CHG - #6640 - Drawing order for the Dynamic Graphic Actions has been reversed so that the first item in the Action list is the last drawn. This change make the Action list list the Action is the order they appear with the first Action on top, the second action under it, and so on.

- FIX - #6655 - Problem with styles on Complex Elements (Type 1, 2, 3).

- FIX - #6663 - Dynamic Grahpics was not considering Complex Lines as Linear element and Complex Polygons as Polygons.

- FIX - #6664 - RasterPC entries were not processing absolute paths correctly.

- FIX - #6666 - Extracting by Shape would not get Shape with Holes elements (type 114).

- FIX - #6672 - Problem with embedded data in Session Files (.gts).

GTData version 10.0.0.2 is Available

2011-03-25T14:10:00.000-05:00

GTData version 10.0.0.2 is available.

-----------
10.00.00.02 - 03/25/11
-----------

- NEW - #6606 - GTFont - The -b2a flag has been added to use the Binary to Ascii mode.

- NEW - #6609 - GTPreset - The Display Definitions will now support wildcards in the GIS() tokens for both feature and component.

- NEW - #6610 - GTPreset - The verbose flag (-v) has been added to the command-line to output all filter id by GIS feature and component name.

- NEW - #6626 - GTVSendClose - New utility added to gracefully shutdown GTViewer when run.

- NEW - #6661 - GTQuery - Key1Attribute and Key2Attribute can now be used in place of GidAttribute and UfidAttribute. Key Attributes are now display in the query output as well.

- FIX - #6681 - GTCompact - The original files Header Info String was not being carried over to the compacted file.

10th Anniversary for GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer

2011-03-18T14:01:00.000-05:00

In honor of GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer’s 10^th Anniversary, here are 10 things you probably don’t know about them:

GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer were announced at GITA in San Diego, March 4-7, 2001.
Pocket GTViewer was developed on a Hewlett Packard Jornada 430, running Windows CE 2.11, 16M of memory, and a 133MHz processor. Sorry, they are no longer available.
GTViewer’s original purpose was to create Extract files (.GTX) for Pocket GTViewer. We have since found other uses for GTViewer.
The original codename for GTViewer was “Dog”, and Pocket GTViewer was “DogCE”. Some evidence of these names still exist today. The GTViewer Font file format is .DFN (Dog FoNt). Extract files were .DCE (Dog for CE) before .GTX.
Version 1.0 of GTViewer had separate Zoom In and Zoom Out modes which were replaced by the single Zoom mode using gesturing that we have today. Today we would call that Refactoring the GUI.
While there are 10 major versions of GTViewer, there is no version 6.0. There was, however, a version 1.1 to make major 10 versions. The version number roughly corresponds to the year, or at least the year it was released in.
There are no versions with “13” in them. Not superstitious, but not taking any changes either.
There are currently 353 exposed methods in the GTViewer API. So start writing code!
There have been 274 minor versions of GTViewer from 1.1.0.4 to 10.0.0.7. There are probably another 50 minor versions, but the records for version 1.0 are not as detailed as the rest.
GTViewer alone has around 600 pages of documentation not including the numerous blog posting. And people still say there is not enough!

GTV Control verison 9.0.0.20 is Available

2011-03-17T16:21:00.000-05:00

The GTViewer .NET Control for Windows version 9.0.0.20 is Available.

------------
09.00.00.20 - 03/17/11
------------

- NEW - #6628 - The maximum number of items specified in the tap-and-hold picklist menu can now be set with the MaxPickListItems property.

- FIX - #6658 - Problem with styles on Complex Elements (Type 1, 2, 3).

- NEW - #6668 - More GPS Update Interval Option are now available (1/10, 1/4, 1/2, and 0 seconds).

- CHG - #6669 - The buffer zone when the GPS Indicator is recentered when in Keep in View mode has been increased.

- NEW - #6670 - The IsPointInShape method has been added.

------------
09.00.00.19 - 02/22/11
------------

- FIX - #6624 - FitSessionGraphics method did not fit correctly when GTField elements were present.

------------
09.00.00.18 - 02/9/11
------------

- FIX - #6607 - File Handle test was not being performed before Session Saves and Element Additions. This problem could affect .GTX files
when the machine goes to sleep or some other condition that could invalidate a file handle.

------------
09.00.00.17 - 01/14/11
------------

- FIX - #6602 - GPS Redline trail had problems when control was minimized.

TechAdvantage 2011

2011-03-08T16:30:00.000-06:00

Come see us today at TechAdvantage® 2011 Conference and Expo in Orlando. We will be there from March 8-11, 2011.

Our booth number is #1435 on the North-East side of the show floor.

GTWeb Client for Android Demo

2011-03-01T17:14:00.000-06:00

Here is a short video showing the GTWeb Client for Android:

http://gti-us.mobi/video/gtwebdemo.html

*** Watch in Full Screen Mode to see all of the details.

For more information on the GTWeb Client, see this previous post.

PGTV .NET Control Version 9.0.0.9 is Available

2011-02-28T09:31:00.000-06:00

The PGTViewer .NET Control for Window Mobile version 9.0.0.9 is available.

------------
09.00.00.09 - 02/28/11
------------

- FIX - #6589 - Element selection was not working correctly in some situations.

- NEW - #6627 - The maximum number of items specified in the tap-and-hold picklist menu can now be set with the MaxPickListItems property.

------------
09.00.00.08 - 09/21/10
------------

- FIX - #6485 - Fixes to .MSI Setup.

TechAdvantage 2011

2011-02-25T11:12:00.000-06:00

GTI will have a booth at the TechAdvantage® 2011 Conference and Expo from March 8-11, 2011.

Our booth number is #1435 on the North-East side of the show floor.

We invite you to stop by and visit our booth. We will be showing the GTWeb Client for Android, GTViewer's Dynamic Graphics capabilities, GTField's Pole Joint Use application, Outage Analysis, Upstream/Downstream tracing, and much more.

Using GTViewer for Streetlight Inventory

2011-02-25T11:03:00.000-06:00

Rather than relying on estimates and negotiation, GTField can be used to determine the actual number of streetlights and attachments on each company owned pole. Too much revenue is lost due to inaccurate or incomplete facility records. GTField provides the ability to easily capture the revenue from those new and changing facilities.

The payback is almost immediate. One of our customers captured well over $100,000.00 in revenue using GTI’s Streetlight Light Inventory/Pole Inspection Application in a city with a population of 65000.

GTI can implement GTField in as little as 2 weeks with no existing GIS or minimal integration with an existing GIS system. Training on using GTField is fast and easy. Implementation of other competitive services takes much longer at a significantly higher cost.

GTVSendClose Utility

2011-02-24T13:05:00.000-06:00

GTVSendClose is a new utility that will be delivered with GTData. Running the new utility will gracefully shutdown GTViewer. You may think this is an odd utility to have, but it was requested by a customer who uses a very clever and effective means of distributing data updates to its GTViewer users. I will describe the process below and show how GTVSendClose helps out the process. It may be useful to your workflow as well.

First, a GTViewer dataset is created and placed on a USB Flash Drive along with any GTViewer product updates. An autorun.inf file is also included to run a script which copies the updates from the USB Flash Drive to the laptop. When the USB Flash Drive is plugged-in to the laptop, the update process automatically begins.

Second, once the USB drive is prepared, a USB Flash Drive Duplicator (like this one) is used to copy the flash drive to a number of other USB Flash Drive.

Third, the copied USB Flash Drives are disseminated to the users and they plug them into their laptops and the data is automatically updated, and the USB Flash Drive is returned.

One problem that occurred in this workflow was that the user could have left GTViewer running when the USB Flash Drive was plugged-in and the updates could not be copied because the data files would be locked by GTViewer. Not a terribly difficult problem to overcome (shut down GTViewer, and try again), but there is an improvement that can be made to the workflow.

By inserting a call to GTVSendClose (which can be located on the USB Flash Drive) into the update script launched by the autorun.inf, you can guarantee GTViewer will not be running when the update begins and eliminate the potential for locked files.

There are some caveats here. If a user has created a new session in GTViewer that has not yet been saved, GTViewer will prompt the user for a filename and wait for the user to respond which will interfere with the update. However, there are solutions to this problem as well such as using the External Session only option which will also use a default session name.

GTVx verison 10.0.0.5 is Available

2011-02-19T13:10:00.000-06:00

Version 10.0.0.5 of GTVx is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.05 - 02/18/11
-----------------------

- NEW - #6613 - DGCopyToSession method added.

- CHG - #6614 - The Mask drawn around the extract has been moved to after the drawing of the Dynamic Graphics.

- NEW - #6621 - Dynamic Labels for Shape with Hole elements will now use the part with the largest bounding area as the shape to compute the centroid.

- FIX - #6622 - Dynamic Highlight was not closing temp file when using a GTX file. This prevent an internal session from being saved.

GTViewer version 10.0.0.7 is Available

2011-02-18T15:40:00.000-06:00

GTViewer version 10.0.0.7 is available.

-----------------------
10.00.00.07 - 02/18/11
-----------------------

- FIX - #6604 - A taskbar item appeared when displaying the Edit Attributes dialog.

- CHG - #6615 - The Mask drawn around the extract has been moved to after the drawing of the Dynamic Graphics.

- CHG - #6616 - The Favorite Settings path has been changed to be under a \Graphic Technologies Inc\GTViewer directory in the AppData path.

- CHG - #6617 - The Toolbox Settings path has been changed to be under a \Graphic Technologies Inc\GTViewer directory in the AppData path.

- CHG - #6618 - The Custom Print Label Settings path has been changed to be under a \Graphic Technologies Inc\GTViewer directory in the AppData path.

- FIX - #6619 - Measure/Pan would not release mouse control when a mouse up event occurred off the view.

- NEW - #6620 - Dynamic Labels for Shape with Hole elements will now use the part with the largest bounding area as the shape to compute the centroid.

DistribuTECH 2011

2011-02-07T11:55:00.000-06:00

GTI debuted the GTWeb Client for Android at DistribuTECH 2011. The new GTViewer 10 with its Dynamic Graphics capabilities, GTField Pro, and the GTPlot Image Server were also highlights of the show.

GTWeb Client for Android

2011-02-02T09:27:00.000-06:00

GTI announces GTWeb Client for Android.

GTWeb Server provides a geospatial viewing solution for internet and intranet clients. GTWeb is centrally managed and can support a large number of clients requiring frequent or occasional access to both graphical map data and tabular database records.

GTWeb Server can be accessed using a browser on any platform; however, the GTWeb Client for Android provides a rich experience tailored specifically for the Android device and supports supports GPS location, locate queries, favorites, map panning and zooming, display presets, attribute info review, and linked detail files.

If you would like to be part of the GTWeb Client beta program, please contact GTI.

You can also watch a demo here.

An Implementation of the Graham Scan in VB.NET (2008) within a GTVx Application that Lists the Streets Near a Circuit

2011-01-18T09:18:00.000-06:00

By Charlie Marlin, Systems Analyst, Huntsville Utilities, Huntsville, Alabama

Introduction

This article has two audiences:

The VB.NET programmer who wants to see the Graham Scan implemented in VB.NET with comments in English. (The only example I’ve found on the internet has German comments.)
GTVx application developers who want to see an implementation of the Graham Scan applied to a geospatial task that may be widely applicable.

The Most Relevant Code for the Graham Scan


Option Explicit On
Option Strict On
Imports System.IO

Public Class Form1

Private Sub StartButton_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
                    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
           Handles StartButton.Click

' a mechanism to loop through all the circuits...
For Each circuit As String In circuits
Try
   filterId = filterId + 1

   ' build a list of vertices of the
   ' conductors for a circuit...
   Dim pList As New List(Of Point)
   pList = BuildPointList(circuit)

   ' find the start point (the one with minimal Y)
   Dim startPoint As New Point
   Dim pCount As Integer = pList.Count - 1
   Dim yList(pCount) As Integer

   For j As Integer = 0 To pCount
       yList(j) = pList(j).Y
   Next

   Dim minY As Integer = yList.Min

   ' now find the index of the minimal point...
   Dim i As Integer = 0
   For i = 0 To pCount
       If pList(i).Y = minY Then
           startPoint = pList(i)
           Exit For
       End If
   Next

   ' sort all points by polar coordinate
   ' against startpoint...
   Dim sortedList As List(Of Point) = _
         PreSortPoints(pList, startPoint, i)

   ' do the Graham Scan...
   Dim convexList As New List(Of Point)
   convexList = GrahamScan(sortedList)

Catch ex As Exception
   'Logtime("Error in processing circuit " & circuit)
End Try
Application.DoEvents()
Next
End Sub

Private Function PreSortPoints(ByRef pList As List(Of Point), _
                      ByVal startPoint As Point, _
                      ByVal startPointIndex As Integer) _
                      As List(Of Point)

' start a new list and fill it with the
' start point, then all the points in pList '
' up to the startpoint, then
' all the points after the start point...

Dim sortedList As New List(Of Point)

sortedList.Add(startPoint)

For i As Integer = 0 To startPointIndex - 1
sortedList.Add(pList(i))
Next

For i As Integer = startPointIndex + 1 To pList.Count - 1
sortedList.Add(pList(i))
Next

' then sort the list by angle from zero,
' in preparation for the Graham Scan...
sortedList.Sort(1, sortedList.Count - 1, _
New FunctionComparer(Of Point)(Function(a, b) _
      Orientation(sortedList(0), a, b)))

Return sortedList
End Function

' Does the point C lie counterclockwise or
' clockwise of the vector AB?
' If counterclockwise, return a positive number.
' If clockwise, return a negative number.
' If A, B, and C are colinear, return zero.
Private Function Orientation(ByVal A As Point, _
                    ByVal B As Point, _
            ByVal C As Point) As Integer

Dim dif1 As Double = (B.X - A.X)
Dim dif2 As Double = (C.Y - A.Y)
Dim dif3 As Double = (C.X - A.X)
Dim dif4 As Double = (B.Y - A.Y)

Dim tmp As Double = (dif1 * dif2) - (dif3 * dif4)

If tmp < 0 Then
Return 1
ElseIf tmp > 0 Then
Return -1
Else
Return 0
End If
End Function

Private Function GrahamScan(ByVal slist As List(Of Point)) _
              As List(Of Point)

Dim convexList As New List(Of Point)
If slist.Count < 4 Then
Return slist
Else
convexList.Add(slist(0))
convexList.Add(slist(1))

For j As Integer = 2 To slist.Count - 1
   Do Until (convexList.Count < 2) OrElse _
       Orientation(convexList(convexList.Count - 2), _
         convexList(convexList.Count - 1), _
          slist(j)) < 0
       ' i.e., if Orientation returns a
       ' number < 0 then remove the previous point

       convexList.RemoveAt(convexList.Count - 1)
   Loop

   ' in either case, add a point from slist...
   convexList.Add(slist(j))
Next
Return convexList
End If
End Function

The VB.NET Project in a Zip File

Download here.

Discussion of the code

The venerable Graham Scan was published in 1972. It builds a Convex Hull (CH) for an arbitrary sets of points in the Cartesian plane. (I have sometimes called the CH a “minimal bounding convex polygon”.) It first finds the coordinate pair with minimal Y. Then sorts the point set by polar coordinate from right to left with respect to the x axis. It then uses an algorithm to pick which of these points will remain in the CH. It runs in NlogN time. That is a terribly brief description, but I direct the reader to the references for further detail and insight.
I altered the VB.NET code in the function “Orientation” in the German example because an integer value was routinely exceeding its capacity.
I also altered the comparison function to return a 1, 0, or -1 instead of the actual value of an expression that is positive, zero, or negative depending on the slope of two lines.
The whole subject of .NET interfaces, IComparable, and IComparer deserves a series of articles that I am not competent to write. I invite the reader to do his own research.
I did not implement point thinning (interior point elimination). In the Year of Our Lord 2011, most computers are able to do the full Graham Scan of all the points in each circuit (in my case, from 0 to 2791) in a reasonable time. In fact, now would be a good time to share some performance numbers. There are 253 circuits at Huntsville Utilities. In the total of these circuits, there are 85,078 conductors. The GTVx application that reads in a list of circuit names and for each of the 253 circuits uses a query to build a point list of conductor vertices, then sorts the point list, then does the Graham Scan to determine the CH, then places a redline shape element defined by the CH, then finds the streets within the shape, and then writes a text file with each circuit name followed by the street names that fall within its area, takes under 5 minutes to run.

Practical results in GTViewer – What Problem is Solved?

This section is primarily intended for the audience of GTVx application developers.

We get questions from our users. If we are lucky. And if we are very lucky indeed, we get interesting questions. The application above rose from one: “Hey Charlie, is there any way to tell what streets are near a circuit?” “Probably, tell me more.” “Well, the dispatch department keeps a bunch of facts about each circuit. A map. The substation name. More stuff. And a list of the streets that are close to it. They look on a printed map and copy down the street names. Sure would be nice to do automatically.”

One of the most fortunate things that happens to GTVx application developers is that we can ask Joey Rogers how it would be most appropriate to approach a problem. In this case, he pointed me to the Graham Scan and a few web sites that describe it. And scanned a chapter of a textbook about the Graham Scan. From these, I was able to develop the code in the zip file. I think anyone who has worked for more than a few days with GTVx will recognize the techniques used in the project. Almost all of them come directly from code examples in the GTVx documentation.

Here’s a sketch of the approach: It’s pretty straightforward to use a query to get all the primary conductors on a circuit. Then it’s easy to get all their vertices. That is the point set processed by the two-step Graham Scan. Once you have an ordered list of points describing the convex hull, you can use that list to place a redline shape. Then you can count all the street features within the shape and use the CountDetails method to make a list of street names. Then you sort them and place them in a Listbox. Once all the circuits have been processed, you can write the Listbox contents to a text file. Done.

Not perfect. The convex hull surrounding a circuit may contain streets that are not very close to any conductor on that circuit. So the list of streets produced by the application is in practical terms a superset of street names from which inappropriate street names will need to be removed. I suspect this will turn out to be a manual task. But it makes producing the final lists of streets much simpler than starting with a map and a pencil.

Screen Shots

The full application form with GTVx control and Listbox for debugging.

Detail of a single circuit area.

The GTVx control with all circuits highlighted.

References

http://www.iti.fh-flensburg.de/lang/algorithmen/geo/graham.htm - Includes a discussion of the Graham Scan in German, code in C, and a citation of Graham’s original paper in 1972.
http://www.activevb.de/tipps/vbnettipps/tipp0113.html - Includes code in VB.NET with comments on German.
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall06/cos226/lectures/geometry.pdf - Looks like a PowerPoint presentation lecture on various geometric algorithms, including the Graham Scan, in English.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_scan - Good article, in English, includes pseudo-code and some nuances of processing since 1972.
Robert Sedgewick, Algorithms in C++, 1992. Chapter 25.

GTV .NET Control version 9.0.0.16 is Available

2011-01-13T10:33:00.000-06:00

The GTViewer .NET Control for Windows version 9.0.0.16 is Available.

------------

09.00.00.16 - 01/13/11

------------

- NEW - #6593 - GPS Trail functionality added. New Properties: GpsTrail,

GpsTrailMode, GpsDecayingTrailSize, GpsDecayingTrailFromColor,GpsDecayingTrailToColor, GpsDecayingTrailWidth, GpsRedlineTrailFilterId,GpsRedlineTrailColorId, GpsRedlineTrailWidth, GpsRedlineTrailStyleId.

- FIX - #6597 - GPS Keep Centered Mode was not working correctly.

- CHG - #6598 - If the GPSUpdateInterval value is changed, timer events will now respect the new value without having to stop and start tracking.

- NEW - #6601 - EmphasizeSessionGraphicsColor setting in Additional Properties is now supported. The Get/SetDataProperty methods for EmphasizeSessionGraphicsColor are also supported.

------------

09.00.00.15 - 12/22/10

------------

- FIX - #6588 - Element selection was not working correctly in some situations.

GTViewer version 10.0.0.6 is Available

2011-01-05T15:35:00.000-06:00

GTViewer version 10.0.0.6 is available.

-----------------------

10.00.00.06 - 01/05/11

-----------------------

- NEW - #6583 - Option to check for updated version of a .GTM file at a remote location.

- FIX - #6584 - Setup was not delivering the Detail Photos directory.

- CHG - #6585 - Sample data was defaulting the Show Element Tab setting to off.

- CHG - #6586 - Category Thresholds are no longer stored in the session file. These thresholds will now be determined by the .GTM file.

- NEW - #6587 - Restore Default Display Settings has been added to the View menu to reset the sessions view settings to the default values defined by the .GTM and Filter Files.

- FIX - #6592 - DG entries in the Additional Properties section of the .GTM file were not parsing expressions containing Equal Signs "=" correctly.

GTVx version 10.0.0.4 is Available

2011-01-05T15:31:00.000-06:00

Version 10.0.0.4 of GTVx is available.

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10.00.00.04 - 01/05/11

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- FIX - #6593 - DG entries in the Additional Properties section of the .GTM file were not parsing expressions containing Equal Signs ("=") correctly.

- NEW - #6594 - ViewUpdated Event was added.

Dynamic Graphics in GTViewer and GTVx

2010-12-28T14:51:00.000-06:00

Introduction

Version 10 of GTViewer and GTVx provides an exciting new feature called Dynamic Graphics which gives the user a powerful visualization tool for analyzing data, creating more informative or alternate views of data, and giving the user the ability to explore various decision making aspects of the data they already have. The Dynamic Graphics functionality uses a set of rules to generate new graphics on-the-fly from a variety of sources including a feature’s attribute values, the current zoom level, and even the presence of other dynamic graphics. The goal of the Dynamic Graphics functionality is to provide an easy way to generate thematic maps, feature labels, and analytical constructions in both an ad hoc manner or as prepackaged queries delivered with a dataset. The end result is data for your users that will enhance their productivity and ability to make decisions in the office or in the field.

History

The beginnings of the Dynamic Graphics functionality first appeared in Version 9 of GTViewer as the Dynamic Highlighter. This tool provided a significant amount of functionality for performing thematic queries whose results were shown by highlighting features meeting specified criteria. The highlight color was determined by one of the feature’s attributes value and looking up the value in a specified color map. The original purpose of the Dynamic Highlighter was to help identify a specific circuit on a map containing many circuits drawn in the same area all with the same style (color, weight, and linestyle). The Dynamic Highlighter gets a particular attribute on a feature, looks that value up in a color map (which maps a set of values to corresponding colors), and then highlights the feature in that color (appearing that the feature of interest changes color). Now, a single circuit in the view is easily identifiable amongst many other circuits. Color coding all circuits is also possible if an attribute is available to drive the color of the highlight. Many other applications of the Dynamic Highlighter quickly appeared such as showing circuit by phase, circuit by high or low voltage, gas pipes by pressure or material, and many more.

While being a very powerful tool, the Version 9 Dynamic Highlighter has some limitations. It can only look at a single attribute of a feature when determining the highlight color. Often, this single value was enough to do the job, but sometimes you needed several attribute values to determine the color or more complicated computations that go beyond a value lookup in a color map. Work-arounds for this problem are available, but they usually required creating a View in the GIS to create a single value for the highlighting task which hindered the “ah hoc-ness” of the functionality if the views were not already created. The interface for the Dynamic Highlighter was also a little primitive. Its rules could be defined as entries in the in the GTM file and methods were provided for External Applications to load new rules from a file. The Dynamic Highlighter was not supported in GTVx either. In the end, the Version 9 Dynamic Highlighter turned out to be more useful to the design of the new Dynamic Graphics functionality than it was to the Version 9 user base; nevertheless, it laid a down a good foundation for the next generation and greatly contributed to making Version 10 the best yet.

Dynamic Graphics

In Version 10 of GTViewer, the new Dynamic Graphics functionality provides a significantly enhanced version of the Dynamic Highlighter seen in version 9 plus a completely new Dynamic Labeler. A user-friendly Interface is also provided to configure the Dynamic Graphics rules. Now, users can quickly and easily create thematic queries or labels on-the-fly without the need to add entries to a configuration file or even need to know what the configuration files contain.

Dynamic Highlighting

The new Version 10 Dynamic Highlighter contains many new features:

One or more feature attributes can now be used in expressions to define a filter criteria which determines which features will get highlighted and to define a Map Value which will be used to look up the highlight style. Previously, only one feature attribute could be used and its value had to appear in the highlight style map.

The Highlighted Elements that get produced by the Dynamic Graphics are no longer limited to just being a different color. Weight and Linestyle can now be specified.
The Highlighted Elements can now be set to behave like regular elements in the Emphasize Session Graphics mode (which typically gray out when active). This ability to masquerade the highlighted elements as regular elements adds a new dimension to what can be done with highlighted elements since the original GIS features can be hidden and the Dynamic Graphics can provide an alternate view of the features.
The Dynamic Highlighter provides 2 modes of operation. The regular Highlight mode provides the full set of functionality utilizing a Color/Weight/Linestyle map to assign highlight styles according to an evaluated Map Value. A scaled down mode called Simple Highlight is also provided and simply highlights all features meeting the filter criteria using the same Color/Weight/Linestyle setting which eliminates the need to configure a Color/Weight/Linestyle Map for simpler Actions.
Dynamic Graphics is now supported in GTVx as well as GTViewer.

Dynamic Labeler

The Dynamic Labeler is the second half of the Dynamic Graphics functionality, and it does precisely what its name implies. The Dynamic Labeler generates labels for point, line, and area features using a set of rules. Depending on the type of label desired and the type of geometry it will be created for, many different options are available to specifying the label. The “Dynamic” in Dynamic Label pulls double duty since the labels are generated on-the-fly from the features in the current view, and can also take into account what parts of a feature is actually displayed in the view. For example, centering a label on a line that is 75% out of the view would likely produce a label you would not see since the center of the line would be outside the view, but the Dynamic Labeler can clip the geometry and only use the part that is in the view keeping the label displayed. Much more effective labels can be generated for an ever changing view. Our previous approach to generating labels that were not part of the source GIS was to use the GTLabelGtg tool (part of GTData) to build a nice set of labels for a dataset. These labels are static and will always be the same size and in the same relative position regardless of the view extents. The Dynamic Labeler can be configured to create similar static labels, but its power comes from its dynamic capabilities which simultaneously create more useful labels and a more aesthetically pleasing map view.

Dynamic Label Examples

To illustrate what the Dynamic Graphics functionality actually does, pictures are worth a thousand words.

The screenshot below shows 3 lines that use a Dynamic Label. In each line, the segment containing the mid-point of the line is found, then the mid-point of that segment is used as the origin for the label:

The Dynamic Labeling supports a Static placement mode (like GTLabelGtg would produce) and the screenshot below shows how the label behaves in the static mode when the lines are partially moved out of the current view:

The topmost line has its label go out of the view, and the bottom two lines have their labels moved to the edge of the screen.

In the screenshot below, the dynamic placement is active and the labels are placed more intelligently by only using the parts of the lines that are currently visible:

The example below shows a rotated "V" shape line that is fully in the current view. Here the line gets one label:

However, if the line is moved partially out of the current view, two separate lines are left and each gets a label of its own:

A more realistic example is shown below. Street centerlines are labeled with information from the database (the street name and street type) and a variety of rules are used to create a usable view: duplicates are removed, labels that overlap other labels are removed, and labels that are longer than the street segment they are associated with are removed.

In the screenshots below, the primary conductor feature is labeled with its Circuit Name, Phase, and Voltage in Red text:

Dynamic Labeling is not limited to lines. Both Point and Shape features are supported as well. The following screenshots show how Shape elements can take advantage of the dynamic label placement:

The topmost screenshot above shows two shapes in the current view with a Dynamic Label placed at the centroid. The lower left image shows how static labels will be have if the shapes are moved partially out of the current view, and the lower right image shows the same view with the dynamic positioning turned on (which uses the centroid of the visible parts of the polygons).

Dynamic Highlight Examples

A Dynamic Highlighting example is shown in the screenshots below where the gas main features are highlighted according to the feature's Pressure attribute values:

The topmost screenshot above shows the regular view of a gas network. The middle screenshot shows the gas network with Medium Pressure main colored Orange and Low Pressure main colored Blue. The bottom screenshot shows the highlighted gas mains with the emphasize mode turned on so that the Highlighted results are easier to see.

In the screenshot below, electric facilities are colored by their phase (A is Red, B is Green, C is Blue, and Orange is multiple).

GTViewer 10 has been Released!

2010-11-29T14:33:00.000-06:00

What’s New in GTViewer 10

Dynamic Graphics –a powerful visualization tool for analyzing data and creating more informative or alternate views of the data. The Dynamic Graphics functionality uses a set of rules to generate new graphics on-the-fly based on a feature’s attribute values, the current zoom level, and even the presence of other dynamic graphics. The goal of the Dynamic Graphics functionality is to provide an easy way to generate thematic maps, feature labels, and analytical constructions in an ad hoc manner or as prepackaged queries delivered with a dataset.

Command-Line Options – an extended set of command-line options has been added to simplify the integration of GTViewer with other applications like mobile workforce management. These new options can be used to start GTViewer and then locate on a specific coordinate, perform a query, initialize the GPS and Reference Points, set Display Presets, and activate Favorites. If GTViewer is already running, these command-line options can still be used to update the view location and change view settings.

Expressions Support – Custom Attribute Info Tabs and Feature Tooltips can now use expressions to specify the information they display. These expressions can use one or more feature attributes as well as formatting, mathematical, and string manipulation functions.

Custom Raster – standard raster formats (such as .bmp, .jpg, .tif) can now be attached to the main view. These raster files can serve as embedded detail drawings or be used to enhance a view’s appearance.

Style Definition Id –Version 10 elements now support an optional Style Definition Id which directly associates a Style Definition with an element and does not require a mapping from the element’s Filter Id to a Style Definition via the Style Map. The Style Definition Id can be used to decouple the Filter Ids from the Style Definitions, allowing more flexible groupings in the Display Filter Definitions.

GPS Components – the GTViewer Installation now supports the installation of the GPS Component without the need of a separate installation.

Demo Dataset – The Electric Demo dataset previously delivered with GTViewer has been updated. The new Electric/Gas/Fiber demo dataset illustrates many of the newer features in GTViewer including the Dynamic Graphics, Feature Tooltips, and Custom Attribute Info tabs.