Intergraph Releases PostGIS GeoMedia Data Server at Hexagon 2011

At the Intergraph Hexagon, 2011 conference, Intergraph released a GeoMedia data server for PostGIS. For those that haven’t heard of PostGIS, it’s a FANTASTIC open source and free spatial database. Behind, Oracle Spatial, it’s probably the most powerful spatial database in the market.

From the PostGIS web site:

PostGIS adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. In effect, PostGIS “spatially enables” the PostgreSQL server, allowing it to be used as a backend spatial database for geographic information systems (GIS), much like ESRI’s SDE or Oracle’s Spatial extension.

The data server can be downloaded from CodePlex. The data server is very easy to install. If you already have an existing PostGIS database, you only need to run the “Register.bat” batch script and the data server will be installed in GeoMedia. Like GeoMedia/Oracle, for read-only connections, you don’t even need to create a metadata schema! If you’d like to be able to PostGIS data, you’ll need to use the database utilities that come with the data server and setup the application metadata.

For those that are new to PostGIS, Intergraph provides a very nice PostGISGDOUserInfo.txt file that will guide you through the process of first installing PostGIS and then installing the data server. For those that would like to learn a lot more about PostGIS, there’s a recently released book named “PostGIS in Action“. Although I haven’t seen it myself, I’ve read many good things about it online.

One last note. If you’re a Windows Vista+ user, the data sever will NOT install unless you escalate a DOS window to “Administrator”. To do this, do the following:

1) In the start menu, type “CMD”

2) Right click on the result at the top and select “Run as administrator”

You’ll know that it worked as you’ll get back a “success” message box as opposed to a “error” message box.

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GeoMedia’s New Search Tool

Fast Note by Jeff Hobbs: The functionality that Adam describes below was has been in the product for some time. Maybe as far back as 6.0. I just wanted to make sure the readers all understand that you do NOT need to upgrade to 6.1.6 to use this functionality.

The folks at Intergraph recently introduced a new search tool in GeoMedia that brings my ability to develop data maintenance workflows of this sort to a new level.  It is often the case that the most difficult part of a data maintenance or integration workflow is not in linking the records after you find the right place on the map, or in digitizing the geometry, but in actually searching and/or panning and zooming the map to where it needs to be to allow entry of the new spatial data record.

Here is an example… I have a spreadsheet that I acquired from the local power company that specifies locations (in non-standard English descriptions) for every light pole in my client’s city.  All that my client wants to do is create a GIS point feature that is attributed with the unique ID for each light pole from the spreadsheet and inherit the other attributes from the spreadsheet.  It is easy to digitize a point for each pole once you know where to put it.  The difficult part of the workflow is to turn this English descriptive location into a meaningful location on the map  for each record.

In the old paradigm, I would use the attribute query tool to predefine a SQL statement in which someone can search for a parcel or a street to help the person doing the data entry find the location of interest.  This was difficult for the user because in order to find anything at all, the user cannot do anything to the SQL that would mess it up – like forget to put the closing apostrophe at the end of the statement if it is a text field.  However, with the new search tool, (available in version 6.01.06.19), I can predefine a search, pin wildcards to each side of the user-input search term, and GeoMedia will provide an input box for the user to enter the search string.  The result is that it is easy for a person completely unversed in SQL to reliably execute a search query in GeoMedia against an available table or feature class.

This may seem pedestrian to GIS veterans, but I really think that this is a huge leap forward in the usability of GeoMedia workflows for folks less versed in database.  And let’s face it – it means that us GIS veterans have to do less of the drudgery of data creation.  So… create those workflows, pass them off to the interns, and go have yourself some shrimp cocktail.

For more details on exactly how to use the search tool, open up GeoMedia , go to Help –> GeoMedia Help Topics, and type ‘search’ on the index tab.

Intergraph Launches New SDI Application

Read an interesting article on GISCafe discussing Intergraph’s new product named “GeoMedia SDI Pro”. If you have a few minutes, it’s worth the read.

Issues with GeoMedia WebMap 6.1

Over the last few days on the Directions Magazine email list, there have been a couple of mentions of a few different problems people are encountering with GeoMedia WebMap 6.1.

1) Rendering speed – With the release of 6.1, Intergraph merged much of the missing GeoMedia 6.0 functionality in GeoMedia WebMap 6.1. One of these new additions was with enterprise libraries. Now, although I haven’t received too much feedback on the issue, it sounds as if GeoMedia WebMap Publisher (WebPub) will now automatically check the library for a style. If the named style is in the library, that named style will overwrite what has been symbolized in GeoMedia. Long story short, if my line is symbolized as red in GeoMedia (WebPub Admin), but I have a green named style in my library (the named style name must match the name of the legend entry), than my line will appear green in my WebPub site. Well apparently, this checking is really slowing down the rendering performance of GeoMedia WebMap.

Now, I will say that if my understanding is correct, this seems pretty cool. However, after thinking about it some, I’m not really sure I would have that functionality at the top of my requirements list. Personally, I find that my symbology is fairly standardized. Once I have things symbolized a certain way, it’s not changing too much if at all. It has been my experience that people like consistency with the look and feel of their maps. What do others think here? With that said, I would much rather have rendering speed rather than something that would make my job a little easier on a very rare occasion.

2) Remote publishing with an Oracle Connection – There have also been reported issues where if you publish your geoworkspace remotely and you have an Oracle connection in your geoworkspace, then you will encounter issues with hotspots, select by, and other commands where you interact with vectors on the map.

All in all, both are frustrating. The latest word is that these issues should be addressed as part of the first GeoMedia WebMap minor release due out in the August/September time frame. With that said, it really looks like Intergraph pushed to get the GeoMedia WebMap 6.1 suite out fairly soon after the GeoMedia suite was released. This was most likely due to both internal and customer driven pressure. After all, how many users would’ve been happy to hear that GeoMedia Pro was released early this year but we won’t see GeoMedia WebMap/Pro released until September? That wouldn’t fly with anybody. So, Intergraph made a tough decision, but I think one that makes sense. After all, I’m sure there are quite a few customers out there where the two issues above won’t greatly impact them. Of course, it would’ve been useful if Intergraph had made it a bit more clear to the users of the current limitations of the GMWM release.

In the meantime, for those customers that will be impacted by this, I would heavily suggest you hold off until the first minor release. And even after the first minor release, make sure to test on a development server before going production. After all, that’s why Intergraph gives you the free development license ;-).

UPDATE I received a correction from one of my contacts in support at Intergraph soon after making the post. Apparently my initial understanding above (now crossed out) was incorrect. Apparently, Intergraph has only changed the way the symbology data are stored. Before they were stored as part of the metadatabase in a separate table. It is now stored in the LIBRARY table that’s part of any Library Connection. With that said, it seems (at least in my eyes) unlikely that that change is really causing the slowness. However, it’s very likely that the 6.0 GeoMedia symbology functionality that was rolled into GMWM 6.1 could be causing this slowness.

Few New GeoMedia 6.1 Movies on Youtube

I’ve pushed all of the AVIs that were shown at the GeoMedia 6.1 product launch on to YouTube.com. I’ve been working on an internal wiki (not GeoMedia related) for work lately. So I haven’t been updating the blog much. However I still do want to get writing about what I found out at the 6.1 product launch. Additionally, I’m hoping to have more information after attending Intergraph 2008. So keep reading 🙂

Bug with GeoMedia Viewer 6.1 Minor Release

Received an email today. Apparently the minor release for GeoMedia Viewer 6.1 (06.01.03.08) has broken the SmartStore data server. Now I’m not sure if it impacts GeoMedia or GeoMedia Pro. However it’s been reported and replicated by Intergraph. Guessing there will be a new minor release to fix this issue soon.

Intergraph Minor Releases

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Resolved a problem where using the Options command (via the File Locations tab) to change the default GeoWorkspace or Warehouse folder location to a folder named with the Japanese hyou character results in the error message “Error displaying the file location for GeoWorkspace Files” or “Error displaying the file location for Warehouse Files” respectively. JTS TR# 83396
  1. In the folder Warehouses create a folder with the name the Japanese character hyou, Unicode 0x8868, SJIS 0x955c
  2. Initialize GeoMedia Pro.
  3. Invoke the Tools > Options command and select the File Location tab.
  4. Select Warehouse Files from the File Types list and click the Modify button.
  5. Browse to the folder with the hyou character name as created in step 1. Click OK to save the change. This will result in the message “Error displaying the file location for Warehouse Files” will be displayed and the default warehouse location will not be changed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GeoMedia Image 6.1 has Been Released

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

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

GeoMedia WebMap and GeoMedia WebMap Professional have Been Released

Received this in an email today:

GeoMedia WebMap and GeoMedia WebMap Professional provide Intergraph’s geospatial technology (enterprise data access, analysis, and map generation) as server-side and thin-client solutions.  Version 6.1 is a significant enhancement and fixes release extending the GeoMedia product family.  Major enhancements include:

• Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth “mashup” – easily create a web site that integrates customer enterprise data with Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth data, user interface, and performance
• services-oriented architecture enhancements – additional web services and a number of enhancements to existing web services
• significant map display enhancements – higher fidelity rendering of maps displayed over the web using GeoMedia’s new display pathway including such features as translucency, attribute-based symbology, thematics, and area hatching.

Assuming you have a software maintenance contract, you can order your upgrade by filing a support request at http://esupport.intergraph.com

Today’s NCIGUC Meeting

Got back from today’s Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community (NCIGUC) meeting. We had Vince Smith, the product manager for GeoMedia Desktop solutions out to do an “unofficial” GeoMedia 6.1 product launch. I’m hopefully going to be obtaining the slides and .avis from Vince in the next couple of days. I’ll post the slides on the http://www.nciguc.org web site and will post the .avis on everyone’s favorite http://www.youtube.com.

Vince really went over a lot of stuff and asked for a lot of feedback from the users. He took a lot of time to discuss Intergraph’s plans with the consolidation of the Intergraph GeoMedia, G/Tech, and CAD (computer aided dispatch) lines of products. I’ll get into much more detail over the days to come. However I can really say that Intergraph’s plans sound very interesting and very promising…if things go as planned.

Finally, I really want to commend Vince personally for coming out to the user’s group meeting. The NCIGUC was formed in September, 2001. However this is the first time we’ve actually had someone from Huntsville actually fly out and present. It really showed a dedication to the Bay Area users. Furthermore, Vince did his best to answer all questions (and there were plenty), take plenty of notes, and interact with the users. He wasn’t at all defensive and took feedback from the users. All in all, I really think it was a strong event.

BTW – congratulations to Leena Gautam for winning the free version of GeoMedia 6.1. The software is in the mail 🙂

GeoMedia Desktop Suite Released to Manufacturing

Was talking to a couple of people today at Intergraph. Found out that the entire GeoMedia 6.1 Desktop suite was released towards the end of January. Apparently the release date coincided in part with the reorganization of product and solution marketing. As a result, there hasn’t been much hype about the release up to this point. I’ve been told that a formal roll-out will occur. Knowing Intergraph, I’m assuming this will happen right around the Intergraph 2008 conference.

Just a reminder, Intergraph is no longer shipping product updates by default. So, to get your copy of 6.1, make sure to file a support request.

Also, another FYI – apparently Intergraph has moved towards releasing the entire product suite together. In the past, you would typically see the release of GeoMedia Pro, then have a short wait, then see the release of GeoMedia, then have a short wait, then see the release of GeoMedia Viewer, then have a short wait, etc. Well, Intergraph is now releasing the entire desktop suite altogether. So, GeoMedia, GeoMedia Pro, GeoMedia Viewer (now with both an Oracle and SQL Server Read-Only data server), GeoMedia Objects, and the stand alone Oracle Read-Write data server have all be released. I must say, this is very cool. Although it’s not happening with 6.1, I’m hoping with time, we’ll also see them release some of the common industry products like GeoMedia Transaction Manager and GeoMedia Public Works Manager with the rest of the GeoMedia product suite.

Finally, I also inquired as to the release date for the GeoMedia Web core – I’ve been told that it’s tentatively scheduled for the entire of March.

One last note. Like all other version of GeoMedia, Intergraph doesn’t support the mixing and matching of version. So, for you GeoMedia WebMap Publisher users, make sure to stay on 6.0 until you receive the entire line of 6.1 products. In other words, you do not want to be running a 6.0 WebPub client on GeoMedia 6.1.

MapText Label-EZ – Part 1

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

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

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

 

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

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

Here’s a description of the parks template:

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

To be continued….

GeoMedia Professional 6.1 – To Be Released Soon

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

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