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.

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Welcome to the Blog: Adam Lodge

I’m pleased to announce that Adam Lodge of Farallon Geographics has asked to be an author on the blog. Needless to say, I accepted his offer!

I first met Adam when he was with San Mateo County, CA and I was working with the City of San Jose. While I was with Intergraph, Adam served as the president of the Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community. Adam has been working with GeoMedia for many years (maybe even longer than me) and has a ton of knowledge about both Intergraph products like GeoMedia, GeoMedia Parcel Manager, GeoMedia Grid, and GeoMedia/Hansen interface. Additionally, he has a lot of experience with open source products like Geoserver, OpenLayers, and PostGIS. Finally, he’s been working with Oracle Locator/Spatial for a number of years.

I’ll let Adam tell you more in his own words. But needless to say, I’m very happy to have someone else post on the blog. If anybody else is interested in contributing to the blog, please email me and we’ll add you as well!

Upcoming NCIGUC Meeting

All – Sorry about the long time between posts. Hope to start posting again soon. Anyhow, did want to mention the upcoming Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community (NCIGUC) meeting. It will be on October 22 from 10:00 – 3:00 at the City of Livermore, CA City Council Chambers. You can find out all the information by going to the NCIGUC web site.

Hope to see you all there!

Oracle Spatial User’s Group Conference Proceedings are Online

If you are interested, I received an email yesterday. The conference proceedings from the 2008 Oracle Spatial User’s Group are available off of this web site (http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/spatial/htdocs/spatial_conf_0803_idx.html).

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 🙂

GITA Attendance

Last week I attended GITA’s 2008 Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference in Seattle, WA. As a whole, I was really happy with the event. I attended a couple of pre-conference knowledge immersion seminars – one titled “Strategies for Enterprisewide Web Services” and one titled “Mobile Technology for the Enterprise”. I then attended the entire conference followed by the Oracle Spatial User Conference the day after the conference. I’m not going to go into great detail about the conference as I’m sure you can find a lot online that’s been covered by other users.

I must say that Oracle has done some impressive things with Oracle 11g and their support for LiDAR data, TIN exports, and overall 3D data storage. Additionally Safe Software has done some really cool things embracing Oracle 11g. At the Oracle Spatial User Conference, Safe demonstrated extracting 3D data from 11g, and transforming the data into a 3D PDF. Once in the PDF environment, you could pan, tilt, zoom, and fly around. It was really cool to be able to do a virtual flyover both around and into a building. You can see the demo on the Safe web site. Just look for the .wmv titled “FME and Oracle Spatial”.

Anyhow…I did have some time to sit down at the Intergraph booth and talk to a few people. I’ll cover some of the things I discussed in upcoming posts.

And finally, on a complete side note. I was really surprised at the size of the booth at the GITA conference. It was really great to see such a large presence at a conference. I’m used to seeing the one small table in the corner. Not this time…. Very cool.

GeoMedia Professional 6.1 Product Launch

The Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community (NCIGUC) will have its next meeting on March 25, 2008 from 10:00 – 3:00 at the City of Milpitas Community Center. This meeting will actually be the GeoMedia Pro 6.1 product launch.

Take a look at the meeting flyer, register for the meeting, and obtain more information at www.nciguc.org.

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.

BAAMA Proceedings

Not sure how many readers of this blog were able to attend the BAAMA educational meeting last week, but did want to post the slideshows here for those that are interested:

Upcoming BAAMA Educational Meeting – September 27

Wanted to post the information for the upcoming Bay Area Automated Mapping Association (BAAMA) educational meeting. It’s set for Thursday, September 27 in Oakland, CA at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) auditorium. The theme will be “GIS and CAD Integration”. You can take a look at the web site for all of the details.

Yesterday’s NCIGUC Meeting

Yesterday’s NCIGUC meeting was very good. Had a lot of very good presentations and the afternoon hands-on seminar were excellent. We even had a person come out from Nevada – very cool to see the user group going that far! We should have all of the presentations posted on the NCIGUC web site soon. Once we do, I’ll post a entry and let you all know.

Upcoming NCIGUC Meeting

Just a reminder that the next NCIGUC user’s group meeting will be on Wed, August 8 at the City of San Mateo. Please take a look at the NCIGUC web site for more information and to register for this great event.

Also, please be sure to take the NCIGUC survey available online right now!

General Update

Sorry – didn’t get a chance to update too often last week. Have been involved in a myriad of different projects over the last week. Will follow this post with a post on Queued Editing in GeoMedia 6.1

Will be covering a few more things this week including:

• New features in Oracle 11g
• Geocoding with GeoMedia
• Creating an MGE feature using GeoMedia Fusion’s Schema Remodeler

Finally, last, but not least. For those that are San Francisco Bay Area-based, there’s a couple of upcoming events I wanted to remind you of:

1) Thursday, July 26 is the next BAAAM Educational Meeting titled GIS in Transportation. Please go to the BAAMA web site for more information. This should be a fantastic meeting!

2) Wednesday, August 8 is the next Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community (NCIGUC) meeting. Please go to the NCIGUC web site for more information. This too should be great!

Upcoming NCIGUC User’s Group Meeting

For those that are local to the San Francisco Bay Area, we’re having our next Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community user’s group meeting on August 8, in San Mateo, CA. Take a look at the NCIGUC web site for more information. It should be a great meeting!

GITA Geospatial Technology Report – 2007/2008

I’m a big fan of the GITA Geospatial Technology Report and think it’s well worth the money. However do realize it’s a bit of money. If you’ve always wanted to receive the report, but didn’t want to pay…here’s your chance! If you participate in the 2007-2008 GITA Survey, they’ll send you a free copy!

Thought I’d pass the information along.