TatukGIS Blog

Mac (OSX) support under development

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:10:58 GMT

We are in the process of making our core GIS technology available for Mac (OSX). A small result of porting the Developer Kernel to FireMonkey (FMX) is the TatukGIS Coordinate Calculator for Mac. We will probably make available the final version of the Calculator via the AppStore.

Visual Studio 11 Beta, Windows 8 Customer Preview & Developer Kernel

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:22:45 GMT

We performed a brief test and it seems that the NDK for .NET 3.5 and 4.0 works smoothly. If you target Framework 4.5, however, the component can not be placed on the form upon designing. A compiled application works properly.

The Developer Kernel edition for ActiveX, however, is a bit more problematic: Compiling for .NET 3.5 or 4.0 works smoothly but an application created for .NET 4.5 can be run only within Visual Studio. We do not understand the nature of this problem (we believe that the problem is not on the TatukGIS side).

	.NET 3.5	.NET 4.0	.NET 4.5
DK.ActiveX (XDK)	OK	OK	+-
DK.NET (NDK)	OK	OK	+-

We will evaluate .NET 4.5 issues more closely in coming weeks. Meanwhile we suggest staying with .NET 3.5 or 4.0.

Extended Line Symbology

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:42:40 GMT

Preliminary Extended Line Symbology support for the Developer Kernel, Editor and Viewer products is ready for testing (starting with DK 10.2 and Editor/Viewer 3.5).

As you see, the Extended Line Symbology is just a mini-language which makes possible the creation of any dedicated line style.

The current version is not yet integrated into the User Interface (there is no way to select predefined styles). A more detailed description of the Extended Line Symbology is available in KB10876.

Our plans for the nearest future are to provide:

bug fixing
improved parallel lines rendering
one or two dozen common line styles for selection right from the Legend Control
integration into the Legend Control to enable style selection and previewing

Seven scripts in seven days - Day #7

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Editor scripting is a very powerful tool. You can create procedures, dialog boxes, or add your own toolbars and menus. In fact, the whole Editor menu and toolbar system is built from scripts. Therefore, it is possible to perform very deep customization. Thanks to this, you can create your own unique "versions" of the Editor to perfectly match your needs or the needs of your customers.

FGIS

A perfect example of such deep customization is the FGIS product, which is developed from the TatukGIS Editor but reflects a fully redesigned user interface designed to match the needs of foresters and land management professionals.

This is the last blog of the "Seven scripts in seven days" series. If you find these blogs useful or have comments, feel free to send an email to the TatukGIS sales department (contacting TatukGIS).

Seven scripts in seven days - Day #6

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Yesterday we presented how to export web map tiles. But what about interaction with Google Earth?

ExportGoogleEarth

This script exports any selected vector layer to the KML format and opens it in Google Earth.

The image below presents the same data set as featured in the Day5 blog. Please note that the rendered building heights do not represent actual building heights - the heights were generated randomly.

Seven scripts in seven days - Day #5

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

While one use of scripting is to enhance the Editor's built-in functionality, another important use is for interoperability with other programs or services. A number of the scripts are designed to make the Editor interact with Google or Bing map services, or demonstrate how this is done.

MapTiles

MapTiles, also known as WebTiles, is a core technology for web map services (and Google Earth). The technology stores a whole map as a pre-computed image pyramid. Reading a map prepared in this way is very fast because the map has already been pre-rendered.

The MapTiles script creates image pyramids that are compatible with Google Maps, Bing Maps, and OpenLayers. When you publish such a map on one of these services, your map will appear on the top of the Google/Bing content. As usual, a valid coordinate system set-up is required.

Furthermore, this script generates a .ttkwp file, so that the generated map tiles can also be opened in any TatukGIS product as a layer from the hard drive. So, if you have a very large or complicated, but rarely modified, base map, generating it to WebTiles can be a good idea (to achieve top performance).

Google Maps - all layers exported

Bing Maps - only vector layer exported

Seven scripts in seven days - Day #4

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

During the process of preparing the Seven scripts in seven days blog, we realized something important: the ready-to-use scripts providing useful features or functionality enhancements are mixed together with the "how-to" scripts which are offered primarily just to demonstrate how to use the scripting engine. We acknowledge that this is not the most intuitive presentation.

Soon we will reorganize scripts in the Tool Manager into two categories: How-to scripts and Utilities. In the longer term, we will also modify the actual folder structure and reorganize the Tool Manager to be more user friendly.

We also plan to review again all the scripts, so do not be surprised if scripts presented in this blog are later updated, such as with changes to the user interfaces and/or improved logic (especially in the area of error handling).

Contour

The Contour script enables the generation of contour lines from any supported DEM (digital elevation) data. The contour lines are generated as 3D line shapes with labels.

Seven scripts in seven days - Day #3

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

It is particularly difficult to prepare a universal GPS application. The requirements for a GPS application can be as many as there are requirements for a map application. One person, for example, might want to use GPS just to georeference a broken street lamp incident record, while another person might want to use GPS to store tracks, another as a navigational aid, etc. Again, a script can come to rescue. The TatukGIS Editor contains two GPS related scripts.

GPSLocate script

This is just a "how-to" script, demonstrating how to connect to a GPS device and integrate the control as a panel within the Editor IDE.

GPSLocateEnh

The GPS Locate Enhanced script (provided courteously by www.smalltogo.com) is a ready-to-use plug-in with the ability to show the current position on the map and store positions as linear or polygonal tracks. This script should satify most of the requirements of most GPS tracking applications.

Seven scripts in seven days - Day #2

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Most of scripts provided with the Editor are just samples/templates of custom user scripts, designed to provide a head start with script creation relating to selected areas of functionality. A few of the scripts, however, present complete, small, useful applications/extensions.

Scripts, created in Basic or Pascal, can access almost any feature from the powerful TatukGIS Developer Kernel. The Editor, by design, does not add all possible features to the menu system because doing so is impractical - the menu would be enormously complicated and always there would be a feature that is missed or not implemented in the way a particular user would prefer. The real power of the Editor is that each user can easily extend the product with the features that are really needed.

Day 2 - Triangulation

The Triangulation script is able to triangulate any vector layer or create Voronoi charts. For features other than points, centroids are used as source points for the triangulation. If a layer is composed of 3D points, the triangulated layer creates a TIN layer.

To learn how to add a script into the menu system, see Day #1

Do you need more? Just open this script in Script->Design->Open and customize it!

Seven scripts in seven days - Day #1

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

TatukGIS Editor is a powerfully scriptable GIS desktop application. Based on customer feedback, however, we recognize that number of customers are not familiar with the scripting possibilities. Therefore, we are starting this small bloging initiative: "Seven scripts in seven days", with the objective of helping customers become more familiar with the Editor's built-in scripts.

Day 1 - Show my map area in Google Maps (or Bing Maps)

How many times have you wanted to verify a map area you are currently working on with Google Maps? Right away, there is a small script (built in to the Editor) that makes this easy.

You can start your script the normal (hard) way, by selecting the file from the disk via Scripts->Run->Open. If you want to use a script more frequently, however, it can be a good idea to link the script to the Editor Menu.

Open Tools->ToolsManager
Select Google Integration->Open map in Google, click right arrow and then click OK.
Now your script is available via menu Tools->Open map in Google.
Try this by selecting this new menu item on your project:
Google Maps will open in your favorite web browser, presenting the same map area as currently open in the TatukGIS Editor.
Remember that your project must have a valid Coordinate System set!

DK 10 Released

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:12:55 GMT

We released the Developer Kernel v.10 - VCL and .NET editions - during the night of September 30 / morning of October 1.

This upgrade primarily focuses on:

Integrated 3D map rendering features
64 bit support
Fully rewritten .NET code
A number of other significant new features and enhancements.

A more detailed description will be provided soon as a news announcement. Version 10 changes are detailed on the DK History page.

While we tested this version heavily, as usual, some small, non-critical issues were found just after release:

small issues with installing paths on C++Builder
some global Gisxxx were not published in TGIS_Utils in DK.NET

We will soon release an update with these fixes, along with the DK-ActiveX v.10 (also as 64 bit version), in the next few days. Stay tuned!

TatukGIS and Windows 8 Compatibility

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:58:59 GMT

We are glad to say that we have tested all TatukGIS products with Windows 8 Windows Developer Preview and all seem to work just fine. This refers, of course, to Windows 8 running on x86/x64.

BTW, if you did not see Steven Sinofsky's keynote address on Microsoft's Build conference, his Windows 8 presentation is available at: visit this link

TatukGIS support for Embarcadero RAD Studio XE2

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:37:15 GMT

As probably you already know, a great new release of Delphi / C++ Builder is coming with a few very important new features:

64 bit support
OSX (Mac!) support
New GUI FireMonkey framework
iOS (iPhone and iPad) support

As you see, this is probably the most important release since Delphi 2 (which introduced 32 bit support).

Our plans:
We are working hard to deliver support for all the above listed features. Our plan is to, soon after release of XE2, be ready to provide the DK v.10 with full support for VCL 64 bit applications. After than we will focus on FireMonkey with OSX and iOS.

How easy will be to port an app to 64bits?
Very easy indeed. Recompiling your existing code to 64 bits is just a matter of selecting: "Target Platform: 64-bits Windows". All your existing code should recompile smoothly.

The biggest difference you should be aware of is that all pointers are now 64 bits wide. Therefore, any castings of pointer to Integer like:
my_var2 := Integer( @my_var1 )Should be replaced carefully with
my_var2 := NativeInt( @my_var1 )

What features of the DK are supported upon 64-bits compilation?
Almost everything! The whole DK10 has been altered to be fully 64 bits aware: all 3rd party drivers like MrSID, SqlLite, Gdal are supported as 64-bits DLLs. But please be aware that MSJET database is not supported on the 64-bits platform at all. So, for lightware databases, this is a time to consider Sqlite.

Also please check if you use a 32bit DLL or COM. If so, such fragments of the code should be altered to use 64-bits counterparts.

Why Developer Kernel support for OSX or iOS is not yet ready?
With XE2 you can develop Windows, OSX, or iOS FireMonkey applications. Furthermore you are able to debug an application on Mac just using RAD Studio IDE (via remote debugging). The ability to have a single code, native application which can be delivered to Mac without changing a single line of code is fantastic.

However, FireMonkey architecture is totally different than VCL (it is fully decoupled from the Windows operating system and is portable across platforms). We simply need more time to address this new technology.

What about the TatukGIS Editor / Viewer
The Editor was built with Delphi XE. Therefore creating 64-bit version of the Editor should be child's play - and we believe it will be. However, we use a number of 3rd party libraries (GUI components and a few others) and we must wait for the vendors of these components to update their stuff. This will take a while and is difficult to estimate how long.

Exactly the same situation is with Editor/Viewer for OSX (or Editor/Viewer or iOS): it is too early to predict when we can be ready but, generally, we want to do this as soon as possible.

Embarcadero RAD Studio XE2 is coming

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 08:22:25 GMT

Mac OSX and 64bit support is coming...

See more at: RAD Studio XE2 World Tour http://www.embarcadero.com/world-tour

MapQuest Open Tiles

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:25:11 GMT

Editor/Viewer version 3.2.0 (as well as Developer Kernel 10) can open tiled web services.

MapQuest offers a free service with street maps and aerial images tiles. See the maps in action at: http://open.mapquest.com/

The Editor/Viewer Favorites contains new entries:

MapQuest OpenStreeMaps Tiles
MapQuest Open Aerial Tiles

Tiles Courtesy of MapQuest , (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA,

Also sample set contains some .TTKWP files wich allow opening tiled images from File/Open menu.

How to use Bing Maps with TatukGIS products

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:39:19 GMT

Bing Maps is a great source of information, but using it is not free for commercial purposes. Licensing can be problematic for single users.

Fortunately, OnTerra Systems MapSavvy offers Bing Maps as an affordable WMS service. For a $24 annual fee per user, each TatukGIS product can become Bing Maps ready.

In the TatukGIS Editor/Viewer, simply use the File/Open from Server menu item to open:

http://wms.onterrasystems.com/WMSService.svc/USERKEY/WMSLatLon?service=WMS&Version=1.1.1&request=GetCapabilities&SRS=EPSG:3857

or (for road maps):

http://wms.onterrasystems.com/WMSService.svc/USERKEY/WMSLatLon?service=WMS&Version=1.1.1&request=GetCapabilities&SRS=EPSG:3857&STYLES=Road

USERKEY stands for the key provided by OnTerra.

A 30-day free trial period is available!

Natural Earth Data Quick Start dataset available to TatukGIS customers

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:48:52 GMT

The Simple World dataset from www.naturalearthdata.com is now available to TatukGIS customers free of charge. Download it now!

The dataset includes two TTKGP projects focused on Cultural and Physical data.

Beta version of Developer Kernel v.10

Sun, 22 May 2011 10:08:10 GMT

The Developer Kernel .NET 10 beta version was just made available. The DK-VCL v.10 and DK-ActiveX v.10 betas will follow soon. DK licensed developers with an active maintenance plan are eligible to download, evaluate, and use the corresponding DK beta version.

A few facts:

The Beta1 is focused on the new 3D functionality. A few additional new features will be added in the Beta2.
The NDK v.10 reflects fully rewritten code. This version should be highly compatible with already existing code. Please report any problems.
Read carefully the readme file upon performing the setup process.
The beta can be safely installed, side-by-side, with the already existing DK v.9.
Do not deploy to your customers an application created with the DK beta version because the beta version has an expiration date setup.
Send all comments about the DK v.10 beta to the support@tatukgis.com email address. Help us accurately classify your e-mail by beginning the Subject field with "DK10".

April Newsletter

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:29:55 GMT

The April Newsletter was sent on Friday, April 23th. If you are on the TatukGIS mailing list but did not receive the e-mail with the Newsletter, check for it in your spam folder. To avoid future problems, verify that your anti-spam settings allow emails from @tatukgis.com. The TatukGIS e-mail list includes the e-mail address provided for with each user registration account in the TatukGIS system, unless the option was used to remove the e-mail address from the distribution list.

The April newsletter discusses the Editor v.3, DK v.10, and pending price changes.

A copy of the April newsletter is available here.

Editor 3 Help Files Available On-line

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:51:08 GMT

Help files for the pending Editor/Viewer version 3 are available on-line.
Please follow the link: http://www.tatukgis.com/Landing/EDT/HELP

Extrude 3D from 2D shapes with the Editor 3

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:39:35 GMT

Our new 3D map rendering functionality enables simple extruding of 3D representations from 2D shape files. Every shape has the properties FalseZ and FalseM, which allow for the attachment of additional 3D data to any shape (even a 2D shape). If you have a shape file with only a X,Y value, FalseZ and FalseM allow the creation of a XYZM 3D object. With 3D shapes containing XYZ coordinates, the FalseM property will easily create a XYZM object.

Editor 3.0 Supports Multi-touch Screen Gestures

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:10:06 GMT

This is a small demonstration of zooming and dragging a map using multi-touch gestures. All that is required is a machine with a touch enabled screen.

This video demonstration was performed using a Motion J3500 Tablet PC provided by Motion Computing, for which TatukGIS VAR Partner SmallToGo is a distributor. The example map project is composed of vector and raster layers draped over a DTM for presentation in 3D.

Editor 3D Feedback from a Beta Tester

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 10:01:02 GMT

DataQuint, a GIS oriented software development company in the Netherlands, uses the TatukGIS Editor, TatukGIS DK.NET, and TatukGIS Internet Server to graphically present the different types of infrastructural assets that municipalities in the Netherlands are responsible for maintaining for their citizens (like trees, roads, and sewers).

In these images, the Editor v.3 is used to pull together and present as a single 3D map view, municipal infrastructure data stored in multiple data types and warehouses (Oracle Spatial, Shapefiles, and a WMS layer). Users and managers of the data can now clearly see the different infrastructural elements (and their heights), both above and/or below ground level.

Forthcoming DK.NET

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:13:08 GMT

TatukGIS is close to releasing a new version of the Developer Kernel for .NET.

The pending new NDK will be compiled using Delphi Prism instead of the deprecated Delphi.NET compiler. As a result, new version should be a better citizen of the CLR environment. In particular, the new NDK:

Does not use any old Borland classes for lists, etc. All such objects are native CLR classes.
Is almost interop free. As a result, running an application on Linux or MacOSX under MONO environment is possible (with some limitations). See this
Performs some operations significantly faster.
Behaves better running 64bits code (with some limitations - not all 3rd party drivers are 64 bits aware).
Is 99% compatible with the current NDK version, so porting to the new NDK version will be almost effortless.
Enables TatukGIS to finally finally discontinue the VCL.NET, which is our plan.

As for the time frame for the new NDK - we pan to share it as beta version with NDK customers (those with active license maintenance) in February and to make the release version available not later than March 2011.

Recommendation for GPS/NMEA Emulator

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:52:30 GMT

We are frequently asked which GPS emulator we use to develop GPS support.

First of all, why use emulator at all? This allows us to develop and test applications at the office, free of satellite visibility limitations. Also we can just enter coordinates and NMEA commands for specific test cases.

After testing number of applications, we selected the product of SailSoft. Actually we use NemaStudio, but GPSSimul seems to be adequate for most users.