What's New in 5.50

This topic provides historical information on the evolution of features in 5.50.

Release 5.50

While Release 5.00 was a revolutionary release that introduced many changes in user interfaces, Release 5.50 is an evolutionary release that includes thousands of internal changes and optimizations to support work with very large components and unlimited size projects.

Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Service Pack 2 (SP2) have added hundreds of new features and improvements. For details on new releases, see the text file that accompanies each new release in the Documentation folder of the Manifold DVD.

New in 5.50 SP2

Service Pack 2 introduces many new internal improvements as well as built-in support within the Multiversion distributable for Business Tools, Surface Tools and Universal Edition. Internal changes make extensive use of Microsoft's .NET technology.

New products	Support for Business Tools , Surface Tools and Universal Edition configurations.
Activation dialogs	The Help - About dialog has been revised and Help - Activate Extension dialog has been added to allow activation of optional extensions.
.NET Framework required	Microsoft's .NET Framework 1.10 is now required for installation, due to the extensive use of .NET technology within SP2.
Built in IMS support for ASP .NET	The ExtCommonAspNet module is no longer required for IMS installation or usage in ASP.NET since support for ASP .NET is now built into Manifold.
Next generation Manifold SQL engine	SP2 includes the next generation Manifold SQL engine, which is now ANSI-compatible when using the ANSI-compatible option in View - Properties for queries. SQL documentation has been extensively rewritten.
IE requirement relaxed	Manifold now uses .NET framework XML instead of the MSXML3 code used in previous Manifold releases. This removes the need for IE6, although IE 5 or greater is still required by the .NET framework.
Explicit country support	All geocoder dialogs now include a Country field.
Pixel Size support when creating surfaces	The Paste As Surface dialog can specify pixel sizes when creating surfaces for auto-computation of surface size.
Syntax coloring	Script windows and queries both support syntax coloring, as well as autoswitching between VBScript and JavaScript commenting styles when using CTRL-J and CTRL-SHIFT-J to comment and uncomment selected text.
Multi-level Undo for edits to Scripts, Queries and Comments	All text edits in scripts, queries and comments can be undone and redone without limit.
Reload method and Admin Page for IMS	Manifold IMS can now be reloaded without having to do an IISRESET. IMS can automatically generate an Administrative page, if desired, to allow interactive reloads and display of IMS server statistics.
Multichannel 16 bit TIFF Import	Manifold now supports import of TIFF files that contain multiple 16 bit channels, such as those used for certain satellite images.
Segmentize to desired segment length	The Segmentize command can now be used to segment objects by desired lengths in addition to desired number of segments.
Copy maps without duplicating components	Copying and pasting a map component in a project no longer duplicates all components used in the map.
Support for MapPoint 2004	MapPoint 2004 is fully supported for geocoding.
Multiple terrains per surface	Surfaces can now have multiple terrains, with each terrain's display options being set differently if desired.
Multiple component select in project pane	CTRL-click onto a component in the project pane to select it. Multiple components may be selected to enable delete of many components at once.
Inversion of Drag / CTRL Drag of editing handles	When an object is selected for editing, clicking and dragging an editing handle will move that coordinate and CTRL-clicking and dragging an editing handle will move the entire object. Previous editions of Manifold had the inverse arrangement, where dragging an editing handle would move the entire object and CTRL-clicking would move just the coordinate.
Export to PDF supports transparency	Manifold layouts using transparency now export to PDF with embedded transparency.
The SQL LIKE operator now uses ANSI-compatible syntax	The underscore (_) matches any single character. The percent sign (%) matches any string of characters, possibly empty. The backslash (\) starts an escape sequence and is used to match itself (\\), the underscore (\_) or the percent sign (\%).

New in 5.50 SP1

SP1 introduced rotatable point styles, thematic formatting for labels and numerous other improvements. Highlights include:

Rotatable point styles	Automatically rotate point symbols and labels by the value of a given field using thematic formatting.
Thematic formatting for labels	Automatically adjust label formatting using thematic formatting.
Improved specification of layout views	New options for locked views make it much easier to interactively draw the viewport to be printed within a drawing, map, image or other window.
Automatic renaming of dependent components	Renaming a component in a project can now automatically rename all dependent components.
Microsoft MapPoint 2002 Geocoding Option	Manifold's geocoder can now use MapPoint as a primary or fallback geocoder if it is installed on the system. Supports either the North American or European editions of MapPoint 2002. Manifold's usage of MapPoint is by far the best price/performance/quality solution for European street address geocoding.
Improved interval interface	The thematic formatting dialog has better alignment of interval breaks, which makes it easier to understand where intervals begin and end.
Object model improvements	Manifold has gained numerous programming capabilities and improvements.
IMS Improvements	IMS can now launch hyperlinks in a new browser session. This makes it easy to design cascading websites that launch pictures or other programs based on a hyperlink click.
Improved Undo	More commands and windows than ever now support single-stage Undo.
Expanded PRJ support	491 projections are now recognized in PRJ files optionally used with ESRI shapefiles.
Improved import and export	Numerous improvements in various import and export commands.
Minichart improvements	Better Minichart colors and user-specifiable colors
Config Override/non-override	New options for Config files used for customization, to override or not override system defaults.
Performance improvements	Numerous improvements in window redisplay and geocoding speed.

New in 5.50

Based on thousands of comments from 5.00 users, Release 5.50 development emphasized four main areas:

· Unlimited sized projects, with unlimited sized images and surfaces.

· Improved printing system, providing a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) print layout system. This objective required implementation of a new painting/display system to provide accurate display of objects both in component windows and in print layouts.

· Linked drawings, which are automatically created from external tables for use within Manifold interactive sessions or Manifold IMS. These make possible IMS applications such as vehicle location web sites that show dynamically changing locations.

· US street address geocoding capability.

To achieve these objectives over 356 upgrades are listed in the release notes together with 110 bug fixes or other improvements that adjusted existing functions. Following is a sample list of improvements from 5.00 to 5.50 (see the release notes for all 466 items):

Limitless projects	Manifold projects now have no size limit. 5.00 was limited to 1GB (Win9x) or 2GB (WinXP, 2K, XP) in size.
Large images and surfaces	Images and surfaces can now be as large as 16 exabytes (a trillion gigabytes) in size.
Large components	Drawings, labels, tables, comments and other components can now be as large as 4 gigabtyes each.
Automatic intermediate views	Manifold now automatically builds and caches intermediate views when working with large images or surfaces for better performance.
Hyperlinks in IMS	IMS pages can now support hyperlinks within displayed maps, for click and go hotlinks. Together with layer restrictions, click accuracy settings and other improvements, IMS improvements in 5.50 make many new applications possible.
Support for ASP .NET	Manifold IMS works within Microsoft's ASP.NET (with dedicated ASP .NET templates) and with the latest generation of Microsoft .NET servers. Enhancements to IMS coding options allow compatibility with older tools, such as Cold Fusion, as well.
US Streets Address Geocoder	Manifold now includes a street address geocoder for US streets (Requires installation of Manifold Geocoding Data product). The geocoding engine may be used in SQL queries, from scripts and programs and from within IMS.
Linked drawings	Linked drawings are drawings containing points and lines that are automatically created from geocoded tables. They are used within Manifold interactively and especially within IMS to display data that is likely to change.
Import of tables as drawings	Geocoded tables can now be directly imported as drawings.
New printing system	Layouts have been upgraded into a highly WYSIWYG printing system. Upgrades include the ability to export layouts to .ps or .pdf formats.
Sizes given in points	Most elements previously sized in pixels are now sized in printer's points (1/72 inch) to allow exact WYSIWYG effects in printing. Fractional sizes are supported for very fine lines.
Info pane enabled	Use the Info pane to browse the selection, to locate objects and to display object fields.
Layer restrictions	Using the Layers pane or right clicking on layer tabs, layers in maps can be specified to be clickable, editable or selectable.
ODBC driver for Manifold .map files	Manifold's ODBC driver allows non-Manifold applications to reach into .map files for data.
Transparent foreground color hides objects	5.50 introduces a new convention, that assigning transparent color as the foreground color of an object will hide the entire object. This allows hiding objects based on a thematic format.
Improvements in Terrains	Surfaces can now have any number of terrains that are formatted differently. Terrains can show labels either as 3D objects or as embedded textures, and terrains support transparency for embedded textures as well as other improvements.
New Imports	Important new formats such as NITF for military images, TIGER/Line 2002, Ordnance Survey GML for UK users and SRTM for space shuttle terrain elevation data have been added.
Improved OLE DB and ODBC import	Table import menus have been simplified to allow a single pathway for importing or linking tables regardless of the source.
Improved OLE DB performance	The entire OLE DB layer has been optimized for much faster performance.
Image and surface rotation	Images and surfaces may now be rotated using floating-point precision for rotation angles, allowing rotation to fractions of a degree.
Move, rotate, flip and scale	Transform toolbars in drawings allow move, rotate, flip and re-sizing of objects.
Improved GPS Console	The GPS Console can now download waypoints as well as auto-scanning for COM ports above the usual two.
ViewBots improved	ViewBots now work with drawings and drawing layers in maps, an extremely useful way of interactively viewing data.
DSN files may be imported or linked	Tables may be imported or linked directly from DSN files (used with ODBC as UDL files are with OLE DB).
Improved Database Console	The Command Console has been renamed the Database Console and includes improved features.
Optimized selection contexts	5.50 optimizes work done on selections in images to truncate effects only to those pixels that must be dealt with. This is an internal optimization yielding great performance benefits.
Improved color matching algorithms	Conversion from RGB/RGBa to palette images using fixed palettes works faster and more precisely.
Improved color reduction algorithms	Quantize and Dither functions in grayscale images use much more accurate color mappings.
Numerous tuned effects and commands	Colorize, Contrast, Diffuse, Filter, Flouresce, Gaussian Blur, Median Cross, Median Square, Motion Blur, Quantize, Relief and other commands have been tuned for better performance and more accurate colors.
Quantize human eye algorithm	Quantize now always uses the Wu algorithm in a slightly modified form that favors G/R/B channel response to match the frequency sensitivity of the human eye. This results in more "natural" looking quantized colors.
Improved surface Quantize	Quantize now works much faster and more precisely on surfaces.
In-place memory algorithms	Numerous transforms and commands have been re-written to use in-place memory with no need to create temp copies of data. This increases performance and reduces temp disk space requirements.
Intellimouse support	Third and fourth button Back and Forward commands issued by Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer and similar multi-button mice are now recognized by component windows.