Headlines 03 - Archived What's New?
This is archived news information. Some items may be superceded by more recent news items.
See the What's New page for the latest news and notes from Manifold. Visit our Headlines page to see a list of archived news items pages. Check out the new Press Releases page for links to press releases issued by manifold.net and see the Customer Comments on Manifold Products page for sample comments from our customers about Manifold and its products.
Business Tools Released with Decision Support System
- $75
Business Tools 2, the second edition of Manifold's Business Tools Solver Package has been released. The new edition adds the Send Email Solver plus the new Decision Support System. Decision Support features a really easy-to-use means of making "fuzzy logic" queries to select items from database where the criteria need to be flexible. "Fuzzy logic" queries are the best way to approach many real-world selections, but fuzzy logic systems have so far been too difficult and too academic to use in real life business. Leave it to the math gods at manifold.net to encapsulate the complex math of fuzzy logic in to point-and-click mouse maneuvers that anyone can handle with ease!
Any field in the database can have an unlimited number of profiles
specified, with numerous single-click presets available to automatically
characterize what you are seeking in that field as high, low,
average and so on. The system will calculate what a sensible high
or average range might be given the histogram of various values that
actually occur in that data field. Or, you can name your own profile by drawing a
curve or by simply providing two confidence intervals for the values you see ("Uh...
I'm 90% sure that $500K is too much for the location we seek....) and the system will
calculate a reasonable profile for you. The thumbnail shows some profiles
defined using demographic fields. The profile preview diagram shows
the "average" provide for 1989 Household Median income, together
with a schematic
histogram in background of what's in the database. The preview snaps on whenever a
profile is highlighted to remind us what that profile looks like graphically compared to
the data that's actually in the database. [very cool]
To find data using the profiles, just drag and drop profiles into the query box to build a query. The system will let you combine any profile in a query using AND, OR, AND NOT and the other usual Boolean query words we all know and love. In the illustration at left, we've built a query that seeks for a target profile of Black income AND for a desired profile of overall household median income.
Better still, Decision Support lets you "hedge" the use of a profile in a query. For example, instead of seeking 1989 Black per capita income that Is in the profile "High", we double-clicked into the Hedge field to change the default "Is" to Is Very. This will automatically nudge the "High" profile upwards in the Selection process to search for those records where Black per capita income is very high.
Decision Support System is
included in the Business Tools 2 solver package for Manifold System,
priced at $75.. The same Decision Support
capability will also be provided within our new Manifold Database Commander
product (the screen shot in the thumbnail actually shows the Commander version...).
Wow! just imagine... search any database using
a fast and fun command and control console that lets you use fuzzy logic to find things,
switch fields around however you like, calculate just about anything for any field,
connect to OLAP, grab parts of the database and save it in a different format, publish
results in HTML, see databases in 3D.... well, that's the Manifold Database
Commander sneak preview... coming soon!
Volume 1 of Manifold World Released
Manifold World is a wonderful new high resolution data set that's been created from the military's VMAP0 product using thousands of hours of machine and processor time to repair topological errors and otherwise convert the map for civil GIS use. It is provided in Manifold format and is $45 per volume.
Manifold World provides a
series of Manifold format maps for a specific region. Maps are organized
into categories such as Boundaries, Seas and Oceans, Population, Transportation, Utilities,
Hydrography,
Industry, Elevation, and Physiography. Some regions may include additional
or fewer regions depending on how comprehensive the US government's data
holdings were for that region. Volume I includes Europe, Australia
and Canada in very high detail. Visit the Manifold
World Home Page for more information and screen shots.
True Type Font to Icons Converter Released
The Manifold team has just released TTF2Icon.exe, a really fine Windows NT utility that can convert many True Type fonts at a time into .dll libraries of icons. These icon libraries may then be used by Manifold (see the Adding Bitmaps and Icons topic in the user manual). We created this utility for our customers who are using Manifold as well as MapInfo, so they can use symbols similar to their MapInfo TTF originated symbols. It also allows use of tens of thousands of TTF symbol fonts that may be downloaded free from Internet or that are already on your system (like the wingdings and webdings fonts). It works great, and it's free! See the Free Stuff for Manifold page in the Products page.
3D
View Studio Released
We are pleased to announce the most sophisticated 3D rendering environment
ever created for map data: 3D View Studio
provides an unprecedented level of 3D visualization and analysis. There has been so much pressure generated by
"word of mouth" from our beta test sites that we have released this before the marketing materials and pages are ready.
3D View Studio works with either with Manifold or as an independent application that can read data from almost any database format. The
independent 3D View Studio launcher includes dozens of database formats as well as simplified ODBC dialogs. With one purchase, you get both the
independent application as well as a 3D View Studio solver package to install into Manifold.
Visit the preliminary 3D View Studio Home page for a cursory introduction to this amazing and addictive application. Check out the gallery on that page for more screen shots.
Eclipse Maps and Data for 11 August Total Eclipse
11
August Total Eclipse in Europe - We've had a lot of fun converting NASA
eclipse data into spectacular eclipse maps. 11 August 1999 will see the last total eclipse of the Sun that will cross
Western and Central Europe for many decades. The thumbnails at right
show eclipse duration at three High Gothic cathedrals in France using Manifold
World with a few selected layers, and also shows a larger view with transportation
turned off (Lambert Conformal Conic projection).
The image at left shows the umbral path from the beginning of totality off Nova Scotia to the end in the Indian Ocean. (Unprojected) Data points along the path have been automatically sized by the time of duration. Where the path is "fatter" the duration is longer. The green dots in central Europe show the cluster of almanac data points included for selected cities directly in the path of totality. Background is the world map provided on the Manifold Release 4.50 CD. Read the .txt files accompanying the maps for an eye-opening account of how we used Table View Calculator to convert unfriendly HTML tabular data into cool geographic maps. Download Eclipse Files
Make Lines from Point Sets / Read Random Solvers
Two new utility solver packages illustrate advanced Manifold techniques while
simplifying common tasks. The make line solver creates a line from
a group of points by using a field or a formula to determine which point to use next in
sequence. The use of a formula is easy, novel, and something you might wish to apply when
using other solvers as well. See the make line readme text
for information, and then download
the make_line.mxz solver package.
The read random solver imports records from Access .mdb
databases using random coordinates for each record. It
opens the door to very powerful use of Manifold's Table View Calculator for general
purpose manipulation of databases without the need of Access or separate database
products. It may be used to import records that have no
numeric fields and then manipulate those records within abstract maps to organize the data
into sets. Check out the Case
Studies page on Send Email
using Manifold as a Visual Database Organizer for this intense and useful
capability within Manifold. See the read random text file
for information, and then download
the read_random.mxz solver package.
Free Download: Topology PLUS for Manifold® System Release 4.50
The Topology PLUS solver package is a free download for registered Manifold System 4.50 users. The new solver package provides an enhancement for the existing five area topology functions and adds three new functions.
"Clipping" Solvers: make "cookie-cutter" Cut-outs from Maps!
The wonderful new Clip Inside, Clip Outside
and Split solvers allow point-and-click "clipping" operations
that allow you to pick an area to use as a "cookie cutter" to cut out map
objects from the selection, a given map layer or all layers. Jump to the Topology Plus page for more
information.
If you are ready to jump directly into a massive view of these new solvers in action, check out the thumnails at left. The upper thumbnail shows a full screen view (162KB .png) of a map of Switzerland within the Digital Chart of the World. The lower thumbnail shows just the objects within Swiss borders cut out using the Clip Inside solver. (67KB .png).
Manifold System Release 4.50 ships with a variety of solvers in the "Topology" solver menu. These are designed to create unions, intersections, non-intersections, subtractions and metric compressions of areas ("polygons" for those of us who speak in ESRI terminology). The Topology Plus enhancements allow open-ended use of these solvers even on multi-branched, topologically weird objects that contain "holes", "islands", non-contiguous regions and other pathologies.
Download the Topology Plus Solver Package (Requires Manifold System 4.50)
SIZZLING SUMMER SALE! Buy Manifold System and Get TIGER/Line 1997 for only $52
For a limited time this summer, buy Manifold
System Release 4.50 for $145 and get all six TIGER/Line® 1997 data set CDs for only
$52. That's a $45 savings off our already incredibly low price of $97.
Just think, for only $197 you can get the world's most modern and
powerful GIS system complete with all six TIGER/Line® 1997 data set CDs. Check out
our TIGER/Line information page
for more info.
Free Find Duplicates / Find Empty Fields Solvers Released
Check out the Products page for links to Manifold Free Stuff.
A new solver package for Manifold System Release 4.50 makes it easy to find duplicates or
find empty fields in many fields at once.
3D View Studio Released to External Beta
The new 3D View Studio product has been released for external beta testing. A dramatic upgrade from the existing 3D View products, the new 3D View Studio provides a number of key features:
Use with any Database - Launch directly from your Windows Start button menu and show data in 3D from almost any database: dbase, Access, FoxPro, Paradox, SQL Server, Oracle and more! No need to purchase a database program: 3D View Studio can read the data directly. 3D View Studio launches automatically from within Manifold System as well!
Multiple Surfaces - Use different data fields as the Z elevation simultaneously to create multiple surfaces. Great for visualizing geophysical data such as borehole data, comparisons of median income from different groups and similar applications.
Texture Mapping - "Drape" a surface with a bitmapped texture for greater realism, artistic effects or to display a map on a terrain surface. The image above was created in a point-and-click way using simple textures and presets.
Enhanced Reality Effects - Transparency, Lighting, Materials, "Fog" and similar effects create scenes of breathtaking reality.
Presets
For Ease of Use - All effects come with numerous presets
that allow setting of complex parameters with a single click to get a cool scene.
It's easy to learn 3D View Studio by choosing presets that look great and
then making minor modifications.
Single Module / Multiple Launch - Just one product works in both Manifold and for use with almost any database. No need to work within Access database as an add-in: just launch 3D View Studio from the Windows Start button and see any database in 3D.
Enhanced Analysis - Numerous additional analytic functions, such as multiple simultaneous sight zones. Illustrations at right and left show the Sight Zones dialog (right) and resulting sight zone areas transferred onto a surface seen in 3D (left). The sight zones computed are those parts visible from any of the four points. Choosing AND would have resulted in those parts visible from all of the points. Points were chosen at the level of the surface: vertical lines were used to mark the points in the 3D view for better visiblity.
Service Pack 1 Released for Manifold System 4.50 - Free Download
Release 4.50 has proven to be so remarkably bug-free that
only now have we accumulated enough fixes to issue a service pack. SP1 includes an
important fix for the Publish for MapPoint wizard, improved printing routines that include workarounds to bugs (not our
bugs!) found in some popular manufacturer-supplied printer drivers, and upgrades and fixes
in dxf, sdts, and dlg importers.
SP1 also introduces a few minor new features and improvements. For a complete summary of
SP1 see the readme file for
information. All 4.50 users should download and install the SP.
It only takes a few minutes and is really easy to do: download the zipfile, exit Manifold
if it is running, and then unzip the SP zipfile in your Manifold installation
directory. Download and
Install Service Pack 1 (SP1)
New! Topology Factory™ For Manifold System - $45, Downloadable from Online Store
Need
to fix problems in maps or CAD diagrams? Topology Factory installs as a solver
package and adds an interactive display/repair console that identifies and fixes 14 common
topological problems. An interactive map view display allows stepping through
incidents with highlighting of problems using color animation. This is a terrific
new product that should be in the toolkit of every serious map author. We've used it
extensively to repair hundreds of megabytes of world map files for the upcoming Manifold
World series. It's a steal at only $45.
Visit the Topology Factory Home Page for more information, screen shots, and a link to the online user manual.
Jump to Headlines page for more news!
|
Home Page -
Products -
Search -
Support -
Shopping -
News -
Online Store Prices, terms and conditions, and product specifications subject to change without notice. Please contact Manifold Net with any special needs or requests. |