See more about
Manifold System 6.00 at http://www.manifold.net
320 New Features in Free Manifold System
Upgrade
Service Pack 1 (SP1) Adds
OpenGIS WMS Server and Client Capability at No Charge
10 November 32004 - Carson City, USA: manifold.net today announced
that Manifold System Release 6.00, the company's flagship GIS product, has been
enhanced with over 320 new features in the latest Manifold Service Pack (SP). Unlike
old-fashioned GIS companies, manifold.net uses service packs to add
substantial new features as well as to fix bugs. Service Pack 1 provides
an immense array of new features less than six months after the publication of
Release 6.00, which added over 472 new features as compared to the previous
Manifold release. With the publication of Service Pack 1, Manifold has
achieved nearly 800 enhancements to the company's core GIS product in less than
one year.
Manifold System 6.00 is available in Professional Edition ($245),
Professional with Debugger ($295), Enterprise Edition ($395) and Universal Edition ($495).
In addition, Manifold may be licensed as a Professional Runtime Edition ($100)
and a Universal Runtime Edition ($200).
A major new feature is the ability to operate as
an OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) WMS Server. At a cost of $100 per server or
less, Manifold's Professional Runtime Edition is by far the least expensive, as
well as possibly being the highest performance, way to create and operate an OGC
MWS server. All Manifold editions can operate as an OGC WMS server and can
simultaneously operate as an Internet Map Server (IMS) as well. In
addition, all Manifold editions can operate as an OGC WMS client, consuming WMS
imagery served by OGC WMS servers from Manifold or from legacy vendors.
"Even in the context of a Manifold Service
Pack, where we put more new items in a free SP than other vendors provide for
paid upgrades, SP1 delivers an outstanding level of enhanced
capability. To take just one substantial feature out of many,
compare our new OGC WMS server capability to LizardTech's just-announced
almost-$5000 OGC WMS server and you can see that the free OGC WMS capability in
SP1 is a far easier way of bringing up an OGC WMS server, and possibly a much
higher performance way as well," said Dimitri Rotow, product manager for Manifold
System.
Manifold already includes support for many OGC
initiatives, including the ability to work with geospatial databases using OGC
standards such as WKB and WKT such as Oracle Spatial. The addition of WMS
server and client capability yet again broadens Manifold support for OGC ideas.
SP1 may be freely downloaded by any Manifold
6.00 licensee. SP1 is also available on CD for only $25 (includes shipping to
anywhere in the world) for those customers who prefer a CD to a download.
A single SP1 download works with all editions of Manifold System and
automatically updates any Manifold extensions, such as Business Tools or Surface
Tools as well.
The SP automatically adapts itself to the edition in use and automatically
configures itself to use all existing serial numbers and Activation keys.
Once launched by the customer, the SP automatically performs all upgrades using
a standard, simple Microsoft installation wizard.
Service Pack 1
Highlights
- OGC WMS Client:
Manifold can link images from OpenGIS (OGC) WMS
servers so Manifold can now act as a client to OGC WMS servers.
- OGC WMS Server:
Manifold can now also function as an OpenGIS WMS
server, to provide images to any OGC WMS client over the web. Setting Manifold
up as an OGC WMS server is as easy as setting up an IMS page.
- Simpler Labels Programming: Bound labels components have been
re-engineered to make programming Manifold labels components easier and to
simplify the user interface for interactive users. A labels component bound
to a drawing is now always synchronized with the drawing. There are two new tools to add
line labels and freeform curved labels.
- Curved labels: Line labels follow the lines they are bound to,
aligned character by character. This results in "curved" labels
following curved lines.
- Zoom Box: Web pages generated by the File - Export Web Page
dialog for the Standard and Standard (framed) templates both
in ASP and ASP.NET in both VBscript and Javascript
versions include a Zoom Box tool as a default button.
- Faster Geocoding: Geocoding speed has been improved to run
approximately twice as fast as before.
- Multi-Field Instant Data: Instant Data mode has been improved using
the Object Fields dialog, which allows Instant Data functions on more
than one field at a time.
- Export to Adobe Illustrator: Layouts can be exported to Adobe
Illustrator AI format in addition to PDF, PS and EMF.
- Spatial SQL Extended to Images and Surfaces: Images and surfaces
now have virtual tables, which allows manipulation of images and surfaces
via queries written in Spatial SQL. This allows a very wide range of
analytics, from histograms to dynamic manipulation of images and
surfaces. Manifold now has by far the most capable Spatial SQL
functionality with images and surfaces, beyond any other GIS at any price.
- Dynamic Images and Surfaces from Tables: The File - Link - Image
command and the File - Link - Surface command allows linking
images or surfaces from tables or queries. Each record produces a pixel.
- USB Support for GPS: The GPS Console works with GPS units connected
via USB. This makes it easy to use the new generation of USB connected
and powered GPS "pods" such as the Garmin 18 that are popular in
OEM applications.
- Extended NMEA Interfaces:
The
GPS Console supports more than 20 additional NMEA sentences including the
ability to capture depth, humidity, temperature and other data. Use
Manifold to ride along in a boat and automatically capture georegistered
bathymetry! Cool!
Read/Write MAP for Dynamic Applications: IMS opens MAP files for
both reading and writing. This allows doing sophisticated analysis in
IMS-enabled web sites that
involves creating temporary components, such as running queries the text of
which is supplied by the user. It also allows dynamic IMS applications
where served projects are changed on the fly.
See Terrain Windows in Applications: There is a new TerrainWindow
object with means to control the camera, allowing terrain window pop-ups in
third party applications or even in IMS applications. You can now
create a Manifold IMS web site with 3-D views of terrain or data!
Inner Centroids: The Transform toolbar for drawings includes a new Centroids
(Inner) transform, which creates area pseudo-centroids that are
guaranteed to be created within area, thus eliminating the problem of a true
centroid being positioned outside a crescent-shaped area in applications
that require an internal centroid.
Sounds: The Tools - Options dialog includes a new Sounds
page, which allows setting a sound to play after completion of a lengthy
operation. The Sound file option specifies the sound file to
play. Set Manifold cooking on immense tasks for hours and have a sound
played to let you know the job is done.
ADO .NET Support: Manifold now fully utilizes Microsoft's ADO.NET data sources
for all import, export and linking operations. There is a
"generic" import and four "specific" imports for
standard ADO.NET providers included in .NET 1.10 (ODBC, OLE DB, Oracle, SQL
Server).
Faster Georegistration: The speed of the Affine (scale, shift,
rotate) and Affine (triangulation) registration methods has been
greatly increased, by a factor of 15 on average.
Render Zoom: Manifold windows can now be forced to exhibit
"paper map" behavior, if desired, so symbols enlarge when zooming
in.
Proxy Servers Supported: The Tools - Options dialog includes
a new Proxy Server page, which allows specifying the parameters for a
proxy server to use for Internet connections, (for example, when linking
images from OGC WMS servers.
S-57 Import: Manifold can import vector data in S-57 format
(widely used for nautical charts).
TIGER/Line 2004 Import: TIGER/Line import supports TIGER/Line
2004.
.NET Reuse Facilitated: All .NET assemblies (including Manifold.Interop)
have been installed into the global assembly cache to facilitate reuse.
Oracle Extensions Supported: Manifold geometry data routines now
support Oracle extensions to OGC WKB and WKT formats. This enables
using geospatial data not only in OGC compliant geospatial databases but
also those using Oracle Spatial extensions.
See the SP1 release notes for a complete list of all 320
items in SP1.
Support for Journalists and Reviewers
Journalists wishing a review package of Manifold System with SP1 should contact Dimitri Rotow at dar@manifold.net or
800-556-5919 [Pacific Time Zone].
About manifold.net
manifold.net is a privately held company that creates cool GIS software,
database software and software for 3D data
visualization. It is best known for Manifold System,
one of the most sophisticated GIS software packages ever developed.
Contact: Dimitri Rotow, 800-556-5919 /
dar@manifold.net
See more about Manifold System 6.00
at http://www.manifold.net
Manifold Net Ltd.
1805 North Carson Street
Suite 700
Carson City, NV 89701
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