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).

NEW ! "Clipping" Solvers: make "cookie-cutter" Cut-outs from Maps

These wonderful new 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.

The Clip Inside solver clips all objects inside the designated area.  The image to the upper right shows a map with several areas in a Lakes layer, lines in a Roads layer and two circular areas in a buffer zones layer.  In addition, a fourth layer contains an area in the shape of a county.  Our task is to keep only those parts of objects that are inside the county boundaries.

The image to the lower right shows the results of the Inside Clip solver: all those parts of the areas that were outside the clipping area have been removed.  If desired, a checkbox on this solver allows the creation of new objects for the inside clip, leaving the original objects unaltered.

The image at lower right shows just the clipped objects created by the Clip Inside solver.  The clipping area has been turned off.

Topology PLUS also includes a Clip Outside solver that is similar to the Clip Inside solver; however, the Clip Outside solver cuts out those objects that are outside the clipping area.

The illustration at left shows the operation of the Clip Outside solver when using the county area as the clipping area.  Note the complex reshaping of the simple circular area in the lower right to fit the "cookie cutter" edge of the cutting area.

Manifold's clipping solvers are essential tools when extracting new maps from large data sets, or when combining maps from different sources.   For example, we might have a good map of European roads and another good map of European country boundaries, but the roads line segments cross past the country boundaries.  In this case,  simple use of the Clip solvers will extract just those features inside of each country area to create a country map.

Strong Topology without Errors

Manifold's Topology PLUS solvers are robust and easily handle complex, topologically-branched polygons.  For example, suppose the county area in the examples above contains numerous rectangular "holes" and also includes two rectangular sections that are not contiguous with the main body of the same area? 

This may seem like a really bizarre way to create an area, but many maps of jurisdictions that include islands and lakes are so constructed. See the illustration at left for an example.

In particular, the Digital Chart of the World series of maps from DMA and NIMA contain numerous examples of complex topology.  Manifold has no trouble with these maps.

The lower illustration at left shows the results of a Clip Outside operation. Note how the simple circular green area in the lower right has been split into four complex areas.

If you find it difficult to "read" this second illustration, keep in mind that the Clip Outside solver leaves all those parts of objects that are outside the clipping area.

Split Objects Solver

The Topology PLUS Split Objects solver provides a similar function to the Clip Inside and Clip Outside solvers.  However, instead of removing the undesired parts it simply splits all objects intersected by the clipping area boundary into one or more pieces as implied by the intersections.

Split Objects makes it a snap to prepare maps for subsequent use with interactive or solver-based selection.

Download the Solver Package Today 

To repeat, this solver package is a free download for Manifold System Release 4.50 users.  We felt the upgrades to existing solvers plus the three new solvers were just too cool not to give away to our users.  We value your patronage and hope you enjoy these cool new solvers we created for you.

Download the Topology Plus Solver Package (Requires Manifold System 4.50)

Don't have Manifold Yet? Visit the Manifold.net Online Store right now and get a copy for only $145.