55th Release

2004:70
New Features

Highlight Features:
ISO Spatial Reference System
Manifold Surfaces in 3D 
Stereo in 2D and 3D
Advanced Extract/Convert/Merge
GraphTips
Geospatial Software Development Kit

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• Used to define all TNT coordinate systems. 
       (choose from 1000s of new coordinate systems by nation, region, and local)

• Use new simplified interface for selection/definition of all coordinate references.
       (replaces Coordinate System/Projection Parameters window in all processes)

• Provides direct datum transformations without converting via WGS84. 
       (eliminates inaccuracies introduced by using multiple transformations) 

• Controls all projection conversions. (object to object, object to screen, in layouts, …)
       Define axes in any supported units without conversion to meters. 
       (e.g., georeference control points no longer entered/stored only in meters)

• Retains all earlier TNT coordinate reference systems.
       (backward compatible with objects in V6.9 or earlier TNT      Project Files) 

• Uses European Petroleum Survey Group’s (EPSG)
       definitions. 
       (EPSG coordinate systems updated every 6 months)

System Level

Free TNTsdk

• Geospatial Software Development Kit (TNTsdk) is now free.

• LessTif graphics libraries replace Motif graphics libraries for Windows and Mac OS X.

• Change from Motif to LessTif completely transparent including use in SML and TNTsdk. 

• Eliminates royalties for distribution of Motif libraries in TNTsdk for Windows / Mac OS X.

• Motif graphics libraries now only used for interface for Unix / Linux.

• Motif distributed free with every Unix and Linux therefore available free for TNTsdk.

• TNT products for use in Windows use Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 C++.

Direct Display Using Auto Linking

• Directly display JPEG rasters.
       Auto-georeferenced if have “same name” .tab, .jpw, or .erm auxiliary files.

• Directly display Portable Network Graphics (PNG) rasters.
       Select files with or without compression.
       Auto-georeferenced if have “same name” .tab, .jpw, or .erm auxiliary files.
       Alpha channel converted and used as opacity mask raster subobject.
       ICM color profile or gamma/chromaticity values used as ICM subobject.

• Direct display of shapefile layer now much faster via shape object.
       Previous link via CAD layer required slower hidden import.
       Styles and legends converted and used from AVL legend (*.avl) file.

• Direct display of MrSID (*.sid) files now on all TNT supported platforms (i.e., Mac OS X, LINUX, Windows, and Sun). 

DataTips

• Improve the appearance of your DataTips.
       Add text formatting codes to control of color, style, font, ...
       Specify frame boundary as a rectangle or a polygon.
       Color frame boundary and background for text.
       Use more characters in a prefix.

• Use tabs in text blocks to align text.

• Specify multiple fonts using {~} codes to define font substitution. 

• Identify fonts by family name (Times New Roman) 
       (in addition to using font name such as times.ttf).

• Font substitution for missing fonts provided using standard fonts.

• Default selection mode to ‘all layers’ if not previously set to specific layer.

GraphTips

• Pop-in to view like DataTips but present contents graphically.

• Graphic can be sensitive to position in view, object, nearest element, … 

• Create even more complex GraphTips using new SML display control script.
       (e.g., like ToolScripts but automatically executed at every cursor move/pause).

• Your automatically executed SML script selects data for graphic and its labels.
       (e.g., database fields, position of cursor, area of object, nearest element, …)

• Graphic functions in script draw/redraw GraphTip with cursor pause/movement.

• Define your GraphTip using familiar DataTip control features.
       (e.g., data fields, layer, scale range, …)

Project File Maintenance

• Check any object’s size (data content only or total size including subobjects).

• Text color highlights subobjects that are out-of-place in hierarchy. 
  (e.g. red for wrong parent, magenta if redundant, …)

• Enable/disable auto-maintenance of standard attribute and element ID tables.

Miscellaneous

• Preference can now be set to always compute full binary pyramids for raster objects.
  (e.g., compute 1st binary layer for 2 by 2 sampling adding 25% to size).

2D Display

Display Control Scripts

• Attach an SML script to a layout or group.
       Script automatically executes when layout or group is displayed.
       Continuously monitor mouse position in view to trigger further actions. 
            (e.g., view position context help or data such as a GraphTip)
       Create startup conditions.

CAD Layers

• Use redesigned interface control panels.
       Object tab panel for object, style, and georeference and new warp to model and scale range.
       Elements tab panel for select, style, and new DataTip controls.
       New label tab panel to clip labels into layer, show baselines, and to set frame styles. 
       Apply button to automatically change all settings without closing dialog.

GeoToolbox

• Sketch tool now has improved labeling.
       Create multiline text elements for labels.
       Add frames including type, color, font, ... for text elements used as labels.
       Define straight or inflected leader lines from label to associated feature.
       Use straight, exact, and splined baselines for text.

• Automatically create manifold surface object using cross-section tool.

• View graphical profile of data values for a selected cell from multiple rasters.

Miscellaneous

• Zoom at selected point.

• View-in-View will not show hidden layers/groups by default. 

• Designate which raster layer to use for 1X (full resolution) zoom.

• See active element as highlighted even if layer is hidden.

3D Display

Surface Rendering Methods

• Select from 3 surface rendering methods (choose from speed versus quality).

• All features previously missing from these improved methods are now available.
       View in stereo.
       Fast wireframes via use of pyramid tiers.
       Transparency for layers.
       Relief shading with controls.
       Add pedestals.

• Faster rendering of textures when terrain surface is flat (i.e., no DEM).

• All older rendering methods have been deleted.
       (i.e., both versions of Dense Triangulation and of Ray Casting)

Manifold Surfaces

• Display planar or curved surfaces (as triangular facets) of any orientation.
       (e.g., geologic and seismic profiles, archaeological cross sections, fence diagrams, above 
       surface transects, subsea sensor maps, …).

• Add as many manifold surfaces as you wish.

• View together with conventional 3D surfaces in 3D projection including stereo.

• Add 3D georeference control points to convert any object to a manifold.
       (e.g., use a raster, vector, shape, CAD, ...)

• Add grid boxes to assist in depth perception.

Stereo Support

• Stereo is now generic and independent of view device.

• Select stereo to match your device setup mode from:
       anaglyph, side-by-side, line-interleaved, and column-interleaved.

• View stereo of all terrain oriented 3D combined with manifold surfaces.

Georeferencing

• Assign/edit names and descriptions to control points.

• Improved management of point status (active/inactive).

• Link pair of points to define a hard edge.

• Link multiple points to define boundary for piecewise operations.

• Customize the features provided in the view window to simplify it as in Display.

Manifold Surfaces

• Add/edit control points to define manifold surface for any TNT object type.

• View object’s current manifold TIN (triangulated) surface projected onto a plane.

• Toggle geodata content on/off when creating/editing its manifold control points. 

• Toggle to review effects of any control point addition or edit action in 3D display.

• Define any triangle edge to be “hard” and thus preserved in any future retriangulation.

• Undefine any hard edge to release this hard edge boundary condition.

• Delete any triangle. 
       (e.g., to remove triangles not covered by object’s 3D extents)

• Delete any triangle’s edge. 
       (e.g., to remove triangles not covered by object’s 3D extents)

• Extrapolate to add control points to object’s extent corners.
       (because typically control points can only be located within object, not at corners) 

• Undo operations which have previously deleted elements.

Spatial Data Editor

• Use TAB key with right mouse button to toggle through all nearby elements.
       Toggle selection through congested auto-positioned labels near cursor. 
       Toggle selection through complex tangle of hard-to-select CAD elements.

• Copy a region from a TIN or shape layer and paste into a vector layer.

• Standard edit UNDO feature has been added to the raster inspection tool.

Manifold Surfaces

•  Add/create object with manifold georeference (i.e., manifold surface).
       Create/edit this manifold layer in “flattened” form in 2D edit view.
       Creating/adding a layer over a manifold surface used as a reference layer in 2D edit view 
       adds the manifold’s georeference to it.

• When a manifold layer is selected for editing in 2D view:
       3D view of it automatically opens for 3D reference.
       Group control dialog is also automatically opened for this 3D view.
       Additional manifold surfaces can be added to this 3D view for 3D reference.

CAD Objects

• Create multiline text elements

• Add frames including type, color, font, ... for text elements used as labels.

• Define straight or inflected leader lines from label to associated feature.

• Use straight, exact, and splined baselines for text.

• Use redesigned interface control panels.
       Object tab panel for object, style, and georeference and new warp to model and scale range. 
       Elements tab panel for select, style, and new DataTip controls.
       New label tab panel to clip labels into layer, show baselines, and to set frame styles. 
       Apply button to automatically change all settings without closing dialog.

Geometric Object Conversion

• Use “Geometric to Vector” to convert from CAD, TIN, shape, and region objects. 

• Use “Geometric to CAD” to convert from vector, TIN, shape, and region objects. 

• Use “Geometric to Region” to convert from vector, CAD, and shape objects.

Extracting Geometric Objects

Merging Geometric Objects

• Merge to a CAD object a mix of geometric object types without prior conversion.

• Merge to a vector object, with selected topology, any mix of other geometric objects.

Import/Export

• MapInfo (*.mif) files have improved support for fonts, color, and styles).

• Shapefile (*.avl) files now convert to TNT styles and legends.

Import

• PNG (*.png Portable Network Graphic) file’s ICM (color profile) is imported.

• CARIS ASCII files (*.txt) imported into a vector object.

• Lizard Tech’s MrSID (*.sid) imported on all platforms including Mac and LINUX. 

• Sun raster (*.ras) import uses “same name” ArcWorld georeference file.

• ERDAS (*.img) images greater than 2 GB are imported.

Export

• GML (*.gml Geographic Markup Language) Open GIS file can be exported.

• PNG file now gets an alpha channel from raster object’s opacity mask.

• Shapefile (*.shp) file export now handles labels.

• TIFF file default is now ‘pack bits’ compression instead of LZW compression.

Rendering Layouts to SVG

• Renders twice as fast.

• Add multiline entries and colors for text to SVG DataTip from TNT DataTip.

• DataTips “fade-in” instead of pop-in as in TNT source layout.

• Embed fonts (previously could only link).

• Link to JavaScripts (previously could only embed).

• Embed/link new JavaScripts to:
       Add layer control panel.
       Draw freehand line/polygon for length/area measurements.
       Draw segmented line/polygon for length/area measurements.
       Auto zoom-up (enlarge) point symbols when selected/highlighted. 

• Uses XML entities for strings.

• Class added to SML to render SVG from a layout.

Landscape Builder

• Optionally apply JPEG2000 compression to texture objects for use in simulations.

Database Operations

• Use wizard to create new table and relate to existing tables.

Style Editor

• New user interface for editing styles file.

• Styles supported alphabetically.

Text Editor

• Non-roman language support improved on Mac/Linux/Unix.

• Use standard Cut/Copy/Paste keyboard shortcuts (ctrl+x, ctrl+c, ctrl+v).

• Double-clicking a word selects it.

• Triple-clicking selects the line the word is in.

Raster Combinations

• Compute mean and standard deviation from a set of rasters.

• Exclusive Union (XOR) operation added.

Warping CAD

• Densification can be applied during warping of CAD object to preserve shapes.

Map Calculator

• Completely redesigned user interface.

• Integrates new features of ISO 19111 Coordinate Reference System.

• Convert to/from 3D geocentric Earth-Centered, Earth-Fixed (ECEF) coordinates.

• Compute geodetic and projected distance between pairs of points.

• Compute azimuth between pairs of points.

Geospatial Scripting Language (SML)

• Sample script using each function/class now linked to its documentation.

• Syntax highlighted in color when editing script.

• Use hash variables (like arrays but without size specified in advance).

• Use “switch” statement (identical syntax to “C”).

• Use function “prototypes” (as in “C”).

• Use Exclusive Or operator (XOR).

• 27 new functions and 3 new classes.

TNTatlas

• Allow viewing of cross-section via GeoToolbox.

• Specify preference settings for LegendView size and DataTip view modes.

• Specify which tool is active when atlas is opened.

• Customize to remove ‘navigation’ icon buttons.

TNTsim3D

• Execute an SML file automatically at startup.
       (e.g., define a position/view, fly a path, popup information or help, modify view setting, …)

• Add clouds or other hemispherical textures as backgrounds.

• Color tint the views if observation point is below surface.

• Define a custom view.
       (e.g., look backward from main view with same or different contents)

• Use JPEG2000 compressed texture objects for much smaller Landscape Files.

TNTserver V7.0

• Serve up composite view as JP2, PNG, SVG, or JPEG.

• Version numbers now synchronized with other TNT products.

• Weekly patches now posted as with all other TNT products.

• URL aliases simplify management of links to other data types (*.pdf, *.docs, etc.).

TNTclient

• Optionally use transparent panning buttons around view.

• Color text styles now used in DataTips as set-up in TNTatlas.

• Uses UTF8 encoded strings to support more languages.

• User of browser can now choose which type of image to receive.
       (e.g., JPEG by default or switch to JP2, PNG, or SVG)

• Optionally skip hyperlink list if only 1 link detected.

Reference Materials

• Approximately 50 new color plates.

• Approximately 12 new Quick Guides.

New Tutorial Booklets

• Working with Massive Geodata Objects.

• Working with TNTsdk.

Tutorials with Major Revisions

• Advanced Vector Editing.

• Using TNTsim3D for Windows.

• Glossary for Geospatial Science.

Local Languages

• Optionally exclude extensive help from the composite translation file.

• Generate report file of untranslated items.

Selected Color Plates ...

Lincoln DVD Add Styling to DataTips (2-sided) V7.00 PDF Version PageMaker Version

SML Create Crystal Reports with SML (2-sided) V7.00 PDF Version PageMaker Version cb_report.sml

Databases Database Table Creation Wizard (2-sided) V7.00 PDF Version PageMaker Version

From Working with Massive Geodata Objects ...

Working With Massive Geodata

What is massive geodata? It is not defined by the geographic extents of an object but rather by its storage requirements. The type of object must also be taken into account. For raster data, we will define massive as 2 GB or greater. The TNT products currently have a 4 TB storage limit on raster objects whether uncompressed or compressed with any of the supported compression methods, which include JPEG2000, Run Length Encoded, Standard Lossless, and Huffman. This limit applies to a single raster object stored in a single file and does not include its pyramids.

Massive raster geodata does not translate into slow display performance in the TNT products. The use of pyramids and quick JPEG2000 decompression displays the 500 MB JPEG2000 lossless compressed raster (above right with a vector overlay) in less than one second. 

We arbitrarily define massive vector objects as over 100 MB. The TNT products support vector objects requiring up to 4 TB for storage, with up to 2 GB of storage per element type. 2 GB of storage is more than 134,000,000 nodes, points, or line vertices. Each 2D node, point, and line vertex requires 16 bytes. So a massive vector object, which is far smaller than the maximum size, would be made of more than 6,553,600 points or a single line with that many vertices or some combination of points, lines, and polygons that requires that amount for storage. The 4 TB limit does not include databases, style objects, and other subobjects, but these and all the other “behind the scenes” lists and other vector requirements must fit in the 16 TB Project File size limit.

Vocabulary: TB or terabyte. A unit of mea-surement for 240 (approxi-mately) 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, 1,000,000,000 kilo-bytes, 1,000,000 mega-bytes, or 1,000 gigabytes.

Further Introduction to Massive Geodata

Massive vector data should be optimized to improve display times, but display at full view may be slow and meaningless. At full view, individual elements are rarely distinguishable. The use of map scale control to manage massive vector displays is discussed later. 
If you have not noticed, the TNT products’ limits on object size are not really limitations for most people. The maximum Project File size is 16 TB. Do you have storage for 16 TB? Do you even have storage for the 4 TB raster size limit? 
As long as we’re talking about size limits in regard to massive data, we will complete the list of primary object types in TNTmips even though MicroImages has acquired no data that could be considered massive in these formats. CAD blocks can be up to 4 TB and the object must fit within the 16 TB limit. A block can contain up to 2,147,483,648 elements.
TIN objects can also be up to 4 TB. Each TIN node requires 24 bytes of storage, edges 16 bytes, and triangles 40 bytes. Databases can be up to 16 TB with each table up to 4 TB. There is no size limit on ODBC linked databases, although file based databases usually have a 2 or 4 GB limit imposed by the software that created them or by the ODBC driver.
Generally, you are not working with an object in isolation; massive data frequently comes in sets. A practical definition for a massive data set is anything that doesn’t fit on your chosen distribution medium (CD or DVD). In the case of vector data, massive data may fit on CD or DVD but is unnecessarily slow to display and larger than it needs to be, generally because of unnecessary nodes and database records. The Global Reference Geodata DVD distributed with the V6.9 release of the TNT products is a massive data set that consists of a massive raster, some massive vectors, some very small vectors, and others in between.

... See the full booklet: Working with Massive Geodata Objects ...

25 March 2009

page update: 16 Mar 12

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