|
Release of TNT Products V6.20 Table of Contents
Editorial and Associated News [by Dr. Lee D. Miller, President]
Internationalization and Localization MicroImages Authorized Dealers
Attached Color Plates
All previous MicroImages MEMOs starting with the release of the TNT products V4.00 are available at www.microimages.com. You can use your web browser to easily look up details that you recall were mentioned in a previous MEMO or to search for more information on a specific topic. All earlier MEMOs back 13 years to V0.90 in 1986 are available upon special request. MicroImages is pleased to distribute V6.20 of the TNT products, which is the 47th release of TNTmips. A count of 234 new feature requests submitted by clients and MicroImages’ staff were implemented in V6.20 processes. The master list now contains 1991 requests for new features. The following major features have been added.
During the next several months, MicroImages is planning to relocate to new offices. This move is prompted by the completion of a 10 year lease in the current location. While our current facilities are attractive and comfortable, they were purchased several years ago by a negligent landlord with little regard for its tenants. This has resulted in many problems in the operation of MicroImages’ high-technology business in these quarters. For example, the basement offices occupied by some software engineers have been flooded numerous times and have never been remedied. The last straw was poorly managed construction in an adjacent building owned by the same landlord that resulted in 3 expensive power/phone outages in the last 3 months (1 of 12 hours and 2 of 24). It has not been difficult to conclude that moving to a new building will be less trouble than continuing to deal with these problems. A USB key is now available for W95, W98, and NT platforms. It is small and thus particularly useful with new portables. You can now request that a USB key be supplied for new orders for TNT products used on these platforms. This USB key is not an option for the Mac, LINUX, or UNIX platforms. As you may be aware, HP is fading from the general purpose UNIX platform market and concentrating this product line on general purpose file servers. At the same time, they are tightly integrating their 64-bit architecture with Intel’s Itanium chip (formerly code-named "Merced"). There have been no requests for quotes for the TNT professional products or downloads of the HPUX version of TNTlite.
NOTE: MicroImages proposes to discontinue production of the TNT products for HPUX with V6.20 or with V6.30. If this will cause you consternation or difficulty, please notify MicroImages as soon as possible.
As previously announced, the TNT products are no longer available for the Sun Solaris 1.x operating system, which is not Y2K compliant. As previously announced, the TNT products are no longer available for the Windows 3.1 operating system, which is not Y2K compliant. Most of you using the Alpha chip, which Compaq purchased from Digital Equipment Corporation, know by now that it will not be provided with future Windows NT support from Compaq or from Microsoft. NT4.0 will be the last version of 32-bit Windows NT for this 64-bit processor. Systems based on the Alpha chip coupled with NT will not be able to upgrade to W2000. The following press releases document this new situation. from INFOWORLD, August 30, 1999, page 12. "Compaq’s dump of NT on Alpha may help Linux" "Users and employees who were banking on the success of Windows NT in Compaq’s Alpha processor appear to be the losers of Compaq’s decision to halt development of Windows on Alpha, but the move could further open the enterprise for Linux." "Because of Compaq’s decision to end Alpha support for 32-bit Windows NT 4.0, as well as 64-bit Windows projects, Microsoft last week followed suit and dropped its Windows development effort for the Alpha architecture." "Compaq dropped its NT Alpha support one week after ending development work and laying off more than 100 employees. Dwindling revenue numbers, coupled with the introduction of high-powered eight-way Intel-based servers, combined to bring about the demise of NT on Alpha." from PC WEEK, August 30, 1999, page 9. "Microsoft bags NT on Alpha" "Microsoft last week announced that the 64-bit version of NT, release date unknown, would not support Compaq’s Alpha platform." "The announcement came about a week after Compaq decided to pull the plug on 32-bit Windows [in other words, current Windows NT] support for Alpha. Compaq will instead focus on Alpha-on-Linux and Tru64 Unix [formerly called DEC OSF/1 then DEC UNIX] software." "The decision will not affect a large number of customers, since NT-on-Alpha sales were tiny–so tiny that a Dell exec last week characterized it as ‘not even a pebble on the beach’." Those using TNT products on NT/Alpha platforms need to indicate their future plans for migrating to new operating systems and should inform MicroImages as soon as possible what they plan to do.
NOTE: MicroImages would like to plan ahead to cease distribution of the TNT products for NT-based Alpha platforms. If you are using NT on your Alpha based platform, you need to let MicroImages know how much longer this will continue.
Please remember that the TNT products are available at the same price for the Tru64 (the current name of the 64-bit UNIX operating system for Alpha-based platforms). At the present time, MicroImages does not plan to support Alpha for use with LINUX unless it is contracted as a custom task. Those using the TNT products with SGI IRIX can now create, read, and write Project Files greater than 2 gigabytes. As most of you have read, SGI is selling itself off in pieces, but the fate of their workstations and IRIX is yet to be determined. MicroImages’ tests and preliminary client reports indicate that V6.00 and later versions of the TNT products work without modifications with Windows 2000 (formerly Windows NT5). There are no special activities to report in connection with the use or preparation of the TNT products for LINUX. At least for the moment, the race to see who can change the kernel the fastest is on hold.
The following comment was received from a client using TNTmips 6.1 on a Mac using MacOS 8.x. "The G3 Mac is [now] no different from Windows in performance, no complaint for speed. G3 seems fast indeed." This client is in for a surprise, as V6.20 of the TNT products is significantly faster on the same Mac platform using MacOS 8.x due to the improved read/write buffering adjustments in MI/X. Furthermore, early unverified results indicate that changes introduced in MacOS 9.0 improve the operation of the TNT products. V6.20 of the TNT products has been checked and operates without a problem with the new MacOS 9.0 operating system. Editorial and Associated News [by Dr. Lee D. Miller, President] I hope you will agree with my opinion that V6.20 of the TNT products is the best version ever in 13 years of effort. It does not provide as many new features as the last several releases. Every now and then we have to catch our breath and consolidate our gains. A portion of the effort in preparing this and several of the recent releases has been placed on improving how beginners can easily accomplish complex geospatial analyses. In addition, in this release we have stressed reliability and the quality and currentness of the tutorial booklets, on-line help, and the on-line reference manual. V6.20 was delayed at least 6 weeks due to the desire to have all 50 tutorial and other booklets current. This meant that many minor errors were uncovered and repaired. The checking and rewriting of all these tutorial booklets turned up many subtle errors in the internal beta versions of the V6.20 products. Their correction caused delays but resulted in the most error free version of the TNT products. On your CD, 46 of the 50 booklets are current with the features in V6.20. If you take the time to download the 4 recently revised booklets (see Getting Started Section below) from microimages.com to replace the 4 installed from the CD, you will have all 50 booklets current with V6.20. This is the first time since the creation of this series of booklets that they all match the current version of the TNT products. All the important sections of the massive on-line documentation are also current with V6.20. This was handled by other scientific writers. These writers had the responsibility of adding on-line quick help throughout the TNT products. They created the equivalent of about 152 single spaced printed pages of quick reference help that was integrated throughout V6.20 with the new HTML-based on-line help process introduced in V6.10. In the past, the TNT products have been criticized for the lack of quick help. This is the first time help has been available throughout the TNT products. As part of the activity to create help for each process, the associated on-line manual sections were revised to match V6.20, and the software and documentation errors encountered were fixed and checked.
TNT Errors. These and other technical complications delayed the release of V6.20 by 2 months, but it is the most thoroughly-checked version of the TNT products ever released. It is also the most thoroughly coordinated version where all the parts: features, tutorials, quick help, and on-line reference manual, all go together. After all of this, does V6.20 still have errors? Of course it does, and any vendor of software who tells you otherwise is not being truthful. Coordinating and checking a massive base of software across many platforms supported by 3700 pages of written materials is not a trivial task, and errors will occur that cause frustration for you and me. However, MicroImages still stakes its reputation on the precept: "It is how they get fixed that really counts!". Errors in General. A detailed computer-related feature column appears weekly in the Wall Street Journal. Its author recently published a detailed list of the serious errors he encountered in creating his column in a single week with Microsoft Windows and several standard applications such as Word and Lotus Notes. Most of these common applications were in the Microsoft products. He had 12 serious errors that cost his time and lost his work: hangs requiring rebooting, files not saved, and all the others quirks we are unfortunately familiar with, and all this using primarily standard Microsoft products. This author provided no means such as email or an address for his readers to contact him. In a subsequent column, he started off noting that he was overwhelmed with responses by various indirect written means. He published some of the 500 responses he had received. Only one written response defended the situation, and that was from a Microsoft Vice President. A second suggested a switch to a Mac, noting that while it may not do as much (for example, lacks true multitasking), it is more reliable at what it does. To punctuate this, the United States just lost a multi-hundred million dollar Mars probe because of a simple programmer error. It is also pretty clear at this point that the failure of other even more expensive space and ground mega projects fail and have high costs in lives and damages due to software errors. Y2K anyone? Driving Errors are Fatal. I am beginning to think that we are all expecting too much of software engineers. We use automobiles, which are simple to learn to drive. Many can even do it (albeit with increased risk) with several noisy kids in the car or while talking on a cell phone. However, if we accidentally turn the wheel 1 degree to the left or right, depending on the country, we and several others may be dead in a few seconds. Automobiles are easy and reasonably safe to use if we use them within tightly prescribed limits. They are even flexible and could be used for a while to do things for which they were not designed, such as driving across a field pulling a plow. But would you do that with your car? Extending this analogy to software, it is reasonable that using specific software alone and within prescribed design limits is the equivalent of driving on a road with no oncoming cars and is usually reliable. But, it is when we use many software products in unusual ways that problems occur, even when all the software is from a single vendor. The one thing that Microsoft, and to a lesser extent MicroImages, cannot do, is point the finger at other products for many of the reported errors. MicroImages has just finished checking the 1000 tutorial pages outlining the many ways the TNT products can be used. However, a powerful feature of the integrated nature of the TNT products is that there are many alternate ways to accomplish many tasks, and many of them will work. Yet, I am continually surprised at how many innovative and unanticipated procedures are reported by you. Certainly, some of these myriad of paths you might take are going to fail. Again, MicroImages stakes its reputation on the precept: "It is how they get fixed that really counts!". Y2K Errors. This leads to the discussion of the readiness of the TNT products for Y2K. When we set the clock forward on all our different platforms, the first question is: will the operating system work? Windows 3.1, Solaris 1.x, and others will not. MicroImages will have a number of expensive new boat anchors available on 1 January, including our current Sun Internet server. If the operating system works when we set the clock ahead on a platform, the TNT products operate. What about the version? Every version of the TNT products is different. MicroImages has never been able to check the myriad of ways you would use these previous versions as we released them. It is certainly not feasible to do so now for their Y2K compliance. However, when we switched from the DOS MIPS 3.31 to TNTmips 4.0 7 years ago, the proper conventions were adopted to avoid this abbreviated date rollover problem. No one can assure you of Y2K compliance no matter what they claim on paper. Why do you think the U.S. Congress passed a law limiting damage claims for non Y2K compliance in July 1999? (See the "Y2K Act" at http://www/y2k.gov) How would the TNT products be compliant when we depend on the operating system, machine bios, or at the other extreme, upon the way old attribute database fields record the year? Y2K problems in non-life-threatening software applications are simply another source of the continual software problems and delays we must all be prepared to patiently resolve when they occur. Is it going to cost you money? Of course. Is it going to cost MicroImages money? Of course! What really bothers me about the whole Y2K business world-wide is the bleak doom and gloom attitude it has created, foreshadowing everything. We should all be preparing to celebrate entering a new millennium with mankind still around. We should all be optimistically anticipating this human milestone, especially those of us with many decades behind us. New Color Tutorial Notebooks. Approximately 2 months ago, MicroImages began experimenting with shipping 6" by 9" color notebooks with each new TNT product. TNTmips is accompanied by 2 of these heavy notebooks containing all the Getting Started tutorials printed 2-sided in color. These notebooks contain about 500 pages, are 5" thick, printed on both sides on a Tektronix 840 color printer that uses a resin based "ink". Every one of the 2400 illustrations that are color, which is most of them, are printed in vivid color. Single color notebooks are also shipped with TNTedit and TNTview products and currently contain 19 and 11 booklets, respectively. These kinds of extensively color illustrated reference materials are not provided with competing products. However, we believe that these booklets and the examples they contain are much more useful for self-teaching and subsequent reference than the conventional black and white printed manual. These notebooks are printed at MicroImages in small quantities as required on the Tektronix 840 color printers on 8.5" by 11" bright, high quality paper. They are then sheared, punched, collated, and assembled. It should be obvious from your costs of color printing that these notebooks are expensive, hand-made products that add significantly to the cost of the production of each TNT product. Since this is an experiment, the cost and labor of these additional items may not warrant their value and may be discontinued at any time. These color notebooks match only the version of the TNT product with which they are delivered. Our small quantity printing allows them, for the most part, to be kept current with the current product released. For example, every time a booklet is upgraded, it is immediately substituted into all color printing operations. We hope that once a new client learns the basics of geospatial analysis using their first version of TNT products, they have also learned the value of using the latest version of these booklets provided on-line in color with each new release. You can always follow my advice and use Adobe Acrobat Reader to print out 120% enlarged copies of all the booklets and put them next to your TNT station in nice notebooks. However, if you wish to buy the most recent set of notebooks, they can be purchased for US$300 plus shipping. Notebook sets that correspond to any earlier version of a TNT product are not available and can no longer be produced. Color Printing Problems. Until last week, MicroImages used the highest quality and resolution settings in the Tektronix 840 printer drivers to produce these color notebooks. This printed every grayscale image in these booklets using all 4 ink colors. There are many menu and dialog boxes that have this gray background. Over time, we have found that these images gradually shift to magenta as each magenta resin dot "flows" out into the white spaces in the dither pattern’s color dots. We have found varying rates of deterioration with every one of at least 10 different kinds of inkjet and laser papers we have tried, from the cheapest to the most expensive. Tektronix (just purchased by Xerox) will not respond to our inquiries requesting information about this problem, even though it is being encountered and publicized by other buyers on the Internet. If your set of color booklets is turning somewhat magenta, then this is the problem. We are now printing the color booklets at a somewhat lower resolution where our Tektronix 840 printer driver prints gray areas (areas of equal RGB values) with only black resin. As a result, these gray areas in illustrations in the latest notebooks will not deteriorate to magenta. Some MicroImages staff and I have spent a significant amount of time in bringing forward the TNTserver and its first public domain TNTclient. As we introduce this product on the Internet, we are naturally checking out the competition. At this point, we are quite pleased with our results. We are grateful to the members of the MERLIN program, managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), for helping to start us in this important direction. They have put 10 years of sustained effort into the use of TNTmips for preparing the geomaterials they are publishing using the TNTserver. The official launch date of the MERLIN geodata server will be 19 November (World GIS day). At this time, MDNR is completely revising the HyperIndex structure of the 60 layers making up the 180 gigabytes of geodata in MERLIN. MicroImages is continuing to add the features required to make MERLIN and any HyperIndex stack and all the TNTatlas-like features operate over the Internet. More technical details on the status of this new product are listed in a section below entitled TNTserver. I plan to send you a separate MicroImages MEMO outlining these new products after 19 November, when V2.00 of the MERLIN HyperIndex, the TNTserver, and TNTclient are officially published and publicized on the Internet. This year, GEOWorld and its companion publications such as GEOEurope et al. began a series of valuable review articles on commercial geospatial analysis products. These articles are designed to acquaint their reader with the currently available products and provide an introduction into what they do. As a result, in aggregate, they deal with the emerging reconstitution and integration of image processing, GIS, GPS, Web Servers, and so on, into the more widely recognized methodology called geospatial analysis. Fortunately, each review has covered TNTmips or its brand new companion, TNTserver. No other company has products reviewed in all of these interrelated reviews, as they are only now becoming interested in the holistic or system approach to geospatial projects. Each of these articles has been published in the printed magazines GEOWorld and GEOEurope as well as in summary form as appropriate in other GEOTEC Media publications, such as Business Geographics, GEO Asia Pacific, and so on. MicroImages has already provided you references to, summaries of, and comments on, some of these articles in MicroImages MEMOs distributed with previous versions of the TNT products. As always, all previous MicroImages MEMOs and illustrations are maintained on-line at www.microimages.com. Each of these articles is also now available in its entirety in the Internet on-line versions of the appropriate magazines. This is very helpful, as many of you around the world do not have direct access to these publications. MicroImages highly recommends printing out a copy of each of these articles in color or ordering a reprint from this site for detailed review. Here is a brief reference to each of these articles and its URL address on the Internet: Image Analysis Products (including TNTmips and TNTlite): Image Processing Software: System Selection Depends on User Needs, by W. Fredrick Limp, Director, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, 12 Ozark Hall, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701; email: fred@cast.uark.edu. This article appears in the May 1999 issue of GEOWorld, pages 36 to 44, in the May 1999 issue of GEOEurope, and now at www.geoplace.com/gw/1999/0599/599srev.asp. The 6 image processing products discussed in this article are TNTmips 6.0 (including TNTlite), ENVI 3.1, ERDAS IMAGINE 8.3.1, ER Mapper 6.0, Image Analyst 7.0, and PCI 6.3. GIS Analysis Products (including TNTmips): NT-Based GIS Software Is on the Rise. NT-based GIS packages are abundant in today’s marketplace. Here’s an overview of the products and features offered by 21 NT-based GIS vendors in North America and Europe. By Lee A. Graham, Senior GIS/Remote Sensing Specialist, Houston Advanced Research Center, 4800 Forest Research Drive, The Woodlands, TX, 77381; email: lag@harc.edu. This article appeared in the July 1999 issue of GEOWorld, pages 34 to 41, the July 1999 issue of GEOEurope, and now at www.geoplace.com/gw/1999/0799/799gis.asp. Choosing a Web server for Geodata (Part 1 including TNTserver): Mapping Hits Warp Speed on the World Wide Web. Selecting a Web-based mapping software is difficult at best. To help users choose the package that’s right for their applications, GEOWorld examines criteria for selecting a Web-based mapping product and assesses how available software "measure up." By W. Fredrick Limp, Director, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, 12 Ozark Hall, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701; email: fred@cast.uark.edu. This article appeared in the September 1999 issue of GEOWorld, pages 36 to 44, the October 1999 Issue of GEOEurope, and now at www.geoplace.com/gw/1999/0999/999tec.asp. The 7 geoserver products illustrated in this article are MicroImages’ TNTserver, Bentley’s ModelServer Discovery, Intergraph’s GeoMedia Web Map, ESRI’s Web mapping software, Autodesk’s MapGuide, MapInfo’s MapXtreme, and Caliper’s Web mapping product. Web-based Geoserver Products (Part 2 including TNTserver): The November issue of GEOWorld and December issue of GEOEurope will complete the 2 part geoserver review by reviewing available commercial products such as the TNTserver. Periodically, MicroImages receives questions about the potential use of wavelet transformations in the TNT products. The following legal posturing and JPEG 2000 information further substantiates that a conservative approach is warranted. The speed of access and management of large rasters in our Project File has proven quite suitable. The new TNTserver quite efficiently sends JPEG images over the Internet to the TNTclient. Thus, MicroImages has been able to take a wait-and-see attitude, looking forward to JPEG 2000. It is more appropriate for a technology company such as MicroImages to concentrate on technology. It also seems prudent not to involve our clients in the use of a licensed technology that might be out-of-date or tied up in legalities. None of us wants to reformat hundreds of gigabytes of rasters. from http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/991007wa_lizardt_1.htm Thursday October 7, 6:48 PM Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: LizardTech Inc. LizardTech Sues Earth Resources Mapping for Patent Infringement "SEATTLE, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/–LizardTech Inc. has filed suit against Earth Resources Inc., based in San Diego, Calif., claiming that Earth Resources Mapping’s products contain LizardTech patented technology." "The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges that Earth Resources Mapping’s (‘ERM’) image compression software known as ‘ECW’, which is integrated in ERM’s ER Mapper 6.0 geospatial image processing software, infringes on LizardTech’s patent for MrSID™ technology. The suit is aimed at enforcing LizardTech’s patent rights in the United States, which cover the use of seamless wavelet compression and decompression for raster images. The suit also alleges copyright infringement and breach of contract relating to ERM’s unauthorized use of LizardTech’s MrSID software, unfair competition claims relating to ERM’s dissemination of false and misleading statements about MrSID, and trademark infringement relating to ERM’s misuse of LizardTech trademarks such as metatags on ERM’s Web site to bait search engines–causing Internet users looking for information about MrSID to be led to ERM’s Web site. LizardTech is seeking unspecified monetary damages and injunctive relief to prevent Earth Resources Mapping from manufacturing, promoting or selling its infringing products and to cease its offending practices." from http://www.ermapper.com/marktng/prsrel/lizardtech_short.htm "San Diego, CA–October 14th, 1999, Earth Resources Mapping" "On October 6, 1999, LizardTech filed a complaint against Earth Resource Mapping (ERM) claiming infringement of a University of California (UC) patent on a tile method of compressing large images used in LizardTech’s MrSID product and other allegations." [Note, University of California now operates the Los Alamos National Laboratories, who developed the UC pending patent application licensed by LizardTech.] "The ERM patent-pending Enhanced Compression Wavelet (ECW) invention does not infringe on the UC patent used by MrSID." "ERM has recently developed and owns technology that utilizes the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in a novel way to achieve dramatically quick compression of image data with a minimum of processing and RAM resources. Unlike older DWT processes that break images into tiles for compression, ECW performs the DWT on the entire image using a line-by-line pipeline recursive multilevel approach. The ERM method is faster and more efficient, and is the subject of a pending patent application." "By comparison, the U.S. patent filed in 1995 describes a DWT process that compresses image data much more slowly and with a higher utilization of processing resources. ERM’s products utilize a much faster, state-of-the-art, and more efficient technology." "ERM is confident that it can demonstrate that the allegations are without merit. Furthermore, ERM is applying to the court for a summary judgement to have LizardTech’s claim dismissed. The action by LizardTech appears to be a competitive reaction to strong industry support of ECW." extracts from http://webreview.com/pub/1999/08/13/feature/index3.html JPEG 2000–More Than New Millennium Buzz by Derrick Story, Aug. 13, 1999 "Highlights of JPEG 2000 format • Uses new ‘wavelet’ technology for improved compression (20% better) and less degradation than current Jpeg’s. • Level of interest access–user controls how much resolution to download. Lossless saves will be possible too. • Increased capacity for color information. Can embed the full ICC profile for accurate rendering across platforms. • Improved metadata capability–information can be added to the metadata blocks without having to rewrite the entire file." "The JPEG image format has proven to be one of our most enduring friends. From its conception more than a decade ago, it has provided a means for compressing and moving continuous tone pictures with amazing quality results." "Technology has changed the face of communications since JPEG’s inception, however. Imaging has become a more valued aspect of our online interactions. Many felt the time had come to revise the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format and create a system-oriented standard that’s on par with our text-based technologies. In part that’s the reasoning behind the JPEG 2000 initiative, which is officially called: ISO 15444, the ‘JPEG 2000: Image Coding System’." "Since August of 1998, a team within the Digital Imaging Group (DIG) has been developing a rich file format for JPEG 2000. This effort has led to a collaboration between the DIG 2000 and ISO JPEG 2000 working groups. The shared goal of these groups is to standardize a new format that expands our ability to manage and transport continuous tone images without noticeable loss of quality. As you can guess, the JPEG 2000 teams endeavor to provide more compression options, render better pictures and expand functionality while maintaining its current svelte file size." "Wavelet technology" "Wavelet technology is a core strength of the format. The current compression used for JPEG’s, DCT (Discrete Cosine Transformation), compresses the image into 8x8 blocks and places them in the file one after the other. This algorithm discards frequency information in order to achieve compression. The more you compress the image, the more frequency information is discarded. Radical compression leaves only the most important information, which conveys the essentials of the image, but loses much of the subtlety that makes for a pleasing continuous tone image." "Wavelet compression on the other hand, converts the image into a series of wavelets that can be stored more efficiently than pixel blocks. Also, wavelets have rough edges that better render pictures by eliminating the square artifacts that are common with DCT compression." "The differences between DCT and wavelet compression can be difficult to grasp. To get a better handle, visualize DCT compression as a long wall of blocks. When you compress an image, various square holes are knocked out at one end of the wall. When you push the end of the wall to compress it, many gaps remain that need to be spackled. Sometimes we notice these ugly square spackled patches and call them ‘artifacts’." "Wavelet compression, on the other hand creates gaps that have rough uneven edges. When you push one end of the wall, these edges mesh together better creating fewer noticeable gaps. Hardly any spackle is required resulting in a much smoother look." "This over-simplified explanation is obviously a little rough around the edges itself. The point is, eliminating artifacts is a good thing–regardless of how it’s done (or explained)." "Wavelet technology also provides for a continuous download stream of data that allows the user to control the amount of image resolution desired. If this sounds a little like [Kodak’s] FlashPix functionality, you’re right. The primary difference is that FlashPix has distinct levels of resolution and JPEG 2000 is a continuous stream. Designers will have the capability to control how much image resolution they want to make available for download, and end users can decide how much of that resolution they want to use." "The function could be enabled in various ways. Designers could incorporate various resolutions into their layouts calling out lower resolutions for overview pages with thumbnails and higher rendering for detailed sections. For users, their image controls could be as elegant as right mouse button clicks on the image to choose various resolutions, or it could be something as simple as hitting the ‘stop’ button when enough information is displayed in the browser window. Regardless of how the image is ultimately viewed on the screen, the data for all of these various renderings are contained within a single JPEG 2000 file." "One last resolution note. Image authors will also have the option of saving the picture in lossless format for archival storage. Saving images in different formats (such as TIFF) to meet different needs will no longer be required." "Improves color handling" "Rendering color accurately on the Web has also become an important issue. The JPEG 2000 specification includes up to 256 channels of data. This means it opens the door for CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK–typical model for offset printing) descriptions and full ICC (International Color Consortium) color profiles that will help to ensure consistent display across platforms." "Another innovation is that a new standard, ‘sRGB’ will be the default colorspace for this format. In the current JPEG standard, there is no notion of default colorspace. This lack of precision contributes to inconsistent JPEG color rendering. For JPEG 2000, all nonspecified RGB color will be assumed to be sRGB. And specified colors, such as an ICC profiles, will override the sRGB default when present. Either way, color becomes more accurate because it is always being defined by a standard." "Speaking of ICC color profiles: We discussed them extensively in our last issue of Web Review on color calibration. As you may remember, by embedding these profiles in JPEG 2000 format data, your monitor and printer can interpret downloaded files correctly and render the image as it was intended by the author. You can create a profile for any device, and many devices now include profiles in the bundled software." "Expanded metadata capacity" "Distinguishing between various types of file data is a dangerous hobby. For example, the JPEG file itself is nothing more than data. But in addition to the actual image data, something needs to be in place to describe the file to the device reading it. We call that metadata, and yes, it’s data that describes other data." "That being said, you can begin to see how important accurate file descriptions are for images. The JPEG 2000 format contains a vast improvement in metadata management. We’ve already mentioned that ICC color information can be included, but other details can be included as well. For example, the type of digital camera used to record the image can be included in the metadata. If that information is important to your display or output device, it can make additional requests for things such as exposure or white balance settings. A capable metadata catalog can efficiently manage a multitude of these types of requests." "The JPEG 2000 standard for metadata also provides for extensibility of the metadata properties. In other words, new functionality can be added without having to rewrite the standard. And speaking of adding information, the metadata catalog can be modified without having to rewrite the entire image file. These abilities make for a very nimble, adaptable image file format." [It will be logical to use these features to develop a GeoJPEG 2000 format.] "Will JPEG 2000 happen in the year 2000?" "The ISO group that is developing the JPEG family of imaging coding standards is ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG1, and they will be meeting in December to finalize the basic standards. If all goes as planned, the official schedule for implementation will be released in January 2000. As these events occur, you’ll begin to hear more news about JPEG 2000 format." "As we all know, releasing a schedule does not equal implementation. There are many hoops to jump through including unified browser support. But like our old friend, the current JPEG, if you get it right, it could be around for very long time. Let’s hope they get it right." [For more information on the activities of the JPEG 2000 Initiative, see www.jpeg.org.] As previously announced, AUW11 will be held in Lincoln the first week in February (1 to 4 February 2000). Another copy of this announcement you have already received is being mailed to you. MI/X 2.0 for W95, W98, and NT has replaced the earlier version distributed with V6.10 of the TNT products. It contains several new features. The most obvious is the much improved method dialogs added to control its setup as an X-server and particularly when it is being used for remote access to a TNT product or some other software. Version 2.00 of MI/X for Windows products contains the following new features: • Supports shape extensions • Moves MI/X preferences from Setup/Preferences/MI/X directly into MI/X • Shows IP address in "About…" box • Creates install system using InstallShield and adds an "uninstall" feature • Sets up new download system that uses a single easy download via a zip or self extracting executable • Creates a version numbering system • Adds copy protection via Flexlm • When downloaded, allows a test period of 15 days before payment required (Continued use after 15 days requires purchase of an authorization code.) Effective with the release of MI/X 2.0 at $25 to replace MI/X 1.0, which was free, downloads of the 15-day trial version decreased from an average of 8000 per month to 6000. As yet, only a small fraction of those testing MI/X 2.0 are moving on to purchase it at this very low cost. It will take time and the addition of new features to penetrate the world-wide successful use of hundreds of thousands of users of the free version of MI/X 1.0. One unexpected consequence of the release of the new "not-free" version was the realization that many organizations were downloading MI/X once and spreading and using it across whole organizations. This site-wide penetration was unknown to MicroImages, as few take time to describe how they are using a free product. However, after V2.00 was released, organizations began to call about our site license cost for 1000s of users. For example, IBM has requested a quote for an unlimited, corporate-wide license, while a university asked about a campus-wide license ranging up to 5000 units to replace the current campus-wide use of MI/X. This university said it has students use X rather than a browser, as it made its campus computers much less vulnerable to hacking. To date, these are only inquiries, and even with the low quotes provided, they may find that they can get along well enough for the time being continuing to use MI/X 1.0. However, several low volume multiple unit floating site licenses of MI/X 2.0 have been sold. These site-wide uses of MI/X may indicate that similar wider use of TNTlite may be taking place than the actual direct distribution and download numbers indicate. The use of TNTsdk has been growing in popularity. A number of groups are regularly requesting assistance developing applications. The following C++ compilers are used for V6.20 of the TNT products and were the same as those used for V6.10: Windows 95 (with Intel) use Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Windows NT (with Intel) use Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Windows NT (with Alpha) use Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 UNIX platforms use latest version of C++ from GNU Mac (with PPC) use Code Warrior Professional 4.0 Introductory Course. Dr. Jack Paris has revised and reorganized his TNTmips Project Workbook: From Start to Finish to be concurrent with V6.20 of the TNT products. This illustrated workbook has 170 pages and 37 sections. It is designed to be used in an introductory course in Applied GIS, GPS, and Remote Sensing taught at the Sophomore/Junior level in a university. It is supplied with a CD containing all the geodata needed to work all its exercises within TNTlite. Each exercise refers the student or self learner to the appropriate Getting Started tutorial booklet for additional exercises and materials on each topic. This workbook and CD, TNTlite, and the tutorial booklets provide the basis for teaching a state-of-the-art academic course in geospatial analysis that integrates these technologies or to conduct a self-taught activity in this area. A flier is enclosed that you can use to order this workbook directly from its author for US$45.
Advanced Course. Dr. Jack Paris has committed to writing another workbook to be used in a second, follow-up course. His early publicity indicates that it "will focus on such advanced topics as quantitative multispectral data analysis, analysis of multitemporal data, use of soils data with the watershed process outputs to model erosion in a watershed, RADAR data analysis, and hyperspectral analysis. This advanced workbook will also deal with the processing steps necessary to prepare data for users who are dealing with other geospatial software packages." If you are interested in this additional workbook, when you order the current workbook, please ask Jack to place your name on his list for future information on its availability. Image Analysis in Geology. The 3rd edition of Dr. Steve Drury’s popular hardcover book entitled Image Interpretation in Geology is on schedule for publication in early 2000 by Blackwell. As with previous editions, it is designed as a textbook for the many introductory courses taught around the world with his 2nd edition. However, with the rising popularity of digital image interpretation, the 3rd edition will include extensive new material on this topic. It will also provide the basis for the laboratory or home assignments for the course by providing at least 12 exercises to be completed in TNTlite. As a result, it will be shipped with a CD containing TNTlite and the special geodata sets Steve has prepared for use in each of his exercises. Downloads so far this year exceed those of 1997 (the first complete year for downloading TNTlite) by approximately 10 times and those of 1998 by 4 times. The breakdown of this distribution is about 5% for the Mac, 5% for LINUX, 1% for all the UNIXes, and the remainder for W95, W98, and NT. These downloads went all over the world except for some nations in East Africa, former USSR states, and island nations. This accelerating use of TNTlite is attributed to your assistance in spreading the word, the increased availability of the tutorial booklets, and increased publicity on the Internet and in magazines. In addition to the above free downloads, another large group of TNTlite 6.1 CDs were sold by MicroImages directly or purchased and distributed by authorized dealers. An approximately equal number were distributed for V6.00. MicroImages’ recent experiences with beginning to sell the previously free MI/X 2.0 product (see above) indicate that there may also be a significant multiplier at work, where a single CD or download can be shared among several or many users. It is simple enough to pass a CD around to friends or to place TNTlite on a LAN for easy transfer with instructions on how to install it. But, accounting for only direct distribution, at the present pace, about 7500 individuals give TNTlite a try per year. The price of the TNTlite kit containing the CD and printed versions of all 50 booklets (~1000 pages and ~2500 illustrations) is now increased from US$60 to US$75, which includes shipping by airmail in the United States and DHL express anywhere else in the world.
Connections to Other Applications. A HyperIndex stack can now be linked to many other applications. When setting up your links, you can now navigate to and choose some other kind of datafile or program (such as DOC, PDF, MPG, ...). You can provide a link to a DOC file used by Microsoft Word. When that area of the HyperIndex view is selected, that link will function just as if you selected that Word file with the mouse, and the document will open Word. You can then do what you wish within this new application. When you are finished and that application is closed, you will re-enter the HyperIndex stack and current view just where you left it. Links can be made to Adobe Acrobat Reader files containing maps or reports. Links can be made to start MPEG movies of specific positions in the current HyperIndex view. The simplest kind of application of this new feature might be to link hundreds of land leases to their respective geographic positions on an image. No boundaries need to show or vectors overlaid unless desired. Simply select an area, and the link to the software product used to create the lease will open for viewing and/or modifying the lease. Remember, an atlas distributed on CD that has such links assumes that these other software products are available and installed. Fortunately, there are free viewers available for most popular products’ data files. There are free runtime versions of Word (DOC), Acrobat Reader (PDF), many movie viewers (MPG), and many other products available that could be installed along with any TNTatlas. This is just the same as your option to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 from the V6.20 CDs so that every TNT product can directly access and view the color Getting Started tutorial booklets. A HyperIndex stack can also be linked directly to Internet URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). When the HyperIndex accesses this link and the browser can be located, it starts a new window and connects to the designated site. URLs can also be set up to communicate control information to a site designed to receive it. These are the long, extended URLs you often see that penetrate into a specific location at a site and supply it with a specific request (for example, a request for a quote on particular stocks). Using this new feature, either a desktop user of a HyperIndex stack via TNTatlas or a user on a network using TNTserver can now connect to and conduct many other kinds of activities. The simplest example might be linking to a site with the current weather RADAR image of a specific location on the image viewed, filling a shopping basket to order the objects from sample images and maps in the HyperIndex, recording data into a form at another location, and many, many more. HyperIndex used via TNTatlas or TNTserver simply provides a geographic index or "front end" to many other kinds of activities that would start by directly locating the area of interest. Widening Use. Publishing a TNTatlas is a unique feature of the TNT products. No other competing commercial product offers this capability for freely distributing geographically linked materials in a navigable atlas structure. Recently, many more clients have become interested in publishing their own HyperIndex stacks on CD for limited distribution with the free TNTatlas process. Large amounts of georeferenced images and maps have now been prepared with TNTmips or other systems, and these now provide the basis for publishing unique atlases in the form of HyperIndex stacks. Low-cost CDR devices are finally available worldwide at prices ranging from US$100 to $200. Also, the latest line of Hewlett-Packard Pentium-based desktop computers priced from $800 to $1600 all contain standard, built-in CDR drives. Blank CDR media is now available from discount stores at less than US$1 each, and the price is rapidly declining due to mass consumption. Bringing Components Together. It is easy to prepare a HyperIndex stack to make up an atlas once the geodata are available. It is also easy to use this CD or hard drive-based HyperIndex stack on a TNT equipped platform or by manually installing the TNTatlas software onto a platform. Prior to V6.20, it was not easy to get all the components of this stack, the TNTatlas, and the installation programs assembled onto a CD for mass production. A number of steps were required to assemble a complete, self-contained, CD-based TNTatlas with all the required geodata, programs, and installation files. Simply transferring the HyperIndex stack to the CD may not be so simple, because when it is being used from a hard drive, it can be made up of Project Files that are scattered all over the local drives or network fileservers. A new process has been added into TNTmips to assist you in publishing your complete TNTatlas on CD. It is found at Support/TNTatlas and uses a Wizard approach to guide you through the steps of producing your temporary master of a TNTatlas on some read/write media such as a removable or fixed hard drive. After this master is assembled, all that remains is to copy it to a CDR master for the stamping plant or to as many individual CDRs as needed. The step-by-step use of this new process is described in detail in an enclosed MEMO entitled Producing a Distributable TNTatlas. Subsequently, this MEMO will be integrated into the Getting Started tutorial booklet series. As you proceed through this new process, it will assist you in verifying that your HyperIndex structure is complete by tracing out all the geolinks and identifying any objects that are missing. It will assist you in the location and selection of all the files needed to assemble the stand-alone version of the TNTatlas process. Next, it will help you select the program(s) to be placed on the CDR to install or to run the TNTatlas and associated HyperIndex stack(s) from the CDR or mass-produced CD. Finally, the process will copy all these geodata and program files to your designated master cartridge or hard drive as an exact copy of what will be transferred to CDR. When completed, all you need to do is use your CDR support software to transfer the contents of this temporary drive to your blank CDR. Validating Connections. Only HyperIndex stacks published with the TNTatlas process on CDs are restricted to the capacity of the CD. Hard drive-based HyperIndex stacks can be any size, with the actual geodata scattered across many Project Files, local drives, networked file servers, and even the Internet. If you are assembling a HyperIndex for use directly, over a private LAN, via a virtual private network (VPN), or on the Internet, it can be any size. Interconnected HyperIndex stacks that have already been assembled for use with the TNTserver range up to 180 gigabytes. Under these circumstances, it is very difficult to manually check every link to make sure it is still connected to a valid object. Linked files get moved or deleted, object or Project Files are inadvertently renamed, or the HyperIndex chain gets broken for other reasons. The validation feature in this new wizard process can be used at any time to trace through any HyperIndex stack and identify any broken links and missing parts. Direct Internet Use. The HyperIndex structure now has even wider appeal as it can also be used to publish the same stack without alteration for public access on the Internet using a TNTserver. V2.00 of the TNTserver and the TNTclient will be finished by 15 November and will provide the same functionality when used with a HyperIndex stack as the current stand-alone free TNTatlas process: similar navigation, measurement tools, metadata, legends, multiple levels, and so on (see subsequent section on the TNTserver). A HyperIndex published with TNTatlas on a CDR requires no alterations for Internet publication via a TNTserver. The reverse is not true for use with the TNTclient/TNTserver, as the Project Files do not need to be all together on a single storage media. This is just the same as if you are using an installed version of the TNTatlas process to access a HyperIndex on your desktop machine or network. Almost everything added this semester to TNTmips and the other TNT products also improves the utility of the HyperIndex stack and therefore its use in the free TNTatlas. This ranges all the way from the support of hot keys and dual monitors in display to the improvements in the TNTclient and TNTserver to provide interchangeable HyperIndex stacks among various distribution media. All these new features are explained in detailed descriptions provided in the TNTmips New Features section below and in the attached color plates. These improvements include: • dual or multiple monitor support • many new datums • new coordinate systems–especially the Military Grid Reference System • concatenation of repeated style entries in LegendView • use of any attribute, including computed fields as a legend label Loading TNTatlas 6.2 processes onto your hard drive (exclusive of any other products, data sets, illustrations, Word files, and so on) requires the following storage space in megabytes. for V6.10 for V6.20 PC using W95, W98, or NT 23 MB 23 MB PC using LINUX (with Intel) kernels prior to 2.0.36 24 MB 25 MB PC using LINUX (with Intel) kernel 2.0.36 22 MB 23 MB DEC using NT (with Alpha) 23 MB 29 MB Mac using MacOS 8.x 40 MB** 42 MB** Hewlett Packard workstation using HPUX 23 MB 32 MB SGI workstation via IRIX 27 MB 28 MB Sun workstation via Solaris 2.x 23 MB 24 MB IBM workstation via AIX 4.x (with PPC) 25 MB 26 MB DEC workstation via Tru64 UNIX (with Alpha) 26 MB 27 MB ** The Mac installed size includes the JAPAN1.OF font of 10.4 MB that is automatically installed. Delete this font if you do not require the use of Japanese. TNTview has begun to grow in popularity because wherever it is given a chance, it proves to be a more complete product than ArcView or MapInfo. Those who say they use ArcView to provide the same features are actually ending up with the much more expensive combination of ArcView, Spatial Analyst, Image Analyst, 3D Analyst, and some GPS add-on. Almost everything added this semester to TNTmips also directly benefits TNTview. These improvements are detailed below as new TNTmips features and include: • new object selection dialogs • many new datums • new coordinate systems–especially the Military Grid Reference System • concatenation of repeated style entries in LegendView • use of any attribute including computed fields as labels in LegendView • additional file import formats * Modifications since V6.20 CDs. There have been many requests in the past to hide some features from initial users of TNTview who would, based upon their backgrounds and limited experience with geospatial analysis, be intimidated by the feature-rich TNTview. The display and other windows in TNTview can now be immediately customized by anyone. The same modifications that can be made in these TNTview functions can also be made in all the other TNT products as well, as they all share the same processes. These modifications to TNTview were made after the V6.20 CDs were duplicated and are available for downloading and will be released in V6.30 where they will be explained in more detail. The procedure uses a setup file and control window, and each icon in the top menu bar of the display and other processes can be hidden. Additional features in other windows can be controlled. For example, in the Select Object window, only the raster object icon can be shown if the user is only going to be using rasters. Furthermore, when this icon is selected, all raster choices except the types of rasters to be processed (for example, single rasters–gray scale or color composite) can be hidden. Hiding features in this way does not delete the process from the generic TNTview that has been installed. It merely creates a reference file to determine which features the user requires and has access to. Think of it as a series of reference files. One is the locked factory default that provides all the possible features. It can always be restored if the user is allowed to do so. Another is the locked file that specifies how the organization delivers and wants its staff members to see and use TNTview. Finally, it is possible to allow the user to create a temporary file with features of their own choice. If you did not order V6.20 of TNTview and wish to do so now, please contact MicroImages by FAX, phone, or email to arrange to purchase this upgrade or annual maintenance. Entering an authorization code when running the installation process allows you to complete the installation and immediately start to use TNTview 6.2 and the other TNT professional products it provides to you. If you do not have annual maintenance for TNTview, you can upgrade to V6.20 via the elective upgrade plan at the cost in the tables below. Please remember that new features have been added to TNTview with each new release. Thus, the older your current version of TNTview relative to V6.20, the higher your upgrade cost will be. Within the NAFTA point-of-use area (Canada, U.S., and Mexico) and with shipping by UPS ground. (+50/each means $50 for each additional upgrade increment.) TNTview Product Price to upgrade from TNTview: V5.60 V6.10 V6.00 V5.90 V5.80 V5.70 and earlier Windows/Mac/LINUX $175 275 400 500 555 +50/each DEC/Alpha via NT $250 350 500 600 700 +50/each UNIX single user $300 475 600 675 725 +50/each For a point-of-use in all other nations with shipping by air express. (+50/each means $50 for each additional upgrade increment.) TNTview Product Price to upgrade from TNTview: V5.60 V6.10 V6.00 V5.90 V5.80 V5.70 and earlier Windows/Mac/LINUX $240 365 465 545 605 +50/each DEC/Alpha via NT $300 450 550 650 750 +50/each UNIX single user $350 550 700 800 850 +50/each Loading TNTview 6.2 processes onto your hard drive (exclusive of any other products, data sets, illustrations, Word files, and so on) requires the following storage space in megabytes. for V6.10 for V6.20 PC using W95, W98, or NT 36 MB* 30 MB* PC using LINUX (with Intel) kernels prior to 2.0.36 36 MB 28 MB PC using LINUX (with Intel) kernel 2.0.36 31 MB 25 MB DEC using NT (with Alpha) 31 MB 29 MB Mac using MacOS 8.x 45 MB** 44 MB** Hewlett Packard workstation using HPUX 35 MB 36 MB SGI workstation via IRIX 44 MB 31 MB Sun workstation via Solaris 2.x 32 MB 26 MB IBM workstation via AIX 4.x (with PPC) 38 MB 29 MB DEC workstation via Tru64 UNIX (with Alpha) 40 MB 30 MB * W95, W98, and WNT installed size also includes the native SML 6.2 interpreter for Windows. ** The Mac installed size includes the JAPAN1.OF font of 10.4 MB that is automatically installed. Delete this font if you do not require the use of Japanese. No special changes were made to TNTedit. However, almost everything added this semester to TNTmips also directly benefits TNTedit. These improvements are detailed below as new TNTmips features and include: • new object selection dialogs • many new datums • new coordinate systems–especially the Military Grid Reference System • concatenation of repeated style entries in LegendView • use of any attribute, including computed fields as a legend label • additional file import formats If you did not order V6.20 of TNTedit and wish to do so now, please contact MicroImages by FAX, phone, or email to arrange to purchase this upgrade or annual maintenance. Entering an authorization code when running the installation process allows you to complete the installation and immediately start to use TNTedit 6.2 and the other TNT professional products it provides to you. If you do not have annual maintenance for TNTedit, you can upgrade to V6.20 via the elective upgrade plan at the cost in the tables below. Please remember that new features have been added to TNTedit with each new release. Thus, the older your current version of TNTedit relative to V6.20, the higher your upgrade cost will be. Within the NAFTA point-of-use area (Canada, U.S., and Mexico) and with shipping by UPS ground. TNTedit Product Price to upgrade from TNTedit: V6.10 V6.00 V5.90 V5.80 Windows/Mac/LINUX $350 550 700 800 DEC/Alpha using NT $500 750 950 1100 UNIX single user $650 1000 1350 1600 For a point-of-use in all other nations with shipping by air express. TNTedit Product Price to upgrade from TNTedit: V6.10 V6.00 V5.90 V5.80 Windows/Mac/LINUX $500 750 950 1100 DEC/Alpha using NT $600 900 1150 1400 UNIX single user $750 1200 1550 1850 Loading TNTedit 6.2 processes onto your hard drive (exclusive of any other products, data sets, illustrations, Word files, and so on) requires the following storage space in megabytes. for V6.10 for V6.20 PC using W95, W98, or NT 56 MB* 47 MB* PC using LINUX (with Intel) kernels prior to 2.0.36 59 MB 53 MB PC using LINUX (with Intel) kernel 2.0.36 50 MB 45 MB DEC using NT (with Alpha) 51 MB 50 MB Mac using MacOS 8.x 55 MB** 55 MB** Hewlett Packard workstation using HPUX 57 MB 76 MB SGI workstation via IRIX 74 MB 62 MB Sun workstation via Solaris 2.x 51 MB 46 MB IBM workstation via AIX 4.x (with PPC) 64 MB 56 MB DEC workstation via Tru64 UNIX (with Alpha) 68 MB 59 MB * W95, W98, and WNT installation size also includes the native SML 6.2 interpreter for Windows. ** The Mac installed size includes the JAPAN1.OF font of 10.4 MB that is automatically installed. Delete this font if you do not require the use of Japanese. All Booklets. [50 booklets on V6.20 CD] The following booklets are provided on the V6.20 CD and can be installed for use in Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF format. Using them on-line in Adobe Acrobat 3.x or 4.x will provide good quality access to the 2477 color illustrations they contain. They can also be downloaded in either Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF or PageMaker formats from http://www/microimages.com/getstart/. Introduction to GIS Georeferencing Navigating Theme Mapping Displaying Geospatial Data Mosaicking Raster Geodata Feature Mapping Making Map Layouts Operating the 3D Simulator 3D Perspective Visualization Editing Vector Geodata Image Classification Editing Raster Geodata Surface Modeling Editing CAD Geodata Filtering Images Editing TIN Geodata Getting Good Color Importing Geodata Building and Using Queries Exporting Geodata Creating and Using Styles Combining Rasters Sketching and Measuring Interactive Region Analysis Pin Mapping Vector Analysis Operations Network Analysis Managing Relational Databases Making DEMs and Orthoimages Rectifying Images Using CartoScripts Spatial Manipulation Language Using Geospatial Formulas Digitizing Soil Maps Managing Geoattributes Introduction to Map Projections Changing Languages (Localization) Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging Analyzing Hyperspectral Images Acquiring Geodata Constructing a HyperIndex TNT Technical Characteristics Introduction to TNTlite UNIX: Installation and Setup Guide Macintosh: Installation and Setup Guide Windows 3.1: Optimizing Windows 3.1x Style Manual Windows 3.1x, 95/98, and NT: Installation and Setup Guide Sharing Geodata with other Popular Products New V6.20 Booklets. [2 new booklets added to V6.20 CD, total now 50] Included in the above list are the following 2 new booklets. Operating the 3D Simulator Introduction to GIS (completed) Updated Booklets. [50 units] It took 2.5 years to complete the important core group of the Getting Started tutorial booklets. Unfortunately, during that time period, the updating of the previously completed booklets could not be addressed, and MicroImages had to ignore this and proceed onward to create important new booklets. This decision was based upon the assumption that a somewhat out-of-date booklet was better than no booklet at all. Checking Booklets. Concurrent with the shipment of V6.10, the important Getting Started Booklets existed. Thus, the 3 professional writers (Dr. Merri Skrdla, Dr. Randall Smith, and Keith Ghormley) who created all the Getting Started tutorials reviewed, updated, and sometimes expanded the booklets they had written. This was done near the end of the preparation cycle for V6.20 to catch all the previous and new revisions for this release. As a check on the update activities, a 15 year old high school student was employed to go through each older or revised booklet if it was available. In 6 weeks, he completed the exercises in the booklets with some help from MicroImages’ software support staff and identified discrepancies between the booklets and the corresponding processes. Of course, he also found errors in the software, which he reported and which were corrected. All software has errors, it is how they get fixed that really counts. This is an exceptional student who had no trouble dealing with the concepts and tutorials involved. However, he had little previous or life experience of how or where these procedures might be used. Even then, as an independent project, he was able to apply TNTmips to preparing a layout for a map for a high school freshman Spanish class. His results are attached as a color plate entitled Relative Hispanic Population by County. He was also able, after this exercise, to converse fluently about TNTmips and geospatial concepts and how they could be applied to other complicated hypothetical projects. Training New Staff. The above student experiment indicates how an organization should proceed with a new technician or professional hired initially to operate TNTmips. This experiment, and similar experiences reported by other clients, establish that the operation of most of TNTmips can be learned directly from these tutorial booklets by an intelligent motivated person with a little outside help and the time to do so. This procedure works well if they have no prior experience with GIS, image processing, GPS, or TNT. If your new hire has already operated some other GIS or image processing "piecemeal" products and projects, the procedure is the same but requires even more management discipline and control. Indeed, it may go faster if the new hire is already familiar with the concepts of raster, vector, RDBMS, TIN, and so on. However, it is often easier to deal with someone who has no prior experience but a good professional grounding in the application area(s) to be addressed. Without careful guidance and control, the new hire experienced with a suite of other products tends to spend the 6 weeks hunting for how to do something in a random manner, rather than proceeding to learn how it is done in TNTmips by conscientiously going through the tutorials in a logical order. Getting new, bright people to operate TNTmips and contribute to ongoing projects now requires only that management be willing to allocate approximately the first 6 full-time weeks of uninterrupted time, general guidance, and motivation to learn geospatial analysis. MicroImages and other clients have found that it works best to control the process by having a chart or spreadsheet set up at the onset of the self-training period, showing the booklets to be covered and the order. The trainee is required to keep this chart up-to-date daily, post it in a public area (management by peer pressure), and is verbally quizzed once a week in a conversational mode to see that the chart is being accurately maintained. They should also be encouraged to ask others in the office or MicroImages if they get stuck or if errors occur. MicroImages operates its free software support on the premise that "the only dumb support question is the one that is not asked". And, of course, after these 6 weeks are over, management must also know or have vicariously learned enough about TNTmips to assign and guide the newcomer to accomplish meaningful projects. Out-of-Date Booklets. [4 units] All but 4 of the 50 tutorial booklets on the V6.20 CDs were current when the V6.20 CDs were shipped to the duplication plant. The following 4 booklets were updated after the V6.20 CDs were reproduced. Managing Geoattributes Managing Relational Databases Constructing a HyperIndex Feature Mapping Please download these 4 in PDF format from http://www.microimages.com/getstart/ to replace these 4 booklets installed from your CD. Possible Future Booklets. [20 possible units] New booklets will now be coming at a slower rate, as priority will be given to maintaining the currentness of the existing booklets. This is a major task when the TNT products experience major alterations in the interface (for example, LegendView, Layer Control panel, Select Object dialog, and so on). However, MicroImages plans that as many as 3 new booklets could be issued in each future semester. High Priority. [5 possible units] Integrating with a GPS Unit Introduction to Remote Sensing Watersheds and Viewsheds Introduction to TNTserver Developing an Enterprise-Wide Capability for Geospatial Analysis: MERLIN as a Case Study Lower Priority. [15 possible units] Enterprise Installations Scanning Surface Analysis Operations Vectorizing Scans/Rasters Using the Electronic Manual Extracting Geodata Using the Software Development Kit COGO Introduction to APPLIDATs Introduction to Hazard Modeling Introduction to RADAR Interpretation Introduction to Digital Photointerpretation Introduction to Automatic Mosaicking via GGR Introduction to PseudoDOQs from 35 mm Slides Introduction to Creating Management Zones for Precision Farming
The Reference Manual this quarter has 2539 single spaced pages distributed as follows: • Basic System Operations 197 pages • Display 731 pages • Edit 291 pages • Process 1115 pages • Support 90 pages • Glossary 94 pages • Appendix 21 pages 2539 total The HTML version of the Reference Manual installs into 35 MB with the illustrations or into 7 MB without them. The Microsoft Word version of the Manual is 68 MB. Last minute supplemental sections that do not occur in the on-line HTML version or Microsoft Word version were created for new processes and features. These sections were completed for V6.20 after the master CDs were created for the reproduction process. These 8 additional pages are included in supplemental, printed form as follows. CAD Snapshot (2 pages) Merging TIN Objects (2 pages) Combining Database Tables (4 pages) On-line quick help is now provided throughout the TNT processes using the Help system introduced in V6.10. If the help text were printed out, it would yield about 152 single spaced pages. This context sensitive help can now also be linked into the HTML-based on-line reference manual, the Getting Started PDF booklets–including starting the Adobe Acrobat Reader, or any other file, and open its application. * Paragraphs or main sections preceded by this symbol "*" introduce significant new processes or features in existing processes released for the first time in TNTmips 6.2. * Dual Monitors. Can I use them? Any TNT product can now be used with dual (or more) monitors. A modification has been made to all licenses so that TNTmips will operate across multiple monitors (TNTedit, TNTview, and TNTatlas already operated on multiple monitors). This applies automatically to W98 and Mac-based platforms. The Mac platform has supported the spanning of multiple monitors for years. W98 provides support for multiple monitors via its display drivers. W95 does not provide such a feature and never will. NT4.0 does not support multiple monitors but W2000 (alias NT5.0) does. UNIX and LINUX platforms can also be used with dual monitors if they have an appropriate X server and display board setup. There is one limitation still imposed on TNTmips by the license level you purchased for W98 and W2000. When using dual or multiple monitors, the display resolution must be set to the size permitted by your license (D35, D40, D45, D50, or D60). For example, if your TNTmips license permits maximum operation at 1024 by 768 pixels (a D40 product), then you must set the display resolution of each monitor in Windows to 1024 by 768 pixels. This would provide an effective display area for TNTmips of 2048 by 768 and greatly increase your productivity. However, it you set up W98 or W2000 to operate any of the monitors at larger than 1024 by 768 pixels, TNTmips will operate on only that monitor. TNTmips for the Mac, for a D60 level for W98 or W2000, LINUX, or UNIX can be used at any display resolution spanning multiple monitors. TNTedit, TNTview, and TNTatlas can now also be used on any platform supported at any display resolution spanning multiple monitors. Why add this feature? You will be very surprised at how much more productive the TNT products and other products are when operated on dual monitors. When W98 was first introduced with this feature 2 years ago, it was expensive to acquire the needed equipment: dual boards, dual monitors, more memory, and a faster processor to make it all work. Today, all of these financial impediments are significantly reduced. Processor/Memory. Typically, the use of dual display leads to the simultaneous operation of several software products. Similarly, a TNT product needs a lot of display area and processing horsepower. These are now available. Monitors. 17" monitors are commonly used with TNTmips. They are now inexpensive at an average of about $250 each. Today, 2 can be purchased for the same price as 1 when W98 was released with this feature. Display Boards. Appropriate, inexpensive dual display boards are the final and most recent development. Boards are now available that can support this dual monitor concept at a very low price. Several years ago, high resolution, fast boards that could be used in tandem ranged from $1000 to $2000 each. Today, a single display board can handle 2 monitors for $200. An alternative is to purchase 2 inexpensive display boards. It is important to make sure before buying them that the 2 boards selected will work together. Many display boards will not work if matched in tandem with a duplicate board or where 2 different boards require a fixed memory address that cannot be altered. MicroImages was prompted to permit wider dual display use at no additional cost by the release of a specific new display board. Namely, the Matrox G400 that is now shipping for the video game industry. There is one variant of this G400 for $200 that has 2 connectors for 2 display monitors on the single board. Since it is a video game board, it has a very fast display processor and 32 MB of on-board memory (AGP bus only). It comes with Windows drivers that span both monitors at varying resolutions of up to 1280 by 1024 by 24-bit color each. Thus, for $200 for the board and $500 for a pair of matched 17" monitors or $700 for 2 of the newest SONY 17" matched monitors, you can double or triple your productivity. More technical details on this Matrox product can be found at http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g400/features.htm. Map Projections and Coordinate Systems. More Accurate Datums. The datum transformation used in the TNT products in V6.10 and earlier has been acceptable to most clients. However, 1 meter satellite images, 1 foot resolution color orthophotos, geolocated building plans, local use of GIS anywhere in the world, and other site-specific applications of geospatial analysis require increased accuracy in such areas as datum transformation. V6.20 provides higher accuracy datum transformation by implementing the 7-parameter Bursa-Wolfe or "Similarity" transformation for all datums supported in the TNT products. Fortunately, the United States National Image and Map Agency (NIMA) just published these parameters as well as many new and revised datums (see below). You can obtain a copy of this information on these datums and transformations from www.nima.mil where you should choose "Maps and Geodata". This page has several "geodesy" links to various documents containing lots of information about datums. Additional Datums. The following additional datums are supported in V6.20 of the TNT products. European 1987 (North Sea) Samboja (Indonesia) Pulkova 1942 (Eastern Europe, Russia) NTF (France) Potsdam Rauenberg (Germany) KKJ (Finland) Amersfoort (Netherlands) Camacupa (Angola offshore) Moznet (Mozambique) RT90 (Sweden) DHDN (Western Germany) Hungarian 1972 (Hungary) Indonesian 1974 (Indonesia) LKS94 (Lithuania) Manoca (Cameroon) Nord Sahara 1959 (Algeria) Segora (Indonesia) Voirol (Algeria) Australian Geodetic 1984 (official conversion to GDA94) Beijing 1954 (Peoples Republic of China) Kalianpur (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan) MGI (Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia) Campo Rodriguez/Tete (Mozambique) OSGB36 (United Kingdom, Bursa-Wolfe form) WGS 1972 Transit Broadcast Ephemeris (Worldwide) European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (Europe) Greek Geodetic Reference System 1987 (Greece) If your datum and/or its transformation to other datums is not supported in the TNT products, it can be added if you can locate and provide the necessary parameters. Military Grids. The Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) used for many military maps around the world is available for coordinate reports in spatial views and in the map calculator. If you are not familiar with this system, a typical coordinate in California would be 10SAF2168568177 where 10 is the UTM zone and "SAF" specifies a 1 degree grid cell. The "S" is the alphabetically-ordered position running north to south in 8 degree increments, "A" is the east to west alphabetically-ordered position within the 8 degree cell, and "F" is the north to south position of the 100 km grid square. The numeric coordinates in meters are measured from the southwest corner of this 100x100 km "SAF" cell and are 21685 meters north and 68177 meters east. Polar Regions. The Universal Polar Stereographic coordinate system is now provided for use in polar regions. Miscellaneous. The names of the coordinate system built into the TNT products can now be localized (translated). The New Zealand Map Grid coordinate system is now supported.
Raster Extract. An option to use "averaging" when pyramiding the output data is now available. This feature has previously been available in other processes. Project File Maintenance. A Project File "folder" can now be copied to a new location. All the objects in that folder are copied as well. TNT Benchmarks. A new APPLIDAT can be installed that provides a means to compute benchmarks to compare some of the typical TNT activities between platforms of varying design, speed, or operating systems. For example, one test is the multiple display of a standard raster using the TNT geospatial rendering engine. This APPLIDAT benchmark, written in SML, is exactly the same program on every platform and comes with its own built-in standard test data. Thus, it will provide a good intercomparison if other applications are shut down as advised during its test operation.
Note: This Benchmark APPLIDAT may show an error on some Mac systems within the image classification test. Please contact software support for instruction on how to download a revised version for use with the MacOS.
Object Selection Dialogs. Why Change Them? New Windows-like object selection dialogs are now used throughout TNTmips and all the other TNT products. They replace the UNIX-like selection procedure that has been used in the TNT products since V4.00 was released in 1992. Those already familiar with navigation and selection procedures in other popular Windows products will find that it carefully mimics 1 of the 2 commonly used procedures for file selection. What is unique about the use of this paradigm in TNTmips is that it extends this idea. It provides transparent navigation to and from drive and directories seamlessly into the powerful TNT Project File structure and on into the single or multiple geodata objects. This includes subobject selection where required. This seamless blending of the powerful Project File concept with the directory structure now extends the TNT products’ management of geodata beyond that of competitive products, as illustrated in the attached color plate entitled New Standard Object Selection Pr |
Release Notes in PDF format ...