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this
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TNT
Products V7.0
November
2004
Table
of Contents
Introduction
Editorial and Associated News [by Dr. Lee D. Miller, President]
Official
Releases.
How Do TNT Innovations Occur?
Bigger, Bigger, and Bigger
Projects.
New Feature
Priorities.
Hardware News
Geologic Mapping
Station.
Starting TNT products from a Portable
Drive.
Serial ATA
drives.
Software News
Further Confusion over Wavelet
Compression.
LizardTech MrSID Compression to Be Supported in
DV7.1.
Reference Geodata
Orthorectifying OrbView-3
Images.
Landsat Global 15-Meter
Color.
SRTM
90-Meter.
Nebraska
1-Meter.
Floating TNT Licenses
Using a Floating License as a Fixed
License.
Updated
Tutorial.
Windows 95
Mac OS X
Version
Tracker.
Mac OS X 10.3.X
(Panther).
Mac OS X with Windows Remote
Desktop.
Mac OS X 10.4
(Tiger).
Ensuring the Correct TNT
Versions.
TNTsdk™
TNTsim3D™ for Windows
Building Massive Geospatial
Simulations.
Panoramic
Backgrounds.
Geospatial Scripting
(SML).
Custom View
Window.
Miscellaneous.
DV7.1 – Some Ideas for
Additions.
TNTatlas 7.0 for X
Atlas Discussion
Group.
Introduction.
Lincoln Sample
Atlas.
Afghanistan Sample
Atlas.
Miscellaneous.
TNTserver/clients 7.0
DV7.1 – Supporting OpenGIS’s Web Map Service
(WMS).
TNTview® 7.0
Price Reduced and Functionality
Expanded.
Inherited New
Features.
Upgrading
TNTview.
TNTedit™ 7.0
Inherited New
Features.
Upgrading
TNTedit.
Tutorial and Reference Booklets
New Booklets
Available.
Revised Tutorials with Major
Changes.
Quick
Guides.
New TNTmips Features
System Level
Changes.
New Coordinate Reference System
(CRS).
Shape
Objects.
2D
Display.
* 3D
Display.
* Manifolds.
Cartoscripts.
Georeferencing.
Raster Resampling Using
Georeference.
Raster
Mosaic.
Predefined Raster
Combinations.
Raster to Vector
Boundary.
Import/Export.
Font
Management.
Map
Calculator.
* Advanced Geometric Object
Conversion.
* Merging Objects.
* Vector and CAD
Extraction.
CAD Object
Warping.
Spatial Data
Editor.
Database
Features.
Text
Editor.
Style
Editor.
Geospatial Scripting Language
(SML).
Upgrading
TNTmips.
Internationalization and Localization
Localization
Editor.
MicroImages Authorized Resellers
AUSTRALIA.
BOLIVIA.
INDIA.
SOUTH
AFRICA.
CHINA.
Discontinued Resellers
Canada.
China.
Egypt.
Germany.
Ghana.
Guatemala.
Mexico.
Netherlands.
Pakistan.
Poland.
Russia.
Serbia and
Montenegro.
Spain.
Switzerland.
USA,
Florida.
USA, Colorado
United Arab
Emirates.
Appendix: Abbreviations
Attached Color Plates
Property Viewer Atlas for Lincoln, NE (2-sided)
Exploring District Services (2-sided)
Using Overlapping Polygons (2-sided)
Managing Display of Large Vectors
JPEG2000 Compression in TNTsim3D
Sky Domes in TNTsim3D
Sky Domes Provided with TNTsim3D
Adding Sky Domes to Landscapes
Startup Scripts in TNTsim3D (2-sided)
TNTsim3D Custom View
Snapshots from TNTsim3D (1/2 page)
Subterrain Color in TNTsim3D (1/2 page)
Property Finder Tool Script (2-sided)
Add Styling to DataTips (2-sided)
JPEG2000 Compression in Atlases
Greater Control Over
TNTatlas/X Startup (2-sided)
Afghanistan Atlases on CD (2-sided)
GraphTips in the Afghanistan Atlas (2-sided)
New Tutorials
Quick Guides Available from Menu
Directly Use PNG Files
Spatial Referencing in TNT (2-sided)
Coordinate Reference System Window
Predefined Coordinate Reference Systems
Predefined Coordinate Reference Systems Requiring Datum Selection
Custom Coordinate Reference System Setup
Graph Values from Multiple Rasters by Cell Location
Direct Display of
Shapefiles/Legends/Styles
Enhanced Sketch Annotation
Setting DataTip Background Color
Use a
DataTip, GraphTip, or Tool?
Local Time Zones (2-sided)
Pie Chart and Bar Graph (2-sided)
Enhanced DataTips and GraphTips (2-sided)
Profile of Nearest Line (2-sided)
Spyglass View (2-sided)
Pop-In View (2-sided)
3D Surface Rendering Modes
Transparency and Relief Shading in 3D Views
Pedestal and Fence in 3D Views
Stereo Viewing Modes
Anaglyph Stereo Viewing
Inexpensive Stereoscope Viewing
Stereoscope Viewing
Manifolds in 3D Views (2-sided)
Visualize 3D Geology Using Manifolds (2-sided)
3D Subsurface Model Using Manifolds
Create Cross-Section Manifold Objects
Edit Manifold Objects
Georeferencing Manifold Surfaces
Editing Manifold Surface Triangulation
Mosaic Directly into JPEG2000
Font Substitution in the TNT Products
Geometric Object Conversion
Copy/Paste between Geometric Objects (1/2 page)
Session Log Files (1/2 page + back)
Step through Elements with Tab Key
Database Table Creation Wizard (2-sided)
Database Wizard and Virtual Tables (2-sided)
Render Complex Layouts to SVG (2-sided)
Create Crystal Reports with SML (2-sided)
Terrain Curvature (2-sided)
Mosquito Habitat Statistics (U-Test) (2-sided)
Infrastructure Graphical Profile (2-sided)
Introduction
MicroImages
in its 19th year in business is pleased to distribute RV7.0
of the TNT products.
This is the 55th release of TNTmips
and adds approximately 280 new features submitted by clients and MicroImages.
Because of the length of this MEMO, the color plates are stapled
separately to make reading the MEMO and viewing the color plates more
manageable. Registered
and successfully completed downloads of TNTlite
are 26% higher in 2004 relative to 2003 and double the number in 2002.
MicroImages appreciates your support and assistance in promoting more
awareness of the TNT products around
the world. In exchange we continue
to concentrate our focus and resources on product development and support.
What
follows is a brief summary of many of the significant new capabilities in RV7.0.
-
TNTsdk: The software development kit used to build every TNT
product has been 20 years in the making and represents about 100 man years of
effort. Changing from Motif
graphical libraries to royalty free LessTif graphical libraries has permitted
the optional charge for TNTsdk to be
dropped. Now your RV7.0
CD and weekly patches permit you to install and maintain TNTsdk
and use it to build programs to add to your TNT
products’ menus including to TNTlite.
-
TNTatlas: A DVD entitled Property Viewer Lincoln, NE is
included with RV7.0 of your TNT
products. This sample atlas
demonstrates how a large collection of geospatial data (~50 gigabytes) can be
assembled into a form for easy general public use.
Navigation by an owner or address query is implemented in a TNT
Tool Script. Complex information
about each property is presented in the form of an enhanced DataTip.
A CD entitled TNTatlas of Afghanistan is also included to demonstrate
several completely new concepts that can be added to your atlases.
It demonstrates the dynamic pop-in of spatially aware graphical
information using the new GraphTip and Display Control Script features.
-
TNTsim3D: Large JPEG2000 texture layers can be used without any
performance degradation. For
example, a 50 GB image could be compressed 12 to 1 and distributed on DVD as
part of a landscape. Cloudy skies
and other panoramic dome backgrounds are provided and add realism to all
simulated views. TNT
scripts (SML) can be used to add
dynamic custom features. New SML
functions let you exit these scripts by using the flight controls (which means
keyboard, mouse, or joystick), rather than having to de-select the script from a
menu. Startup scripts now permit
simulations to automatically start up in specified positions, following
programmed paths, and so on. A
Custom View can be started with an observer position related to and locked to
the simulated changes in the Main View. The
contents of this Custom View can be the same, selected, or entirely different
components of the landscape.
-
TNTserver/clients: TNTserver
can now serve up results as JP2 (JPEG2000 compressed) and PNG (compressed) in
addition to JPEG rasters. Graphical
layers can be served up as Scalable Vector Graphics with a database table and
embedded/linked rasters. The latest
TNTclients have been modified to use
these new data structures.
-
TNTview: The price of TNTview
has been lowered from US$1000 (NAFTA) or US$1200 (international) to a uniform
US$500 fixed license and US$600 for each floating seat for all supported
platforms. See the sections below
entitled 2D Display, 3D Display, and others for all the RV7.0
features automatically inherited by TNTview.
-
2D Display: Labels created as part of a CAD sketch layer can now have
frames and leader lines. DataTips
can be enhanced in appearance by using all the TNT
text codes in their formation including picking the background color inside
their frames. GraphTips and Display
Control Scripts are now available.
-
Shapefile Layers: Shapefiles can now be quickly auto linked and
displayed as layers in a composite 2D and 3D view with styles and symbolism.
Styled entries for shapefile elements now show in the LegendView.
TNT special visualization
features can be used, such as DataTips, selection procedures, and so on.
-
JPEG Layers: An auto link to JPEG compressed rasters permits them to
be selected for use as layers in 2D and 3D views.
Companion world files (*.jgw) provide their georeference.
-
PNG Layers: An auto link to PNG compressed or uncompressed rasters
permit them to be selected for use as layers in 2D and 3D views.
Display processes will use companion world files (*.pgw) for georeference
if found. An opacity mask layer,
ICM color profile, and other features are stored in the link file and used.
-
3D Display: All older rendering modes have been removed and only the
three current methods are provided. Relief
shading can be optionally computed from the DEM and viewed.
A layer can use the transparency setting for the layer or for each
individual polygon for all rendering methods.
Complex pedestals can be created downward or upward for a fence effect.
Pedestals can be curved and have smoothed shaped color effects.
Manifolds can be viewed with or without 3D surface views.
-
Manifold Surfaces: Raster, vector, CAD, and linked objects can now be
georeferenced in 3D to orient and shape them into planar, curved, or folded
manifold surfaces representing cross sections, profiles, objects, and related
shapes. These 3D control points are
used to compute a TIN surface in a 3D view onto which the object is projected as
a texture. The TIN can be
interactively edited as well as the texture.
-
Stereo Display: A 3D view (texture plus DEM) can be switched into a
stereo mode that matches the available viewing device, such as a mirror
stereoscope or 3D monitor. Modes
include side-by-side, line interlaced, column interlaced, and anaglyph.
-
Display Control Script: This is a TNT
script that is stored with a group or layout and will auto run when either is
opened in the Display process. When
the cursor pauses in the view, just as with a DataTip, they can access its
geocoordinates, the nearest element (point, line, or polygon), and/or a raster
cell’s content. The rest of the script can use this result for anything that
can be done in a script.
-
GraphTips: Simple DataTips no longer need to pop-in as spatially
aware information just in the form of styled text.
Now data read for the cursor position using a Display Control Script from
attributes or computed from them can be presented in graphic forms—hence,
GraphTips. For example, GraphTips
can draw working clocks or combine attributes into a pop-in pie diagram or
histogram.
-
Dynamic Spatial Analysis: The geoposition/element(s) at the paused
position of a cursor can be used in a Display Control Script for a complex
geospatial analysis for every position of the cursor.
The inputs to the analysis can be any layers in the view or in objects of
any TNT geodata type.
The script can then project these results into their corresponding
locations in the current view (for example, as multiple GraphTips) or open and
present them in a new view. Move
the cursor, and it changes the analysis and results.
-
Editing Spatial Data: Features in a geometric object (vector, CAD,
shape, and TIN) selected by any TNT
selection method (region, attributes, cursor, …) can be copied and pasted into
any other type of geometric object or simply cut.
Manifold surfaces can be edited.
-
Validation. Validation of polygonal or full vector topology is faster
and more robust.
-
Coordinate Reference System: The industry standard ISO 19111
Coordinate Reference System (CRS) definitions and the corresponding EPSG
geodetic parameters, equations, and datum transformations are now supported
using a new Spatial Reference (SR) service, which supplies them to all TNT
products. Thousands of new CRS are
available. Datum to datum
transformations are used for more accuracy.
Defined units of measure are used to avoid conversion to/from meters to
increase accuracy and speed.
-
Mosaicking: Mosaics can now use linked MrSID, JPEG, JP2, or PNG files
or JPEG2000 compressed raster objects as input.
The resulting mosaic can be a lossy or lossless JPEG2000 raster object.
A null mask subobject is created to specify cells of null, or no, data.
-
Geometric Object Conversions: A mixture of several geometric objects
(vector, CAD, shape, region, and TIN) can be selected as input in the Extract or
Merge processes. The specific
output type is determined by your menu selection.
-
Render to SVG: Rendering into a Scalable Vector Graphics layout is
now faster. It uses a new improved
control window with tabbed panels. New
features include a JavaScript to reproduce any DataTips that were defined in the
source object(s), zoom up labels 2x when they are under the cursor, and others.
-
Geospatial Scripting Language: 20 SML
scripts designed to demonstrate new visualization and analysis capabilities are
illustrated and dissected in the accompanying color plates.
These include Display Control Scripts used for Enhanced DataTips and
GraphTips, TNTsim3D startup scripts,
a sample Dynamic Spatial Analysis script, and a TNTatlas
startup script to create a user input form for a complex query.
-
Tutorials: Two new tutorials are provided on the topics of managing
massive geodata layers and setting up the TNTsdk.
14 new Quick Guides are included and all Quick Guides can now be
installed and are indexed and accessible directly from within your TNT
products. 62 new color plates
accompany this MEMO to illustrate the use of the new features in RV7.0.
Four other tutorials have been expanded in scope to cover new features
and updated and 2 more have been updated.
Official
Releases.
Introduction.
For
20 years your requirements and our interest in addressing new opportunities for
geospatial analysis have continued to make TNTmips
and the other TNT products advanced
and flexible. In responding to this
continual demand and opportunity for new and more efficient features, the TNT
products are by necessity continually evolving.
As a result, you have to make the choice between reliability and your
need for new features, ease of use, speed, and so on.
MicroImages has an effective weekly patching system in place that
provides upgrades for several official versions of our TNT
products to support the evolutionary nature of our product development.
Patching is easy and can be done each week.
Cycling
Releases.
As
we approach the end of a development cycle of the next version of the TNT
products (for example, DV7.0), we
formally announce its new features. This came to you in synopsis form in a
MicroImages MEMO entitled V7.0 New Features.
From our viewpoint, this is about the time that the initial coding of
most of the new features for the next version is complete and their improvement
is underway. This New Features MEMO
is issued to you as early in our development cycle as possible to permit you to
decide if you want to order that version and/or begin to experiment with it.
Soon
after the New Features MEMO reaches you, we begin to get inquiries about when we
will officially release that version. The
official release of a new version of the TNT
products is made on a specific date via microimages.com. On that day the
official release version of your TNT
product is posted for downloading (for example, TNTmips
RV7.0 on 17 November 2004
).
During the weeks prior to this official electronic release, MicroImages’
staff is searching for and correcting errors and making minor adjustments to
tune the features in the release. This
effort is guided by your and our observations from using each successive weekly
prerelease as DV7.0.
During this last period before the official release, our activities are
not focused upon adding new major features, but some may appear that were not
documented in the early New Features MEMO.
Electronic
Release of Versions.
On
the day of the official release we are merely changing the name and status from
a development version (DV7.0) to the
official release version (RV7.0).
As a result, the official release differs from the last or weekly posting
of the development version by one week. The
first patch file posted the next week (PV7.0)
will differ from the official release version by 1 week, then 2 weeks, and so on
as will the full release version posted for download.
One significant thing that happens on this official release date is that
development of new features ceases. Correspondingly,
on that date a new development version is created internally at MicroImages (for
example, DV7.1 on 17 November 2004
).
Within a few weeks, when some new features are working in this new
development version, it is made available for downloading and new descriptive
material about it begins to appear at microimages.com.
Making
Your Update Decision.
You
can enter this weekly cycle at any time you choose that is permitted by your
subscription status by downloading an RV, PV, and/or DV that each may differ
from their previous release in weekly increments. If you are maintaining dual
versions (for example, the latest PV7.0
and DV7.1), you may be updating them
frequently. You probably became
aware of some interesting new feature via a new color plate(s), our daily news,
or eventually via the new feature summary MEMO.
You may decide to set up and start using DV7.1
because you need access to, or at least want to experiment with, some new
feature available in the DV. You
then often lobby us with suggestions for improvements in these new features
while such changes are easy to make. You
also report errors so that you can get these new features into working shape for
your immediate application via the DV. In
the weeks just before the official release, adding significant changes and
features decreases significantly and tuning and error correction are the focus
of our activity in that version. As of the date of the official release, no new
features are added to that version, a new development version is created for
that purpose, and the patches to the official release are focused only upon
correcting the inevitable additional errors you locate when running your
specific production projects.
From
all of the above you can conclude that the concept of an “Official Release”
of the TNT products is somewhat
arbitrary and subjective as our product evolution simply progresses from week to
week. The point at which you as a
client, institution, or reseller install the newest versions of the TNT
products is, thus, arbitrary. The
earlier in a development cycle that you install and work with the development
version, the faster you will gain access to its new features and the more likely
you will be motivated to, and become interested in, participating in the
perfection of that version as well and in influencing its final features and
form.
Physical
Release of Materials.
When
the effort of bringing a DV to the point of officially releasing it as an RV is
complete, the physical materials for it can be completed, such as writing this
MEMO, printing hundreds of thousands of color plates, reproducing color booklets
and Quick Guides, duplicating many thousands of CDs and DVDs, and packing and
shipping. This takes time.
Many popular commercial product upgrades first become available as a
download with rather useless help file updates and later via a single CD
providing the same lack of information but packaged in a big, fancy, and
otherwise empty box. This may work
for your products that are feature stable, such as a word processor or
spreadsheet, if you have good Internet access (not a modem), access to
commercial retail outlets, and are willing to buy expensive books months later
to consult regarding the possible new operations provided in the upgrade.
It is not workable approach for a complex, rapidly evolving, and more
expensive professional product, such as TNTmips.
Independent
User’s Flexibility.
As
a typical professional TNTmips user,
you are probably using a Windows- or Mac- based computer with dual displays, 1
GB of memory, hundreds of gigabytes of drive space, and DSL or cable Internet
access. While TNTmips
is a very large set of programs on a relative basis, each copy of it now has a
relatively small footprint on your large hard drives.
Your high speed network access enables you to effortlessly grab our large
weekly releases while at lunch and maintain several of them on your hard drive.
MicroImages also insures that, if you have multiple versions of your TNT
product installed on the same computer, they can be operated totally
independently.
Dependent
User’s Production Approach.
The
TNT product upgrades are widely
distributed internationally and must reach users with a wide variety of highly
varied distribution channels and Internet bandwidth.
Those of you with fast Internet connectivity can have your RV within days
of its postings. You do not need
the CD containing it. In fact, it
is likely that something on that CD has already been patched by the weekly
patches before the CD reaches you, and you have already downloaded your release
and patches to it. Those who are in
remote locations who can not at least borrow a fast Internet connection have to
wait for the CD to arrive and probably stay with using that version and its
potential problems. Those of you
using floating licenses with software installation, maintenance, and version
testing controlled by system managers have to live with their decisions with
regard to when they upgrade you. You
are again experiencing the same circumstances that originally led to the
personal computer rebellion and now to the monopoly of various software
products. In this case, try to
persuade them to let you have access to 2 TNT
versions: “the tried and true and something new.”
MicroImages’ various official release and patching procedures are
designed to support this widely diverse clientele (for example, fast versus slow
web access) and international customs (for example, locations with an absolute
aversion to prepaying for or even maintaining software).
How
Do TNT Innovations Occur?
Innovations
in application software are not born out of nothing.
Software evolves based on multiple factors, some controllable (for
example, existing features and the introduction of new libraries) and some
uncontrolled (for example, new operating systems versions and hardware and
increased computational power). Innovations
in the TNT products come about
within these circumstances in a process that might be thought of as guided
chaos. Thus, when we release new
features with long range objectives, their utility may not be clear to you and
may not even be totally clear to us.
Examples
of earlier TNT innovations of this
type might be the transparent use of geodata objects without regard to their
projection or coordinate reference systems, keeping all information for a
geodata layer together in a single object, managing geodata of differing
structures in a single file, adding the concept of scale to objects and views, TNT
scripting, and so on. The utility
of these features introduced over time may not have been immediately apparent,
but they now provide the building blocks of your current TNT
products’ advanced capabilities.
Enhanced
DataTips, GraphTips, Display Control Scripts, and Dynamic Geospatial Analysis
introduced in RV7.0 provide an
interesting example of how slowly perfected software building blocks can be
assembled and reassembled into innovative new TNT
features. The history of how these
features evolved from the simple DataTip idea may be of interest and provide
insight into how these new features work and can be applied. As you read this
account, you might wish to jump ahead and examine accompanying color plates in
the category entitled Sample
GraphTip Scripts to help you visualize the kinds of results they can
provide. These color plates are
also referenced and discussed in specific detail in the corresponding technical
sections of this MEMO.
Can
we spatially interact with a view? DataTips
are born.
Years
ago in the 20-year evolution of the TNT
products, we happened to see the idea of a pop-in feature identification label
in some other small software product. At
the time, this was the basis for the addition of the DataTips concept into the TNT
products. Our implementation took
this example idea further by permitting you to designate which attribute to
present as the DataTip for the element at or nearest to the cursor.
As soon as this feature appeared, you asked for more in the form of
longer strings for the prefix and suffix for better identification of the
information shown in the DataTip. This
led to requests for multi-line DataTips and then to DataTips presenting
information from more than one field.
Can
we compute their contents? DataTips
are computed, not simply read.
Next
came the desire to manipulate the “raw” values in an attribute field before
they pop in as a DataTip. An early
example of this was the need to change the units of the value in the field
before showing it in the DataTip or to combine real fields together to compute
and present a new and more meaningful value.
In a parallel development elsewhere in the TNT
products, the idea of defining and using virtual fields was evolving.
This capability made it possible to make new fields available that were
not really there in the tables and records (in other words, they are virtual).
They are defined using an equation or TNT
script from other real or virtual attribute fields in the table(s) and
reevaluated every time they are used for anything.
These virtual fields appear and behave the same as real fields in the
designated table and to other TNT
processes. In general, this
approach is analogous to the use of computed fields in what is called a
“view” in a database session and terminology.
At
that conjuncture, it was easy to adapt the virtual field concept for use in the
DataTip application. So now the
evolution of the DataTip had led to the ability to set up DataTips that
presented in real time the results of a model computed from the values of the
attributes at the current position of the cursor.
This procedure can be said to be “spatially aware” since when the
cursor position is changed, this model is instantly computed from the current
field values and the result then automatically pops in as a DataTip.
This was considered innovative at that time because, if some other
program or database activity changed the field(s) in the attribute table(s),
this changes the computed value of the virtual field and the corresponding
DataTip.
Can
we get modeled contents? DataTips
evaluate models.
You
can use this feature to compute modeled results from complex equations to define
the virtual field from geodata layers that may be hidden from view.
One example would be the use of the simple Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE)
to compute and display as a DataTip the potential soil erosion for any point in
the image being viewed. The
equation defining the value of this virtual field would be derived from hidden
vector layer(s) of soil properties and raster layer(s) of terrain properties.
These hidden layers do not even have to match the image layer being
viewed in projection, cell size, area extent, and so on.
Why
can’t we style the content? Complex
DataTips get styled.
Innovation,
or the application of others’ innovations to our products’ objectives, can
not stop. Computer power enables
it, you demand it, competition requires it.
Through all this you and we continued to communicate and work together.
Thus, about a year ago at a weekly informal lunch meeting of the
MicroImages software engineers, we were discussing how we could respond to your
requests to improve the appearance of DataTips.
The
initial focus of the discussion was that the information presented in a DataTip
would be easier to understand if they used font styles and tabs.
The immediate requirement causing this review at the meeting was the use
of font styles to differentiate prefixes from values and units and to align the
values vertically for easier reading.
In
a few minutes of discussion, it was concluded that this feature and many other
related to formatting could be easily implemented for use in DataTips in a
couple of days’ work. Simply
permit the DataTip text to contain the many format codes used in the text editor
by modifying the DataTip display code to use them.
Within a few days this was applied and used in the attractive DataTip
that pops into the Lincoln Property Viewer sample TNTatlas
DVD accompanying this MEMO. It is
also illustrated in the accompanying color plate entitled Property Viewer
Atlas for Lincoln,
NE.
Easy, yes, but it requires today’s computing power and years of other
earlier TNT developments to be
interactive and to build and display many lines of formatted data from multiple
layers in a fraction of a second.
Can
the changing data change the style? Enhanced
DataTips arrive.
Next,
at this same meeting, the idea followed that it would be useful if the text
color and background color of the frame of the DataTip could be determined at
the time of its display and changed based upon its current value.
These visual stimuli could be used to alert you or your user of some
particular aspect of the content or the changing content of the DataTip.
For example, “red” background could indicate that the temperature,
pressure, and other values for the flow in the nearest pipeline are critical and
out-of-range, “yellow” that they are approaching critical, and “green”
means that they are in safe range. Of
course, this is merely an example as you might want the pipeline and DataTip to
automatically pop in to the view if its condition is “red” and approaching
critical.
A
practical use of color to draw the attention of the user to specific conditions
is illustrated in the color plate noted above by changing the background color
of the DataTip and the corresponding value to alert you of the floodplain
category of the property. This
zoning might be of particular interest since a lending bank may require the
potential buyer to purchase expensive floodplain insurance, pay higher mortgage
interest rates, or even have a no-loan policy for flood prone areas.
In this example on your sample DVD, all you have to do is move the cursor
to the house of interest. Alerting
you to this special condition in this complex spatial reconnaissance TNTatlas
would not be very interactive by other means.
For example, this zoning could be reviewed by turning on the flood zone
vector layer for the view with polygons filled with transparent colors.
However, showing this and any of the other interrelated layers used in
this DataTip would soon obscure the view and make it difficult to understand,
particularly for your clients in other professions and with other backgrounds.
Another
example of how to use enhanced DataTips would be to present the results of a
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis equation (MCDA) that applies linear weights to
the attributes of several hidden vector objects (for example, land use, soil
properties, elevation, slope, temperature, rainfall, …).
This MCDA equation would combine the attributes of these layers to
populate a virtual table with virtual fields whose values are the suitability
index for each potential crop. The
virtual field for each crop could even incorporate local production costs,
conservation impact (for example, erosion potential), and market value for each
crop and present these factors with or incorporated into these crop suitability
indices. All these virtual fields
could be dynamically evaluated at any cursor position, combined, and popped into
the view as a single attractive enhanced DataTip for all major crops with a
layout similar to the enhanced DataTip in the Lincoln Property Viewer atlas.
How
could this MCDA-derived DataTip be used in a rural scenario?
Assume you or your client need to work with local land owners and land
stewards who are not particularly computer aware and do not even want to know
anything about geospatial analysis. One
objective is to show any one of them at any unscheduled time what is likely to
be the most suitable crop(s) for their land using “appropriate technology.”
Unscheduled is the key word here; it’s when they walk into your office
unannounced or you stop at their village with a portable computer.
If you start out by showing them some complex paper map prepared in
advance or screen view of the suitability of the general area for each potential
crop you are using “inappropriate technology” and will only confuse them.
As
an alternative, suppose you have prepared in advance a nice color image of the
area, with an overlay of some general road, village, label, and property
boundaries. You then view this in a
free TNTatlas, the new low-cost TNTview,
or any other TNT product including a
TNTserver.
You use this view to help them get their bearings in a 2D view of their
general area. You first and then
they move the cursor around on the 2D view, and wherever they hesitate, an
enhanced DataTip pops in showing clearly labeled values for the suitability of
each potential crop for an area they can recognize from the image and its simple
feature overlays in the view.
Maybe
they need a 3D view or even a TNTsim3D
opened to help them get oriented in the 2D view.
However, from this DataTip when moving the cursor around, they will
easily get the idea of the comparative crop suitability.
They may be concerned at this point about how these values are derived,
but could care less about how the underlying technology manages it.
Next they will want to see the general variability of the suitability of
a crop in their area rather than these point results.
Now you or they can make a simple step further and turn on a single
vector overlay showing in transparent color the suitability of a single crop for
the entire area of possible interest, and so on.
But
text is not the best way to present interrelated values!
GraphTips arrive.
The
design for implementing a GraphTip approach for an interactive graphical
presentation similar to DataTips was defined at the same lunch meeting.
We recognized that DataTips were getting complex and being used to
present multiple lines of interrelated values.
It was then a small but innovative jump to discussing how this
information might be presented in a graphical form as a GraphTip that pops in
instead of a DataTip.
GraphTips
are an interactive form of pin mapping. The
simplest example of this is to pop in a pie diagram or a bar graph to visually
show the percentage relationship between several database fields, for example
the relative population of men and women in a county.
Yes, a pinmap layer or map could present this same graphical information
by showing all the pins. This is
the way pin mapping is used in a physical printed map.
However, in an interactive setting all these pins, unless carefully
controlled by scale, can obliterate the basic theme layers in the view and each
other. So now you can use GraphTips
to present these same symbolic results as an interactive presentation that
automatically shows these details for every position of the cursor.
Why
are we limited to only one graph? Display
Control Scripts are added.
After
these simpler GraphTip concepts were developed, even more complex applications
of the GraphTip concept were discussed at a later informal lunch meeting.
These ideas were sufficiently complex and varied that they could not be
achieved by further extension of the DataTip/GraphTip coding structure.
So the idea of using our codeveloped TNT
geospatial analysis scripting
language (SML) to provide for more
real time, complex spatial decisions to determine what to draw and where to draw
it. Thus, the concept of a Display
Control Script (DCS) was added to the TNT
products.
In
some ways GraphTips created by a DCS are closely allied to the already familiar
idea of using a TNT script to add
new special tools to the icon bar or menu in the view.
However, you “pull information to you” with a Tool (Tool Script)
since it only evaluates information about the position when you click on it.
A DCS “pushes information at you” in the form of instructions,
graphs, images, or whatever you preprogram it to do if the cursor simply pauses
on or near a feature in the layer.
Examples
of a Tool and a Display Control Script that have been deliberately designed to
have very similar objectives (a moving spyglass view of another layer) are
discussed in the technical sections below.
While Tool Scripts and DCSs have different internal structures, in
application they may only differ in operation in a simple fashion.
A Tool is selected and turned on by your deliberate choice and action. You
then may get a dialog to define how the tool should operate.
The simplest dialog at the start of using a Tool might let you select the
object in the layer list or any other overlapping object for use with the Tool.
You must then click the Tool in the view to initiate its activity.
In
contrast, a Display Control Script (DCS) is automatically evaluated every time
the cursor moves a designated minimum distance in screen pixels and pauses a
specified period of time, usually set to 0.5 seconds.
When these cursor movement/pause conditions are met, the DCS, which has
been concurrently running, automatically operates on layers typically hidden in
the view, or on objects in fixed directory locations.
These objects can be of changing size, content, different Coordinate
Reference Systems, and so on but must be named and found in the preprogrammed
directory positions or kept track of by some means, such as top or bottom layer.
The DCS draws in a GraphTip and then closes it when the cursor is moved.
However, since it is a TNT
script, it can take a wide variety of other geospatial actions leading to the
next kind of dynamic application.
Can
we graphically present spatially interrelated results?
Dynamic Geospatial Analysis
arrives.
Via
the Display Control Script (DCS) we have ended up this RV7.0
development cycle with the idea that multiple GraphTips can pop into your view
that are at positions that are spatially related to, but not at the pause
position of the cursor. These
GraphTips can visually represent the data about features at remote locations in
or off the edge of the view. This
is illustrated in the accompanying color plate entitled Exploring District
Services.
This
is a dynamic analysis. If you pause
the cursor at any location on the color image of Lincoln, 3 GraphTips symbolically representing
school buildings pop in at the location of the 3 different schools (elementary,
middle, and high school) that serve the geographic location of the cursor.
Move the cursor and the school symbols move around appropriately. This is
a DCS so no mouse click is necessary and its use is completely
“discoverable,” simply pause the mouse over the view!
In
this example DCS, the cursor position is used to detect the property parcel from
a hidden vector layer when the cursor is paused.
This parcel is overlapped by the three school attendance area polygons in
the hidden school attendance vector layer.
This permits the point at which the school is located to be found in this
layer and the GraphTip school symbol to pop in at that position.
The accompanying color plate entitled Using Overlapping Polygons
graphically illustrates how the DCS uses these unseen vector elements.
This DCS script is listed and dissected on the backs of these 2 color
plates.
Now
it is up to you, at least for this development cycle.
Show us what you can do!
In
many applications of TNTmips as a
geospatial specialist, you are setting up materials for other professionals to
use and exploit. We might define
their goal as “interactive spatial data mining” and we have decided to call
this activity in the TNT products
Dynamic Geospatial Analysis. DataTips
are now commonly used in your applications but took some time and improvements
to become ubiquitous.
While
perhaps complex to set up, this school example is the latest crest of the wave
of our innovations in this direction.
Each time we provide a new crest, you exploit it in innovative ways in
your area of interest and extend our initial applications well beyond our ideas.
For example, you might set up geodata and GraphTips for an expert
geologist to explore for spatial relationships in digital layers of geological
geodata. Yes, you or your
client might find these conditions by successive “batch-like” applications
of other geospatial analysis tools, in other words, you jointly think up a
scenario and then run out the map for visual or hardcopy review.
However, this greatly reduces the chance that the expertise of the
several professionals involved will be used to interact and “think
spatially” rather than simply periodically “evaluate spatially.”
Can you think up ways to use these new interactive capabilities to search
for spatial relationships that can be interactively discovered?
And
we have not truly invented anything new! “Innovation
favors the well prepared!”
It
is easy for us to think that we discovered or invented these new kinds of tools
and ideas. What in fact is
happening is that “we are actually discovering” how to adapt and apply what
we have observed elsewhere for use in the particular focus of our TNT
products. Most of these concepts
discussed above are used in other types of application products, but not
necessarily in competitive geospatial analysis products.
For example, many analogs of these ideas are encountered in web browsing
if you are using a broadband connection and dynamic HTML, flash, SVG, and so on.
They are discovered and added to your TNT
products using our building blocks as part of our efforts to maintain the most
innovative, professional-level, desktop geospatial visualization and analysis
software available.
Bigger,
Bigger,
and Bigger
Projects.
Introduction.
The
innovation in the TNT products
discussed above is interesting and potentially useful in some of your
applications. But it is certain
that the size and scope of your geospatial analysis tasks for the TNT
products will grow and grow and continually require our development efforts to
keep up. You can handle these large
geodata tasks in a lot of little orthoimage pieces or map units using a
batch-like strategy, but this may impose limitations, such as edge effects.
You can also approach these tasks for your nation, state, or the world
using large, single objects and Project Files.
It
should be clear to you that just as the outer boundaries of your projects expand
toward some physical, geographical, or political boundary, the inner detail
required will also continue to increase. Available
image resolution and extent will increase, GPS precision for line oriented
materials will increase, datum and local coordinate reference systems will be
refined, and so on.
This
is why the Coordinate Reference System (CRS) standardization and related
modifications have been released in RV7.0.
These standardized coordinate systems are the base needed to build these
obvious future “really big jobs” and meet their accuracy requirements.
For example, the new High Accuracy Reference Network (HARN) datums and
transformations in and out of older datums are being introduced into geodata
sets in Japan, Europe, and the
US to support new accuracy requirements.
Future
geospatial applications require standardized, industry wide, exchangeable, and
accurate CRSs. It may be as simple
as resolving the current arguments between image providers about how to
standardize the access to the CRS of JPEG2000 compressed images (*.jp2 files)
moved around the Internet. Or, it
may be as complicated as some future application in automatically driving a
vehicle.
As
you need them, these new demands are met by our TNT
upgrades released to respond to these new requirements in size and accuracy.
Often, it is you clients who are professional geospatial analysts (in
other words, those using TNTmips as
part of earning their living) who identify to us these new requirements by
asking for these kinds of “bigger and better features.”
These improvements can then be applied by all clients whether you are
developing geodata for a nation, state, or river basin or simply requiring very
high precision for preserving the spatial relationship of features in managing a
municipal infrastructure or recording and analyzing a small archaeological site.
Big
Project Strategy.
Throughout
its existence, MicroImages has focused on getting the really large project
completed as efficiently as possible on your desktop.
Our working premise is that if the TNT
products can do the really large geodata storage, access, and analysis in
acceptable times, the small activities of these types will appear to be nearly
instantaneous.
Your
concept of what is a “really large project” for your TNT
products has continuously ratcheted up over their 20-year evolution.
What is a “really large project” has primarily been, and continues to
be defined by the availability to you of larger and larger inexpensive hard
drives; CDs, then DVDs, and soon HDVDs as a publication media; the limits of
your operating system; and other limits these hardware factors place on TNT
objects and Project File sizes.
Our
original conceptual design of the Project File, its objects, and their
subsequent adjustments has enabled us to adjust the Project FIle to keep well
ahead of these improvements in your storage, operating system, and processing
power and the ever larger objects they permit you to use in your projects.
Today you do not hesitate to commit to undertake massive city, county,
province, and country sized projects in TNTmips
using single objects for each data layer.
Your
personal time is often most efficiently used if your project can be approached
in this fashion, even if you need to run a complex TNT
analysis task in the background while completing other work in a word processor
or even when it continues running unattended overnight. Then often, upon
completion of the project, you tile out the objects for export into other
formats in smaller units so they can be used in less robust products.
Certainly
your desktop hardware speed (processor, bus and drive access, memory, and so on)
and the efficiency of a required TNT
process control your efficiency in completing the task.
However, usually it is the storage media that enables you to consider
undertaking it as a “really big project” rather than inefficiently in pieces
or not at all. Yes, you most
certainly let us know when a particular process runs for hours or days.
We then go to work to determine if that process can be made more
efficient and faster. Sometimes it
is a matter of the basic limitations of the current hardware.
However, in either case, you often move ahead with your “really big
project” running slow tasks overnight or over the weekend.
Sample
Past Improvements.
The
Global Data Set DVD released as part of V6.9
and the Lincoln Property Viewer TNTatlas
released with RV7.0 demonstrate that
your large object approach to large projects can be viable and cost effective
and differentiate the TNT products
from others. Keeping pace with your
expectations in this area does require that new or completely revised building
blocks and strategies are needed and must be gradually introduced and perfected.
Some of these “really large project” software strategies introduced
over the past years in the TNT
products are:
-
image pyramiding for very fast display of images at any scale,
-
periodic implementation of new and better means of raster compression,
-
optimizing the internal structure of a polygonal vector object,
-
providing simpler topologies when polygonal topology is not needed,
-
using geodata in objects closer to their original CAD and shape designs,
-
indexing large database tables, and
-
continuing effort to speed up topology validation.
How
well have these past features you have had for years met these “really big
project” goals as we have evolved forward?
Inserted here is a web comment addressing the last feature listed above.
It was picked up from a discussion on a forum for an inexpensive GIS
product by a user of TNTmips 6.4
(circa 2000) and the latest version of the other product.
The TNTmips 6.4 version
mentioned is now more than 4 years old, a long time in this rapidly evolving
business. The inclusion of this
quote is not intended to be critical of the other low-cost products mentioned
(they have their own design objectives), but to present a totally objective
comment on how users of products react to how our products or their other
products use their time. This posting is obviously a comment from a user who
remains satisfied with the capabilities of V6.4
or has a lot of time and little money for upgrades.
From
a posting to manifold-l@lists.directionsmag.com on 18 November 2004
“Another
interesting thing I've just been looking at (and I know this has featured in a
few discussions, and [a
name] mentioned that they're working on it) is the display time for a large
drawing (75mb e00 file) of watershed basins (i.e. areas). I double clicked the
drawing and it opened up and is still working away at displaying the basins
(quite a while now) - in the meantime I've opened up TNTmips 6.4 and displayed
it in there. The initial time was about 1 minute, thereafter redrawing took less
than ten seconds (while Manifold is still not showing anything but the red dot
in the right hand corner). I then overlayed the flowpaths (couple of tens of
thousands of lines) on the basins in TNTmips, and again the initial display time
was about a minute, and thereafter redisplaying, zooming in/out, etc/ takes less
than 10 seconds. Selecting basins or flowpaths is almost instantaneous (recolouring
the line/area as well as showing the attribute data in the table). How do they
do it? I know this has been one of TNTmips' features for many years - very fast
drawing/displaying of vectors and rasters. I've seen ArcView battling with less,
and so do all the open source products (especially the Java products like Jump
and OpenMap) that I've worked with. It takes ages for larger vector objects to
display. I'm interested in how it's done - curious. I know there's a checkbox in
TNTmips, when you import vector data: Optimize vector for display. Also, a
process for optimizing old (pre 6.4, I think) vector layers. Any theories? What
voodoo art do they use to get MSWindows to display these things so very quickly?
Mmmh,
no drawing yet - Manifold's still oozing along... :-)
V7.0
Results.
A
major portion of the effort expended in getting you RV7.0
is to alter and improve TNT features
to accommodate your bigger, bigger, and bigger project materials.
These activities are summarized here in this context of largeness and
robustness improvements in RV7.0 and
are covered in much more detail later in this MEMO’s corresponding technical
sections.
Mosaicking:
making big raster objects bigger.
Assembling
mosaics of large areas from good quality orthoimages and collarless, good
quality, scanned maps is becoming common. Often
the source material is large in number (for example, thousands) and/or large in
uncompressed size, but provided in a compressed form such as JPEG, MrSID, or PNG.
By necessity, the target is also compressed, such as in a JPEG2000 object
or a JP2 file. Mosaic can now
accept as direct input any linked raster files, does not import them, and
outputs the mosaicked object in any supported raster type including a compressed
JPEG2000, JPEG, or standard lossless object.
To accomplish this kind of task, even if it is so big that it takes
hours, has required a lot of attention to be given to the RV7.0
version of Mosaic.
Compression;
making big raster objects small again.
JPEG2000
compression is now completely integrated for use in raster objects in RV7.0
of the TNT products.
For example, you can now mosaic directly into JPEG2000 compressed raster
objects. These objects can then be
used as texture layers in your TNTsim3D,
greatly increasing the texture raster dimensions of the Landscape File that can
be distributed on a DVD. JPEG2000
compressed images (as well as linked MrSID, and ECW) can be used to put much
larger images into your TNTatlas on
DVD and correspondingly for use by your TNTserver.
JPEG2000 files can even be served up by TNTserver
to reduce transmission time to a TNTclient.
Shape
Object: making shapefile layers faster.
Large,
single shapefiles are beginning to appear of over a gigabyte, usually due to
attachments to large database structures. The
use of the new shape object concept has been advanced in RV7.0
to greatly accelerate the ability of the TNT
products to directly link to large shapefiles and use them just like any other
layer in a TNT view.
Accompanying this has been the addition of procedures into this automatic
link to show the shapefile’s legend entries and styles in the TNT
LegendView for the linked object.
Coordinate
Reference Systems (CRSs): supporting the precision needed.
You
can not do many types of large projects without accurate, standard CRSs and
conversions between them and their possible datums.
RV7.0 introduces a completely
revised CRS based on ISO standard 19111:2003.
For example, your large project might have a small geographic extent,
such as a city, but require very high accuracies.
These could be difficult specifications to accommodate without using the
new High Accuracy Reference Network (HARN) datums and datum transformations
enabled by this new CRS management introduced first in RV7.0.
Merging
and Combining: assembling bigger,
more complex geometric objects.
Copy/Paste,
extracting, merging, and combining large vector, CAD, shape, and TIN objects can
now be set up to run with fewer intermediate steps using the new Geometric
Conversion Engine introduced in RV7.0.
However, the larger and more complex the objects combined directly into a
polygonal vector object or converted later, the greater the possibility that
conflation errors (in other words, microscopic topology errors) might occur.
This improved capability and your tendency toward creating larger
geometric objects, particularly vector objects, have required substantial
improvements in the validation of topology to detect and resolve these errors
and in speed to accommodate all the additional computation and checking this
necessitates.
Scale
Control: preventing meaningless, slow displays of large geometric objects.
Even
a trivial thing like displaying a large vector at meaningless map/view scales
has been addressed. Now you are
given a warning in the form of a Dense Layer Verification window and options if
the geometric object you are selecting to display at the current view scale is
so dense that it will simply fill in the view in a meaningless mass of
crisscrossing lines.
This
Dense Layer Verification window is illustrated in the accompanying color plate
entitled Managing Display of Large Vectors.
It will appear when you select a vector object for the current view that
exceeds an element density threshold. When
this warning window appears, you are being informed that at the current scale of
the view the vector will be slow to render and will solidly or densely fill in
the area it covers. You can choose
to dispose of this window using several toggles.
Do
not add layer.
Select
this toggle if you simply want to skip this layer for the moment.
You can then use some other layer(s) to zoom into your view to the local
area of interest, and then come back and add in this vector when it will display
with a lower element density.
Add
with full visibility.
This
toggle overrides this warning window and displays the vector object.
Add
with scale range of.
This
is the toggle that is initially on by default for each new large vector object
you display. Along with this toggle you are provided with data entry boxes to
set the scale range of the view window over which this layer will be drawn in
the view. Each box will have a
default scale value in it that you can edit.
The larger value will determine how far you zoom into the view for this
layer to begin appearing. It is
determined to be a reasonable scale from the element density.
The lower value is initially zero. If
it is set to some other value, it will determine when the layer will cease to
appear as you zoom in further and further.
If you set this toggle, the current values in this window will be saved
with this vector object and appear as defaults in the Dense Layer Verification
window the next time the vector is added as a layer in any view.
If you want to change the scale range previously set for any layer, reset
it the next time it is added or choose Show
Scale Ranges
from the Options menu in the Group or
Layout Controls window, and change it there.
Add
initially hidden.
This
toggle adds the vector to the layer list as a hidden layer. You
can then toggle the layer on when you have zoomed into the view to a scale at
which it is needed and will not be so dense that it obscures all other
previously added layers.
DV7.1.
Making it even better.
In
DV7.1 we plan to experiment to see
how other kinds of modifications can improve, or at least keep pace with, your
ever increasing project sizes. At
least two areas of investigation are related directly to how fast you can work
in your TNT products.
Buffering
Individual Layers.
As
you know, big geometric objects can take time to add to a composite view each
time any layer is turned off and back on. Using
a new memory buffering approach, it may be possible to add individual new layers
to a view or toggle those already showing off and then back on without
regenerating all the other layers in that view.
Selecting
File Opens a View.
Another
feature of possible wide interest, which has already been implemented in DV7.1
in its initial form, is the ability to double click on a file with a supported
extension (for example, *.jpg, *.jp2, *.shp, *.sid, and so on) and automatically
open the TNT product registered in
Windows for this file, the X server and the display process, link to the object,
and display it. You can also click and open to run an SML
script (*.tkp, *.sml), or a Landscape File (*.sim) for TNTsim3D,
or a Project File (*.rvc). Selecting
a Project File in this fashion will open it in the registered TNT
product using the first layout, the first group, or the first object it finds in
that Project File. Methods for
determining and controlling which of these objects to open when more than one is
present are currently being explored. This new capability is currently limited
to Windows but will soon be made available for Mac OS X and other TNT
supported operating systems.
Yes,
this click and go even works for a single layer if the free TNTatlas/X
is installed and is registered in Windows as the software used to open any of
these extensions. TNTatlas/X is
downloaded and installed as part of every TNTlite
and does not have the object size limitations of the other TNT
products included in TNTlite. Thus,
any supported file type or TNT
object can be opened in this fashion by a lite user and use all the features and
tools in TNTatlas/X, but only one
object at a time. If you want
to view more than one layer or layout then install and register these extensions
for use with the new, lower cost TNTview
product. Using the mouse to select
a *.jp2 or *.sid file of many gigabytes before or after compression can
automatically open TNTatlas (or your
other TNT product) to view the
raster in seconds! Shapefiles may
take a few more seconds but work just the same.
Will this new feature make the RV7.1
TNTatlas the most powerful and
useful FREE geodata viewer available?
New
Feature Priorities.
Will
the feature be there when you need it?
The
TNT products probably cover the
widest range of geospatial application areas and uses of any single product
without expensive extensions or options. However,
in a specific project, you often concentrate your use and requests for new
features in a specific area. For
example, your interest is primarily in using TNTatlas
as a geodata publishing tool. You
may go along in this fashion for years with this activity and may not feel you
need to keep your TNTmips current.
Suddenly you encounter a situation, say a new operating system, new
hardware lacking an earlier feature (for example, a portable with no parallel
port), a data source such as MrSID, large mosaics, a detailed project area with
a special local coordinate reference system, and so on.
Any one of these may require you to take advantage of the newest features
in the latest version of TNTmips to
make your TNTatlas.
Depending upon the potential generic nature of your request, you will
find it has been addressed in a recent version of the TNT
products. If you do not find that
feature in the current version, you begin to lobby for it or even for a
completely new direction in product development (for example, the introduction
of manifolds in this release). Every
request we receive is documented and assigned a priority.
It’s
a case of setting priorities.
At
the present time we have 2750 new feature requests of varying priorities, which
have accumulated over the last 20 years. The majority of these were not logged
by you, but internally by MicroImages’ staff as part of our internal design
decisions. RV7.0
completed 281 new feature requests from this list while 404 were added since RV6.9.
To manage our resources and product development we have to establish
priorities for which new features we add and which we do not add for each new
release. Once you have received back the code number assigned to any new feature
you have submitted, you can check the priority we give to it at www.microimages.com/support/features/. The
initial priority we assign to a new feature request is based upon our perception
of whether or not that feature represents a commonly needed feature for our
clients. However,
assigning a high priority to any new feature does not mean that it will be in
the next release. Often this is
because it requires some lower level, underlying, and not obvious developments
in the TNT code and must await these
developments; it can already be accomplished by other TNT
procedures; it is large and complex to implement; or it simply becomes less
important due to other internal software or operating system changes.
Increasing
a priority.
Finding
that a less than high priority has been assigned to your new feature request
does not mean you should give up on getting it.
Sometimes you have to be persistent and convince us that it is in our
interest and that of other clients to raise its priority. Or,
you may want to discuss the possibility of contracting with MicroImages to add
that feature to the TNT products.
Often we will cost share the expenses of such developments.
But, even if it is added in this contract fashion, the feature will not
be proprietary and will become available to everyone in the next TNT
release.
Opportunity
costs.
Many
commercial product companies will not respond to custom feature requests.
Why? Because the true cost,
not your perceived cost of commercial software development, is not obvious.
These are called “lost opportunity costs.”
This is the cost(s) of not completing the most important features of
common and wide interest at the earliest date with a limited resource, in this
case the time of the software engineering manpower a |
