Testimonials and other Tidbits (V6.30)

[Responding to a notification that a new feature requested was added]

"WOW! That was mind boggling fast work on the part of the MI team. Thanks!"

"I just received the custom-made CD with the last release of v6.0 of TNTmips. Many thanks. I only just started it up, but already see a few good improvements. I look forward to the most current version whenever I can scare up a grant to cover it."

"Many thanks to Jason Rader and the rest of the gang. I’m quite aware that it’s not just any software company that would make such a special effort to provide a customer with an out-of-date version!"

"We used MIPS [TNTmips] for our Prairie Dog project as stated in the footnote on page 35 of my article. [A name] of NPWRC did a great job with MIPS to create our transects. I was just at NPWRC and was very impressed with MIPS 6.2. Unfortunately I work for the USFS and we can’t buy MIPS. Anyway, I wish I had MIPS including its moving map feature. Guess I’ll have to find a new employer."

"I hope you received my FAX with the proforma order for our TNTmips license number three here in [a company]. It was possible to convince my boss that this GIS software is the most effective solution for our daily work. We have three persons using TNTmips now (I have trained the two others with the help of the marvelous Getting Started Booklets), so we need sufficient licenses. At the moment, we do a lot of work as GIS backstopping center, processing project data and remote sensing imagery for our poor project managers out in foreign countries (from Jemen to Somoa Islands), who are poorly equipped with AutoCAD Map or ArcView and therefore have a lot of problems."

"Tech Support et al."

"Just a short note to say ‘thank you!’ for designing TNT to utilize a single file (the Raster Vector Cad, or rvc file) to store all spatial and ancillary data (e.g. databases, styles, histograms, projections, etc.)."

"While browsing the ESRI web site I ran across the following list of all the ancillary files that ArcView uses (and therefore requires file management overhead)."

"Yikes!"

"I feel the pain of may ESRI based sisters and brothers. Thank you for freeing the TNT user from this most horrendous task! A very satisfied user."

"Also, I’d like to mention how pleased I am that transparency and right-click functions have been added to TNT. I am impressed by the advances made since I started using the program a year and a half ago."

"I hope this finds you well. I am disappointed that I could not make this years workshop. Hopefully next year. I really got stuck into Mips now, and it is great software package to work with. In my opinion much easier than GenaMap and MapInfo. Can not wait to get into the analysis side of things." [From an organization moving all their geodata from GenaMap into TNTmips.]

"Last year we produced about 4 big reports, the last was almost 2 inches thick, with something like 120 TNT layouts. With the exception of one more advanced project which has drillhole information, all our project data are analyzed and presented via TNT. There are five people updating our GIS, and preparing and printing layouts–working plans as well as A4 prints for reports. Because we have so many projects on the go, and because we produce the reports frequently we rely heavily on saved layouts to recreate maps, simply substitution the updated version of the object. For the atlas, we simply used print layouts and linked them together to prepare the story on a project, starting from the regional aspect and zooming in until we were showing the latest detailed results and planned work for a small (3kmx3km) area."

"Now that we’ve been working like this for 2 years, and the number of projects has grown from 2 to about 20, we have some serious housecleaning to do in the ‘database’, and have also asked [the MicroImages dealer] to help with some training of the team members as well as defining of standards for naming and file organization. He has been a great help already (picked up quite a few problems while assembling the atlas) and we have a very good relationship."

"First of all I have to say that the software you are working on is really a powerful partner on creating maps. Thanks. We also use ArcView, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator."

[From a company that publishes a fancy travel publication similar to the National Geographic Magazine.]

"BTW, did you read the recent review of Image Analyst for ArcView in the Feb PE&RS? They said it was an entry level tool at best, takes 80Mb of space, and costs about $2.5K!!! The earlier review of TNT beat that in so many ways!"

"As you may have guessed, I’ve been doing rather a lot in TNT recently, and whilst I’ve found a number of bugs, I’ve been impressed with how stable the system now is (excepting a couple of nasties, which I’ve reported)–I’ve been editing and re-editing datasets with no crashes. Anyway, as I’m normally ‘complaining’, I thought I should give you a compliment, as you certainly deserve it."

[This organization supported a GIS department for more than 10 years using Genasys. Recently, the department was closed, and a couple of other staff began to move all the geodata created in the 10 years into TNTmips Project Files. Since this is now complete, the last of the organization’s Genasys licenses have terminated, and they cancelled their licenses to their Genasys software. The annual leases they cancelled cost several times the purchase price of all the TNT products they currently have in use at this location.]

"His atlases makes our stuff look pretty basic–the layouts are well though out and the data is carefully constructed. We are thus experimenting a lot with putting data together into logical themes, which makes a lot of sense. Imagery of course makes a huge difference and I wish I had more of that type of data in out system. The quality of [his] data and his interpretations are pretty superb–what always amazes me and what should sell GIS without even trying is that as soon as data sets are overlain, the first thing one does (instinctively) is look for the relationship between data. Only a moron can disregard the power of spatial data."

" [We] are pretty close to getting out the champagne–firstly, [we] sent off our termination to Genasys and there is only a little more data to pull across, then we can free up some valuable disk space! Secondly, and more importantly, [he] managed to sort out the TNTserver software to work via our Intranet web page and so for the first time in this company’s history, GIS is now available (albeit only [locally] whilst we finalize the testing phase–getting the appearance tight and so on) at the click of a button–the standalone client works fine, but we wanted to get the downloadable client up an running as well–[he] tells us that within his network, the download speeds of the client are acceptable and this is one aspect we need to test out more fully within our network. My boss will be going off to the [another] office next month, so we hope that he can give us more ideas of connection speeds from there to [South Africa]. Obviously it is not optimal to use my laptop as a server, and we are getting one of our machines jacked up to a 600MHz PIII, 256Mb RAM, 34Gb HDD, and a dual screen system this week. This we will then use to more properly test the system out, and later this year, we will buy a bigger more powerful machine which will be used for the actual product (then I can get the machine back to use for myself!)"

[Further comments from the same organization as above.]

"As usual, things continue on their hectic course here. We have upgraded the one 600MHz, 250Mb RAM, 30 Gb HDD and put in a Appian Gemini 16Mb dual monitor graphics card to run 2 LG 20" monitors. Things are flying! We managed to get the TNTserver installed on this PC with no real hassles, although took a while to figure out how to get it working on the Intranet. But success!! We have totally redesigned the Atlas and it is starting to look pretty smart now. We have begun testing the access over the Intranet within the [main] building and are very pleased with the results. From pressing the button off the GIS Intranet page [requesting download of TNTclient] to loading of the home level of the Atlas takes between 5 and 30 secs depending on which machine is being used. Also no problem on the 5th floor (we are on the 8th) and our Ethernet only seems to be set at 10Mb (we have asked IT Dept. to switch us to the 100Mn lines). Very acceptable."

"My boss was in [another city on another continent] today and managed to access the system from there, but he noted that it was very slow to get the client to download. He also had a lot of trouble as the drop down menus were not properly activated (flashed down, but you can not select the items). Find it strange, because we set his PC up here and seemed fine. Also worked via the standalone client. Will have to check his machine when he gets back here and see if it does the same thing. I have a feeling that the IT Dept. on the [other city] side have gotten something screwed up, but it is difficult to say. I did get him to check that the JAVA VM was set up and that seemed fine. The main thing though is that connection was made–that means a technical success. We can work on the speed and other issues (enhancements) from here."

[Problems with flash down menu were found with older browsers and have been subsequently modified. It seems that someone subsequently backgraded this laptop’s browser after it was properly set up and tested. This organization also maintains its own older, quite slow international private network, which might account for the slow speeds.]

"Now my GIS team in [a city] has grown to 4 persons, and we are using our three TNTmips licenses all day."

"I have tested the ‘assign labels to polygon attributes’ option of the DXF import (... I am afraid that it will take me a hundred years until I have used really all the features of TNT ...)."

"I attached a jpg file, which is made with TNT HIS merging, TNT’s HIS is an excellent algorithm compared with the other softwares–ER Mapper, ERDAS. Image is made with Landsat TM and IKONOS."

"Suffice to say that while in [a city] I delivered a presentation to 200 delegates that included the Secretary of State, the Deputy Prime Minister, Several Ministers, many department directors, senior military officers and lesser officials. It was on the evening news and front page of the newspapers. I also had meetings with the deputy prime minister and other important officials. The outcome is that the Secretary of State told his ministers to support [MicroImages Dealers] in their efforts to promote GIS and Remote Sensing in [a nation]. This means that we can expect at least [a number] TNTmips sales during the next twelve months."

[Sample newspaper headline]

"After working one week with the new version, both [a name] and myself are very satisfied with the progress of the TNT products. One thing we noticed is that v. 6.2 is much faster than 6.1 or 5.9. Besides some minor errors it seems to be the most reliable and comfortable version of TNTmips since ever. Congratulations to the staff of MicroImages."

"All of our clients who received TNT-Products this year have been very content with the printed Getting Started Booklets. We also think of them to be quite good alternative to the completed documentation. We would like to encourage MicroImages to keep including these booklets with the software. Especially authorities are used to have large amounts of printed materials delivered with the software. And our experience shows that the colored booklets made quite big impression on the clients."

"Congratulations on v6.2. I have used it intensively and demonstrated many different aspects of TNTmips and have never been embarrassed by errors. I really like the new interface for opening and saving files."

"And now just a few lines about the development of prices for the TNT-Products in the [European] market. Due to strong increased exchange rates of the USD in comparison to the EURO the prices for the TNT-Products have risen within one year about 17% (1 Euro = 1.10 USD in Feb. 1999, 1 Euro = .95 USD in Feb. 2000). This development could naturally not be influenced by MicroImages not the national resellers. And what counts more: the TNT-Products remain the ‘best bang for the buck’ in the market and are not sensitive to these changes in price."

"We have got the go ahead from [a university] to install our Web Server [TNTserver] there, and will be doing this Thursday/Friday this week. At the same time there is huge interest from the Agricultural Institute there in the potential use of this site, and foreign donors wanting to invest in Agricultural products at the university who see this as a potential valuable investment."

"I am really keen to pursue the TNTserver applications and business opportunities it creates as soon as possible. There are some small sites in [my area], but I want to get the jump on the competition and tie up some Map-serving/GeoSpatial data serving contracts ahead of the competition (and before they start emulating TNTserver’s capabilities–even then I still think they’ll have a problem getting it all together with their links and OpenGIS and SDE and ... and. The RVC format is a clear winner now in terms of serving up huge datasets. [My town] is home to some, major ISP businesses making fortunes judging by their expensive office complexes. I’m going to try to get them educated and excited by the concept of Spatial Data Serving and to come in with money or sponsor us by providing the kind of bandwidth we need. I can’t believe that at least one of these guys won’t see the business potential in having this ‘added’ Internet service offering for their clients. Either my branch there will become a major web-serving base or I’ll get them to buy TNTserver licenses and server them with data."

"I’ve looked at other Map Servers and ArcIMS is the only one that comes close–but the use of it seems small still. There was much fanfare about the recent release of Millennium Map of the UK (5 million ££ of high resolution images). It’s on the net using Ermapper’s Image Web Server–I was not impressed–the little window, no vector overlays, etc. (see www.getmapping.com). We can do far better already. Maybe [another dealer] can get a piece of this imagery and show what it’ll look like on TNTserver (I believe the Queen herself is a partner in this endeavor–maybe she needs a demo!). As I write to you I’m also trying to access satellite image data from Spot and Eosat for China, just to get scene coverage and ID’s for a quite for [my company]. Using [another dealer’s] TNTserver I got this Landsat coverage chop-chop. Since then I’ve been battling for hours using SPOT’s ‘map server’ to get SPOT scene coverage–talk about slow!!–JAVA and a complex, user-unfriendly interface–I just see how TNTserver could speed this task up for researchers. (Now I see I can only define an area of interest as a circle of 1km radius–that’s a lot of use in selecting Spot scenes I need covering a 180 x 60 km area–great!)."

"The people responded very enthusiastically to

# the Scientific Data Visualization,

# importing database file as vector point data,

# Color Binarization of topographic maps together with the raster to vector conversion though AutoTrace feature and then editing the contour lines and finally attaching Z values to contour lines and generating a surface through Profiles method,

#spatial data editing capabilities,

#Data Fusion capabilities."

"Scientific officers of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of [my nation], says that the capabilities of TNTmips are better than those of ArcInfo. They say that SDV [Scientific Data Visualization] capabilities of TNTmips are not there in Erdas. They have agreed to recommend TNTmips in future to state governments seeking their funding for setting up GIS facilities. I shall make a few more trips to [places] in the next few months. I hope I shall be able to improve my performance in the near future."

"During the demonstration I used our own data sets for the SDV [Scientific Data Visualization]. But I used the data provided by Dr. Paris for demonstrating the capabilities of importing DBF as vector point data in his Project WorkBook. I request you consider including a topographic mapscan in the FARMLITE folder to facilitate demonstrating SDV capabilities with TNT data."

"I demonstrated live-editing of .E00 files to him and he was amazed at the ease with which I could, for e.g., add nodes along a line. Apparently this essential task for them (like adding weir/pump points to their riverlines) is a huge problem in ArcInfo. When I crossed two lines and a mode was automatically added at the intersection, it was like I’d performed a miracle."

"For your reference, we are looking to resell TNT products since PROGIS products does not include several modules such as Image Processing, CAD functionality, surface modeling, GeoFormulas, and COGO..., it is a desktop GIS system that does not meet all clients requirements."

[This is extracted from a very detailed, illustrated 52 page technical report comparing the ability of TNTmips and PCI to generate a highly accurate DEM of individual agricultural fields. Unfortunately, this is a private, unpublished report by an independent consultant and cannot be circulated.]

"On the whole, TNTmips provided an interface and logical arrangement of processes for producing DEMs from air photos that was clear, consistent and user-friendly. Virtually all aspects of the TNTmips product were easier to use and more clearly documented than the comparable PCI procedures."

"Setting up TNTmips project file and importing the scanned raster imagery into the project was simple and straightforward. TNTmips offers a large selection of import filters. When PCI PIX files were imported their associated geo-referencing and ground control point data were also imported. Once imported the TNTmips file format and image display routines supported very rapid display and processing of even very large files (300 MB+). Rapid display appeared to benefit from the TNTmips approach of computing image pyramids and displaying data for the pyramid that best matched the resolution of the available screen display area."

"I have been using the TNTlite package for several months now and have found it fairly easy to use and generally strong GIS application. I am curious of the price of the professional version of the software? Could you please forward the pricing information to this email address?"

"I’ve always been impressed with your TNT product–kudos on it! I love its cross platform capability! I’d love to see it spread to more users."

"Regarding the translation–everything went well with the dissertation and the person will start working on the translation. With his thesis, he did most of the work on laser profilometry image processing (using his own computer programs). With TNTmips he has recently done some work on investigating the role of boundary pixels in the unsupervised classification process–basically he worked with TNTlite on 512x512 Landsat TM sub-scenes, covering locations around our city, since he was more interested in the algorithms and their behavior than in doing an extensive study on a large area."

"I’ve looked at your brochure so often that I almost have the colors worn off."

"First of all; thank you for this outstanding and powerful software. I work with this tool since 6 month and enjoy every minute."

"Thanks for your reply, I am reasonably sure that the .ark files are ERMapper files. Having experience with ERMapper, Montaj and a couple of others I prefer to use the TNT platform."

[Since ER Mapper and others do not have an equivalent to TNTlite, this comment from what appears to be a student, compares their commercial products to our free product. This was part of an exchange where this party was also using our free technical support.]

[Following are the positive comments that have been included in the responses to the on-line questionnaire answered by users of the MERLIN site hosted by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources at http://www.mdmerln.net.]

[Few of the questions and answers in any of the following network exchanges were made by MicroImages’ clients. In fact, MicroImages does not know most of these people and has not had any direct contact of any kind with them. Subsequently, several have contacted us and purchased TNT professional products.]

"Some final words on GIS. by Dennis Sellers, dsellers@maccentral.com August 21, 1999."

"Steve Farone has been involved in GIS, cartography, and RS work since 1991. Since 1994, he’s gradually moved all his software to the MacOS. He recommends checking out ArcView GIS."

"‘ArcView is, of course, becoming the standard for desktop mapping,’ Farone says. ‘However, you may also know that their commitment to Mac is waning or perhaps dead. [So why would you recommend it?] There’s no current update plans for the Mac version of the software. Also, nearly every software package listed in the three-part series is EITHER a GIS or Desktop Mapping system or Remotely-Sensed image processing and modeling system. Only one package is ALL of these, MicroImages’ TNTmips. True, it’s not Mac-native and runs on a motif X-server. However, the company’s president is a big Mac fan and their commitment to the Mac remains.’"

"Farone says he’s currently running a beta of the next version, which is due out soon. ‘TNTmips v.6.2 for the Mac contains some tweaks to the X-server buffering scheme that have produced a startling speed boost,’ Farone says."

"‘TNTmips on the Mac now blows away TNTmips on NT.’ he adds. ‘It could also be very interesting to watch once OS X is here.’"

"Does anyone know about a company or organization who is making a GIS program who can use Arcview’s file format?"

"Unfortunately ESRI haven’t got their finger out to port Arcview to Linux so I’m wondering whether anyone is thinking about starting ahead of them."

"If I recall correctly TNTlite can read and write shapefiles. See http://www.microimages.com/products/tntmipsfree/."

"ESRI is even moving away from unix altogether. I doubt if this is smart move."

"TNTlite can’t export anything. You have to own a hardware key to turn it into TNT professional. However, it can read and manage ArcView shapefiles within TNTlite."

"I’m new to GIS, so I don’t know really know what’s out there, or what I need. Here’s what I’d like to be able to do."

"I’m mainly working with EPA BASINS land cover/land use data in shapefile format and 1:100,000 DLG data for roads, rivers, rail, etc."

[Continues on with wish list for product]

"I’ve experience with TNTmips and ArcView. I would prefer TNTmips. The Database-Management is better (easy 1:n Relations, Visual DB-Relation Management, more Imports ....). Its more Field (Attributing)-oriented than layer-oriented like ArcView. You also have support of net-gis and raster gis, which is included."

"But all in all: be aware on what you want, explore the ‘ads’ and the internet."

"I am also a TNTmips and TNTlite user. If you want to analyze satellite remote sensing data combined with GIS data, I think TNTmips is very useful software. And the version up interval of its software is very short, the request adding the new function to the software may come true."

"It has come to my notice as a GIS and UNIX professional that ESRI is bucking a trend which is seeing, (IMHO) sensible corporations embracing the Linux/Open Source revolution. i.e. Oracle, Corel, Veritas, IBM etc."

"ESRI seems to be developing with only Microsoft in mind."

"I would like information on any GIS which is currently available or developing on Linux. Does anyone know of one?"

"TNTmips/TNTlite vector and raster data, the lite version with limitations, but free http://www.microimages.com/."

"We are looking for software developers who can help us put our Map data on the web. The project is a simple ‘search and locate data on the map’ for our web site (similar in function MapQuest)."

"I’ve checked with MapInfo and ESRI and find both servers quite expensive (although we wouldn’t rule it out). Is there a web hosting site for either one?"

"MicroImages, Inc. has a server product called TNTserver. The State of Maryland DNR just launched a 200Gb site using it http://www.mdmerlin.net. MicroImages also has demos of the product at www.microimages.com. Its about $5000 for the server, more for the software to produce the data. I am a dealer for them. You can talk to them directly. You will not be harassed."

"Does anyone know of a GIS application (other than ArcView) who can read and manipulate ESRI’s shapefiles and does not have anything to do with JAVA and GRASS?"

"TNTmips can import and export shapefile, and it just so happens that I’ve just finished loading TNTlite (TNTmips’ full functioning demo) on my Linux system."

"If I recall correctly TNTlite can read and write shapefiles. See http://www.microimages.com/products/tntmipsfree/."

"Hello: I want to distribute GIS data on a free or low-cost CDROM to hundred or thousands of people. We want to be able to provide a small application to view/search the data, but we do NOT want anyone to be able to use, copy the data outside the provided application. We would like to encrypt our data on the CDROM such that only the application we provide can access the data."

"Does anyone know of any solutions from any vendor?"

"Try http://www.microimages.com, I’m a dealer for them. They also sell direct. Full-blown software can be downloaded on the net."

"They have a license free ATLAS product that can be used to view their GIS software production. TNTmips allows various forms of encryption. They also have a strange twist that might help you. The TNTlite that you can download is fully functional, but limited in file size as to what it can process. Even files created in the professional version, but subsequently altered in the TNTlite version, become unusable to the professional version."

"Some combinations of TNTlite, TNTatlas and/or encryption will probably satisfy your needs."

"We have been told to buy TNTmips, but would like to know if TNTmips is a good product, if it is use in Quebec, how is it comparable with other product, what do you think of the product, we need GIS, cad and mapping functions level higher then arcview. Martin."

"What do you think of TNTmips? The CDs make nice skeet targets but the Lite version just doesn’t take to the launcher."

[Clearly note that the question was posted from a potential client in Canada, and that this response is from PCI in Canada, which is a direct competitor to a few of the features in TNTmips. Fortunately, a number of the dedicated professional users of TNTmips came right back in the face of this childish response while addressing the following information to the original questions.]

"Martin, unfortunately choosing a GIS isn’t easy as asking a few questions. May I suggest ‘Managing GIS Projects’ by William Huxlhold and Allan Levinsholn for the reasons why."

"Good head-to-head comparisons have appeared in GIS World (now GeoWorld) and a review of TNT appeared in Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. I don’t have the exact references off-hand, but could get them to you if you’re particularly interested."

"However, I am experienced (over 7 years) with ESRI, ERDAS, and MI (TNT) products. I use all three in my work (geomatics research). In all these years I have found that TNT is the most complete (formats and functionality) and platform independent (data, GUI, and functionality) GIS of these three."

"Basically, TNT allows me to think more about the semantics of a problem (the ‘what ifs’ and ‘what could bes’) rather than the syntax (the what to click on what command to enter). This is why I find the software so useful for my research."

"The way I utilize these three software is as follows:"

"1. A geomatics problem is presented along with data to support the question."

"2. Some minor investigations are performed through ESRI or ERDAS products. Quick review of the data sets is the bulk of this work."

"3. The data sets imported to TNT."

"4. The geomatics problem is addressed."

"5. The output is created in a form (ESRI or ERDAS) according to the ‘customer’ request."

"A couple of reasons I use TNT."

"1. ANY spatial data is handled by the system. Raster, vector, CAD, TIN, DEM, database, GPS, etc. if it is spatial data (with spatial attributes), the system handles it. Period! That includes problems in which conflation usually raises its head, like how to buffer a vector and use it to cookie cut a raster. All performed with GUI tools without raster-vector or visa versa conversion, within a viewer."

"2. The software is updated frequently. Quarterly releases on CD-ROM. At least TWICE A WEEK via ftp downloads."

"A few other pros."

"There is no such thing as ‘modules’ with TNT, like the other industry standard softwares. For geomatics work, you’ll most likely end up needing the functionality TNT offers. You’d have to buy many modules and products from various companies and then try to integrate them to come up with the full palette offered in TNT."

"OK, I’ve expressed the pros, what are the cons?"

"TNT’s GUI interface is an Xserver within which X windows appear. This makes the aesthetics a little mechanical. Not as ‘smooth’ as a MS windows application. But the upshot is that the GUI interface looks the same (and functions the same) on any platform or operating system. I’ll trade aesthetics for functionality for my work."

"Also, TNTmips is not for the faint of heart. I believe TNT is for those who understand (through rigorous format training and applications experience) not only the technology, but also the science and art of geomatics."

"TNTlite can be used for instruction. I’ve done it (see http://rs320h.ersc.wisc.edu//er-sc/Instruct/IES556 Spring 1999/djr/sid001.htm for example)."

"TNTatlas and TNTserver can be used for distributed GIS (i.e. the casual user and public)."

"Concerning what to do with the old CD-ROMs. This is a valid question to ask since the software is updated quarterly, unlike the industry standard softwares. Skeet is one option. However, I’d suggest constructive rather than destructive activities. Like passing them onto a friend who can try TNTlite, sending them for recycling, or exercising the right side of the brain after a full day of GIS tasks (e.g. http://www.makestuff.com/cd.html)."

"Hi there Martin, We use TNTmips a great deal and find it very good considering its cost and the range of functions that it can perform. We often process vector coverages of 100,000 polygons and regularly process raster images in excess of 500Mb. Setup is simple–load the CD. Documentation for the software is excellent, as are the ‘getting started’ booklets and the sample datasets provided. TNTlite, being a free download (or minimum cost for the CD), provides a means training [to try] the product."

"I’ve been using TNTmips for some years now and am an authorized dealer for MicroImages."

"My work is mostly agricultural. When I researched ‘precision ag’ software, I found it was the mostly based upon ArcView, MapInfo or some proprietary derivative. They all fall short when evaluated for full functionality (raster/vector/CAD/TIN/RDBMS integration) and analytical power."

"I personally value very highly the ability to import/export a wide range of formats, test a wide range of analytical routines, convert R2V, V2R, T2R, etc. I want to be able to say ‘what if’ and test the theory now, not go shopping for an extension that has the added functionality."

"MicroImages has a license free TNTatlas program that I often use as a deliverable or promotional tool. It is somewhat like a geo-spatially enabled powerpoint type or web type presentation vehicle I burn to a CD. A full project can be point and click accessible to non-professionals. The TNTatlas can also be used as a spatially enabled website when used with TNTserver."

"There is no other professional software on the market offering this level of GIS integration for the money."

[The PCI employee now comes back and tries to make light of his libel. Then, he shows further lack of understanding of our superior product.]

"BTW, this is the joke. The ‘lite’ version is d/l [download] only. There is no media."

[A little later he, or probably his bosses, must have realized that these kind of tactics reflect badly upon PCI and are getting TNTmips a lot of positive publicity. So he comes back again and identifies his employer and tries to wiggle out of the public hits he is taking.]

"It was a joke. A joke. The Lite edition can only be d/l. Unless you burn you own CDs from the d/l. That was the joke. And since it is a competing product to the company I work for, I would generally recommend any competitors’ product is best utilized on the skeet range."

[Again, experienced professional users of TNTmips come right back in his face as follows.]

"There is actually [a CD]."

"Last time I checked TNTlite was available on CD, either alone or with a full set of Getting Started pamphlets, and so, is not only available by d/l [download]."

"Michael, Agreed."

"TNTlite is available on CD-ROM (for the cost of reproduction), or via download (d/l)."

"The order form for TNTlite on CD-ROM is at http://www.microimages.com/products/tntmipsfree/."

"If you click on ‘Send me: select one’ you’ll see that a single CD is $10.00. If you want the booklets printed out, it cost $75.00. I highly recommend NOT ordering the printed booklets, unless you’ve got the cash. All of these booklets are on the CD-ROM in Adobe Acrobat PDF format under a directory called ‘GET_START’ I believe."

"General info about TNTlite is at http://www.microimages.com/products/tntmipsfree/."

"More detail at http://www.microimages.com/products/tntmipsfree/"

"And for Clay Atcheson's joke ... :-)"

[Responding to one of the earlier responses, the PCI employee then gets mad and tries to end the well deserved attack on his integrity.]

"So you are the MIPS heavyweight? Take a look at my address. Take a break. This group does not understand humor. And arrogance looks bad on anyone. And please cut out the spam."

[It is not taken as humor on a list to attempt to libel a competitor’s product. However, TNTmips got good publicity from this exchange and support from those who believe in our products.]

"I’m pretty new to Arcview so if some of this doesn’t make sense that’s why..."

"I saw an ad for a product from Erdas (I think that’s their name) that can warp, rubber sheet, rectify, (whatever you call it) one them/shapefile so that it registers with another."

"Does anybody have any experience with it? or know what a good way to accomplish this?"

"My problem is: I have parcel shapefile data for our fair city that aligns with the roads and bldgs nicely in some parts of town. but in other areas they’re off by 50 feet +-. I saw a product by Bentley (DesCartes) a while back that I think would allow me to rubber-sheet and average out the errors. But it was pretty pricey as I recall."

"Any help would be appreciated."

"Take a look at TNTmips http://www.microimages.com/."

"There is support for shapefiles among many others, a wide range of raster formats and raster/vector/CAD/TIN/RDBM integration."

"Your issues of georeferencing, warping, mosaicking, etc. are part of the basic TNTmips package. Their mosaicking process includes pixel to pixel matching abilities, contrast matching options, 10+ models for warping and a lot more."

"I think the major point with MicroImages software is that its all there off-the-shelf. When you have a new application or just ask ‘what if’, you don’t have to go looking for another specialized extension."

"I’m an authorized dealer for MicroImages."

"Man, there is a lot of TNT spam in this NG."

[As you can see from the previous contribution of this PCI staff member to the above exchanges, he is the real source of most of the SPAM. Members of the list are simply asking questions, and various TNT users are responding in quite reasonable fashions without subterfuge. Clearly, this person at PCI really does not how to respond on behalf of PCI products to the TNT capabilities outlined in their responses.]

"Hi. I’m searching for a way to transfer GPS co-ordinate reading to AV3.1 in real-time (say once every 3 minutes), and then view it so as to be able to track the rout in a view. Sounds awfully simple, but the script on the ESRI ArcScript page enables downloading stored collected data only (i.e., not real-time data)."

"This must be some kind of a record for a late summary. My apologies."

"It seems that the only viable solutions for real-time GPS data collection are commercial ones. No free script or application was forthcoming. The Geographic Tracker AVX is available at www.bluemarble.com, and costs $349. A more expensive solution is TNTview from www.microimages.com which costs $1000. A third options is ESRI’s ArcView Tracking Analyst (www.esri.com) which does a lot of other things besides real -time GPS data collection, and which costs in the region of $2000." [and TNTview also does quite a bit more?]

"Saw this go over the AkeView ‘public’ list and just had to share it..."

"ESRI’s pricing structure for extensions and upgrades are one of the most confusing and closely guarded strategies of ESRI. Real marketing wizardry. Matter of fact someone should make a wizard helper to calculate the total cost of investing in ESRI products and support. Let’s see $1200 for AV plus $700 annual maintenance. $2500 for Spatial Analyst plus $1200 annual maintenance. $395 for AV upgrade. Congratulations, on spending $6000 for a product over the first two years."

"This is a pricing structure designed to hide the true cost of ESRI GIS."

"Other products are better, cheaper and more functions."

[The pricing material and comment quoted here was originally posted by a TNTmips professional user!]

"Hola Colegas. Alquien sabe donde puedo encontrar archivos o estudios que tengan listados de signaturas espectrales, preferiblemente sobre especies forestales, gracias."

"Recomendo que le iniciar su busque con el USGS a la direccion siguiente: http://speclab.cr.usgs.gov/spectral.lib04/spectral-lib04.html."

"Hay pocos signature de agriculturales. Le mayoridad son forestales o pasturales."

"Le empress MicroImages, Inc., encluye en su producto TNTlite los archivos de USGS con su modulo para analisis hiperespectral. Les ponen sus productos gratis para ‘download’ a http://www.microimages.com."

"Los ‘Liet’ llevan el aviso que funcionan solo con archivos pequenos, pero manejan imagenes del tamano AVIRIS por JPL."

"Que tenga suerto con su investigation."

"Hello. I am looking for an ArcView extension that would directly download data from the Garmin 12XL GPS receiver into ArcView. I am already aware of the gps2shp.ave script available, but this requires that the data already be in an ASCII format when downloaded from the receiver. Does anyone know of an extension that exists this step?"

"Other suggestions included the Tracking Analyst extension, which would be costly for field staff to invest in and won’t download data already stored in the receiver but is great for downloading real-time data, TNTview which does basically the same thing as Tracking Analyst, and Geographic Tracker AVX (I didn’t check this one out but more information is available at [a site])."

"The TNTmips web site suggests that to get the equivalent of TNTmips you would need to own ALL of the following, including ALL the add in modules: Arc/Info, ArcView, MapInfo, AutoCAD, Microstation, PCI, Erdas and ERMapper. Is this a realistic claim?"

[Unfortunately, no response?]

"ArcInfo and MapInfo aside we are looking for alternative packages that can store geo-referenced scientific data through a GIS interface. By that, I mean at its simplest level, by clicking on a map one can retrieve selected attributes for that location and display them in various manners: e.g. a set of water current records measured at a particular station."

"Display of the data might include, say, for the sake of an example, a colour coded movie of the distribution of measured pollutants over time in a water body. Others might include displaying time based graphs or depth based graphs (e.g. a particular point on a water body may contain an attribute based on various depths at that location) of the data. Again, one should be able to display 3D surface models of topography or bathymetry. And also make some calculations based on the data–say a water volume on a certain selected area of water given the bathymetric data in that area. The usual import & export of data (in various formats) would obviously have to be available. The package should also be able to handle very large datasets."

"We are currently working on our own in-house package that could do some of that (and maybe all of that eventually), but we are curious if there are any similar packages ‘out there’ that can do a similar job, but at a lower price than say a full package of ArcInfo or MapInfo which we think may be capable of doing this."

"I’ve done some research on your behalf. TNTmips is a package I’ve used for the past 10 years, in conjunction with ESRI and ERDAS products. I use TNT mostly because it is so complete."

"1. Problem: Simple data storage, ie clicking on a map and retrieve attributes."

"Solution:"

"Step 1. Use TNTmips and TNTlink to ingest and compile spatial data in various formats and data structures, to create a ‘hyperstack’."

"http://www.microimages.com/products/TNTmips.htm"

"Step 2. Server the multi-media data to your user base via the free TNTatlas program."

"http://www.microimages.com/products/tntatlas/index.htm"

"or over the web via the TNTserver."

"http://www.microimages.com/products/tntserver.htm"

"A tutorial is located at"

"http://www.microimages.com/documentation/tntatlas/tfurst/"

"2. Problem: Display data in various manners"

"Solutions:"

"A. Display tabular data via database from windows of your own design."

"http://www.microimages.com/refman/html/dispe007.htm#11.2.5.6"

"Manipulating Database Forms"

"B. Display data graphically (e.g. pie charts, bar charts, etc.)"

"http://www.microimages.com/getstart/pinmap.htm"

"3. Problem: 3D surface models and overlays."

"Solutions:"

"A. 3D Perspective Visualization (raster/vector/CAD drapes over DEM and TINs; layers can be offset for clarity and illustration of the georelational model)"

"http://www.microimages.com/getstart/3dview.htm"

"B. 3D Simulation (mpeg movies and VRML creation)"

"http://www.microimages.com/getstart/3dsim.htm"

"4. Ingest geophysical transect data, e.g. bathemetry"

"http://www.microimages.com/featupd/v59/bidirpltps.pdf"

"5. Use a polygon to retrieve volume from a raster."

"Solutions:"

"A. Process, Raster, Surface (and volume) Properties."

"http://www.microimages.com/refman/html/prock011.htm#TopOfPage"

"B. Region analysis tools (includes flooding analyses) e.g. raster histogram limited in a region, cross section and profiling."

"http://www.microimages.com/featupd/v60/toolbox.pdf"

"6. Handle large datasets."

"Solution: raster, vector size limited only by OS and storage media. See this technical characteristic (page 5) and others at"

"http://www.microimages.com/getstart/technic.htm"

"7. A complete package."

"TNTmips is a ‘hybrid’ GIS. There is no such thing as modules with TNTmips. TNTmips is a complete package for both raster and vector work, as well as surface modeling, georeferencing, vector work, editing, cartographic layouts, etc."

"See the Preparation and Analysis sections at"

"http://www.microimages.com/products/TNTmips.htm"

"8. Lower price."

"About $5K for PCs, and $10K for workstations. See pricing at"

"http://www.microimages.com/prices/"

"Learn about TNTmips through free TNTlite"

"http://www.microimages.com/products/tntmipsfree/"

"Download lessons and datasets at"

"http://www.microimages.com/getstart/"

"Best of luck to you."

"Many thanks. This sounds really useful."

"This quite provoking question in my subject originates from a very frustrating job at one customer in the last week. I had there to use ArcPress (2.0, Windows) to rasterize some large format ArcView Postscript-Outputs for printing. This led me to some workarounds or tips which I want to share with you:"

"(1) Width and height."

"Values are measured from the lower left corner. Note: When trying to move the output image on your paper (see 2) X and Y are measured from the UPPER left corner."

"(2) Moving the image, Margins."

"Horizontal: negative values to move to the left, positive values to the right. Values are to be entered at ‘TOP’ (yes, that’s true) in the properties dialog."

"Vertical: like horizontal. Enter you values at ‘RIGHT’ (!)"

"‘LEFT’ and ‘BOTTOM’ seem to have no function at all."

"(3) Crop"

"Does not work at all on my test machine. Entering any value under ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ produces blank pages."

"(4) Rotate"

"Entering any value except ‘0’ decrease the output quality dramatically if you have image data in your view/layout. Sometimes little black squares appear in the output instead of characters in texts. This led me to the question: Is there anyone who found a function that works except simple portrait printouts with margins by accident? Serious: Do you have any hints? For example, changing the ‘dither’ or using ArcPress at the command prompt?"

[Many negative responses on the frustrations of using ArcPress were offered.]

"This is one of the prime reasons I use MicroImages TNTview ($1,000). It has complete WYSIWYG map design, and I can print anything from a letter size to a full poster. I simply gave up on the Arc products because they are very awkward and difficult."