The MapInfo/Forestry Users Group held the 2008 meeting on GIS Day, November 19th, 2008 at the offices of Giustina Land and Timber in Eugene, Oregon. 8 participants from 7 organizations attended, including 2 first time attendees.
Following welcoming comments and self
introductions the handful of members who attended MapWorld 2008 in Las
Vegas discussed the conference. All noted and
appreciated that for the first time, a "Natural Resources" ribbon was
available to attach to name tags, making MapWorld 2008 the first
to broadly recognize the Natural Resources industries use of MapInfo
Technology. The specific sessions which were singled out as the
most beneficial included the MapInfo Tips and Tricks I (session
handout), Using Parcel Boundaries for Point Level Geocoding, (session
handout, 10MB), and the customer feedback sessions. New
technologies which stood out included Envinsa, an upcoming Vertical
Mapper upgrade and the new Map
Workspace offering by Korem. It was noted that MapWorld
2009 was scheduled for June 5-9, 2009 in Orlando Florida and all to
mark their calendars and register early to receive the best pricing.
Next, Tony
Cooley, of
Data
Directions presented a "MapInfo & Forestry - What's New?"
session. Ironically much
of what was presented was "so new it does not yet exist". This
session began with a detailed live demonstration of a beta version of
MapInfo Professional v9.5.1 (set to be released in mid-December
2008). The presentation detailed the new "translucent" vector
capabilities in both objects and labels. This capability was well
received as was the demonstration of the extensive new set of MapCAD
tools now available for data editing. Comparisons were also made
with MapInfo Pro v9.0 in terms of labeling and and the new label
settings, offering greater control and placement during label
conflicts. MapInfo v9.5.1 was widely accepted as an extensive new
release offering many capabilities useful to the practice of Forestry.
Next, the Pitney Bowes/MapInfo acquisition of the
Australian based Encom was discussed and
speculation was made as to what type of products may be offered.
As actual products were not yet available, marketing material for
Encom's Engage-3D Product was
reviewed. Based on the material provided, Engage-3D appears to
offer an extensive tool set usable to a variety of Natural Resources
based applications. Encom's free MapInfo data management
tool, Compass Scout,
was also demonstrated. This session concluded with the soon
to be released Delorme EarthMate PN-40
GPS unit. These inexpensive hand held GPS units began
shipping a few days after the meeting. This first GPS unit in its
class to provide the capability to integrate ortho photography, vector
topographic data, USGS quads, AND GIS Layers on an rugged, integrated
hand held unit. Equipped with a new 32 channel, dual core GPS
receiver the unit stands alone in terms of speed and capabilities
(Download the presentation on the
Delorme PN-40 Earthmate GPS).
The meeting concluded with Mark
Dvorscak of Lone Rock Timber Company providing a detailed
presentation on an MS Access based application which generates Stand
focused, custom MapInfo Workspaces, which can then be used by MapInfo
Proviewer or MapInfo Professional. MS Access is used to
query and report detailed information on the companies timber stands
and tracts. If a map is desired of the tract,
the user simply presses a "map" button and a custom MapInfo workspace
is generated focusing on the Area of interest. Through this
custom application any user of the Lone Rock Timber Companies Stand and
Tract database can also generate and display a MapInfo Workspace with
a detailed focus on a specific tract. (Download Marks
presentation)
Additional items discussed or reviewed during the meeting include a
MapBasic tool providing for multiple
UnDo operations (check back for
download link), the
extensive NorthWest data sets available as a
result of the BLM;s Western Oregon Plan
Revisions (WOPR) or the final
EIS GIS Data Page, and the just announced FireLocator.net.
Developed by the Pitney Bowes Advanced Concepts and Technology Group,
together with Pitney Bowes MapInfo, FireLocator brings together
data from MS VirtualEarth, GeoMac Wildland Fire Support, NASA MODIS
data, Flickr, and others on a single web page to provide detailed,
multimedia information about current, active wildfires. A very
impressive and well planned web application certainly applicable and
useful for timberland management.
Questions/Comments? call: (541) 345-4MAP, or email: Tony@DataDirections.biz
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