GTI News Blog

Dynamic Graphics in GTViewer and GTVx

2010-12-28T11:01:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Version 10 of GTViewer provides an exciting new feature called Dynamic Graphics which gives the user a powerful visualization tool for analyzing data, creating more informative or alternate views of data, and giving the user the ability to explore various decision making aspects of the data they already have. The Dynamic Graphics functionality uses a set of rules to generate new graphics on-the-fly from a variety of sources including a feature’s attribute values, the current zoom level, and even the presence of other dynamic graphics. The goal of the Dynamic Graphics functionality is to provide an easy way to generate thematic maps, feature labels, and analytical constructions in both an ad hoc manner or as prepackaged queries delivered with a dataset. The end result is data for your users that will enhance their productivity and ability to make decisions in the office or in the field.

History

The beginnings of the Dynamic Graphics functionality first appeared in Version 9 of GTViewer as the Dynamic Highlighter. This tool provided a significant amount of functionality for performing thematic queries whose results were shown by highlighting features meeting specified criteria. The highlight color was determined by one of the feature’s attributes value and looking up the value in a specified color map. The original purpose of the Dynamic Highlighter was to help identify a specific circuit on a map containing many circuits drawn in the same area all with the same style (color, weight, and linestyle). The Dynamic Highlighter gets a particular attribute on a feature, looks that value up in a color map (which maps a set of values to corresponding colors), and then highlights the feature in that color (appearing that the feature of interest changes color). Now, a single circuit in the view is easily identifiable amongst many other circuits. Color coding all circuits is also possible if an attribute is available to drive the color of the highlight. Many other applications of the Dynamic Highlighter quickly appeared such as showing circuit by phase, circuit by high or low voltage, gas pipes by pressure or material, and many more.

While being a very powerful tool, the Version 9 Dynamic Highlighter has some limitations. It can only look at a single attribute of a feature when determining the highlight color. Often, this single value was enough to do the job, but sometimes you needed several attribute values to determine the color or more complicated computations that go beyond a value lookup in a color map. Work-arounds for this problem are available, but they usually required creating a View in the GIS to create a single value for the highlighting task which hindered the “ah hoc-ness” of the functionality if the views were not already created. The interface for the Dynamic Highlighter was also a little primitive. Its rules could be defined as entries in the in the GTM file and methods were provided for External Applications to load new rules from a file. The Dynamic Highlighter was not supported in GTVx either. In the end, the Version 9 Dynamic Highlighter turned out to be more useful to the design of the new Dynamic Graphics functionality than it was to the Version 9 user base; nevertheless, it laid a down a good foundation for the next generation and greatly contributed to making Version 10 the best yet.

Dynamic Graphics

In Version 10 of GTViewer, the new Dynamic Graphics functionality provides a significantly enhanced version of the Dynamic Highlighter seen in version 9 plus a completely new Dynamic Labeler. A user-friendly Interface is also provided to configure the Dynamic Graphics rules. Now, users can quickly and easily create thematic queries or labels on-the-fly without the need to add entries to a configuration file or even need to know what the configuration files contain.

Dynamic Highlighting

The new Version 10 Dynamic Highlighter contains many new features:

One or more feature attributes can now be used in expressions to define a filter criteria which determines which features will get highlighted and to define a Map Value which will be used to look up the highlight style. Previously, only one feature attribute could be used and its value had to appear in the highlight style map.

The Highlighted Elements that get produced by the Dynamic Graphics are no longer limited to just being a different color. Weight and Linestyle can now be specified.
The Highlighted Elements can now be set to behave like regular elements in the Emphasize Session Graphics mode (which typically gray out when active). This ability to masquerade the highlighted elements as regular elements adds a new dimension to what can be done with highlighted elements since the original GIS features can be hidden and the Dynamic Graphics can provide an alternate view of the features.
The Dynamic Highlighter provides 2 modes of operation. The regular Highlight mode provides the full set of functionality utilizing a Color/Weight/Linestyle map to assign highlight styles according to an evaluated Map Value. A scaled down mode called Simple Highlight is also provided and simply highlights all features meeting the filter criteria using the same Color/Weight/Linestyle setting which eliminates the need to configure a Color/Weight/Linestyle Map for simpler Actions.
Dynamic Graphics is now supported in GTVx as well as GTViewer.

Dynamic Labeler

The Dynamic Labeler is the second half of the Dynamic Graphics functionality, and it does precisely what its name implies. The Dynamic Labeler generates labels for point, line, and area features using a set of rules. Depending on the type of label desired and the type of geometry it will be created for, many different options are available to specifying the label. The “Dynamic” in Dynamic Label pulls double duty since the labels are generated on-the-fly from the features in the current view, and can also take into account what parts of a feature is actually displayed in the view. For example, centering a label on a line that is 75% out of the view would likely produce a label you would not see since the center of the line would be outside the view, but the Dynamic Labeler can clip the geometry and only use the part that is in the view keeping the label displayed. Much more effective labels can be generated for an ever changing view. Our previous approach to generating labels that were not part of the source GIS was to use the GTLabelGtg tool (part of GTData) to build a nice set of labels for a dataset. These labels are static and will always be the same size and in the same relative position regardless of the view extents. The Dynamic Labeler can be configured to create similar static labels, but its power comes from its dynamic capabilities which simultaneously create more useful labels and a more aesthetically pleasing map view.

Dynamic Label Examples

To illustrate what the Dynamic Graphics functionality actually does, pictures are worth a thousand words.

The screenshot below shows 3 lines that use a Dynamic Label. In each line, the segment containing the mid-point of the line is found, then the mid-point of that segment is used as the origin for the label:

The Dynamic Labeling supports a Static placement mode (like GTLabelGtg would produce) and the screenshot below shows how the label behaves in the static mode when the lines are partially moved out of the current view:

The topmost line has its label go out of the view, and the bottom two lines have their labels moved to the edge of the screen.

In the screenshot below, the dynamic placement is active and the labels are placed more intelligently by only using the parts of the lines that are currently visible:

The example below shows a rotated "V" shape line that is fully in the current view. Here the line gets one label:

However, if the line is moved partially out of the current view, two separate lines are left and each gets a label of its own:

A more realistic example is shown below. Street centerlines are labeled with information from the database (the street name and street type) and a variety of rules are used to create a usable view: duplicates are removed, labels that overlap other labels are removed, and labels that are longer than the street segment they are associated with are removed.

In the screenshots below, the primary conductor feature is labeled with its Circuit Name, Phase, and Voltage in Red text:

Dynamic Labeling is not limited to lines. Both Point and Shape features are supported as well. The following screenshots show how Shape elements can take advantage of the dynamic label placement:

The topmost screenshot above shows two shapes in the current view with a Dynamic Label placed at the centroid. The lower left image shows how static labels will be have if the shapes are moved partially out of the current view, and the lower right image shows the same view with the dynamic positioning turned on (which uses the centroid of the visible parts of the polygons).

Dynamic Highlight Examples

A Dynamic Highlighting example is shown in the screenshots below where the gas main features are highlighted according to the feature's Pressure attribute values:

The topmost screenshot above shows the regular view of a gas network. The middle screenshot shows the gas network with Medium Pressure main colored Orange and Low Pressure main colored Blue. The bottom screenshot shows the highlighted gas mains with the emphasize mode turned on so that the Highlighted results are easier to see.

In the screenshot below, electric facilities are colored by their phase (A is Red, B is Green, C is Blue, and Orange is multiple).

GTViewer 10 is Available

2010-11-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

What’s New in GTViewer 10

Dynamic Graphics –a powerful visualization tool for analyzing data and creating more informative or alternate views of the data. The Dynamic Graphics functionality uses a set of rules to generate new graphics on-the-fly based on a feature’s attribute values, the current zoom level, and even the presence of other dynamic graphics. The goal of the Dynamic Graphics functionality is to provide an easy way to generate thematic maps, feature labels, and analytical constructions in an ad hoc manner or as prepackaged queries delivered with a dataset.

Command-Line Options – an extended set of command-line options has been added to simplify the integration of GTViewer with other applications like mobile workforce management. These new options can be used to start GTViewer and then locate on a specific coordinate, perform a query, initialize the GPS and Reference Points, set Display Presets, and activate Favorites. If GTViewer is already running, these command-line options can still be used to update the view location and change view settings.

Expressions Support – Custom Attribute Info Tabs and Feature Tooltips can now use expressions to specify the information they display. These expressions can use one or more feature attributes as well as formatting, mathematical, and string manipulation functions.

Custom Raster – standard raster formats (such as .bmp, .jpg, .tif) can now be attached to the main view. These raster files can serve as embedded detail drawings or be used to enhance a view’s appearance.

Style Definition Id –Version 10 elements now support an optional Style Definition Id which directly associates a Style Definition with an element and does not require a mapping from the element’s Filter Id to a Style Definition via the Style Map. The Style Definition Id can be used to decouple the Filter Ids from the Style Definitions, allowing more flexible groupings in the Display Filter Definitions.

GPS Components – the GTViewer Installation now supports the installation of the GPS Component without the need of a separate installation.

Demo Dataset – The Electric Demo dataset previously delivered with GTViewer has been updated. The new Electric/Gas/Fiber demo dataset illustrates many of the newer features in GTViewer including the Dynamic Graphics, Feature Tooltips, and Custom Attribute Info tabs.

GTViewer 9.0 is Released!

2009-10-23T08:43:00.001-07:00

GTViewer 9.0 has been released.

New Features

Favorites - Create and return to favorite locations.
Applications Menu Item - place External Applications under the Query menu or the new Applications menu.
Location History Dialog Enhancements - Query entries now include prompt values; history list can be filtered to show only Query entries.
ToolBoxes - Define up to 10 ToolBoxes whose buttons can perform queries, activate presets, toggle the display of feature sets, run external applications, and more.
Locate XY Dialog Enhancements - User can select between X/Y and Lat/Long modes; Last 10 locates are now stored in a history list.
Attribute Info Dialog Enhancements - Print attribute info; Jump to Style Manager; Copy individual values to clipboard.
Custom Print Labels - Provide up to 10 custom label prompts to add custom information to prints.
Hatch Fill Styles - 6 new hatch fill styles are now supported.
Custom Attribute Info Tabs - Create a new tab by combining attributes values from other tabs.
Command-Line Parameter Enhancements - Specify X/Y or Lat/Long to locate; Set Display Preset.
GPS Reference Point - Place a reference point and the GPS indicator will always point in its direction.
Query Results Dialog Enhancements - Get Attribute Info for selected record; Set GPS reference point on Located feature.
Dynamic Highlighting Support - API provided for highlighting features based on attribute values.
API - 38 new methods and events added.
Windows 7 tested.

GTI at DistribuTECH 2009

2009-02-05T06:52:00.001-08:00

GTI is at DistribuTECH 2009 in San Diego, Feb. 3 -5, Booth #815.

GTI Releases the GT/Metadata Explorer

2008-11-24T12:53:00.000-08:00

Graphic Technologies, Inc. (GTI) today announced a new product called the GT/Metadata Explorer. This product is a companion application for Intergraph’s G/Technology GIS System and provides a cache of tools for navigating, reporting, validating, and editing the G/Technology metadata as well as querying, tracing, and reporting the G/Technology GIS data. The GT/Metadata Explorer is ideal for getting a grip on the complexities of the G/Technology metadata, identifying metadata problems, traversing feature connectivity and ownership, and making metadata modifications.

The GT/Metadata Explorer’s provides the user with a very easy way to visually traverse the many relationships defined by the G/Technology metadata. For example, a user can “point-and-click” navigate from a Legend definition to a Feature hosted by that Legend, then to the Style Rules associated with the Feature, and finally to the Style Definition used by the Feature’s Style Rule. Another example would be to navigate from a Feature’s definition to the Feature’s Components, then to the Component’s Attributes, and even to the Component Attribute’s Value List. The GT/Metadata Explorer also provides the ability to edit commonly changing parts of the G/Technology metadata including the Style Rules, Style Definitions, and Value List tables.

The GT/Metadata Explorer also provides the ability to find a specific feature in the GIS data by

querying on one or more of the feature’s attribute values or by the feature’s Feature Id. The attribute information for the queried feature can be displayed showing all associated database records, and the queried feature’s style rule information can be analyzed to see which rules in the metadata are actually triggered by the feature along with an explanation of why each rule is rejected or accepted. More advanced feature analysis can also be performed with a Connectivity Search which visually traces the feature’s connectivity relationships to analyze how the feature is connected to other features in the GIS data. An Ownership Search is also provided to traverse the parent/child relationships of the queried feature in a visual way.

The GT/Metadata Explorer leverages technology GTI developed for its G/Technology Data Extraction tools which export Intergraph’s G/Technology GIS data to other formats. Building on the strengths of these tools, the GT/Metadata Explorer is very easy to use and requires only a connection to the Oracle database to operate; no setup or configuration is required, and support for multiple G/Technology databases is provided. For more information on the GT/Metadata Explorer or other GTI products, please visit http://www.gti-us.com/.

GTViewer Version 8.0 is Released

2008-11-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

GTI announces the release of GTViewer version 8.0. Other products in the GTViewer suite including GT/Field, GTData, GTVx, and the GTViewer .NET Controls have also been updated to Version 8.0.

GTViewer 8.0 includes a variety of productivity enhancing features and refinements including Feature Tooltips, a GPS Reference Point feature, and advanced Redline edit capabilities. GTVx, the ActiveX Control version of GTViewer, has also been updated to Version 8.0 and keeps pars with GTViewer's new features.

GT/Field 8.0 is a dramatic upgrade from previous versions. It now provides a GUI-based, forms-driven Administrative tool for creating and maintaining Data Collection applications. GT/Field is no longer an add-on to GTViewer or Pocket GTViewer, but is instead a stand-alone application designed specifically for the best data collecting experience. Along with the new Administrator, GT/Field provides two versions of the client: GT/Field Pro for Windows laptops and tablets, and GT/Field for Windows Mobile for devices.

GT/Data 8.0 provides several new tools as well as many new features for its existing toolset. New tools include GTSumGtg and GTDataSum which provide statistical information about GTViewer data. The GT2CSV tool has also been provided to generate .csv files from GTViewer data on the command-line (as it can be done within GTViewer). A new set of tools has also been provided for more sophisticated Incremental Data Update support and to determine the data differential between two GTViewer datasets.

The GTViewer .NET controls have matured in Version 8.0 to become very capable and very powerful development tools; in fact, both GT/Field 8.0 clients were built using the the new GTViewer .NET controls. The .NET Controls can be used with VB.NET or C# (Visual Studio 2005 or 2008) to add GTViewer’s functionality to any .NET application. While similar in concept to the GTViewer ActiveX Control (GTVx), the .NET controls were designed specifically for .NET development and take advantage of many features this development platform offers. The .NET Controls can be used to build custom applications specific to your workflows, or they can be used to integrate GIS capabilities into your existing mobile or desktop applications.

GTI to participate in GITA's Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference 31 in Seattle, March 9-13.

2008-02-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

GTI’s Charlie Marlin will speak at 3 events associated with the conference.

On Sunday afternoon, at the Mobile Technology Seminar, he will share the podium with Matt Seidl of Black Hills Power for the presentation entitled "Apple Pie, Motherhood, and ROI". http://www.gita.org/events/annual/31/seminars.asp#mobile

On Tuesday morning at 8:30, he will make a presentation entitled "Mobile Mapping Devices: An Embarrassment of Riches" http://www.gita.org/events/annual/31/sessions/mobile.asp

On Thursday afternoon at 1:30, he will make a presentation at the Ubisense Symposium entitled "Mobile Applications in Smallworld Environments" http://www.ubisenseconsulting.com/content/222/

Success in New Mexico

2008-01-31T10:41:00.000-08:00

Read about a successful application built on GTViewer for Public Service of New Mexico.

http://www10.giscafe.com/nbc/articles/view_article.php?section=CorpNews&articleid=483210

Alternate site:

http://www.directionsmag.com/press.releases/index.php?duty=Show&id=20836&trv=1

GTViewer Impressive at DistribuTECH

2008-01-29T11:22:00.000-08:00

Everyone who came to booth 2309 at the DistribuTECH conference was complimentary about GTViewer's snappy performance and intuitive interface. Whether showing 3-inch color aerial photography on a hand-held device or showing gigabytes of GIS data on a laptop, "That's fast," was the most frequent comment.

Booth and Presentation for MAGIC Conference

2007-11-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

GTI took its booth to the GIS Day Conference sponsored by the Memphis Area Geographic Information Council (MAGIC). http://magic.eventbrite.com/ and http://www.midsouthgis.org/Conference/2007Conference/agenda07.pdf

GTI's Charlie Marlin presented the results of the RAIN exercise held in June 2007, in which 33 teams from 18 agencies in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi gathered damage assessment information with mobile devices to support emergency response. Part of the SOSN07/TNCAT mock earthquake preparedness exercise, the RAIN event proved the practical value of mobile devices for damage assessment. Of the 33 teams, 30 had collected their information and taken it to their local Emergency Operations Center (EOC) within 2 hours. Damage assessments were collated and made available to the regional EOC and to any authorized user over a web interface within the next 30 minutes.

At the booth, Mike Rogers showed data collection applications on a hand-held PDA and on a Smartphone. The Smartphone featured a self-contained camera that enables damage assessment and other data collection activities to include a digital image linked to the incident.

More about Rocket City Geospatial

2007-10-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, GTI was there, as session moderator, presenter, and exhibitor. Here's evidence:

Gold Sponsor at Rocket City Geospatial Conference

2007-10-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

Come by the GTI booth at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, October 16-17. See GTViewer show off its ease of use and speedy map display performance. Ask us about network tracing solutions and field data collection. See the ultimate in portability: map display on a cell phone.

GTViewer at Smallworld Conference

2007-09-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Attendees had a good chance to see GTViewer at the Smallworld Conference near Denver, CO, September 9-13, 2007. In addition to the intuitive viewing and powerful trace applications on GTViewer, GTI’s Pocket Control was shown as the mapping portion of Smallworld’s mobile PowerOn module. Real-time communication between PowerOn and a mobile hand-held device enables field personnel to see where they are being dispatched, as well as query the map for facility attributes.

GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer Used for Damage Assessment During Mock Earthquake Exercise

2007-06-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

On June 19th, nearly 100 people in 33 teams used applications built on GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer to collect information about damage likely to result from an earthquake on the New Madrid fault. Teams carried their data to a local Emergency Operations Center (EOC) where it was combined to show the extent of damage over a county-wide area. In a second data concentration effort, reports from all the local EOC’s were collated at the regional level.

The process of collecting and collating the data in local offices and combining these local data sets into a regional view took place more quickly than predicted. Not by the end of the day as expected, but at 1:00 p.m. the same afternoon, emergency management officials could review the pattern of damage at the regional level.

For more information, see GTI Conducts Training for Disaster Response Team.

GTI Conducts Training for Disaster Response Team

2007-06-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

GTI recently conducted interactive web-based training on Pocket GTViewer and Damage Assessment applications. Sixteen local government agencies will participate in a first-ever regional disaster response exercise, Tuesday, June 19, that includes a damage assessment of the conditions after the earthquake. The mock disaster will involve nearly 100 people in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee working with a scenario based on a 7.7 earthquake along the New Madrid fault.

Outside assistance is likely to include the other participating municipalities and counties, which are part of a growing, regional Rescuer/Responder Assistance Information Network (RAIN). RAIN is currently a loose knit group of city/county agencies that are setting up shared data and common software so they can provide mutual aid in the case of a wide-spread disaster. On June 19, the agencies will be viewing, collecting, and sharing critical post-incident information to each other, to six local Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) and to state directors for Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) at the West Tennessee Operations Center in Jackson, TN. An additional mechanism for access will be an interactive internet site setup to view and analyze information that will be a compilation of information acquired on the 19th and available to Emergency Management officials with a password.

By the end of the day, agencies will be viewing and analyzing information which could help assess initial damage and arrange for triage. This will be done in the various EOCs and on the internet. The test will assume most conventional communication such as telephones or cell towers is limited or nonexistent, and that movement throughout the area will also be limited.

“We want to decrease the amount of time it takes to get critical information into the hands of the actual responders. New mobile technology allows us to provide specific assessments on casualties or injuries, and for damage to roads and bridges, utilities, trees and vegetation, and structures – very quickly,” said Vic Young, Facilities Management & Mapping manager at Fisher & Arnold, Inc., a Memphis-based engineering firm assisting with the exercise.

“Realizing that many times the first responder is not police or fire, we have placed much of the search and rescue information on the mobile devices of day-to-day field users associated with utilities, code enforcement, inspectors, and engineering. These employees could be in their normal mode until emergency management information is needed, and then deployed instantly. Germantown, Olive Branch, Dyersburg, and the City of Memphis have, or will soon have this capability”, according to Young.

RAIN (Rescuer/Responder Assistance Information Network) includes:

Arkansas: City of Jonesboro, Craighead County, Crittenden County, City of West Memphis
Mississippi: City of Olive Branch, DeSoto County
Tennessee: City of Memphis, City of Dyersburg, Shelby County, Dyer County, Tipton County, Memphis Airport, Town of Collierville, City of Germantown, City of Bartlett, Lauderdale County

ResponderFMTMobile use

June 19th RAIN Participants

The responder can drive down the street and see each house with information such as who owns the property, the location of gas cutoffs, or the location of damaged homes.

Being able to quickly collect detailed damage information on your mobile phone or PDA allows the task to be completed in hours instead of days. The digital record is in the right place in space and can be sent immediately to the Emergency Operations Center and viewed on the monitors.

GTI at American Gas Association Conference

2007-04-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

GTI will be in booth #232 at the AGA Operations Conference & Biennial Exhibition in Dallas, Texas, April 24-26. Come by the booth and visit with us if you are at the show.

SECO Wins Innovation Award

2007-03-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Sumter Electric Cooperative (SECO) received one of four Cooperative Innovators Award for 2007 at the TechAdvantage Conference in Las Vegas in March. GTViewer was one of the technologies that SECO described as part of its presentation: Enterprise Geospatial Technologies – A total business information solution.

GTI releases new versions of GTViewer, Pocket GTViewer, and GTVx

2007-01-31T07:17:00.000-08:00

GTI releases new versions of 3 products today:

GTViewer version 7.0
Pocket GTViewer 7.0
GTVx version 7.0

These new releases have a variety of enhancements, fixes, and new features.

GTI at DistribuTECH, Feb 4-6, 2007

2007-01-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

Come to San Diego and visit GTI in booth 644 at the DistribuTECH conference, February 4-6. See GTViewer, the price-performance leader in geospatial viewing, along with advanced applications such as valve isolation, circuit tracing, and outage inference. GT/Field, a configurable data collection application, will be featured on hand-helds and laptops. New editions of GTWeb will also be demonstrated.

GTI to Exhibit at GITA Southeast Conference in Atlanta

2006-09-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

Come see GTI at the GITA Southeast Conference at Dave & Buster’s in Marietta on October 4th. GT/Field and GTWeb will be featured during exhibit time.

GTI to Exhibit at Smallworld Conference in September

2006-08-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Join us at the 2006 Smallworld Americas Users Conference, September 24-27. This year the conference returns to the attractive Omni Interlocken Resort near Denver, Colorado.

GTI will be showing its configurable data collection application GT/Field, the new GTWeb 5.0, and the rest of the GTViewer Family of Products that help companies gain more value from their geospatial data.

GTI will also be showing its solutions including the new Fiber OTDR Trace application that allows a field technician to find the location of breaks and splice problems. Come see Loop Makeup, Gas Valve Isolation, Outage Analysis, and more.

GT/Field now available for Desktop and Handheld Platforms

2006-07-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

GT/Field now runs on both GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer. GT/Field is a parameter driven add-on for GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer to facilitate the collection of data. Such data might be field inventory, pole or valve inspections, joint-use identification, GPS point collection or rectification, etc.

Data collection with GTViewer and Pocket GTViewer is not new. What makes GT/Field different is that it does NOT require any development or programming to use. Simply define what fields you want to capture for which features and you are ready to go.

GT/Field was developed first for Pocket GTViewer since the handheld device is an ideal platform for data collection; however, the need to collect data is just as important for GTViewer on laptops.

The following screenshots are showing test features, but hopefully they will illustrate the simplicity and effectiveness of the approach.

GT/Field for Pocket GTViewer

GT/Field for GTViewer

Pocket GTViewer Control Announced

2006-06-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

GTI announces a new development tool aimed at the handheld device market.

On the Desktop/Laptop platforms, GTViewer is our off-the-self viewing and analysis product. While GTViewer is easily extended with custom applications, GTI also offers the GTVx ActiveX control to provide an even greater degree of control over the development process. GTVx can be used to create standalone applications, or it can be embedded into your existing applications to provide GTViewer functionality wherever you may need it.

The same level of development control provided by GTVx is now provided for the handheld platforms (Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 2003 SE, and Window Mobile 5.0).

Pocket GTViewer (the off-the-shelf product for devices) provides a sophisticated interface for creating VB.NET or C# applications to extend its functionality. Our GT/Field product was developed using only this interface, and it successfully met all requirements. However, users have wanted more control over this development process just as they did in the form of the GTVx control on the desktop. The key feature missing from the Pocket GTViewer interface was the ability to actually embed Pocket GTViewer into your own applications (rather than interfacing with Pocket GTViewer). This ability is now supported with the Pocket GTViewer Control.

The new Pocket GTViewer Control or (PGTV Control) is a .NET control for Smart Device Applications and can be used with VB.NET or C#. While similar in concept to GTVx, the PGTVControl is a lightweight implementation geared specifically for handheld devices. It currently supports Visual Studio .NET 2003, and a Visual Studio .NET 2005 version will be supported soon.

The control already supports a wide range of features:

NMEA GPS support
ECW Raster
Feature and Point Capture
Attribute Info
Display Filter
Queries
Pan
Zoom
Fit Extents
Redlines

An example of the Pocket GTViewer Control in the Visual Studio .NET development environment:

Simply place a PGTV_Control on your form as shown above.

Very little code is required in your application to get the control running:

OpenFileDialog fileDlg = new OpenFileDialog();

fileDlg.Filter = "GTViewer files (*.gtx)*.gtx";

if (fileDlg.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
g_pgtv.OpenFile(fileDlg.FileName, "");

g_pgtv.ActivateZoomMode();
}

This C# example (VB.NET is very similar) illustrates how well the Pocket GTViewer Control integrates with Visual Studio. Most of the code here is getting the file name to open with a standard .NET OpenFileDialog. Invocation of the OpenFile and ActivateZoomMode methods in the Pocket GTViewer Control are the only lines needed to get a fully functional viewing component in your Windows Mobile application.

The final result will look like the screenshot below:

GTViewer Contributes to Katrina Recovery

2006-05-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

During a presentation at the Ten Sails Symposium on April 27, Skip Dearie of Entergy described how GTViewer provided effective help for the recovery from hurricane Katrina last summer. To see the full presentation, go to the Ten Sails Symposium web site or download the PowerPoint slideshow.

Ten Year Anniversary

2006-02-01T08:03:00.000-08:00

In January we celebrated our 10th anniversary! Founded in January 1996, GTI has grown from its start as an AM/FM consulting firm to become a software powerhouse. We want to thank our customers, who have supported us over the last ten years. This is really their celebration. We value the good relationship we have with them, and look forward to many more years of effective software and services.