IMAGINiT Geospatial Solutions Blog

MapGuide Open Source 2.1

The latest release of MapGuide Open Source was officially released the other day.

In addition to many bug fixes, some of the highlights include:

• Raster Re-projections
• Implementation of the CS-Map coordinate system library
• Improved error reporting
• Improvements in stability and performance

You can find the MGOS 2.1 download here.

GIS Day ‘09

GIS Day is quickly approaching (tomorrow!!!), so be sure to look for a local event near you and be sure to check it out!

What is GIS Day you ask?

Well, GIS Day is all about ‘education’.  It is a day set aside every year for increasing the awareness of real-world GIS applications to the general public.  Many companies, software vendors and educational institutes host events for the general public to learn more about GIS,including what ‘it’ is, and how this impacts our daily lives. 

As you can see from the map, GIS Day is celebrated everywhere.  Including, over 50 events in Canada, hundreds in the US, and many more through-out the world.

One event I would like to mention is the GIS Day Celebration being hosted by the SAIT GIS Club.  There are going to be presentations on:

• Sky Base Mapping
• Seismic Slope Hazard Analysis & Rescue Plan (SSHARP)
• Endangered Species in Costa Rica
• Municipal Asset Management

The presentations run from 12:30pm – 5:00pm in the Orpheus Theater in the Campus Centre, and GIS Information Displays can be seen on the Main Floor of the Senator Burns Building. 

Having just completed my Bachelor of Applied Technology GIS Degree, I was really hoping to make it the SAIT event this year, but unfortunately, previous commitments are preventing me from attending.

If you happen to be a “Twitter’er”, check out: http://twitter.com/GIS_Day, and if you’re into Facebook, check out: http://www.facebook.com/gisday?ref=search

If you’re in the Calgary area, be sure to stop by SAIT and take in the event, OR, search for an event near you!

Until next time,
Take care

Warren M

Point Clouds in AutoCAD Map 3D

My colleague, Jeff Morrow, has written a great article on Point Clouds as they relate to AutoCAD Map 3D and AutoCAD Civil 3D, so be sure to check that out!

In this post, I want to send out a big thank you, and report some of my experiences with the new Point Cloud functionality.

Over the last couple weeks, I have been working to finalize the presentation for my AU class, in addition, I am also preparing for Mike Schlosser’s Analyze This! class where I will be co-presenting.  This will be my 3rd time co-presenting this class with Mike, and it is always a great class, as it exposes users to the analysis capabilities of AutoCAD Map.  The goal of the class is to show the users ‘real-world’ scenarios, with ‘real’ data, and I usually find that people are quite surprised as to the extent of analysis capabilities that Map provides.  This year, Mike sent a survey out to the class attendees to get some ideas and suggestions as to what kinds of analysis people might like to see.  The responses were great, with some very detailed suggestions.

So where am I going with all of this?

Well, for my part of the Analyze This! class I’m going to discuss the point cloud technology and how it can be used to generate a 3D Surface that can be used for analysis, specifically, flood trace analysis.  I’m also going to show Feature Overlay Analysis to overlay parcel data, which includes address information, onto building footprints.

So…  my ideas are formed, and I’m ready to start putting the presentation together. 

One minor problem…  I need some ‘real data’.

Where can I find some LIDAR, and related geospatial data to test these theories?

It just so happens that we’ve had some recent discussions with the City of Saskatoon and I know they have acquired some LIDAR data and they have been looking for options to incorporate this data into their workflows and processes.  So a quick call to one of my contacts at the city and voila, less than 8 hours later I have a 6km x 6km area (36 million points) of bare earth, and full featured LIDAR, as well as the corresponding parcels and building footprints.

I owe a HUGE thanks to Ryan Ottenbreit and Kevin Shewchuk of the Corporate Geographic Information Services (CGIS) Section of the City of Saskatoon, for allowing permission to use this data for demonstration purposes.

The Process…

There are essentially 2 steps to get the LIDAR into a format that can be analyzed in AutoCAD Map 3D:

1. The raw data must be processed to generate the Point Cloud indices via the Point Cloud Manager.  This command allows you to choose your LIDAR data to process in the following formats: standard LAS format (.las ), raw XYZ files (.xyz), and the Pont Cloud file format (.isd).  The result of the Index Generation process is a 3 file set that make up the ‘Point Cloud’: .prmd, .isd, .iati. 
   
   From here, the data can be added to the Map just like a regular FDO Feature Class.  Once the Point Cloud layer is added to the Display Manager, the following Ribbon UI will appear to allow control of stylizing the Point Cloud:
   
   
   
2. The next step is to generate a 3D surface from the Pont Cloud Data.  This surface can then be used for a wide variety of display themes and surface analysis.

A Problem…

I did experience one problem as I was attempting to generate indices on this Point Cloud data…

The data provided from the City of Saskatoon is in the NAD83 CSRS98 coordinate system, so naturally, I tried to specify the proper coordinate system during the index creation process. 

Apparently it did not like this, as the generation failed every time with the following message whenever I tried to specify the CS.

I need to investigate this further, but for now, the moral of the story is…  Don’t try to set the coordinate system during the Point Cloud index creation.

Until next time,
Take care

Warren M.