[Gvsig_english] gvSIG is a viable robust alternative to commercially available GIS packages

[Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd)]

Sergio,

Thanks for your reply.

DGN Support - I did not have files around to test but yes I note the 
"DGN Memory Driver" in the add layer dialog box.

Conversion from graphic to shape - I think we differ in what is meant by 
graphic. In ArcView you are able to place points, lines, polygons on a 
view. You can align the graphic elements, move them around and 
manipulate them like their cousins stored in a shapefile. The data is 
stored in the project file. These graphics can then be exported to a 
shapefile. The process can be readily reversed. I have used this when 
creating a large grid of polygons for example. One square, duplicate, 
align, repeat until you have a enormous grid of squares. This can then 
be exported to a shapefile to be used as a 1-minute, 10-minute grid, 
etc. Now-a-days I create GML files created by a program.

Complex Legend based on 2 fields - again I think we differ in our understanding. Imagine I have a vegetation code (PGW, HW, GW) and I have a quality rating (H, M, L, D). Normally I would have to create a separate field called vegqual that contained a combination of these two fields (PGW-M, PGW-D, GW-H, GW-D, HW-M) and use the "Unique Values" symbology to distinguish these groups. A combined legend is where you don't need the third combo field you just state that you want to create a list of all legitimate combinations for the 2 or 3 fields - the program does the rest.

Vegetation index from images - OK yes I see this now. I needed to scale 
down the image though before I could get it to start. I have not fully 
explored Sextante functions yet.

Cheers Simon

Simon Cropper
Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
PO Box 160, Sunshine, Victoria 3020.
P: 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437.
mailto: scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au 
<mailto:scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au>
web: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au <http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au>



Sergio Clark wrote:
> Hi Simon,
>
> Some more comments on your function list:
>
> Apart of those commented by Fran, right now gvSIG 1.9 has DGN support 
> (Microstation v.7), conversion Graphic to Shp and Shp to Graphic 
> (Vectorization and Export to raster tools), complex Legend based on 2 
> fields (Multiple Attribute, numeric type), Polyline to Line (Exploit 
> edition tool), Vegetation index from images (Remote Sensing extension, 
> also Sextante), and some others :).
>
> Thanks very much for yours comments and your support!
>
> Regards,
> Sergio.
>
>
> Sergio Clark
> Equipo gvSIG
> IVER T.I., S.A.
> www.iver.es
> www.gvsig.com
>
>
>
> Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd) escribió:
>   
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I suppose this is preaching to the converted but I think it is worth 
>> getting positive feedback about your product, rather than "What about 
>> this?" or "Do you know about this bug".
>>
>> I am a environmental consultant. Every job requires the acquisition and 
>> creation of geospatial data, simple geospatial analysis and the 
>> preparation of maps. Every job has variations on the theme with clients 
>> providing information in various datums and formats. Output is 
>> relatively constant with maps being used as JPGs in reports or supplied 
>> as shapefiles to the client. OK, this gives you some background to my 
>> situation and needs.
>>
>> Originally I used ArcView, but have over the last year been searching 
>> for a reliable and robust alternative. I have tried QGIS, Grass, Kosmo, 
>> OpenJUMP, JUMP, llwis, OpenEV, etc to carry out what I needed. I tried 
>> early versions of gvSIG but found some basic requirements were not meet. 
>> Beta versions of 1.9 looked OK but they were unstable with regular 
>> crashes making it difficult to justify the time to learn the program.
>>
>> Now that the stable version of 1.9 has been made available I have 
>> started using it in production. My belief is that the only way to verify 
>> if some thing is going to work is feed it real data and try to do real 
>> things with it. You will have noticed I have been regularly posting to 
>> the list server as I (a) explore the interface and try and understand 
>> how things are done, and (b) as I have uncovered various little glitches.
>>
>> OK, my initial feedback after working with the program for several weeks 
>> is...
>> 1) the transition from ArcView to gvSIG was seamless with most functions 
>> being found in similar locations. I had a similar experience when 
>> trialling Kosmo, but not with any of the other packages mentioned.
>> 2) gvSIG uses ECW, Shape, DWG, DXF -- all file formats I regularly 
>> encounter.
>> 3) gvSIG can convert from AGD66 geo/AMG55 to GDA94 geo/MGA55 -- 
>> something I need to do regularly. I did note however that the gvSIG 
>> files created varied slightly from files reprojected in ArvView. I will 
>> need to do some testing of both systems to verify that the output is 
>> comparable.
>> 4) gvSIG could handle quite a lot of data, files, annotations, etc. The 
>> only time I noticed the system slowing down was in producing a map. Slow 
>> but it did not crash.
>> 5) I have only had gvSIG crash a couple of times. These instances appear 
>> to be related to small bugs. In comparison with ArcView this is quite 
>> good - for some largish projects ArcView would crash 3-4 times a day 
>> (bad memory management). It is worth noting that I was using ArcView 3.1 
>> which is currently not still supported and is struggling to keep up with 
>> Operating System changes (XP service packs, Vista).
>> 6) I am keen to eventually migrate from Windows XP to Ubuntu or Debian, 
>> so am keen to ensure the system I use is suitable for these operating 
>> systems. gvSIG does, so this is great.
>> 7) I am still keen to see the map production facility improved. 
>> especially the output. I found I got a much better output file by 
>> capturing the screen and manipulating in GIMP, than use of any of the 
>> output options. I have not printed directly to a printer so can't 
>> comment on the ability to gvSIG to render a map properly. My needs are 
>> primarily generation of a file than can be imported into OpenOffice Writer.
>> 8) Coupled with Sextante, gvSIG captures most of the tasks that I have 
>> done over the last 15 years. Table 1 shows my checklist of things I 
>> commonly do and whether I have figured out if gvSIG does them. Any help 
>> filling in the blanks would be appreciated. I will update my post with a 
>> completed table if I receive any feedback.
>> 9) I have not been able to find any good tutorials on how to use the 
>> command box when editing a shapefile or the JPython Console. These 
>> features look very promising but without some sort of tutorial, examples 
>> or manuals it is impossible to evaluate these facilities. This was the 
>> old aspect that ESRI has over the open source communities -- they have a 
>> quite large and easily navigated script library which allows for people 
>> to contribute scribes for manipulation of spatial data and extensions 
>> that can be downloaded.
>>
>> All in all what I am trying to say is gvSIG is fantastic. Everyday I 
>> learn about some new feature and I can't stop smiling. I think that 
>> finally I can legitimately say I have found an open source GIS system 
>> that has surpassed ArcView 3. Considering the plethora of open source 
>> packages available it has been frustrating that no one package bundled 
>> the core elements required by users like myself into one place. gvSIG 
>> has now done this and included a range of other features to boot. I am 
>> very pleased and want to congratulate the developers and the Generalitat 
>> Valenciana on a fantastic product. I look forward to being part of this 
>> dynamic open source community, and helping further the development of 
>> this product.
>>
>>
>> Table 1. Things I need a GIS system to do. If people can provide comment 
>> on any of the functions flagged with '?', I would appreciate it.
>>
>> *Broad Category* 	*Function* 	*gvSIG 1.9
>> *
>> PLATFORM 	Familiar program structure 	YES 
>> PLATFORM 	Intuative structure 	YES
>> PLATFORM 	Linux Compatible 	YES
>> PLATFORM 	Project file to retain previous settings 	YES
>> PLATFORM 	Windows compatible 	YES
>> SUPPORT 	Able to be extended through scripts 	YES
>> SUPPORT 	Active script library 	NO
>> SUPPORT 	Manual 	YES 
>> SUPPORT 	Forums 	YES
>> LEXICON 	SHP Support 	YES 
>> LEXICON 	CAD Support 	YES
>> LEXICON 	DGN support 	? 
>> LEXICON 	DXF Support 	YES
>> LEXICON 	ECW Support 	YES
>> LEXICON 	JPEG Support 	YES
>> LEXICON 	MapInfo Support 	?
>> LEXICON 	MrSID Support 	 APPARENTLY  
>> LEXICON 	GDA94 Support 	YES 
>> LEXICON 	AGD66 Support 	 YES
>> VECTOR 	Features in shapefile - add, edit, delete 	 YES
>> VECTOR 	Points Images/fonts, scaleable 	 YES
>> VECTOR 	Polygon Area, Cleaning tools, centroids 	 YES
>> VECTOR 	Projections on the fly 	 NO
>> VECTOR 	Shapefile - add, edit, delete 	 YES
>> VECTOR 	Warp line files 	 ?
>> RASTER 	Change header data in supported image types (georeference) 	 YES
>> RASTER 	Use or convert TAB world files 	 ?
>> CONVERSION 	Cut-and-paste sections of aerial photographs and retain 
>> georeferencing 	 YES
>> CONVERSION 	Graphics to Shape, Shape to Graphic 	 NO
>> CONVERSION 	Polygon to Polyline 	 ?
>> CONVERSION 	Polyline to Line 	 ?
>> CONVERSION 	Reproject AGD66 --> GDA94 	 YES
>> ANALYSIS 	Address location along polyline 	 ?
>> ANALYSIS 	Buffer Features - field, value 	 YES
>> ANALYSIS 	Explode complex polygon files 	 ?
>> ANALYSIS 	Get coordinates for vertices 	 ?
>> ANALYSIS 	Identify features within distance 	 ?
>> ANALYSIS 	Image pattern analysis to extract vegetation types 	 ?
>> ANALYSIS 	Insert northing, easting, latitude and longitude 	 YES
>> ANALYSIS 	Get distance between objects 	? 
>> ANALYSIS 	Intersect Lines 	?
>> ANALYSIS 	Line length 	 YES
>> ANALYSIS 	Line or polygon intersect
>> 	YES 
>> ANALYSIS 	Nearest Feature 	Sextante? 
>> ANALYSIS 	Nearest Neighbour Analysis
>> 	Sextante?
>> ANALYSIS 	Update areas, perimeters, hectares and length 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Map production facility 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Ability to create or import legend symbology 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Legends complex - based on more than one field 	 NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Export maps JPG 	 NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Export maps WMF 	 NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Export maps SVG 	 NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Gradicules and measured Grids 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Gradicules - dynamic 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Labels - add, edit, delete 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Legend categories - unique value, graduated colour or 
>> single 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Legends Auto Label 	 YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY 	Text - add, edit, delete 	 YES
>>
>>
>>
>>   
>>     
>
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