6/6/2001

NBGIS Lite v1.0.0.4

A much needed update, and a new toy!

The feedback from the initial version of NBGIS has been nothing short of excellent. Many have praised it's small size and speed and we have received some great suggestions for future versions of the viewer. I've compiled a list of all of these suggestions here locally and I will be posting this online for readers to browse as well. I was thinking it might also be very nice to have readers easily submit their own suggestions or ideas from a simple form on this area of the site. In the next week or so I will be posting this interface here at the Development area.

I've made quite a bit of new progress on the existing viewer. I currently have two different layer controls implemented and I have not yet decided between the two. One is a simple tree view using filename as the default layername and reporting the default layer type (line, poly or point). Below each layer title there are sub trees allowing the user to set line style, line color, line width, fill style, and fill color. The other is similar to ArcView's layer control. A sroll box filled with flat plates that house the layer name and a small icon showing current properties and the default layer type. I'm still not completely sure which of these I like better, but I'm leaning towards the latter. I'd love to hear ideas from others on what they would want for the perfect layer tool.

And a new toy! While talking with various readers from Directions who spent some time with the first version of the viewer it became apparent that not only are we on the right track with this one, but that we should also think of branching another version with very limited functionality to use as a simple coverage viewer for single layers. Well after a little playing last night, that's exactly what I've done. There is now a second project in this group called NBGIS Lite (for now). It is currently a single 317KB executable with no installation and the same requirements as the first version. It is very clean and very simple with no extras. It allows pan/zoom/id on a single layer of either .shp, .mif or .e00 format. All menus and associated functionality are available with a right mouse-click. It also accepts a single layer as a parameter on the command line.

Why? Well, I can see now that the full version of NBGIS is quickly building in complexity the more I work with it. I like to keep things simple and easy to use. This second small application can be associated with .shp, .mif or .e00 files (and soon TAB!) from within Windows and used to browse your data directory. Put it on a floppy and show it to your friends! And as always, Let us hear what you think!

• NBGIS Lite v1.0.0.4 (317k)
  

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  5/15/2001

  
  An early screenshot of NBGIS

  Over the past few months I have been experimenting with a multi-format data viewer project using the Delphi development environment. During the next few weeks I would like to introduce this project to the readers of Directions Magazine in the same over-the-shoulder fashion we used before for our DirView project in Visual Basic. I hope it provides an interesting read. As always, we welcome comments and suggestions about this and other projects.

  A few months ago I was researching Delphi development tools and found a new GIS component. This component, TatukGIS Developer Kernel, is particularly interesting because it is available as a native Delphi/C++ builder VCL component (in addition to ActiveX versions for those using other environments). This means the Delphi developer can compile the viewer into a single executable with no external libraries. The viewer could then be packaged, with no installation, on a CD that includes data as well. A very handy feature.

  When considering the initial functionality of the viewer, I wanted the following capabilities:

  • The basics: zoom, pan, and select
  • Multiple views, each with multi-layer capabilities.
  • Support for as many standard formats as possible
  • Layer reordering within each unique view
  • Selection of features, returning info on all fields of the dataset
  • Reprojection from within an active view
  • Editing of layer properties (point, line and polygon style)
  • Labeling of layers by any field within the dataset
  After some experimentation I had a basic working viewer that allowed pan/zoom and identify as well as modification of layer properties. I was not happy with the way the layer control worked so I recently started afresh with a little more understanding of the mapping component.

  I have also successfully experimented with adding GPS functionality to the viewer. This allows plotting a point or track in a new layer over the top of an existing view.

  
  NBGIS v1.0.0.5

  The viewer in its current state is available here. It is a single executable (347K) with no installation required. Developed on Windows 2000 Professional using Delphi 5 with the latest service packs, it should run on any of the 32-bit Windows platforms. It currently supports multiple views with multiple layers. Layers can be ESRI shape or MapInfo mif/mid files. I'm hoping to have a version with tab and .e00 formats working in the near term as well. I have not yet added a layer properties tool to allow changing of specific feature colors or labeling, but pan/zoom and info are working as they should. I would love to hear comments about our plans for the viewer and opinions on its current direction.

  Later this week I hope to have a new version available online with additional features and fixes. Let me hear what you think!

• NBGIS v1.0.0.5 (347k)

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