Introduction:

The TatukGIS viewer is one of those products that you keep finding more and more functionality the more you use it. Because it reads so many file types, both vector and raster, I have found it extremely useful in addition to what it is designed for just for viewing graphics files and for map files when you didn’t want to load an entire desktop program just to see part of a project or an image.

While there are a number of viewers for GIS data, the TatukGIS viewer is a bit unique as it is a very full-featured product that supplies a surprising amount of functionality for the price – which is free. It reads Shape, TAB, DGN, Mid/Mif and a variety of image formats. One of the interesting features is the ability to print the maps and images from within the TatukGIS viewer to a PDF file for almost universal distribution.

Product Scope:

The product scope is to function as a very robust viewer of multiple (most common) GIS formats, provide selection functionality, handle imagery, and allow for custom symbology, color and transparency. It is designed to be very fast and render quickly allowing the user to add data from multiple sources. For example, add an ArcView layer to a MapInfo project set.

Functionality:

This is a summary of functionality that comes with the product description.

Opens and reads the following formats;

• Vector – SHP, E00, MID/MIF, TAB, DXF, DGN, TIGER, OpenGIS SQL Layers, GML, Geo-Referenced Images, GeoTiff, world file and TAB based.
• Raster – Tiff & GeoTiff, ECW, Mr. Sid, BMP, SPOT, JPG, PNG, RPF, Grid ASCII (DTM), Grid FLOAT (DTM), TatkusGIS, PixelStore

You can create new TatukGIS project files (and save ArcView or MapInfo projects as TatukGIS projects)

Other functions include:

• Zoom, Pan, re-order layers, remove layers, change symbology, color and transparency. Zoom works with your scrolling mouse too.
• Create thematic maps, use charts and graphs as part of the map data presentation.
• Select by point, line, circle or polygon.
• Create custom labels.
• Print, print preview and print to a PDF file.
• Export to a TIFF, GeoTIFF/LZW, JPEG, PNG, PixelStore and PDF.
• Mosaic multiple Geo Referenced images and export to a single file.
• Built-in multiple language support for English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Italian.
• The viewer includes an Internet Server Wizard so that projects can be used with the Tatuk Web Server.

Usability:

A lot of thought has gone into this product and while the viewer is easy to use there are a couple of simple things that are subtly expected. First of all, the layer control (legend) default is on the right, and these panels are dockable, so you can move them to the left, if you want. All of the layer symbology can be controlled from here, color, line weight, type, labels, etc. A right click on a layer takes you to all the options.

There is a panel for a “MiniMap” which allows you to chose which layer you want as an overview map. Right clicking on the MiniMap panel will let you change the color within the MiniMap or layer used.

There is also an option to display as a panel the attributes of a selected feature. If the feature has a long list of attributes, this panel will scroll to let you see each field in the attribute database.

Of course, there is a very comprehensive tutorial in PDF format that comes with the viewer, so if you want to do something and can’t find it, the Help file takes you right to the tutorial. There is ample use of text boxes to help the user understand what is functionality is available for each pull down or other selection.

An exceptional feature is the selection options. Figure 1 shows the GUI for selection, (clicking on the pull down by the pointer); in many cases these options are more that a typical desktop program would provide.

Also on the tool bar (Figure 2) at the top of the screen you can do a simple query selection by picking the available layer, the function (equals, not equal, etc) and the clicking on select and that geography will appear in the center of the screen. That GUI looks like this…

When the product first opens a project or individual file the color rendering defaults are not real stunning. Now these can be changed and adjusted so the map can go from grey to yellow or a number of other colors. The color palette is the usual Windows selection so that custom colors can be used. Like any product, the more you use it, the better you maps will look.

Figure 3 - Basic US Data Set – Using Default Color and Symbology Settings. Click for Larger View

Using the thematic and charting ability, your maps can look like Figure 4.

Note, the Legend shows the Chart ranges and the thematic ranges and the "MiniMap" panel shows the area of the visible map.

Figure 5 shows a MapInfo Sample Project of Washington DC with a raster underlay.

Figure 5 - Click for Larger View

The TatukGIS viewer is an exceptional value, not just because it is free, but it reads all the typical GIS related file formats and even lets you add and mix them within the same project. The spatial query functions are exceptional for a product of this type. Typically you get your choice of one spatial query, not several.

It is very handy product to have if you just want to view a file and make changes “just to see what it how it would look if…” You will also want it on you desktop just to be able to view multiple graphic file types.

The only complaint I had with the TatukGIS viewer (which was minimal), is that the default colors for fill, lines, etc., were a little bland so it took a little exploration to get you map files looking good. But it wasn’t difficult and the transparency fill option worked very well and allowed you to create and publish maps that were quite presentable. If you can add imagery, your maps will look even better. Remember, as well that this product allows you to print to a PDF file.

I would download this viewer and try it out. I think you will find it a very useful piece of software.

You can find it at (down at the bottom of the page)

https://shop.tatukgis.com/Downloads/DownloadList.aspx

or at

http://www.rockware.com/catalog/pages/freetatukgisviewer.html - (Check out the screen shots)