DeLorme Professional Weblog

Since the introduction of the PN-Series GPS receivers over two years ago, DeLorme’s customer service representatives have helped countless customers determine which of these two software titles best suits their needs. Long-time subscribers to the DeLorme Professional Newsletter may recall that we addressed this same issue in a late 2007 edition; however, as the question is still being posed, it is worth revisiting this topic.

To begin, let us quote from the 2007 article:

“Both XMap 5.2 and Topo USA can be used to transfer maps and data to and from the PN-20, however there are key differences between these two software packages that reflect the intended use for each product.

Topo USA was developed as a recreational mapping software product and it excels for such applications as hiking, biking, hunting and off-road navigation. Combined with the PN-20 it offers a powerful set of tools for planning and undertaking virtually any backcountry adventure.

XMap, which includes all of the features and functions of Topo USA, was designed to specifically meet the needs of the professional user and it achieves this by offering several mechanisms for integrating third party data into the software.”

While the XMap and Topo USA have been significantly upgraded since 2007, the fundamental distinctions remain the same. Topo USA is intended for recreational use and XMap has been designed for professional applications.

Both products contain the same core mapping functionality and include many of the same features and functions including routing, drawing and annotation, 3-D terrain modeling and much more. Because there are such similarities and common functionality, the upgrade path is a painless one for Topo USA users who want to take their mapping to the next level.

For most users, XMap Professional—the entry level edition of the suite—is a perfect stepping stone from recreational mapping to more advanced spatial technology. So what data does XMap Professional support that is not compatible with Topo USA?

• Shapefiles
  The most common GIS file format, shapefiles are freely downloadable from thousands of online data libraries. Shapefiles can depict property boundaries, nesting sites, schools, subway lines or almost any imaginable geographic feature.
• XMap OpenSpace files
  DeLorme’s GIS format offers a simple way to share data layers with other XMap users. DeLorme provides several free OpenSpace layers for download including Township, Range, and Section boundaries, ZIP Code polygons, and NGS Benchmarks.
• Scanned or digital versions of paper maps
  Using XMap’s ImageReg tool, you can import an image, such as a scanned map or aerial photograph, and precisely align and scale it to create a geographically referenced map layer.
• Third-party aerial imagery
  Many national, regional, or local government agencies offer aerial imagery or other raster data at no charge. The most common formats for this imagery are GeoTIFF and MrSID, both of which are supported by XMap. As an example, all of the topographic maps for Canada can be downloaded from the Canadian government and can be viewed in XMap.
• Your data
  XMap offers a geocoding tool that gives you the ability to import spreadsheets, databases, and even text files that contain a location component, such as a street address or coordinates. Each record is represented by a user-selectable symbol and is positioned at the correct point on the map.

All of these map layers can be transferred to the Earthmate PN-Series GPS receivers and can be displayed alongside DeLorme’s renowned topographic maps and Map Library layers.

XMap also includes a number of functional advances when compared to Topo USA:

• Phone Search which offers searchable access to over 150 million phone records for the U.S. and Canada.
• Voice-controlled navigation and voice recognition capability, allowing you to control certain features of the software using verbal commands.
• Map feature customization including user-selectable contour intervals, shaded relief control, and flexible dual map windows.
• Advanced layering functionality, allowing selected map features to be displayed on top of aerial imagery

In XMap, you will find all of the features and functions you love about Topo USA enhanced with an array of powerful mapping tools that help you make maps like a pro.

This month, we continue our reseller spotlight feature by looking at a recent addition to DeLorme’s VAR (Value Added Reseller) network. Data Directions, based in Eugene, Oregon, not only offers a full range of DeLorme’s software and hardware but also provides a wealth of expertise in the application of location technology for natural resources professionals.

Tony Cooley, Data Directions Principal, who recently received his Geographic Information Systems Professional certification by meeting the standards for ethical conduct and professional practice as established by the GIS Certification Institute, shares some information about his company.

Data Directions has been providing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology for forestry and natural resources management applications since 1992. Clients are located throughout the Pacific Northwest and manage anywhere from a few thousand to more than a million acres of resources. The solutions provided are tailored to meet the individual client’s needs and often intermix a variety of software and hardware products.   The XMap GIS product line works well as a cost effective, feature-rich solution for the smaller clients and with the addition of the PN-Series GPS units, XMap also fits in well as a component of larger, enterprise-level GIS implementations.

“The PN-Series GPS units coupled with the XMap software enable our clients to view and reference their detailed GIS vector layers, as well as custom imagery in the field.   The ability to load GIS layers for property lines and private road systems onto the GPS units is invaluable,” said Cooley. “The units work quite well under the canopy of the northwest forests.  With the release of the PN-40 ESRI Extension, importing field collected data used for harvest or stand treatment planning is now virtually effortless.  We have found that XMap integrates well into GIS departments which are ESRI or MapInfo based.”

Data Directions provides GIS system software sales, consultations, systems analysis, user support, training, and applications development. Additional services include GIS data acquisition, conversion, creation, and integration. Data Directions specializes in integrating the XMap software and PN-Series GPS units with existing GIS installations or deploying XMap GIS as the primary system for clients with limited budgets. For more information on the services Data Directions performs please visit their web page at: www.datadirections.biz.

If you are interested in the application of XMap within a particular industry, you are encouraged to contact an appropriate Value-Added Reseller directly. If would like more information about becoming an XMap VAR, please contact the XMap team at 1-800-293-2389 or email prosales@delorme.com

In mid July, Geoffrey Ives, DeLorme’s Director of Professional Sales, flew to San Diego for the 2009 ESRI User Conference along with a number of key DeLorme staff members. DeLorme’s attendance at this event was significant for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that DeLorme had recently become an ESRI Business Partner. The following was written by Geoffrey shortly after his return.

What I Learned at DeLorme’s First ESRI User Conference

A few weeks ago, DeLorme Publishing Company, Inc., a new ESRI Business Partner, exhibited at the 2009 ESRI User Conference in San Diego. For DeLorme, the conference was a great success and provided the DeLorme professional sales group with hundreds of sales leads for the DeLorme World Base Map data and the Earthmate PN-40 handheld GPS receiver. But, clearly, there was more to the conference than just a list of sales opportunities.

We were told that attendance at the conference was down from previous years. That may be or may not be true, but from my perspective (our booth was swamped), the level of attendance— in light of the economic downturn—seemed indicative of the growing acceptance of GIS into mainstream government and business processes.  I’m talking low-level, basement of the rural town hall where you register your car, acceptance here.

DeLorme has exhibited at eight national conferences this year and at all of them, with the single exception of the American Wind Energy Association conference in Chicago, attendance was significantly off.  And they have all been peppered with job seekers and struggling job holders seeking a better life, which means attendees are less interested in stuff to buy and more interested in jobs and new time-saving processes. The ESRI User Conference was no exception.

In the current economic climate, most of us are stretching our daily job parameters to absorb additional tasks and responsibilities. Across the nation, ten percent of us have lost our jobs.  Those of us fortunate enough to retain a job suffer from the need to fill the process vacuums left by the now unemployed or re-employed.  It forces us all to rethink our relationship with work; to reassess our futures, our company objectives, our careers, our family’s security, and the trade shows we attend.

The ESRI User Conference plenary session highlighted multiple and critical global crises, in part to emphasize the positive impact of GIS on disaster management and future planning (let’s face it, unless you’ve got your head in the sand, we’re up against nothing less than planet-wide disaster), but also to target an audience of over twelve thousand with a message of “yes we can” in the face of all this darkness. During the afternoon keynote speeches, I emotionally cycled between ‘springing’ all of the apes from the San Diego Zoo and rushing home to build geospatial models that clearly identify the guilty parties. Of course, the quintessential US consumer (i.e., me) is the guilty party in one way or another. I could check Google for the nearest EZ-Rent-A-Van to the convention center.  Although I’d likely end up in the hospital; a data point within some public safety GIS showing statistically that a middle-aged US professional dad cannot transport arboreal apes in a rented van without risking serious personal injury; my well-intended personal protest not helping orangutans one bit.

“Where exactly was he going with all those primates?,” the responding trooper would ask my wife.

“I really don’t know officer. You see his Blackberry isn’t fully charged. Know what I mean?” she responds, filing her nails. “You should see how he loads the dish washer.”

“We understand Ma’m.”

Leaving the personal drama behind, I spoke with an estimated three or four hundred GIS users during the week. What I heard, again and again, was that many had suggested to their bosses that, due to the economy, they skip the ESRI UC this year. After all, San Diego is “Junket-Land” where, by itself, eating will obliterate a per diem living allowance. What was interesting to me was how so many small organizations, like budget constrained towns, told their GIS people, “No. We want you to go because you always bring back money-saving tools and new ideas.”

That seemed to be the ultimate evidence that GIS has truly become a critical component of mainstream business processes. For a small Maine town to fund a GIS manager’s trip to San Diego for a week is really quite amazing especially in light of shrinking municipal budgets. And for elected officials to recognize the benefits of GIS clearly speaks to the intrinsic value geospatial technology is now expected to provide.

Sure geospatial technology is cool. GPS navigation, on-line parcel maps, satellite views of Nana’s  house—these are all great things—but to generate actionable intelligence out of maps and location data can be life, and hopefully, planet saving.  It’s one thing for a federal agency to recognize GIS benefits through a cadre of analysts applying the best tools in the business but something entirely new to find that GIS value is being touted by an elected official from rural America. GIS benefits are now recognized by smaller jurisdictions through both ROI analysis and plain common sense.

In San Diego I learned that ESRI business partners may actually be part of something bigger than creating and selling product. We’re providing tools that empower solutions to global problems.  To do so we need to survive and flourish as a business community. That means balancing competition with collaboration, taking risks and pushing innovation, sharing and investing, all while developing value for our customers. As businesses, we’re no good to anyone if we don’t survive. So congratulations to those of you surviving this economy. It is no small achievement and we all need all the help we can get.

So perhaps there is hope. That’s what Jack Dangermond’s message seemed to be at the plenary wrap-up. We’re living through a dark time but there is hope, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” GIS as a “Geo-Design” tool, can help educate and inform those in power, from local towns to national governments, to make the critical decisions necessary to help turn our planet around.

The problem, according to Mr. Dangermond, is nothing short of saving our world for our children. Geospatial technology has come of age just in time to help guide and inform the critical decision makers of the world.

Will GIS save the world? Who knows? I know it won’t happen without intelligent planning, cross cultural collaboration, sacrifice and guts. But I have faith that the GIS community at large is better at saving the world than your average, middle-aged dad is at loading the dish washer.

DeLorme is pleased to announce the availability of NGS (National Geodetic Survey) benchmark data for XMap. These OpenSpace files, organized by state, can be downloaded for free and are compatible with all versions of XMap 5 or newer.

A benchmark is a geographic point whose coordinates and/or elevation has been measured and recorded to a high level of accuracy. Benchmarks are used by surveyors, engineers, map makers, and other professionals who need a highly accurate positional reference for their work. Recently, locating benchmarks has also become a popular pastime for the geocaching community.

Each benchmark or geodetic control station has a precise latitude/longitude used for horizontal control or a precise orthometric height used for vertical control or both a horizontal and vertical control.

The XMap data is comprised of individual OpenSpace layers created for all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, based on data downloaded from the NGS benchmark archive files. Recent benchmark additions can be downloaded directly from the NGS website and appended to the appropriate XMap OpenSpace layer using the Import… Append function of XMap GIS Editor or XMap GIS Enterprise.

The benchmark layers have been classified and symbolized to distinguish horizontal and vertical benchmarks. Additionally, a unique symbol has been assigned to benchmarks that are considered both horizontal and vertical control points. Each layer includes four pre-defined queries that can be run from within the Attribute subtab of XMap: Search by County, Search by ID number, Search by Benchmark name, and Search by USGS Quad. The results of these queries are highlighted on the map and in the attribute table.

Each benchmark includes over 35 attribute fields, including its name, date established, and condition. Additionally, each point on the map is labeled with the benchmark ID number, which also serves as a hyperlink to the complete online datasheet for that control point.

As with all GIS layers in XMap, the benchmarks can be transferred to the PN-Series GPS receivers for field use. On the device, the objects that appear as labeled points on the screen are searchable using the Find function.

The availability of the benchmark data in XMap format is further evidence of DeLorme’s commitment to providing powerful geospatial tools and data in a cost-effective way, making GIS technology accessible to everyone.

If you’re worried that you missed a month of this venerable publication, fear not. This is a combined July/August edition; let’s call it a bumper summer special. Read on to find out about a new free data offering for XMap users, an intro to an XMap reseller in the Pacific Northwest, a rare missive from DeLorme’s Professional Sales Director about his experience at the ESRI User Conference, and, of course, a chance for you to test your geographic knowledge and maybe win a copy of XMap with a GPS receiver in the latest Where on Eartha challenge.