New Features in 2008 Version

SuperMap GIS 2008 Desktop products improved and enhanced data engine, data management, data representation, data editing, spatial analysis as well as UI optimization. These updating make SuperMap products more efficient and stable.

Data Engine and Data Management

　　◆Enhanced operations on attribute table structure. The user can add a new field faster and easier, run batch to delete a set of fields.

　　◆New filtering function for dataset display. The specified dataset can be displayed by setting the filter in workspace manager.

　　◆Reversed selection function in multiple windows (workspace manager window, attribute window and map window etc.)

　　◆New polar projection and projection for Hong Kong. On-the-fly geographical transformation among different datum.

　　◆Capability to access web data source, including WMS, WFS, WCS services of OGC, and KML format of Google Earth.

　　◆New projection transformations for vector dataset.


Map Display

　　◆New anti-alias function to smooth map representation. Anti-alias can be applied to line style, text, symbol, and thematic map. Its visual effects can be saved to the map or the workspace without affecting the source data. The following two figures illustrate anti-alias effect of lines, the left one with anti-alias disabled and the right one with anti-alias enabled.

Figure 16 Anti-alias effect

　　◆Saving map as a template - the map style and thematic map settings can be saved as a template for further use.

　　◆Specifying map display area - the user can define which specific regions can be shown while the others can be hidden on Map Window.

　　◆New map cache. A series of pictures are generated in the cache according to the current map display setting and cache size. The faster map displaying can be achieved by directly accessing the cached image.

　　◆Enhanced thematic map function. All thematic maps can have different filters set for generating a specified map. In the label thematic map, the user can process the long text, set text's background, and the display mode of the text along the line object.

　　◆Improved color editor making color editing more convenient.

Data Editing and Processing

　　◆Enhanced accuracy and easy-to-use object drawing; The object can be drawn according to object's control points. For example, a circle can be drawn by setting either the point's coordinate or the circle's radius.

Figure 17 Precise object drawing

　　◆New full automatic raster vectorization. The raster data can be converted to points, lines or regions automatically. This simplifies the GIS data capturing workload significantly. Below is a comparison of raster contour and vector contour vectorized automatically:

Figure 18 Raster contour (left) and vector contour (right).

　　◆24 new topological rules for checking topological errors in GIS vector data.

　　◆Enhanced topological process for line dataset.

　　◆Improved map clip - be able to set clipping options for all layers together.

　　◆Simultaneously re-sample from the different data sources.

　　◆Being able to create field index for the sub dataset of the network dataset.

　　◆Line type of feature can be drawn smoothly by setting alias option.

　　◆Enhanced datasets fusion.

　　◆Enhanced row and column appending for a dataset.

　　◆Real-time input validation and warning appears when a wrong value is input.

　　◆Provided shortcut operations for all list boxes shown on all dialogue boxes. For example, Ctrl+A key - select all, Insert key - insert a item, and Shift/Ctrl key - select multiple objects etc.

3D Visualization

　　◆TIN and DEM can be generated by using multiple point and line datasets.

　　◆Enhanced 3D pre-process for the massive data.

Layout

　　◆Flexible inserting attribute table into layout.

　　◆Enhanced layout legend.

Spatial Analysis

　　◆Enhanced buffer analysis with improving UI usability and multiple conditions buffer generation. The buffer can be created by either single object or the dataset.

　　◆New dynamic segmentation. Route dataset can be created with the road points and routes. The partial route data can be rectified. The point or linear events can be geographically positioned.

　　◆New tracking analysis for facility pipes and water network. The downstream and upstream can be searched, the source of a stream and joint point can be located. Also, the tracking analysis can be performed across multiple map sheets.

　　◆New logistics & distribution function.

　　◆Improved presentation of network analysis result, for example, finding the best driving direction and the closest facilities, etc.

　　◆End point of analysis can be specified in optimal path analysis.

　　◆Dynamic updating arc weight and node weight.

　　◆ New turn table dataset creating support from network dataset.

　　◆ The profile can be exported to .bmp file, image dataset or attribute dataset.

　　◆Improved raster dataset reclassification.

　　◆Enhanced mosaic function for raster dataset.

　　◆Improved zonal statistics for raster dataset.

User Interface Optimization

　　◆Randomly changed rendering styles for simple datasets opening.

　　◆Option for disabling Splash screen.

Improved UI usability for analysis and query. For example, the thematic map creation wizard integrates with the descriptions and the example images shown an expression of the specific thematic map.