DeLorme continues to make deep inroads into the North American energy sector with its XMap GIS Enterprise software. The company recently announced it has sold over 10,000 copies of XMap in the oil and gas, electric, solar, and wind energy markets.

“Achieving this milestone reinforces XMap’s reputation as a sensible GIS solution,” said Geoffrey Ives, Director of Professional Sales at DeLorme. “North American energy managers are using DeLorme’s software tools to increase productivity through GPS navigation, to provide controlled access to corporate geodata, and to enhance safe decision-making in asset management.”

Ives went on to say that XMap is rapidly gaining adherents in developing energy markets. “When deployed with a topographic land base map,” he continued, “XMap is perfect for site assessment and community collaboration and presentations supporting wind and solar energy proposals.”

With XMap, DeLorme has staked out a position as an affordable, easy-to-use alternative to many of the highly expensive, difficult-to-master GIS packages on the market. The XMap Enterprise GIS suite is a three-tiered solution that puts just the right level of capability into its intended users’ hands; from field technicians to GIS administrators to top-level enterprise managers.

Along with DeLorme’s award winning topographic and street-level base-map, XMap provides a wide range of GIS capabilities, including:

• Affordable, easy-to-use field access to enterprise GIS data
• Support for a wide variety of data formats, including ESRI Shapefile, MapInfo and AutoCAD
• Support for ESRI ArcSDE
• MrSID and GeoTIFF imagery viewing
• Access to corporate libraries of aerial photographs while in the field
• Extensive GPS navigation and routing tools
• Pipeline stationing visualization and querying
• API third-party application integration for One-Call and work-order automation
• Site assessments in support of wind energy, pipeline route, and accessibility planning
• GIS database management, synchronization, and redlining 

If you want to find out for yourself why XMap is generating such interest in the energy sector, try it for free for 45-days. Call 1-800-293-2839 or e-mail us for more information.

For hundreds of years, the Public Land Survey System has been used as a method for describing the land and for cataloging parcel ownership in the U.S. Early surveyors divided the land into a fairly uniform grid based on an established Principal Meridian and baseline within each state or area. Division and subdivision of this grid resulted in the designation of 36-square mile townships, identified by a township number and direction indicator (N or S) relative to the baseline, and range number and direction indicator (E or W) relative to the Principal Meridian. Townships were usually divided into 36 one-square mile sections that were assigned a sequential number value. This system has persisted over the centuries and is still widely applied in most of the U.S., especially west of the Mississippi River. 

DeLorme is offering the PLSS grid as a free state-by-state download in OpenSpace format, which can be imported into any version of XMap 5 or newer. Individual files are available for each of the 30 states covered by the PLSS. Derived from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, and state GIS agencies, the data has been processed into a consistent and easy to understand format.

By default, the PLSS boundaries will appear as an orange grid on the map in XMap with a label in the center of each section indicating the township, range, and section values. A preformatted query, which can be run from the Attributes area of XMap, allows an individual section to be searched for and highlighted.

The data editing capabilities in the Editor and Enterprise versions of XMap can be used to modify the PLSS layers in a variety of ways. For instance, the polygon color can be changed, the labels can be removed or edited, additional queries can be built, and selected areas within the layer can be highlighted and used to create a new layer. 

To download PLSS data in OpenSpace format click here. For more information on the PLSS, click here.

One of the key distinctions between XMap and the other GIS software offerings is the fact that XMap has a fully integrated vector base map at its core. DeLorme has been building and independently managing its extensive road and street database for over 20 years, so we do not have to rely on third-party companies to provide this map information for our customers. Furthermore, we readily update the map data based on the latest information from departments of transportation, local government, and our software users.

XMap users can now choose between USA-Canada Street Level Data 2008 and the new USA Topographic Data 2008, which includes roads and streets, places of interest, and elevation data for 3-D mapping.

Within XMap, the road and street database greatly enhances the functionality of the software. It enables the routing and navigation tools; it is employed in the geocoding of location-based data; it facilitates address and place name searches; and much more. 

Perhaps most importantly, the road and street map data offers a spatial perspective for the data layers that are imported into the GIS tab. In this context it is often necessary to “clean up” the map to avoid the appearance of clutter. For instance, if you are mapping your customers’ locations you may wish to disable other points of interest to avoid confusion, or if you are viewing a GIS layer showing forest stands, you may want to limit the base map to just the major roads and hydro features. 

XMap offers the option of customizing the appearance of the base map data by turning off unwanted features. This is achieved by adjusting the settings in the Map Features tab in the Options window, which is accessed from the toolbar at the top of the screen.

When you select the Map Features tab, you will see a list of the primary components of the map along with check boxes that allow these feature types to be turned on or off. Included in this list are such options as major and minor roads, town borders, and a coordinate grid. 

For more control over the contents of the map, check the box next to Use Custom Map Features and click the adjacent Customize Map Features button. This brings up an expandable list of individual feature types, each of which can be enabled or disabled as needed. It also offers a search function for quickly finding a specific type of feature. 

The Custom Map Features approach provides a high level of control over the map contents. For example, within the Line category, there are nine types of lines, including Boundaries, Hydrographic Features, and Land Thoroughfares. The latter can be further expanded to show 12 classes of roads and streets such as Local or Rural Roads and Primary Limited Access Roads, which in turn can be expanded to show such map features as State Route Toll Roads and Interstates. Select or clear the check box next to each individual feature type or class to enable or disable that feature or group of features.

A commonly used approach for map customization is to first disable all map features using the None button in the Map Features window. After you click Apply, the map window will be blank. Specific features can now be selected as needed to display only those map objects that are applicable to your requirements. All customized feature options are saved in the current XMap project file so multiple settings can be established and individually saved for future use. 

For more information on map customization and other XMap features and functions, refer to the Help system in the software.