The Insider Where on Eartha? In February’s Where on Eartha challenge, we asked you to identify the major engineering project that is nearing completion as shown in the foreground of the image. Most responses correctly identified the controversial Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River in Hubei Provence in China. The first correct response pulled from the hat and this month’s winner of a copy of XMap 5.0 Professional is Guillermo Porto from La Palma, California. The next stop on our tour takes us to the delta at the mouth of a major river system. Name the country in the image and you could be the next winner of a copy of XMap 5.0. To enter, send your response to contest@delorme.com before March 31, 2007. Click here to order 3-D satellite imagery of the world for XMap. XMap Workshop at AAG Meeting Are you interested in learning more about the GIS tools in XMap 5.0? Do you live in the San Francisco Bay area? Why not sign up for the XMap workshop at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting on April 20, 2007. The workshop is limited to 40 attendees and spaces are allotted on a first-come-first served basis so sign up today. For more information click here. Service Pack 1 Available for XMap 5.0 It’s time to renew your version of XMap 5.0 with Service Pack 1, a recently released package of updates and upgrades. Service Pack 1 corrects several technical issues with the software as well as adding new functionality. Included in this update are: • Improved viewing of MrSID and GeoTiff files • Additional DXF/DWG/DWF importing and registration options • Access to 1-meter color imagery for select states through the Netlink tab • Support for the Garmin X series For more information or to install Service Pack 1, click on the Netlink tab in your version of XMap 5.0 or click here. We Want to Meet You! Visit Us At Upcoming Events: Maine Municipal Association Augusta Civic Center Augusta, ME 04330 March 19, 2007 The Ninth Crime Mapping Research Conference Omni William Penn Hotel Pittsburgh, PA 15219 March 28-31, 2007 Tennessee Geographic Information Council Chattanooga Convention Center Chattanooga, TN April 17-18, 2007 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers San Francisco, CA April 17-21, 2007 Be sure to sign up for the XMap Workshop American Gas Association Operations Conference & Biennial Exhibition Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center Grapevine, TX April 24-26, 2007 Stop by the DeLorme booth at any of these events and enter to win an Earthmate Blue Logger GPS receiver March 2007 XMap Developments DeLorme Intensifies Energy Market Outreach with Addition of DDSI as New Corporate Reseller DeLorme is pleased to announce the addition of Downtown Design Services, Inc. (DDSI) to its Value Added Reseller (VAR) network. DDSI will market DeLorme’s XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise suite of products to oil and gas firms. The XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise suite includes a wide range of advanced mapping, routing, navigation, GPS, and GIS file management features. A three-tiered solution, it delivers the appropriate measure of capabilities to users at different operational levels—field technicians, GIS administrators, and, for the first time, top echelon enterprise GIS managers as well. As with previous releases, XMap 5.0 GIS supports the most common GIS data formats, including gml, .gpx, ESRI (.eoo, .shp, .prj), MapInfo (.mif, .tab), MrSID files, and GeoTIFF (.tfw). DDSI strongly enhances DeLorme’s energy market-directed sales efforts for XMap 5.0, especially in the Texas-Oklahoma region. Energy companies are using XMap 5.0 to deploy GIS data to the field, to synchronize GIS databases, to integrate field collected updates, and to remotely view their business data against aerial imagery. “XMap 5.0 coupled with DDSI’s experience in design, drafting, GIS mapping, and project management is a great addition to our line of services,” said Tim Harrison, President of DDSI. “XMap 5.0’s three-tiered software suite gives our customers robust GIS capabilities with easy-to-use core mapping framework like remote data editing tools, automatic road routing, and voice-guided GPS navigation.” “There’s a tremendous amount of GIS innovation happening in today’s energy industry. DDSI expands DeLorme’s VAR sales network’s reach inside the field of energy data management,” added Geoffrey Ives, DeLorme’s Director of Professional Sales. “Many organizations in the Oil and Gas industry, wishing to more fully realize a return on their GIS investment, are turning to XMap as the perfect complement to their established GIS infrastructure. XMap cost-effectively enables companies like DDSI to help deliver GIS tools to the people who need them most” For more information on DDSI visit www.downtown-design.com XMap Q&A Why should I upgrade from XMap 4.5 to XMap 5.0? There are literally dozens of reasons why upgrading to the latest version of XMap is a great idea. At the risk of turning this into a lengthy “What’s New” article, we decided to conduct an informal survey of to find out what customers are most excited about. The following are the top ten most common responses: 1. MrSID Imagery Support– MrSID imagery format can be viewed in any version of XMap 5.0 and provides a valuable addition to any mapping or GIS project. Remember, MrSID is the most common aerial imagery storage format for free web downloads. This is your free aerial imagery connection. 2. MapShare Internet Mapping – Free publishing of maps to a personal Web site. Use it to quickly provide universal access to custom maps, draw objects, routes and directions, even 3-D views. 3. Enhanced GIS Functionality – Worthy of a top ten list of its own, Editor and Enterprise users have been praising the new spatial querying tool, buffering capability, expanded vector format support, data classification and symbolization options, and much more. 4. Improved Address Geocoding – XMap 5.0 users can now import address databases directly into a GIS layer. XData has also seen many improvements including data editing and optimized route creation. 5. Improved Routing and GPS Functionality – Since XMap 4.5 we’ve added an Avoid tool, a faster routing engine, and a customizable back on track feature. 6. Free Image Tagger – This unique tool allows digital photos to be automatically attached to the correct point on the map using a GPS log file. 7. Improved USNG display – This coordinate system is fast becoming the standard for emergency response agencies. All versions of XMap can display the USNG. 8. Enhanced 3-D Display – The new 3-D tab offers more powerful terrain modeling functionality including fly-over views and 3-D geographic feature labeling. 9. Customizable Toolbar – Direct access to commonly used tools including route creating, measuring, printing and project management. 10. Free PDA Software – All versions of XMap 5.0 offer free mapping software for Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smartphones and Windows Mobile devices. The XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise Suite offers advanced professional mapping and GIS tools for any professional managing an Earth resource. To read more about the feature enhancements in XMap 5.0, click here. Tab Tip – Updating Your Data Using XMap’s Redline Functionality One of the most significant challenges faced by GIS administrators is ensuring that data layers are kept up-to-date. Frequently this updating process requires input from field technicians whose observations are often written on paper maps, a procedure that is traditionally referred to as “Redlining”. The XMap 5.0 Enterprise Suite offers an innovative and easy-to-use redlining tool that is built into the software and that allows field workers to create mark-up layers right on the screen. These observations are automatically sent to the GIS administrator as part of a synchronization process. In order to enable redlining, the GIS manager will be required to use the Enterprise edition of XMap 5.0, while for the field worker, the low-cost XMap 5.0 Professional will suffice. With both parties connected through a corporate network, the GIS manager first uses the Database Manager, which is accessed from within the GIS tab, to add the field worker as a database user and assign GIS layers to specific XMap 5.0 Professional users. A Subscription File is then created and sent to the field worker who double-clicks on the file to initiate the communication process. Within the field worker’s version of XMap 5.0 Professional, the Subscribe and Redline buttons will appear on the Toolbar at the top of the screen. Clicking the Subscribe button will initiate the process of updating all of the layers within the database to which the field worker has been provided access. The Redline button automatically creates a Redline Layer and displays a floating window with a collection of annotation tools, which are used for drawing or writing on the screen. After returning from the field and reconnecting with the corporate network, the Subscribe button is clicked once more to refresh the necessary data layers while simultaneously transferring the field-collected Redline Layer to the GIS administrator. To view these field corrections, the GIS administrator adds the Redline layer to the Workspace, clicks the Attributes tab, and chooses the record that pertains to the appropriate user and date. A dropdown list offers the option of displaying the redline corrections superimposed on the original GIS data layer. The Redline process in XMap 5.0 offers an efficient and effective tool for integrating field corrections into a master database without the hassle of having to deal with paper maps.

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