Cartographica 1.1

This major feature version contains a wide array of new features and enhancements to existing features.

Version 1.1 will be the last major release to support the PowerPC and Leopard, all new feature development will be Intel-only and will require Snow Leopard.

Changes since 1.0

Major changes

Big Raster File support

The 1.0 version of Cartographica worked well with small raster files (such as those for an area that you might download via WMS), but generally didn't deal well in terms of performance with very large files (5000x5000 pixels or greater). This version removes those limitations and has been tested with files over 5GB in size.

We have also introduced a dedicated layer style window for raster layers that shows the current color palette and provides both a well to drop new palettes on and a way to describe the range for the color palette selected. This is particularly useful for data rasters, such as DEM, which contain floating-point or integer information instead of colors at each point.

Along with this, we've made it so that two raster datasets (images or sampled data) that are placed in the same layer (use the Merge Layers function to do this after selecting the 2+ layers) use the same palette over the same range. In automatic mode, the range is the range of all images in the set. In manual mode, the range is determined by the user.

Editing

We've implemented a Merge Selected Features command, allowing you to join geometries. This will work best for overlapping geometries, as they will result in a single part. If the parts are discontiguous (even if in a very small way), then they will be considered separate parts and you will end up with a multi-part geometry.

Selecting

Another significant new feature is selecting from one layer using any other polygonal layer (either a selection therein or the entire contents of the layer). There are two modes for this selection: intersection (features where any point is contained in) and containment (features where all points are contained in the selection area). To use this feature, click on the layer to select with in the Layer Stack and choose Edit > Select On Another Layer.

Exploring

We have also added pop-up information windows. If you hold down the option key while moving over any item in the selected layer, a small window will pop-up with information about the item you are hovering over. What information shows up is dependent on the Layer Info panel. The "name" is determined by the layer's Name Field setting. Other data included is dependent upon checking off information in the field list "pop up" checkbox. This information is also exported to the KML exporter as part of a table in the Description block that shows up when you click on an item.

There have been big changes to our filtering mechanism. Now, if you initiate a filter, you will see a drop-down area at the top of the Map View that contains a much more flexible search system. And/or and multiple-field data filtering is now possible and easy with this new system. The existing filter box works as a short-cut, translating queries into the new system, which can then be edited.

Coordinate Systems

In the projection panel, we've reorganized the tree view, so that it provides a better browsing experience and have finally put the detail view to work showing the key parameters in available projections.

Thanks to approval by the Canadian authorities, we have incorporated NTv2 support into version 1.1 to provide accurate mapping between NAD27 and NAD83 within Canada.

File/Data import

Vastly improved character set support in all facets of the program's import capabilities. MapInfo data sets now support the 3 supported character sets (WindowsLatin1, MacRoman, and Neutral). Text/Table import supports a variety of character sets, including automatic, UTF-8, WindowsLatin1, and others. If you are using a non UTF-8 character set, it's best to set that when opening the file.

For Table import, we have also expanded control of how Cartographica interprets numbers and dates. Previously, Cartographica assumed that numbers and dates were formatted based on the system settings. Now that can be overridden to support a variety of other date and number formats. Particularly useful if the data set you are using started its life in another part of the world. The Table importer also gains manual and auto-detected header row handling (previously, it always used the first row of the file as the header row), and improved automatic detection of column separators (as well as the ability to specify separators manually).

File import has also been tweaked for speed and better progress information.

KML import has been enhanced to allow importing files that contain multi-geometry layers (previously this would cause an error, leaving the layer partially imported) which now load into one layer for each geometry type.

We have updated our external libraries, including moving to GDAL 1.6.2 (the latest release), which improved support for BNA, GML, NITF, SGI, Tiff, ECW, XPlane. Further, we've made some changes to our code to better handle errors in some of the incorporated libraries, such as JPEG and ECW, that previously would crash with corrupted data.

Due to a change in how we advertise to the system that we know about files, you should now be able to double-click on a lot more GIS file types and have them show up directly in Cartographica (many of them will import into a new map because we can't export to the formats, so keep that in mind when you're editing data). This also means that you are able to drag and drop many more files onto the icon of Cartographica in the dock--which opens the file in a new window. Not to be confused with dragging a file to an existing map document, which imports the layer into the existing document.

Export

Illustrator export has been enhanced to export the current visibility status, so you will see something closer to what you see on the screen when you export it to Illustrator.

KML export has been enhanced to include visibility status of layers (and features, when hidden by style), use of the "pretty name" as the name for exported features (this can be set by changing the Name Field in the Layer Info window). Further, exported KML is "pretty printed" so that it's easier to follow if you are reading it manually. And lastly, fields selected for inclusion in the Pop-up window are automatically exported as the data for the KML description (the box that comes up when you click on a feature in Google Earth).

We have also enhanced the Map exporter to optionally not export invisible layers, thus reducing the file size and complexity when exporting.

Analysis

Calculation of the nearest distance between the points in a point layer and the features in another layer has been added. This can be used to calculate nearest neighbor to objects in the same layer or nearest distance to points, lines, or edges of polygons. Note that distance to polygons does not treat specially the case of being "inside" of a polygon. So, if your point is 5 meters inside of a polygon, the distance will be 5 meters from the polygon, just as it would be if the point were 5 meters outside of the polygon.

Kernel Density maps have been enhanced with the introduction of 5 new Kernel types: Quartic (or spherical), Exponential (Negative), Triangular (Conic), Uniform (Flat), Paraboloid/quadratic (Epanechnikov) in addition ot the Normal (Gaussian) kernel that had been supported in previous versions. Some of these kernels are quite a bit faster, owing to their ignoring points outside of their bandwidth(h).

Geocoding

Cartographica now supports Tiger/Line Shapefiles (those produced by the Census bureau after 2006) for Geocoding. To use these files, go to the Bureau's site and download the "All Edges" shapefile and then follow the usual instructions for geocoding. Specifics are detailed in our support article, Geocoding with TIGER/Line Shapefiles

Map Layout

Map Layout now has a simple Compass layout function. This provides an arrow, with optional text at either a manually-specified angle, or an angle that is computed by Cartographica. When using automatic, take care that you spot check it for validity, as it is a complex calculation. As with other text-containing pieces of Map Layout, you can also change style and text.

The scale box has also received some new options. Units can be controlled and the scale itself may be restricted to a fixed size (in units) or tracks the size of the box. If you're using the fixed unit size and the box is too small, units are reduced by a factor of 2 until it does fit in the box.

User Interface

Changes too numerous to mention have been made to the UI. Many of these changes are subtle and help to make the UI more uniform, some are small features in themselves (like Zoom to Natural Fit for images).

We have also created new icons for most documents, including adding a specific icon for the raster formats that we support.

Updates

For those interested in living on the "wild side", the Preferences panel now allows you to be prompted about newly available updates in the development and beta branches as well as the final releases. Release versions have been thoroughly tested, which isn't the case with either beta or development versions, so please be careful when using these. We try to test as much as possible between versions, but bugs sometimes get through, so back up your data when working with these versions (frankly, back it up anyway, that's what Time Machine is for!).

Significant bug fixes

1.1 contains a number of significant bug fixes for bugs that affected some users regularly. Unfortunately, the few common ones were difficult to track down and could not be immediately patched into the 1.0 code, so work-arounds needed to be used until 1.1.

There has been a long-standing bug in mapsets saved with references to multi-layer imagery files. This could cause significant problems, especially if the mapset is loaded and saved multiple times. To resolve this problem, it will be necessary to remove the existing image reference layers and re-import them.

We have also fixed a variety of undo-related bugs in Map Layout and enhanced the Map Layout undo titles to be more representative (there shouldn't be any more unqualified "Undo" menu items any more, so please note these if you find them).

Overly Exhaustive Change list

• Add Merge Selected Features command. Select multiple features (lines or polygons) and they will be merged. Resultant geometry may be multipart if the lines don't connect.
• Added pop-up information windows with the option key held down or a menu item selected.
• Automatic detection of header rows in text imports
• Changes to fix problems with scripting caused by 1.1 structural changes
• Column names now show up correctly in the Selection display and are updated as they change.
• Consolidate Layers is only enabled when it's available.
• DMS formatter added for better handling of input/output of DMS values
• Dramatic speed increase when importing large (10000+ records) text files
• Fix pointer to the old Locate menu to now point at the Tools menu-Docs
• Fixed bug where change count could get out of sync after revert.
• KML exporter now exports "Popup" designated fields as the description
• More accurate estimation of completion on imports
• Popup information may be specified in the layout window
• Project Map now available as long as there's at least one layer in the Map
• Remove unnecessary and unused Index field from field import dialog
• Revert is now appropriately enabled/disabled based on change count.
• Support for user-specified character sets and number formatting (and date formatting) when doing table import
• Support for user-specified delimiters (or automatic with comma, pipe, or tab) in table import
• Add character set declaration to KML, GML, Tiger
• Select from one layer using another (intersection or containment, selection or all)
• Accuracy and speed increases in buffering, unions, and related computations
• Add Canadian NTv2 support (pending certification)
• Add new icons for external raster and Vector formats
• Filter (long form) now shows 2 rows by default, so the user can define or vs and operation
• Fix bug which caused descriptions and info to only be valid in the projection panel if a filter wasn't in use.
• Fix date comparison bug in Data View column sorting
• Icon added for Map Layout
• Maintain users detail setting in projection window
• Provide detailed information on projections in projection window
• Reorganize Projection Tree so that it is easier to browse
• Support for Character Sets added to MapInfo files (MacRoman and WindowsLatin1)
• Undo move/resize now working in Map Layout
• Undo menu titles are more representative
• Upgrade to latest 1.6.2 of GDAL
• 512x512 icons for Cartographica
• Add compass settings (angle, auto, label, text attributes)
• Add hyphenated directions to Directions list for geocoder
• Fix bug when using analysis output at extremely high zoom levels that would cause gaps in the output
• Fix bug which would cause Map Layout document to always be dirty
• Fix handling of MacRoman encoding for DBF files under Snow Leopard
• Palette window now constrained to reasonable sizes
• Lock icon replaces the unrecognizable checkbox in palette window
• Add scale settings for more control over scales
• Fix bug wherein scale wouldn't update correctly due to changes in the selected map layers
• Fix crash in printing Map Layouts on some computers
• Fix missing "miles" tag, causing miles to auto calculate to nearest standard measure for distance.
• Fix problem in Map Layout where width of a column was trimmed if the "Other" item was the widest element.
• Fix problem where Map Layout clipped letters or words from the legend on items that were equal to the maximum length
• Increase accuracy of scale when map view is magnified
• Map Layout window now starts out at full page size (or closest of that and your available screen size)
• Scale display in MapDocument window doesn't force scale display in Map Layout
• Show/Hide inspectors now more consistent
• Update scale in Map Layout when zoom level changes
• fixed bug in calculation of scale when the document extent and the map area weren't the same.
• Add Compass (N Arrow) to Map Layout -- Currently auto-detects angle
• Add Feature Name to Layer Inspector. Provides a way to create a pretty name for use in other inspectors and references in the software or for export.
• Automatically save window location/size for map layout window
• Change KML "imported" type to coincide with Google's view.
• Export Map now exports the visibility status of layers to Illustrator and KML
• Export Map now has the option to only export data from visible layers (good for reducing output to certain heavy formats)
• Fix bug in opening Map Layout when there's only one untitled document open
• Fix odd crash on close/quit which could occur very infrequently
• Fixed crash which would occur after dragging the blue handle to certain applications. #1173
• KML Export now uses a fallback system to determine the feature names. First it uses the label if the feature is labeled in the current style. If it isn't labeled, but a feature name column selection exists for that layer, it uses the feature name. If not, the name is the feature type followed by the feature ID.
• KML Export now uses pretty formatting. Expect exported data to be larger uncompressed, but the compressed sizes are basically the same.
• KML Import now compensates for multi-feature type layer imports by creating additional layers as necessary
• KML Importer now correctly reads the layer names
• Linear measurements now adaptable to user needs
• Measurement window now automatically selects meters or feet and scales them based on magnitude. For distance and area measurement, the user can select metric or standard measure.
• Remove cycle in Map Layout Map View which could cause crashes at print and other times (more rarely)
• Windows now come back to where they last were when the file was opened
• Add Done button next to predicate editor when using search
• Better logging of strange events in the GDAL code
• Break connection to progress when we're being deallocated (Fixes rare crashing bug on close window)
• Fix KML color output (KML uses ABGR instead of the ARGB we were writing).
• Fix bug which caused dropping files on the main window to stop functioning in 155
• Fix crash-while-closing bug when in the middle of the redraw.
• Fix print related bug in 157
• Fix to crash on file open error in GRIB
• Fix warning about editability of the locked flag in palettes #971
• More data available when projections fail to translate
• More data bounds checking in ERMapper ECW code to reduce the incidence of crashing.
• More work on getting tests to pass and reducing console information (even in debug)
• Support drag and drop (to Dock Icon) or double-click of files that we can actually open as viewer
• fix bounding box calculation bug that caused problems with images.
• Specific column data types (numbers and dates in particular) now validate their contents correctly. Error messages are still not optimal...
• Fix bug causing assertion when saving fields with unexpected field types (as might happen when editing)
• Fix case sensitivity for predicate editor
• Fix crash on adding XY coordinates to point layers that have no points (such as failed geocode and pasted data from another feature) #1143
• Fix esoteric crash which occurs sometimes when quickly changing values in the style window
• Fixed duplicate field creation when loading a file that had been previously saved by cartographica containing string fields that had been read from certain DBF writers which provided precision data for non-numerics #1135
• Layer Info window contains Date type in popup #1137
• Layer Info window is now resizable
• Standardize on setValue:forKeyPath: in order to help make for happy undo/redo etc.
• Tabular data now presents warnings when data does not correspond to the data type being used in the column
• dates show up in a date cell now
• Add nearest distance calculation
• Buffer only shows ready when it is
• Double-clicking in header columns in data view will now bring up the layer info window
• Fix bug in adding new columns with the + button in the layer info window
• KDM only shows ready when it is
• Support Tiger/Line Shapefile geocoding (post 2006)
• Fix problem where Map Info window would not stay available #1111
• Fix problem which caused numeric fields in databases with sign identifiers to be disregarded as text #1107
• Fix problem with assigning new column names when using count points #1113
• Fix bug introduced in 153 causing projections not to be applied when loading files
• Add more help tips
• Cartographica now makes sure that a maximum of one style window is open per layer and they are automatically closed when a layer is deleted. #1074
• Cartographica provides more information on files which fail to load when loading in bulk, also removed superfluous messages to the console. #1077
• Change test program to use a more reliable jp2 file.
• Fix bug causing revert not to work right
• Fix bug that would cause observers to be left around when loading large numbers of layers in the background loading thread
• Fix bug which could cause a crash when dropping large numbers of bogus files on Cartographica
• Fix bug which would cause extra prompting for "changed" geometries when loading a Map file that contains external references
• Fix potential internal conflict when saving layers of the same name
• Fix to name of Legend window (now adapts to frontmost window at the time) #974
• Layers now show up after all of them have loaded, speeding load time and removing ugly "early draw" problem.
• Make new Raster layer controls work with Analysis layer
• Now more intelligent on searching for relocated files. If the original files in the mapset had a common ancestor other than the immediate parent directory, it will seek out this ancestor and try replacing the non-matching portions of the path.
• Now replaces untitled window if there have been no changes to it when an existing file is opened.
• Zoom To Natural Fit for images where there is a fixed size - which will show the maximum available resolution for a raster image set.
• Add feedback for failure and success on sending log information in the event that the user knew about it, and there was a problem, or in the event that they requested it.
• Add request for bug report (and automatically take user there) once the logs are sent.
• Geometry bounding boxes are now tighter for everything except thin lines and points
• Key cleanup
• More work on the predicate search code
• fix leaks
• 10.5.3 and earlier now warn correctly
• Add Robinson Projection
• Add more intuitive error messages and warnings to the shape file importer
• Add more jpeg 2000 file types (jpc,jpx)
• Add new Kernels for Kernel Density Analysis
• Add support for Beta, Development and Release builds to software update.
• Aliases dropped on maps now correctly open if they point to a file format we can handle #983
• Restricts lower bounds of zoom factor to 100.0
• Better error handling in WMS connections
• Change Jpeg 2000 decoder from ecw to sid, for stability
• Change title on filter based on selected layer
• Data window now correctly displays after being closed and reopened #1019
• Drag & drop of folders onto maps now imports all contents (deeply)
• Enable AUX and XML sidecar files for various file formats
• Fix WMS Connection window resizing
• Fix bug causing Exporting help page to show up in the wrong side of the help bar #968
• Fix bug causing crash in 149 after new key successfully entered
• Fix bug in GPS-encoded file import that could cause wrong Lat data to appear in the table (clang)
• Fix bug in setting layer projections on raster layers
• Fix bug that could cause crash on revert
• Fix bug which would cause keys not to be accepted initially if they were pasted in with a trailing return or line feed. #1008
• Fix bug which would cause the last line of a file not to be read if it wasn't terminated by CR or LF
• Fix crashing bug when a 0 cell size was specified in the manual settings in Kernel Density Map #RT-Rick
• Fix crashing bug when assigning picture column that doesn't contain valid paths for a layer with a large number of features.
• Fix failure on Export Web when using layers with no columns (1010)
• Fix for Applescript access to Drawing type of geometry
• Fix gradient area at bottom of layer stack
• Fix possible warning when importing KML into GoogleEarth about schemaURL.
• Fix potential crash in WMS
• Fix problems with importing and saving Date format data from text files. #1025
• Fix resize in Consolidate window (972)
• Fix truncated string in progress window for Kernel Density Map
• Fixed bug in clearing KDM values in Snow Leopard
• Increase shape file importer telemetry against illegal part lengths
• Long layer names are truncated in the middle now
• Make Raster layers understand palette if their constituent entities do.
• Make sure assertions don't fire in released code
• Make sure menu items aren't visible when they shouldn't be (KDM and Buffer) #970
• Modified file tests for specific failures
• Now handles clearing the zoom field (resets to zero)
• On imported raster layers, use more useful layer names (previously all were named \"raster\")
• Raster images containing a single plane (i.e. not RGB) can now be interpreted as either bytes or numbers (up to floats right now) and have palettes applied to them.
• Remove Console Assertion on bringing up Data View window #994
• Remove unused Altitude from image preview window (964)
• Update for 1.6.1 of GDAL and various related fixes in file format descriptions and tests
• When exporting to KML, use the Map projection for any layer that is unprojected if the output mechanism doesn't handle projections itself.
• Add feedback for failure and success on sending log information in the event that the user knew about it, and there was a problem, or in the event that they requested it.
• Add request for bug report (and automatically take user there) once the logs are sent.
• Geometry bounding boxes are now tighter for everything except thin lines and points
• Key cleanup
• More work on the predicate search code
• fix leaks
• 10.5.3 and earlier now warn correctly
• Add Robinson Projection
• Add more intuitive error messages and warnings to the shape file importer
• Add more jpeg 2000 file types (jpc,jpx)
• Add new Kernels for Kernel Density Analysis
• Add support for Beta, Development and Release builds to software update.
• Aliases dropped on maps now correctly open if they point to a file format we can handle #983
• Restricts lower bounds of zoom factor to 100.0
• Better error handling in WMS connections
• Change Jpeg 2000 decoder from ecw to sid, for stability
• Change title on filter based on selected layer
• Data window now correctly displays after being closed and reopened #1019
• Drag & drop of folders onto maps now imports all contents (deeply)
• Enable AUX and XML sidecar files for various file formats
• Fix WMS Connection window resizing
• Fix bug causing Exporting help page to show up in the wrong side of the help bar #968
• Fix bug causing crash in 149 after new key successfully entered
• Fix bug in GPS-encoded file import that could cause wrong Lat data to appear in the table (clang)
• Fix bug in setting layer projections on raster layers
• Fix bug that could cause crash on revert
• Fix bug which would cause keys not to be accepted initially if they were pasted in with a trailing return or line feed. #1008
• Fix bug which would cause the last line of a file not to be read if it wasn't terminated by CR or LF
• Fix crashing bug when a 0 cell size was specified in the manual settings in Kernel Density Map #RT-Rick
• Fix crashing bug when assigning picture column that doesn't contain valid paths for a layer with a large number of features.
• Fix failure on Export Web when using layers with no columns (1010)
• Fix for Applescript access to Drawing type of geometry
• Fix gradient area at bottom of layer stack
• Fix possible warning when importing KML into GoogleEarth about schemaURL.
• Fix potential crash in WMS
• Fix problems with importing and saving Date format data from text files. #1025
• Fix resize in Consolidate window (972)
• Fix truncated string in progress window for Kernel Density Map
• Fixed bug in clearing KDM values in Snow Leopard
• Increase shape file importer telemetry against illegal part lengths
• Long layer names are truncated in the middle now
• Make Raster layers understand palette if their constituent entities do.
• Make sure assertions don't fire in released code
• Make sure menu items aren't visible when they shouldn't be (KDM and Buffer) #970
• Modified file tests for specific failures
• Now handles clearing the zoom field (resets to zero)
• On imported raster layers, use more useful layer names (previously all were named \"raster\")
• Raster images containing a single plane (i.e. not RGB) can now be interpreted as either bytes or numbers (up to floats right now) and have palettes applied to them.
• Remove Console Assertion on bringing up Data View window #994
• Remove unused Altitude from image preview window (964)
• Update for 1.6.1 of GDAL and various related fixes in file format descriptions and tests
• When exporting to KML, use the Map projection for any layer that is unprojected if the output mechanism doesn't handle projections itself.
• Fix AI Exporter problem that resulted in illegal AI files in the event that projected data became infinite.
• Make projections lists uneditable (they were not editable, but acted like they were if double-clicked)
• Appropriately abort on band failure during GDAL raster import
• Fix bug in Map Layout that could cause drawing errors and potentially crashes, especially when printing.
• Fix bug that could cause invalid geocoding when a block contains a single address
• Fix edge-case bug in warping code that could cause a crash
• Fix for bug when EXIF data doesn't contain taken time during TimeCoding process
• Fix memory leak in UUID
• Fix missing layer icon in the Layer Stack
• Fix potential crashing bug in graphics state saving code for CATiledLayer
• Use scrolling text view for WMS information
• Add a variety of Ortho projections to the base set.
• Fix bug where lat/long in time-coded layers would not display correctly.
• Fix bug where missing file prompts were being dropped and the application was stalling out when loading images that were no longer in the location they previously were in.
• Fix thread-related crashing bug in thumbnail drawing.
• Project Map errors fixed (missing projection and crash with some projections)
• Fix bug in Merge Raster Layers where RGBA layers might not merge correctly if the original layers were of unknown representation.
• Fix bug in ShapeFile parser affecting Polygons with M and Z components [#1246]
• Fix multiple-delete problem when using a layer more than once in Merge Raster Layers with delete after merge turned on
• Fix palette saving and loading for image handling #1242
• Remove Map from Save,Close and Open menu items, since they can be used on other items.

AppleScript scripting has been thoroughly re-tested and is working well again (it had been broken in the development release to date due to some structural changes).

Notices