-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Re: Free, open source map publishing tool - gdal2tiles
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 17:40:56 -0000
From: Fleet, Christopher <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Nicholas,
Thank you for this information about Manifold GIS, which looks very
good, low-budget software - and is interesting to read about.
Part of my reason for posting information about gdal2tiles is that it is
completely free, open-source, and non-commercial, but I take your point
that Manifold offers a relatively cheap, commercial alternative (that
can do much else besides).
One thing worth stressing too is that the use by gdal2tiles of the Tile
Map Service specification
(http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Tile_Map_Service_Specification) allows
a SuperOverlay to be formed, and not just the KML for a single raster
image. This is crucial for displaying good zoomable images, whether in
Google Earth or another application.
I completely understand your point that public institutions should be
wary of offering their images / mashups through Google Earth, etc. or
commercial providers, and certainly that public money should not be
wasted. I wanted to stress that the Google Earth kmz file I mentioned
was illustrative, and is not a live application. All the other uses of
gdal2tiles we have here as applications (that I provided URLs to) use
Openlayers as test applications and do not use Google imagery - there is
no requirement to use Google Earth or maps with the output. One of the
main benefits, at least in theory, of open source software such as
gdal2tiles is that hopefully it uses less public money in allowing the
creation of accessible imagery / maps through free, non-proprietary
applications.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Fleet, Christopher
Sent: 05 November 2007 16:02
To: 'Klokan Petr Pridal'
Subject: FW: Re: Free, open source map publishing tool - gdal2tiles
Please feel free to reply directly to maps-l on this if you wish.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maps-L
Sent: 05 November 2007 15:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Free, open source map publishing tool - gdal2tiles
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Free, open source map publishing tool - gdal2tiles
Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:40:36 -0000
From: Nicholas Verge <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
Chris and others.
You might also want to consider Manifold System GIS to do the same and
it
being a GIS, very much more, including providing a
customisable/programmable internet map server.
Manifold System GIS 8.x ( www.manifold.net ) is commercial off-the-shelf
product that equals to or surpasses competitor GIS software, eg ESRI
products, but at a fraction of their cost.
Manifold can publish images and vector drawings to Google Earth, it also
allows working with spatial databases (Oracle, SQL, DB2, even ArcSDS),
enormous image libaries, imagery in .ecw and .JP2 compressed formats.
Manifold System 8.x online manual:
http://www.manifold.net/doc/manifold.htm
The latest versions are available for 64-bit and 32-bit Windows
operating
systems. Manifold System also levarages nVidia CUDA(TM) grphics card
technology enabling massively parallel processing using the GPUs of
latest
high-end nVidia graphic cards (up to four cards can harnessed together
providing a total of up to 512 parallel processors). This allows rapid
handling of enormous uncompressed images (i have seen a 90000x90000
24bit
image load in less than ten seconds).
Since the US dollar has gone through the floor, the cheapest version of
Manifold System is now about 70.00 GBP. You would need to spend
countless
thousands of pounds to assemble the equivalent ESRI products to get the
same capabilities.
A short rant about use of Google Earth by public institutions:
I do not think that it is right that publicly funded institutions should
be building mash-ups and adding content to Google Earth, which lest we
forget, is a commercial product that is a vehicle for generating
advertising revenues for Google. By all means lets put mapping and other
information online and make it accessable, but do it using technology
that
is owned and controlled by the content provider.
On Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:30:47 -0000, Maps-L <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Free, open source map publishing tool - gdal2tiles
> Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 12:53:40 -0000
> From: Fleet, Christopher <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>
> Earlier this year there have been some useful exchanges on ways of
> tiling geo-referenced map images for quicker online presentation in
> Google Earth (as KML SuperOverlays), Google maps, and other software.
>
> On behalf of a colleague, I wanted to share with the list a recently
> created program, gdal2tiles, that allows a quick, simple and free way
of
> doing this. As this is free, non-commercial software, I hope the list
> will forgive this marketing plug!
>
> The program uses the FWTools ( http://fwtools.maptools.org/ ) set of
> open source GIS software to create a tile map pyramid structure of
> raster images. World files and embedded geo-referencing is used during
> tile generation, but it is possible to publish an image without proper
> geo-referencing too. gdal2tiles is at:
> http://www.klokan.cz/projects/gdal2tiles/
>
> Just to illustrate this, these applications below use Openlayers for
> some seamed, geo-referenced series maps of Scotland, all created using
> gdal2tiles:
>
> Ordnance Survey Quarter-inch to the mile, 1921-23 -
> http://geo.nls.uk/quarter/
> Bartholomew half-inch to the mile, 1926-35 - http://geo.nls.uk/bart/
> Ordnance Survey One Inch to the mile, Popular ed, 1921-30 -
> http://geo.nls.uk/popular/
> Roy Military Survey, 1747-55 - Highlands -
> http://geo.nls.uk/roy-highlands/
> Roy Military Survey, 1747-55 - Lowlands -
> http://geo.nls.uk/roy-lowlands/
>
> Each of these applications contains several Gb of imagery each - the
OS
> Popular is about 34Gb in total - but it displays quite swiftly due to
> the tiled structure and display.
>
> The OS Quarter-Inch mapping in Google Earth (
> http://geo.nls.uk/OS/Quarter/Quarter.kml ) is about 5 Gb of imagery,
but
> gives relatively fast displays through the TMS tiling.
>
> Klokan Petr Pridal ([log in to unmask]), who wrote the gdal2tiles
program,
> has several ideas for further development, including:
>
> - support for Google Maps compatible tiles, so its possible to overlay
> your map on top of Google maps
> - one collection of tiles for Google Maps, Google Earth, OpenLayers,
> whatever, possible with Global Mercator projection.
> - Zoomify-based viewer supporting tiles from gdal2tiles.
>
> and various ways of incorporating gdal2tiles with geo-referencing
tools,
> like the Metacarta rectifier: http://labs.metacarta.com/rectifier/
> (although this involves writing a different program, as Metacarta is
not
> open-source)
>
> Klokan Petr Pridal is very keen for this software to be used in the
map
> community, and for further information or advice about similar
software
> and projects. He also would be keen for any support for further work,
> and co-operation in developing these free tools!
>
> Chris Fleet
> Deputy Map Curator
> National Library of Scotland
> 33 Salisbury Place
> EDINBURGH
> EH9 1SL
> United Kingdom.
>
> Tel. 0131 623 3973
> Fax. 0131 623 3971
>
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> View maps website: http://www.nls.uk/maps
>
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--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicholas J. Verge BSc. FGS
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, UK
Geologist
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Visit the National Library of Scotland online at www.nls.uk
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statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the
author and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Library of
Scotland. This message is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998
and Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and has been
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