Manifold System Release 8 introduces next-generation performance infrastructure for Manifold System products with faster rendering, extended spatial DBMS support and introduction of massively parallel processing for supercomputer performance in surface transforms. This new infrastructure enables hundreds of improvements in Release 8 and will provide the foundation for thousands of improvements in future updates and releases.
Although there are few overt changes in the user interface, the impact of infrastructure improvements, such as providing dramatically faster rendering, completely changes the feel of the product in daily use in a way that appeals to both beginners and experts alike. No one who has experienced 8 will want to go back to 7x.
Release 8 also responds to the increasing maturity and sophistication of the Manifold user community. New features supporting spatial DBMS in a revolutionarily inexpensive and transparent way open the door to individual users to employ spatial DBMS in their daily work. Spatial DBMS now costs no more than a single Enterprise Edition license.
Some individual users might think that spatial DBMS is not for them, that it is something that only concerns enterprises. Nothing could be farther from the truth - spatial DBMS is for everyone who wants lightning fast performance with large images and surfaces as well as fast and reliable storage for drawings. Modern DBMS is easy to install (installing an Express edition of SQL Server 2005 Express takes but minutes) and performance gains are dramatic.
Those same spatial DBMS features have become essential to small organizations moving into GIS as a result of the new affordability of GIS Manifold makes possible. Even if an organization has only three or four people doing GIS they still can benefit from features, such as multi-user editing, that previously only very large organizations could afford. Large organizations will also benefit from fully orthogonal and flexible spatial DBMS, so they run legacy technologies such as SDE side-by-side with modern replacements such as Microsoft SQL Server 2008 spatial technology.
Release 8 was developed around several focus areas:
· The prime focus was on next generation Manifold rendering engines for substantially faster display speed. Performance has been improved through re-engineering of rendering pipelines coupled with hundreds of tweaks throughout the system. The most visible aspect of the new rendering technology is progressive rendering, which frees the console for continued work even as a large display is rendered in portions.
· A second focus area for Release 8 has been dramatically extended support for spatial DBMS, whether using native spatial DBMS products such as IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 spatial (codenamed "Katmai") and PostgreSQL or using Manifold spatial DBMS technology that now confers spatial DBMS capability upon virtually any DBMS to allow storage of drawings, images and surfaces. In addition, manifold.net has released the new Manifold Spatial Extender for SQL Server as a free download to provide high performance spatial index capability for SQL Server 2005 installations until SQL Server 2008 becomes available to the public.
· The third focus area for Release 8 was transparent support for ESRI "SDE" geodatabases and ESRI "Personal" geodatabases in full read/write/edit capability using Manifold to interact with such databases.
· A fourth focus area was extension of Manifold's ability to use multi-core and multi-processor hardware into the supercomputer performance world of NVIDIA CUDA. Manifold can now take advantage of NVIDIA CUDA equipped systems to execute many functions virtually instantaneously using as many as 512 stream processors via massively parallel algorithms.
· A fifth focus area was extension of scripting capabilities into user interface scripting, allowing programmers to utilize virtually any element of the Manifold user interface within scripts. This allows extremely rapid prototyping, development of scripting "macros", fast implementation of "one-off" tasks and even creation of automated demo programs that manipulate the user interface under programmatic control.
In addition to the above focus areas, Release 8 provides the usual Manifold implementation of a few hundred user community wishlist items. These range from support for IronPython as a .NET scripting language to routine updates such as support for the latest TIGER/Line format. Beta testers have especially praised some new innovations, such as the new Autohide / Popup Panes capability, added in response to user community requests.
Transition Issues for 8
Key operational differences between Release 8 and the predecessor Release 7x include:
· Release 8 can read prior .map files but earlier Manifold release such as 7x cannot read Release 8 .map files.
· Release uses a new .map file format that enables much faster opening of images and surfaces. When an earlier .map file containing surfaces or images is opened, the format will be automatically upgraded to Release 8 format. This process will require some time and patience, but it is a one-time process. Afterwards, the new format .map files containing surfaces or images will open dramatically faster than before.
· Release 8 allows changing the area of interest for drawings linked from a DBMS. Such facilities will not work for linked drawings created with prior Manifold builds. Delete the drawing and re-link it.
· Applications using the Manifold API will almost certainly need to be recompiled. Programmers should study the detailed release notes for a guide to changes in code that may be necessary.
Highlights
Highlights of Release 8 include:
· Faster .map file loading - The new .map file format and enhanced data structures allows much faster opening and loading of .map files, dramatically faster in the case of projects containing large images and surfaces. In some cases, what used to take tens of minutes to open now opens in a few seconds.
· Faster image and surface rendering - Images and surfaces are rendered much faster, typically one hundred times faster in the case of very large images and surfaces. What used to take tens of minutes now happens in seconds.
· Faster drawing rendering - Drawings also are rendered much faster, often two to ten times faster with large drawings.
· Progressive rendering - Manifold now renders components using progressive rendering, where the user interface becomes active and available even before the component finishes rendering. This provides much faster workflow, because if we are opening a component with the intent of zooming into some part of it we can draw the zoom box and begin zooming as soon as enough of the component has been rendered for us to get our bearings.
· Faster selections - Visual selection tools have been optimized to work faster, typically two to four times faster.
· Extensive View Caching - Views are now cached so that Manifold rarely needs to re-render a view once it has been displayed. Using the Back and Forward view navigation buttons, for example, is instantaneous.
· NVIDIA CUDA support - Manifold will automatically utilize NVIDIA CUDA hardware that may be installed in the system and supported with CUDA libraries. Currently supported in many surface transform dialog functions, CUDA-capable plug-in cards provide as many as 512 stream processors for supercomputer power on the desktop for as little as $150 or less. Some applications fitting CUDA capabilities that might have taken tens of seconds or even minutes can be accomplished in hundredths of seconds. Although limited in the current implementation, CUDA is the first step in what the months ahead will clearly emerge to be the future of almost all GIS computing. In terms of revolutionary steps forward, this could well be the Release 8 feature with by far the most impact upon the future of GIS.
· Autohide / Popup Panes - We can now expand the size of working windows by auto-hiding panes, such as the project pane. Move the mouse cursor over the pane's tab and it dynamically expands for use. Move the mouse away and the pane hides itself into the tab to allow a larger working view.
· Manifold Spatial DBMS capability storing drawings, images and surfaces within almost any DBMS - Manifold Enterprise Edition or higher now can confer spatial DBMS capability onto almost any DBMS, including those that do not have native "spatial" facilities. Manifold can automatically create spatial indices to store drawings using a variety of supported geometry types and can also store images and surfaces within high-performance spatial DBMS storage. Drawings of virtually limitless size can be edited using Area of Interest specification on desktop machines. Manifold can store images of virtually limitless capacity with very high performance access and rendering using almost any commercial or open source DBMS you choose, allowing opening of even multi-gigabyte images in seconds. Even if DBMS is not used to store drawings, the ability to store images with very high performance into DBMS is something all serious users of Manifold should learn to exploit.
· Enterprise Edition support for Spatial DBMS export - Previously, Database Administrator Edition was required for convenient export of drawing into a spatial DBMS. With Release 8 any Enterprise Edition or higher edition can easily export drawings, images or surfaces into spatial DBMS in a single step, automatically creating spatial indices, marking the spatial table to be treated as a drawing and otherwise managing the spatial DBMS infrastructure to allow subsequent use of drawings.
· All editions can utilize Manifold spatial DBMS capability - Enterprise Edition continues to be required to connect to native spatial DBMS (DB2 with IBM Spatial Extender, Oracle OCI, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, SQL Server 2008) using native spatial capabilities, but any Manifold edition from Personal Edition on up can connect and utilize generic spatial DBMS capability conferred by Manifold once Enterprise Edition has been used to upload drawings, images or surfaces into the spatial DBMS. That includes use of spatial DBMS within SQL Server 2005 using the Manifold Spatial Extender for SQL Server.
· Manifold Spatial Extender for SQL Server - The spatial extender provides high performance spatial indices within SQL Server 2005 or more recent version. Works with SQL Server 2005 Express SP2 or more recent edition as well. Use the spatial extender with SQL Server 2005 to get started today with spatial DBMS within the SQL Server world. Manifold works automatically and transparently with the spatial extender when it is installed on a SQL Server machine for better performance.
· Spatial DBMS support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Spatial - This new Microsoft product (code named "Katmai") has been announced but has not yet been published for the general public. If you are lucky enough to have a pre-release version, your copy of Manifold has built-in support for SQL Server 2008 Spatial.
· Spatial DBMS support for IBM DB2 with IBM Spatial Extender for DB2 - Manifold also adds DB2 to the roster of native spatial DBMS products supported by Manifold. The IBM Spatial Extender for DB2 is a free download for IBM DB2 Express-C editions as well as full DB2.
· Spatial DBMS support for PostgreSQL - Breaking with the prior tradition of supporting only commercial DBMS products, Manifold now provides full native spatial DBMS operation with PostgreSQL equipped with the PostGIS spatial extension.
· Spatial DBMS support for ESRI SDE geodatabases and ESRI Personal geodatabases - Manifold can now connect to SDE (also known as "ArcGIS") data stores using any DBMS supported by ESRI or to so-called "Personal" geodatabases, most frequently encountered within Access .mdb files. Manifold can import drawings from such geodatabases or link to drawings for read/write/edit dynamic compatibility with such linked drawings to add/delete/edit objects in such drawings, even changing their projections.
· Faster data access through the Data Source dialog - Access to data sources such as OLE DB, ADO .NET and ODBC has been streamlined into a new Data Source dialog. The new dialog remembers data sources that have been configured and makes them available within dialogs such as the Database Console or Administrator console. This makes it much easier to connect to databases because once a data source has been configured we can quickly double-click on it in the Data Sources dialog to use it.
· Changeable Area of Interest - Drawings linked from any spatial DBMS using an area of interest subset can now have the area of interest changed even after they are linked.
· User Interface Scripting - A massive new capability that enables programmatic control of virtually all Manifold user interface elements and even many non-Manifold user interface elements as well. Instead of working exclusively through objects within the API, programmers can now control the Manifold user interface as if someone were automatically calling commands from menus, clicking control boxes, making choices, entering text and so forth. All Manifold dialogs (many hundreds of dialogs) have been adjusted to allow user interface scripting. Uniformly praised by beta testers as a revolutionary step forward in convenience, power and flexibility.
· Numerous scripting improvements and new objects - The scripting system has been enhanced with new options, such as forcing a script to run in a separate thread if desired. Many new objects provide access to new Manifold features.
· Expanded command line and logging options - A variety of new command line options support discovery of programmatic command names as well as a set of new logging options that enable automatic recording of timings such as rendering and execution times.
· Choice of IMS rendering formats - The Internet Map Server can now render using a variety of graphics formats, such as .jpg or .gif in addition to the default .png format, as well as allowing specification of rendering quality.
· IronPython scripting support - We can now use IronPython, the outstanding .NET implementation of Python supported by Microsoft, for scripting Manifold in addition to the other .NET and ActiveX languages supported.
· Extensive additions to imports and exporters - Numerous new capabilities have been added to importers and exporters, such as a NetCDF importer and numerous improvements in TIFF (16-bit LAB data and 32-bit/64-bit CMYK data), DXF/DWG, improvements in KML/KMZ exports (layer transparency, extended coordinate accuracy, etc.), yet more options for PRJ file recognition and improvements to other formats.
· Coordinate system (projection) improvements - Numerous improvements have been added, ranging from the ability to better support rotation factors in custom datums to numerous new datums for European countries. EPSG support has been integrated to allow use of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 spatial, and extensive work has been done on auto-matching of coordinate systems with spatial DBMS in PostgreSQL and DB2 spatial extender.
· Faster geocoder handling of extension address errors - Misspelled addresses geocoded against a geocoding extension database can now be processed twenty times faster.
· Numerous other improvements and bug fixes - Release notes for Release 8 have been changed to separately itemize changes in the main development path from bug fixes within new features or features continued from 7x. Current release notes cite a total of 415 new items and bug fixes. Some new items, such as much faster image rendering, are massive features which themselves incorporate hundreds of internal changes. User interface scripting alone required thousands of discrete changes within the code base.
New Help Topics in 8
Example: Storing a Drawing in Manifold Spatial DBMS
Example: Storing an Image in Manifold Spatial DBMS
Example: Storing a Surface in Manifold Spatial DBMS
Manifold Spatial DBMS Facilities
Manifold Spatial Extender for SQL Server
Show Area of a Parcel in Acres