Geospatial - GISGoogle earth / maps

GeoShow, a private Google Earth

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GeoShow is a robust tool for creating virtual 3D scenarios in the style of Google Earth, but with more robust features in terms of GIS integration, user security and data service. The owner company is Geovirtual, established in Barcelona. Here I present at least three characteristics that caught my attention:

1. Accepts commonly used CAD / GIS formats

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This is most attractive, as it supports formats that sound familiar enough, both vector and raster and digital models:

Vector formats:

ESRI shapefiles (.shp)
ArcInfo binary coverages (.adf)
MicroStation v7 (.dgn)
MapInfo TAB (.tab)
MapInfo MID / MIF (.mid; .mif)
STDS (.ddf)
UK NTF (.ntf)
GPX (.gpx)

You can also import 3d projects from 3D Studio Max ... we have the doubt about the maintenance of data in case it requires constant updating of 2D or 3D layers ... BRIDGE is supposed to automate this.

Raster formats

JPEG (.jpg)
Bitmaps (.bmp)
PNG - Portable Network Graphics (.png)
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format (gif)
JPEG 2000 (.jpw, .j2k)
Erdas Imagine (.img)
EHdr - ESRI .hdr Labeled USGS DOQ (doq)
TIFF / GeoTIFF File Format (tif)
Flexible image Transport (fit)
PAux - PCI .aux Labeled Raw Format
GXF - Grid eXchange File (gxf)
CEOS (img)
ERMapper Compress Wavelets (ecw)

Although with this there is a lot to work, they do not talk much about reading web services under OGC standards so I guess they are lost in that.

Digital Terrain Models (MDT)

Arc / Info ASCII Grid (.asc or .txt,
With an optional header file .prj)
SRTM (.hgt)
ArcInfo binary grid (.adf)
ESRI bil (.bil)
Erdas image (.img)
RAW (.aux)
DTED - Military Elevation Data (.dt0, .dt1)
TIFF / GeoTIFF (.tif)
USGS ASCII DEM (.dem)
FIT File format (.fit)
Bitmaps (.bmp)

2. Supports different coordinate systems and datum

Although the projection used internally by GEOSHOW3D PRO ® is always UTM, they ensure that it is capable of supporting up to 21 different projections including the most common cylindrical and conical ones: UTM, Lambert, Transverse Mercator, Krovak, etc. so at this it gets much more professional than free virtual worlds.

3. Scalability

GEOSHOW3D LITE ®
Free scenario viewer, read only files in Geoshow format, with extension .gs

GEOSHOW3D SERVER ®
Online scenario server software, indispensable for publishing scenarios on the internet.

GEOSHOW3D PRO ®
Scenario generator and content editor with all functionalities without limitations.

GEOSHOW3D BRIDGE ®
Dynamic link library between GEOSHOW3D ® and another existing GIS application. It allows developing new solutions through our technology and the customer.

Among these, it is interesting GEOSHOW3D BRIDGE is a dynamic link library (DLL) of 32 bits that allows to send commands to GEOSHOW3D PRO® through sockets. This library acts as an interface and resolves all communication tasks, and there is a routine for every action that can be performed. The communication is bidirectional and works based on commands that must be interpreted in both GEOSHOW3D PRO ® and the counterpart.

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One of the most important functionalities, which allow full use of the connection with an external application, is the update of the 3D scenario with the GIS data already available by the integrator. For this, GEOVIRTUAL generates automatic processes that allow to ensure the integrity of the data between the SIG 2D and GEOSHOW3D PRO ®. That is, the end customer sees the same data in the 2D as in the 3D.

Conclusion

Not bad, it looks very powerful and available for development although its application goes beyond simple GIS, as it may be of interest for other purposes such as tourism, real estate and even air navigation.

It has many other advantages that have not caught my attention because of my purely geomatic interest, so I recommend you See the web.

It gives the impression of consuming a lot of resources of the desktop equipment so that the alternatives of intranet are interesting, also works on Windows and Linux.

A common mistake on his website: that crazy habit of not setting prices that scares users away by associating this practice with exorbitant prices, although his PowerPoint assures that it is not. ... showing prices is not a sin, they already exist.

They would do well to improve their personalized service via the web because although I formally asked for prices ... nothing. Surely my email went to spam and they will look for it in 4 months Google Analytics taiga them to this post.

Golgi Alvarez

Writer, researcher, specialist in Land Management Models. He has participated in the conceptualization and implementation of models such as: National Property Administration System SINAP in Honduras, Management Model of Joint Municipalities in Honduras, Integrated Cadastre-Registry Management Model in Nicaragua, Territory Administration System SAT in Colombia . Editor of the Geofumadas knowledge blog since 2007 and creator of the AulaGEO Academy that includes more than 100 courses on GIS - CAD - BIM - Digital Twins topics.

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