On Thu, Aug 31, 2006 at 12:25:13PM +0100, Jackson, Simon (Capita Symonds) wrote: > Ok, I have the S-Dev-Kit. > I need to tie MapBasic into VM so that I can create some batch routine > for subtracting some grids, a grid query and outputting as ascii. I > asked this awhile back and got not much reply. I assume it is possible? > Any good links to sources that maybe able to help?
According to the manual, it should be able ot do that. However, I was a little dissappointed with Vertical Mapper SDK. It's a product that's needed, but this implementation looks more like an afterthought that a typical solid MapInfo product. About a month ago I sent the following to MapInfo Tech Support describing some problems I had with it but still have not had a response. "1. If I develop an MBX in my own directory with calls to the vm SDK functions, they don't work. 2. If I copy all the vm DLLs to the directory where my MBX runs from, the applications works, but the VM progress bars don't show. 3. If I load Vertical Mapper into the MapInfo environmemt first, and I'm running my MBX from my own directory, and I've copied all the vm DLLs to that directory, everything works and the VM progress bars show. 4. If I run my MBX from the vm directory, I don't have to copy any DLLs, but it behaves as in 2 and 3 above. 5. The SDK manual needs some work. There are a number of mistakes and at least one function undocumented (vmGetPRogressTextCallback() used in Batch.mb). Documentation about parameters whose values depend on units (e.g. height, coordinates, radius etc. as in vmViewshed()) needs to include what units are assumed. Also, the documentation fails to describe the return values from many functions. If it doesn't matter, these should be subroutines, not functions, and if it does matter, they need to be documented. So what is the proper way to develop, distribute and install MBX applications that use the vm SDK? I don't want to put applications in the vm directory because that will clutter up that directory. Also, you need Admin privilege to write to directories in the Program Files tree. I don't want to have to copy DLLs to each directory where my MBX's may be installed. That gets into legal and user-screwup issues. Besides, unless VM is running, they won't work properly anyway if I do that. The vnDev.def file assumes that the vm DLLs are in the application directory or at least in the search path. Standard installation of Vertical Mapper doesn't guarantee this. The manual says nothing about where to install the sdk or how to integrate MBX's with Vertical Mapper so that they actually work. I think the assumption is that MBXs go in the vm directory and that VM is loaded into MapInfo. If it has to be that way, then they should say so, and in any case that's not an ideal solution due to privilege issues and the fact that MBXs often come with their own baggage in terms of data and configuration files and will potentially make a mess of the vm directory. So, can you give me some guidance?" - Bill Thoen _______________________________________________ MapInfo-L mailing list [email protected] http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l
