For those of you interested in maps in general, I've been developing
a "Dynamic Digital Map" template using Revolution (see
http://ddm.geo.umass.edu for downloads & info), and will be giving a
talk at the U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation -
sponsored Geoinfomatics meeting this Thursday 11 May, along with a
colleague Mike Williams (sure glad I'm before, and not after Mike -
he's a hell of a speaker).
The talks will be webcast at:
http://www.geongrid.org/geoinformatics2006/:
Thursday, May 11 2006
Morning Sessions
9:40 - 12:00
Concurrent session 2: Geologic mapping and databases, Visitor Center
Chair: Peter Lyttle, U.S. Geological Survey
....
10:40 - 11:00
Christopher Condit
Dept. Geosciences, Univ. Massachusetts-Amherst
Dynamic Digital Maps: An Open-Source Tool to Distribute Maps, Data,
Articles and Multi-Media as an Integrated Stand-alone Cross-platform
Package via the Web and CD/DVD for Use in Research, Teaching and
Archiving Information
11:00 - 11:20
Michael Williams
Geosciences - University of Massachusetts
Building a dynamic image-based database: Integrating thin section
images and data using Dynamic Digital Maps
++++++++++
A little background on this:
Dynamic Digital Maps, the Open Source DDM-Template and Cookbook
Christopher D. Condit
Department of Geosciences
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
National Science Foundation - Grant # DUE-CCLI-0127331 2002-2006.
As part of a four year, $300,000 project, funded to him by the U.S.
National Science Foundation, Chris Condit, a professor in the
Geosciences Department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst
has developed a product called the "Dynamic Digital Map". The heart
of it is an open-source program enabling Revolution users to publish
maps, images, movies, text and data as an integrated product that is
a royalty-free stand-alone application. A description of DDMs, the
open source code, and downloads of more than 10 DDMs can be found at
the URL http://ddm.geo.umass.edu/. Condit will be teaching a course
on how to make DDMs this fall at UMass.
Description of a Dynamic Digital Map
A Dynamic Digital Map is a stand-alone "presentation manager"
program that displays and links maps, images, movies, data and
supporting text, such as map explanations and field trip guides.
Made using the cross-platform Revolution programming environment
(see http://www.runrev.com), DDMs are WEB-enabled and browser
independent. The "DDM-Template" is an open source Revolution program
into which one can insert metadata (mostly file names) that enable
the program to open maps, images, figures and movies from an
organization of directories. A DDM maker can further modify the
Template as they make their own DDM by inserting text and data
directly into the program, which will be renamed to reflect its new
content. A "Cookbook" guides the Revolution user through the steps
of building the DDM. Once a Template has been completely modified,
stand-alone applications for a variety of operating systems (for
example, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) can be made directly from this
single Revolution document. DDM examples have been made for two
volcanic areas (the Tatara-San Pedro volcanic complex in Chile, and
the Springerville volcanic field in Arizona (Condit, 1995a), for the
geology of western New England (which includes six field trips), for
the Moon (made in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey),
and Mars (a superb senior thesis by Selby Cull of Hampshire
College). The DDM-SVF includes an automated five minute tour showing
how to use a DDM; the DDM-NE includes an interactive tour.
The DDMs posted on the web (or if you are using this from a CD/DVD,
in these folders) are standalone programs that run without other
software. The programs, if run from DVD, access their data from
specified directories within their home folder. Alternatively they
can open data via fast internet connections. In this case, they
access their maps and images (in jpeg format), and movies (in
QuickTime format)] from a file server in Chris Condit's lab at
UMass-Amherst; any web server using http protocol will work for
self-built DDMs. To see any included movies, both Windows and Mac
based computers must have the latest QuickTime Player installed (free
from Apple for both platforms, at www.apple.com). Computers with less
than 512 MB of free RAM will run these programs very slowly at best.
+++++++++++++
The most important missing piece that will make this DDM project
really "fly" will be the ability to import eps text fields or objects
into Revolution. Maps are time-consuming enough to make without
having to re-make them again (at least the text labels) just to get
them into Revolution. Alejandro Tejada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> has
written EpsImportV04 to import vector graphics, and I've had some
success with importing text from his earlier versions of the program.
It worked slowly, but OK using eps files saved from earlier versions
of Adobe Illustrator on a PC. If anyone has any suggestions on how
to do this, I am very interested in getting it working - please shoot
me an e-mail!
Ah, for the SuperCard days when one could simply import PICT files
directly into SC - I didn't know what a gem I had until it was gone!
cheers
--
Dr. Christopher D. Condit, Associate Prof., Dept. of Geosciences
Univ. Massachusetts, 611 North Pleasant St., Amherst, MA, 01003-9297
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 413-545-0272
My Web Page: http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/condit.htm
Revolution Dynamic Digital Maps: http://ddm.geo.umass.edu
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