On Mon, May 15, 2000 at 08:03:19AM +0930, David Irving wrote:
Rich - and others -
imo, what is _really_ required is a MapInfo-to-<something> tarnslator
together with a <something>-to-GRASS translator, that is, use some
common data format as an interchange mechanism between any two spatial
information systems. I believe that there is a Standard for spatial
data interchange, but have been unable to get hold of a copy to assess
whether it is actually useful. Any other approach effectively means
writing 2*N**2 data translation programs, where N is the number of
spatial data formats (large and growing all the time)
Regards, David
Well, there's that beast known as SDTS! There's even a C++ lib put out
by the USGS for working with it (sdts++). It's kind of a hair ball, but
there's at least a Topological Vector Profile. I think there's a
similar profile for elevation/grid type data. GRASS already does the
vector import (supposedly). SDTS is supposed to be able to describe any
kind of spatial data with associated attribute data and metadata.
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On Sun, 14 May 2000, Eric G . Miller wrote:
Well, there's that beast known as SDTS! There's even a C++ lib put out
by the USGS for working with it (sdts++). It's kind of a hair ball, but
there's at least a Topological Vector Profile. I think there's a
similar profile for elevation/grid type data. GRASS already does the
vector import (supposedly). SDTS is supposed to be able to describe any
kind of spatial data with associated attribute data and metadata.
SDTS is *supposed* to be able to describe any kind of spatial data. It
doesn't. If you follow what transpired over the past few years (and I gave
up several years ago when I saw what a boondogle it is), you'll see that it
does nothing well and is so complex that even the people who developed it
don't particularly like it.
If you want something to work, perhaps the old DLG format would do. That's
very well documented, uses ASCII text files instead of a highly complex
binary file format, and has translators into just about every known GIS data
structure.
The proof of the failure of SDTS is the lack of inexpensive commercial
support. Before I moved to linux, the only SDTS translator on the market
cost a minimum of $US800. Why? Because it was so complex and poorly
documented that only one company stuck with the effort to make something
work.
There are options other than SDTS. I strongly urge the use of anything
else.
Rich
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
Making environmentally-responsible mining happen. (SM)
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