Posts Tagged ‘PDF’
Thursday, January 19th, 2017
Adobe introduced the ability to embed 3D content in PDF documents with the specification of the Portable Document Format 1.6 in November 2004 and supported it with its release Adobe Acrobat and Reader version 7 in January 2005. In technology terms, this is old, bordering on prehistory for some. I mean, it seems most folks don’t remember the world before the iPhone which is only just 10 years old this month. Yet, people still discover this capability, and it still generates interest, and even awards through its clever implementation.
Only just last month, Thomas Kehr and Herman Patel presented a paper written with some of their colleagues titled “Making Terrain and Models Portable Using 3D GeoPDFs” which won a best paper in the Emerging Concepts and Innovative Technologies category at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference or I/ITSEC. You can see the presentation and read the paper at the best papers page on the I/ITSEC website.
How is it possible that technology from some other era can still be winning awards while technology of similar vintage is consigned to the dustbin of history (Nokia N-Gage, anyone?) I was not privy to the decision-making process, but if I had to guess it has to do not so much with the bits and bytes of Acrobat and PDF and more with emerging concepts related to communicating the results of design and analysis enabled by new sensors, analytical tools, and design systems and innovative technologies to deliver them to a wide audience balancing analytical power with ease of use and paradigms more aligned with consumer-oriented software and products.
(more…)
Tags: 3D GeoPDF, Adobe, PDF, TerraGo 3D Composer
1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 10th, 2017
For over 10 years, our company has really been about extending the power of GIS, often ArcGIS®, to non-GIS users, making it more valuable, more relevant and accessible to all of a business’s end users.
And just like what’s happening with Salesforce.com and other more business-centric platforms, the end user demand for custom mobile, cloud-based solutions is growing rapidly. In Cloud 1.0, everybody rented the same exact web application (like Salesforce). In Cloud 2.0, companies want the benefit of the cloud but they don’t want the exact same application as their competitor.
So while organizations look to customize ArcGIS® for their industry AND their unique business requirements, today they also want custom mobile apps. And not just web apps posing as mobile. Not inflexible COTS apps. Not a simple, standalone, map-based app. They need real, native, customized, cloud-based apps tailored to their specific business requirements and seamlessly integrated with their enterprise ArcGIS.
(more…)
Tags: App, ArcGIS, collaboration, david basil, GeoPDF, geospatial, GIS, GIS-Lite, mapping, PaaS, PDF, technology, TerraGo, TerraGo Edge, TerraGo Magic, Zero Code
No Comments »
Thursday, June 18th, 2015
According to an article in Forbes, people make 150 million maps a day with Esri® software. 150 million.
It’s amazing when you consider the unmatched value of GIS for helping us better shape our understanding of the world we live in. The only thing that makes it more powerful is making it easier to share that understanding.
GIS systems create so much more than flat maps. But out of those 150 million maps made today, how many of those end up shared as paper or even a static image on a Powerpoint slide? What is the cost to train people to be GIS experts, cartographers, geographers, scientists, analysts, engineers, designers, planners and more? How can we leverage all that talent and all that knowledge if we lose so much information on the way out of the GIS system while sharing it with the non-GIS masses. What if you could unlock those maps and let end users truly interact with the data behind the map to better answer their questions? For free.
(more…)
Tags: ArcGIS, collaboration, david basil, Esri, GeoPDF, geospatial, GIS, GIS-Lite, mapping, PDF, technology, TerraGo
No Comments »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2015
A while back I was on a plane next to a man with a small backpack branded with the logo of a company with whom we do business. Small talk revealed that he was on his way to Afghanistan to help with the stabilization effort. He asked me what I did, and I segued with “I work at a small software company called TerraGo”. He stopped me there with “Oh TerraGo! I know you! The PDF guys! You’re all over Afghanistan!”
I don’t remember much of the rest of the conversation, but I do remember, I’ll admit, a glimmer of pleasure at TerraGo’s recognition, but too a state of cognitive dissonance in which being characterized as “the PDF guys” had left me.
(more…)
Tags: ArcGIS, collaboration, Esri, GeoPDF, George Demmy, geospatial, GIS, GIS-Lite, mapping, PDF, technology, TerraGo
No Comments »
|
