XMap at Work
Santa Claus travels the world with the Earthmate PN-40
North Pole – The Earthmate PN-40 has proven its mettle in the most demanding physical environments—from the high peaks of the Himalayas to the searing heat of the Sonoran Desert. Yet these extremes pale in comparison to the latest assignment for this indomitable device.
This year, Santa Claus has chosen the PN-40 to help him guide his sleigh as he circumnavigates the globe bringing joy (and DeLorme mapping products) to all.
“Rudolph’s navigational prowess is well known,” said Mr. Claus in a recent interview. “But the red nose is yesterday’s technology. When I heard the Easter Bunny had picked up a PN-40 and had shaved twenty percent off his delivery time, I had to get one.”
Working with his team of IT elves, Mr. Claus used XMap to quickly geocode the location of every child on the planet. In the resulting GIS layer, he added a Naughty or Nice field, with Nice assigned as the default initial value, of course. He then appended the Requested Presents database and even attached a copy of each kid’s Santa letter as an embedded document. Finally, he overlaid this point layer on the new XMap World Base Map data before creating the necessary map packages for his PN-40.
“The forms feature on the PN-40 is what will really make my job easier,” said Mr. Claus while stuffing his sack full of DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteers. “Let’s say I park the sleigh on the roof little Jimmy’s house. I just look down at the screen of my PN and click the symbol and up pops a form with all of Jimmy’s details: Nice–check; Copy of XMap–check. I’m on to the next house before the guys up front have a chance to finish their carrots. I even added a check box to the form to let me know that I’d visited this house. How cool is that? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really have a lot to do.”
So there you have it, the PN-40 does its part to help bring holiday cheer to kids all over the world.
The XMap Team at DeLorme would like to wish you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
DeLorme Offers Free Downloadable Trial Version
of XMap 7 GIS Enterprise Software
 DeLorme is pleased to announce the availability of a downloadable trial edition of the latest release of its XMap 7 GIS Enterprise software. This thirty-day evaluation copy provides all of the features of the standard Enterprise software version and includes a sample of DeLorme’s topographic base map data.
XMap 7 is a three-tiered GIS software suite that has been engineered to extend the reach of GIS to field technicians and mobile professionals through straightforward two-way data synchronization and form-based data collection and editing.
XMap 7 GIS Enterprise is the most advanced level of the three tiers. It offers offer a full array of GIS importing, editing, and analysis tools as well as powerful data administration and deployment functionality. Using XMap 7 GIS Enterprise, a GIS manager or IT administrator can:
- Import data in all common spatial formats
- Create and edit both the geometry and attributes of a layer
- Classify, symbolize, and query the data
- Establish the synchronization process to enable the efficient transfer of selected GIS layers
- Build data collection forms for use in all versions of XMap 7 or on the Earthmate PN-40 handheld GPS receiver
- Integrate field-collected data in a master GIS database
Tab Tip—Using the Edge Matching Tool to Accurately Map Adjacent Polygons
 Among the exciting new GIS components developed for XMap 7 is an ingenious tool for streamlining the process of creating or modifying polygons. The Edge Matching tool, as its name implies, provides an efficient and effective way to automatically match the edge of a polygon with the corresponding edge of its neighbor. In short, this tool saves a lot of duplicated effort when creating adjacent irregular polygons.
To help provide an appreciation of the value of this tool and to describe how it works in a practical sense, we will consider a common application for manual polygon creation: parcel mapping.
If you are lucky enough to play your GIS trade in the vast central section of the United States, property mapping is a relative breeze. Thanks to the Jeffersonian survey system, properties are typically regular, four-sided polygons, stretching as far as the eye can see. Click, click, click, click and you’re ready for the next one. Here in New England, property boundaries tend to be based not on a universal consistent system but on local geographic or hydrographic features such as streams or ridgelines, which do not usually follow straight lines or intersect at right angles.
XMap Q & A—Will XMap or the PN-40 work outside the U.S.?
 There is no technical limitation that restricts the use of XMap or the Earthmate PN- 40 GPS receiver to use in the United States. Courtesy of the United States Department of Defense, a reliable GPS signal can be used to establish a precise positional fix virtually anywhere on the surface of the planet at any time. XMap and the PN-40 can therefore be used to monitor location, track movement, and accurately create waypoints or other draw objects no matter where in the world you are located.
In practical terms, however, the most significant impediment to using DeLorme mapping technology outside of the U.S. has, until recently, been the availability of map datasets. This barrier is slowly disintegrating and there are now several avenues for non-U.S. XMap users to view, import, or create base map data:
- XMap World Base Map
Skilled cartographers at DeLorme recently embarked on an ambitious project to create the first seamless, consistent, accurate, and up-to-date base map for the entire world. This effort culminated in the XMap World Base Map, a vector-based dataset incorporating an extensive GPS-navigable road network, geographic and hydrographic features, land cover information, elevation, and much more. For information on purchasing this dataset, call 1-800-293-2389 or e-mail prosales@delorme.com.
- Locally Available GIS data
GIS professionals within the U.S. have access to countless data libraries and archives from which thousands of data layers, both raster and vector, can be downloaded, usually at no charge. Such publicly accessible data repositories are becoming increasingly common throughout the rest of world as government agencies and educational institutions recognize the value in encouraging the application of spatial technology. In these archives, XMap users can usually find compatible data in the form of shapefiles, GeoTIFFs, or other common GIS formats
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Special Holiday Offer – Free Map Library Subscription with Every Copy of XMap 7
Purchase or upgrade to XMap7 before the end of the year and you will receive a subscription to the DeLorme Map Library at no additional cost. This remarkable service offers unlimited downloads of color and black and white aerial imagery for the contiguous U.S., seamless USGS 1:24,000 series maps, NOAA navigational charts, Canadian topographic maps and more, all accurately georeferenced, optimized for display in XMap, and fully compatible with the Earthmate PN-40 GPS receiver.
To take advantage of this special offer, visit xmap.com or call 1-800-293-2389 before December 31, 2009 and purchase any version of XMap 7. There's no need to add the Map Library Subscription to your Shopping Cart, it will be added to your shipment automatically.
Learn more at XMap.com
Where on Eartha
Devoid of any cultural features, the topographic map in November’s Where on Eartha Challenge offered little in the way of clues to help identify the city denoted by the pushpin. Nonetheless, a surprisingly large percentage of the respondents, perhaps encouraged by the prospect of winning an Earthmate PN-40, were able to recognize Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik in the image.
The first randomly selected correct entry, and the winner of the PN-40 and a copy of XMap 7 Professional, belongs to Mark Sattler, Information Analyst Supervisor, at the Transportation Department of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
This month, another copy of XMap Professional and an Earthmate LT-40 are on the line if you can identify the city indicated by the pushpin in the image below and the country of which it is the capital. If you think you know the answer, send it in an email to contest@delorme.com, no later than December 31, 2009. Good luck!
Become an XMap Expert with a Custom Training Class from DeLorme
Are you getting the most out of your DeLorme software? Are there buttons or tabs that you have never used because you’re not sure what function they serve? Do you want to maximize your return on investment?
Why not consider a Web-based or onsite training class conducted by a DeLorme product specialist for you and your colleagues? DeLorme training programs are customized to meet the needs of those being trained, focusing on the aspects of the software that are most appropriate for your specific requirements.
For more information or to arrange your training class visit www.delorme.com/training or email training@delorme.com.
Did You Know...?
Did you know that, when used in conjunction with a GPS receiver, XMap’s GeoTagger tool can be used to automatically determine where each of your digital photographs was taken? By correlating the timestamp assigned to each photograph by your camera with the precise point in a GPS log or track containing the same time, GeoTagger accurately determines the coordinates of each picture. With this information, a draw layer is created containing a series of symbols or MapNotes that provide clickable links the relevant photographs. GeoTagger is included in all versions of XMap 7.
Which Version of XMap is Right for You?
The primary difference among the Professional, Editor, and Enterprise versions of XMap is the level of GIS data management that they offer.
- XMap Professional can import and view XMap OpenSpace layers and shapefiles but has no geometry or attribute editing tools. With the purchase of an XMap Forms License, XMap Professional users can collect point data and attributes and can synchronize this data with an XMap GIS Enterprise database.
- XMap GIS Editor is a powerful standalone GIS management tool offering a full array of data importing, creating, editing, analyzing, and exporting tools.
- XMap GIS Enterprise has been designed as a corporate-level data management tool, supplementing the capabilities of the Editor version with efficient data distribution and collection functionality as will as XMap Forms management.
For a more detailed comparison of the three tiers of XMap, click here.
 XMap Comparison Table
We Want to Meet You!
Visit us at these upcoming events:
International Consumer Electronics Show
January 7-10, 2010
Las Vegas, NV
SHOT Show
January 19-22, 2010
Las Vegas, NV
ESRI Petroleum User Group
February 22-24, 2010
Houston, TX
ESRI Federal User Group
February 17-19, 2010
Washington DC
Stop by the DeLorme booth at any of these events and enter to win a drawing for a DeLorme product.
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