Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions' GeoMedia Version 5.2 suite of geospatial products, designed to maximise the management, analysis and distribution of geospatial data and business information throughout the enterprise, delivers 200 new and improved functions to increase user productivity. The suite consists of 17 existing maintenance, visualisation, distribution and analysis products tailored for the regional and local government, national and federal government, military and intelligence, utilities, communications, photogrammetry and transportation markets. Simultaneous with the new release, a new product that aids professionals in visualising and analysing geospatial data for intelligence applications is being introduced.

At the Intergraph and Intergraph GeoSpatial Users Community (IGUC)-sponsored GeoSpatial World 2004 in Miami during early May, customers had a first look at the software releases' focus on map composition and Web publishing.

"At the end of the day, our customers - small- to large-sized enterprises alike - want to have a paper map, map report or some sort of visual representation of data," says Pat Thomson, MD of local distributor, Intergraph Systems. "With this release, we are delivering on our promise to make mapmaking as easy as possible. The new release of desktop products is loaded with usability enhancements for map layout and plotting. And, we are including functionality in our Web-based products to mainstream Web map publishing and Web services."

Better tools for map composition

Of the new functionality included in Version 5.2, more than 100 of the enhancements are tailored to automate and accelerate high-quality map output. Intergraph's GeoMedia and GeoMedia Professional core product enhancements include powerful new map composition features, such as easy-to-use layout placement and editing tools, improved marginalia tools for legend, scale bar and north arrow creation, automatic index grid generation, automatic generation of map books and over 800 new delivered styles and symbols. Automation of activities like building map sheets and books speed the distribution and output of geospatial data to help all professionals meet the time and quality challenges they face daily.

Increased accessibility of geospatial data

In addition to the OGC Web services previously included in GeoMedia WebMap and GeoMedia WebMap Professional, new location-based Web services enable integrated systems to take advantage of geospatial analysis, routing and geocoding. Also, faster and easier visual authoring functionality that originated within Intergraph's WebMap Publisher is being incorporated into both products with this release. Additional improvements enhance the already supported scalable vector graphics (SVG) to enable more powerful display. This combination of new features gives customers more accessible tools to quickly and easily collect and publish geospatial data over the Web from a growing range of available sources.

New product aids data gathering for intelligence

GeoMedia Image Light Table, a new product introduced simultaneously with Version 5.2, provides professionals and their colleagues working on intelligence in military markets with robust tools to visualise and analyse situational data. Using analysis and visualisation tools, including slow motion roam on very high-resolution imagery, professionals can easily interpret what they are seeing. GeoMedia image light t0able will also be part of a new geospatial solution.

For more information contact Pat Thomson, Intergraph Systems, 011 313 1222, pthomson@Intergraph.co.za