SuperGIS Desktop, some comparisons ...

SuperGIS is part of the model Supergeo of which I spoke a few days ago, with good success in the Asian continent. After testing it, here are some of the impressions that I have taken.

Overall, it does just about what any other competing program does. It can only be run on Windows, possibly it is developed on C ++, so it runs at a very good speed; although this brings the disadvantage of not being multiplatform ... a problem that very few others have solved by the way.

In terms of appearance, it is quite similar to ESRI's ArcGIS, with floating and dockable frames, layer grouping, drag and drop. What's more, the logic of construction and scalability is very marked to keep competing with this model; what can be seen in its main extensions:

Spatial Analyst, Network, Topology, Spatial Stadystical, 3D, Biodiversity Analyst.

Additionally, it is complemented with the applications included in the desktop version: SuperGIS Data Manager, equivalent to ArcCatalog and SuperGIS Converter, equivalent to ArcToolbox.

The logic of project construction is in traditional xml files, with .sgd extension that act as an .mxd / .apr file in ArcGIS or a gvSIG .gvp file. There is no extension to import a project from another GIS program and although this logic is oriented on how the IMS publication will read the projects, it also supports data within Personal (mdb), MS SQL Server, Oracle Spatial and PostgreSQL Server geodatabase.

The .sgd format has had two major changes; The current one since the version 3.1a imports the previous one of the version 3.0.

Supported Formats

In vector format:

• GEO (edition)
• SHP (edition)
• MIF / MID
• DXF
• GML
• DWG, up to 2013 versions
• DGN v7, v8

Everything seems very common to what other tools do, although here it stands out that the vector formats dwg, dgn, dxf recognizes recent versions.

I do not know how they will have achieved it, but it is one of the weaknesses of Manifold GIS, gvSIG and other open source software. In the case of a dgn / dwg file, it allows to thematize it, turn it off, turn it on, although only by layer (level), although it is only loaded as a reference; to edit it, you have to export it to .geo or .shp format. It is interesting to clarify that the .geo format only supports polygon, polyline and point; multipoint is only supported by .shp when creating a new layer.

Read Microstation dgn in version 8 and AutoCAD dwg in version 2013… it deserves a credit. Although gvSIG has an advantage that it can edit dwg, dxf and kml, while SuperGIS can only edit shp and its own .geo extension format. Another proprietary vector format is .slr (Supergeo Layer File), which can be worked with on tablets using SuperSurv, and also from the desktop client.

From SuperGIS Data Converter you can make conversions between the previous formats, also including the formats kml (Google Earth), e00 (ArcInfo), sef (Standar Exchange Format).

In raster format:

• SGR, which is a proprietary SuperGIS format
• MrSID
• GeoTIFF
• BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG, JPG2000
• ECW
• LAN
• GIS

The .sgr format is proprietary to Supergeo; With this it runs at an impressive speed both the deployment and the specialized treatment with Image Analyst.

It has a disadvantage that it does not read ENVI, SPOT files that are supported by programs like Manifold GIS and gvSIG. Image georeference capabilities are quite common to what gvSIG / ArcGIS does.

From SuperGIS Data Converter you can make conversions between the formats img, gis, lan (Erdas), tif, ecw, sid, jpg, bmp, and ASCII txt.

In OGC standards

• WMS (Web map service)
• WFS (Web feature service)
• WCS (Web coverage service)
• WMTS. This is the format for handling mosaic data (Tiles)

OGC Client, GPS, Geodatabase Client, SuperGIS Server Desktop Client and Image Server Desktop Client are added to this and other functionalities.

The case of the kmz format is only supported with the 3D Analyst extension. In the case of network formats, they are supported by .geo, being able to import using DataConverter from shape files, as well as digital terrain data that can be imported from shape files and sgr.

Editing capability

This aspect has always caught my attention, which in general forces us to use a CAD program to build data and a GIS program when they are already working. It is an important advance that Have had gvSIG And Quantum GIS in this regard, including additional packages such as the case OpenCAD tools With which we should no longer complain.

In the case of SuperGIS, it allows the editing of one or more layers, in the traditional style. Those with .geo and .shp extensions are shown, you can save and stop editing. Additionally, in the same tab, common editing uses are seen, among which it coincides with the gvSIG palette:

Let's look at a comparison of the CAD tools that have AutoCAD, gvSIG and SuperGIS, taking into account my old list of preferred AutoCAD commands.

No. Command AutoCAD GvSIG SuperGIS 1 Line 2 Polyline 3 Circle 4 Autocomplete 5 Link 6 Die 7 Trim 8 Copy 9 MOVER 10 Rotate 11 Climb 12 Mirror 13 Edit vertices 14 Exploit 15 Sweaters, Jerseys and Cardigans 16 bow 17 Polygon 18 Ellipse 19 Hole 20 Rectangle 21 To stretch 22 Multipoint 23 Parallel 24 Extender

The first 14 (1 to 14) were on my list of 25 most used commands. Some of them are not exactly the equivalent, like: -bind / make block -autopolygon/boundary Here, it is noteworthy that SuperGIS groups more than one in a single command, which appear in a contextual way, as in the case of “Sketch” that includes line, polyline, point and multipoint. The edit geometry command groups vertex editing, stretching, proportional scaling. There are no commands that we used in CAD, such as Array, regular polygon, ellipse. In practice they are not so urgent, although gvSIG integrated them as part of doing what was important in CAD. Extend and Parallel Copy stand out. Also the move command that allows entering a destination coordinate.

The functionality seems practical, it seems that SuperGIS came to this with a lot of practical work with real users. In the case of precision, there are snap options for midpoint, intersection, and nearest point. While it can also be configured if it is applied to the edges or vertices with a specific tolerance and per layer.

With the commands, floating windows are raised; It can be created from coordinates, distance / heading, distance / distance ... although in some I found the functionality somewhat strange ... it requires practice as a new tool.

Additionally, commands are required that are required for GIS processes, which were not of much interest in CAD, such as:

Segment (split), Segment at vertex, Generalize, Smooth (smooth), very common for GIS work. In addition to the common geoprocessing processes that are almost a Copy / paste of what we already know.

At the level of layouts for printing, I will address it in a following article; since I have my reservations and I would wait by then to have the multiframe development that they are working on, in which I proposed the possibility of saving theming states, in order to be able to load different dataframes in the same layout. I have been promised to have this for SuperGIS Desktop 3.1b in Q2013 XNUMX; similar to what CadCorp or Manifold GIS does.

In conclusion, it seems a fairly robust tool at the desktop GIS level.

For those who want to try it,

Here you can download SuperGIS Desktop