TatukGIS Training Prices Reduced until September 1st

TatukGIS Training Kit prices have been reduced until September 1st.

Single-user Training Kit licenses have been reduced over 25% and multi-user site licenses have been reduced over 45%.

Training Kit prices are listed here.

TatukGIS Consulting has been working with TatukGIS development tools since 2003 and has deep knowledge of both the DK and the Editor.  TatukGIS Consulting has a close relationship with TatukGIS. Purchasing a TatukGIS Training Kit allows users, developers, and organizations to substantially reduce the TatukGIS learning curve and quickly begin using and creating powerful TatukGIS DK and Editor applications by tapping into the wealth of TatukGIS knowledge held by TatukGIS Consulting.

TatukGIS Training Kits have been sold around the world to satisfied customers in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Thailand.

The following unsolicited comment summarizes the sentiment of these happy customers: "This is exactly what we needed!  Thank you!" - anonymous e911 company professional.

Australia's Largest Agricultural Software Company Chooses TatukGIS

A state-wide landcover and tree study was undertaken by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources to identify and classify all vegetation zones across the state. The primary method was through remote sensing backed up by field surveys. The result was the creation of a vegetation database the government uses to stipulate vegetation management guidelines by which all landholders must abide. The premise of this effort was to assist landholders, scientists, industry, and government with world’s best practice landscape management.

Laws were drafted governing management practices in each of the classified zones, with significant penalties for breaches of these guidelines.

While GIS experts had ready access to the spatial data, individual landholders without GIS expertise were being provided with a PDF map of their property. The PDF map provided insufficient accuracy to enable landholders to make decisions about use of their land without risk of accidental violations exposing the landowner to the possibility of prosecution.

AGDATA Australia has used the TatukGIS Developer Kernel (DK-VCL edition) over several years to develop a custom mapping utility to enable landholders to load the spatial vegetation data, overlay it on their property, and view the classification of each vegetation zone. This allows landholders to clearly identify the vegetation zones in relation to their property with sufficient accuracy to safeguard against infractions and risk of prosecution.

The DK support for the ESRI ArcView Shape format and coordinate systems (including PRJ file) was vital for this project. The DK visual layer property control contains functionality to associate the rendering of map features based on attribute field values, which makes applying different colours to the vegetation zones trivial. These and other DK features contributed significantly to shortening the project development cycle.

To further aid landholders identify the classified zones when in the field, a GPS interface was developed to enable uploading of data from the map to handheld GPS units.

The key purpose of the AGDATA development using the TatukGIS DK component has been to provide a simple-to-use GIS tool to landholders who have no formal knowledge or training of GIS. Besides compliance with land use guidelines, this effort is enabling landholders, for the first time, to engage with government authorities over landscape management decisions.

AGDATA (www.agdata.com.au), based in Toowoomba, Australia, is Australia's largest agricultural software company.

Vegetation layer displayed in the application with predefined vegetation classifications and palette.

'LIVE' TatukGIS Training in the USA in September!

TatukGIS Consulting is offering 'LIVE' training courses for TatukGIS software in the USA in the month of September.  Seats are still available for these courses.

The training dates are as follows:

TatukGIS Editor In-Person Training (1 day course): Tuesday September 10, 2013

TatukGIS Developer Kernel (or Editor Customization) In-Person Training (2 day course): Wednesday & Thursday September 11 & 12, 2013

Class sizes are limited to 14 students.  Course summaries are listed below.

Training is held in centrally-located Dubuque, IA.  Dubuque is a beautiful old town located on the Mississippi River and is a few hours drive from Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.  The Dubuque Regional Airport is served by American Airlines via O'Hare International Airport and is a quick 10 minute drive to downtown Dubuque.

For training dates and ordering information, please see the Ordering Information page.  For any other questions related to in-person training in the US, please email tatukgis.consulting@nym.hush.com.

(1) TatukGIS Editor Training:  This one day course will cover a broad range of the functionality offered by the Editor.  A hard-copy training manual is included with the course.  Students will be required to bring their own laptop computer with the Editor software already installed.  The cost is $499/seat.  The course outline is as follows:

GIS BASICS.

LESSON 1. ADDING GIS LAYERS TO THE EDITOR AND SETTING UP A MAP PROJECT. 

LESSON 2.  MAP COORDINATE SYSTEMS

LESSON 3. CHANGING THE MAP EXTENT, ZOOMING, PANNING, AND SETTING THE SCALE.

LESSON 4. SELECTING FEATURES: SELECT BY ATTRIBUTES, ZOOM TO SELECTION, MANUAL SELECTION, AND USING CLIPBOARD LAYERS.

LESSON 5. CREATING NEW VECTOR LAYERS, CREATING NEW FEATURES, SNAPPING TO FEATURES, WORKING WITH MULTIPART SHAPES, CREATING 'DONUT-HOLE' POLYGONS, AND EDITING VERTICES OF FEATURES.

LESSON 6. GEOPROCESSING: SPLITTING SHAPES, UNIONING SHAPES, BUFFERING SHAPES, SUBTRACTING SHAPES, MERGING VECTOR LAYERS, AND GENERATING A GRID OF POINTS.

LESSON 7. ADDING ATTRIBUTES TO FEATURES, ADDING NEW FIELDS, USING THE DATA PANEL, ADDING ASCENDING ID NUMBERS TO A FIELD, FINDING FIELD VALUE FREQUENCIES.

LESSON 8. SYMBOLIZING FEATURES USING THE LAYER PROPERTIES DIALOG AND SAVING SYMBOLOGY TO LAYER PROPERTIES .INI FILES.

LESSON 9.  MAP OUTPUT: USING THE PRINT DIALOG, USING MAP TEMPLATES, EXPORTING THE VIEW TO AN IMAGE, AND CREATING CUSTOM NORTH ARROWS, SCALEBARS, AND LEGENDS.

LESSON 10.  USING THE 3D PANEL: USING 3D LAYERS, CREATING 3D FEATURES, AND SETTING UP A DEM. 

(2) TatukGIS Developer Kernel (or Editor Customization) Training: This two day course will cover a broad range of the functionality offered by the DK.  A hard-copy training manual is included with the course.  Students will be required to bring their own laptop computer with the DK or Editor software already installed.  The cost is $999/seat.  The course outline is as follows:

GIS BASICS

LESSON 1. CREATING A NEW DELPHI SOLUTION THAT USES THE TATUKGIS DK VCL CONTROLS, .TTKGP PROJECT FILES, AND ADDING & REMOVING LAYERS FROM THE DISPLAY

LESSON 2. CHANGING THE MAP EXTENT, ZOOMING, AND SETTING THE SCALE

LESSON 3. SELECTING FEATURES: SELECT BY ATTRIBUTES, ZOOM TO SELECTION, SELECT BY LOCATION, AND MANUAL SELECTION. IN-MEMORY LAYERS AND THE TGIS_LAYERVECTOR.LOOP METHOD ARE INTRODUCED

LESSON 4. USING THE TGIS_EDITOR OBJECT TO CREATE NEW SHAPES, SAVE AND ABORT EDIT OPERATIONS, EDIT VERTICES, UNDO/REDO, DELETE LAST SHAPE, ADD PARTS, DELETE PARTS, AND DELETE VERTICES

LESSON 5. CREATING NEW VECTOR LAYERS, EDITING SHAPES WITH CODE(AS OPPOSED TO USING THE TGIS_EDITOR OBJECT), BUFFERING SHAPES, CREATING AN 'IN-MEMORY' LAYER, AND EXPORTING VECTOR LAYERS

LESSON 6. GEOPROCESSING: SPLITTING SHAPES, UNIONING SHAPES, SUBTRACTING SHAPES, CLIPPING SHAPES, MERGING VECTOR LAYERS, AND GENERATING RANDOM POINTS

LESSON 7. ATTRIBUTING FEATURES, THE TGIS_CONTROLATTRIBUTES OBJECT, AND THE TGIS_DATASET

LESSON 8. SYMBOLIZING FEATURES USING THE LAYER PROPERTIES DIALOG AND VIA CODE AND SAVING SYMBOLOGY TO LAYER PROPERTIES .INI FILES

LESSON 9. SETTING THE TGIS_VIEWERWND AND LAYER COORDINATE SYSTEMS, REPROJECTING-ON-THE-FLY, AND EXPORTING LAYERS TO A DIFFERENT COORDINATE SYSTEM

LESSON 10. MEASUREMENTS: AREAS, DISTANCES, XY COORDINATES, CONVERT PROJECTED POINTS TO GEOGRAPHIC, AND CREATE POINT B USING BEARING AND DISTANCE FROM POINT A

LESSON 11. WORKING WITH ENTERPRISE GIS DATABASES: THE SQL LAYER AND THE PIXELSTORE LAYER

LESSON 12. MAP OUTPUT: EXPORT TGIS_VIEWERWND DISPLAY TO IMAGE, SEND MAP TO MS WORD AT A CERTAIN SCALE, PRINT PREVIEW, PRINT SIMPLE MAP, USING MAP TEMPLATES

LESSON 13. USING GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM INPUT

LESSON 14. ADDRESS MATCHING AND ROUTING

LESSON 15. USING OTHER DATA FORMATS

LESSON 16. USEFUL FUNCTIONS IN THE TGIS_UTILS CLASS

LESSON 17. USING THE 3D VIEWING MODE, THE TGIS_CONTROL3D OBJECT, USING 3D LAYERS, CREATING 3D FEATURES, AND SETTING UP A DEM  

TatukGIS Software Is Being Used to Fulfill Government Procurement Contracts Around the Globe

In August 2012, the Polish company LOGON SA won a public procurement contract with the Poland Environmental Protection Agency to supply computer hardware and GIS software to its provincial offices and to the provincial headquarters of the Poland Fire Service.

LOGON selected the desktop TatukGIS Editor product to fulfill the GIS software portion of the contract.

In addition, the Erie County, Pennsylvania tax assessment department is using the TatukGIS Editor to perform a county-wide reassessment of property values.

The TatukGIS Editor is a powerful and fully customizable desktop GIS that can view and edit enterprise GIS databases and render GIS data in full 3D. 

Hefty volume discounts of the Editor place the per seat price at around US$250.  A site-license for Training Kits for the TatukGIS Editor can be purchased for US$359.

In these times of reduced government spending and increased government accountability, government agencies are searching for the best value for their money. 

TatukGIS represents the best value in the GIS industry.

What Does the word 'Tatuk' in TatukGIS Mean?

Several years ago I visited TatukGIS Headquarters in Gdynia, Poland and asked them the following question:

What does the word Tatuk mean?

Here's what I was told.

The word Tatuk has roughly two meanings: family and indomitable spirit. 

Years ago the founder of TatukGIS visited Tatuk Lake in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Canada and thought it was one of the most beautiful places on earth.

At about the same time his child started talking and was speaking the usual first words of children, one of which is usually "daddy".  The Polish word for "daddy" is "tatus'".

(As a side note, I notice that a lot of TatukGIS customers mispronounce the word "Tatuk".  Listen to the pronunciation of the word "tatus'" in the following Google Translate page and you will never mispronounce it again: http://translate.google.com/#auto/pl/daddy .)

So the connection of family to the word Tatuk is obvious.  But the connection of the word Tatuk to "indomitable spirit" is less obvious.

I was told that in the 1950's a series of books about Native Americans fighting cowboys and the US Government became very popular in Poland (if I find out the exact author I will update this article).

[Updated 4/2/2013: GisCafe.com user 'mapprSB' provided the following information about the series of books mentioned above.  Thanks mapperSB!

"Hi, I have a friend from Poland, and she was astonished to hear that we Americans didn’t know the stories about Winnetou, her favorite American Indian hero. It turns out that the author was German, and they were either never published here, or only in some very limited way. She’s only in her forties, so the stories have persisted in popularity beyond the 1950′s. She said Winnetou was a favorite with all her friends. There might be a movie in the foreseeable future, I read.

Note the cover in this Wikipedia article: an Apache, shown standing in Eastern mountain forests. Personally I always thought Apaches were in the Southwestern areas, but I know many tribes were forcibly relocated. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnetou"]

These books were popular because they embodied the fighting spirit and the resistance of the Polish people to any army invading their country.

My world history knowledge is not the best.  So let's just limit the discussion to the last 100 years. 

During World War II Poland was sandwiched between Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, perhaps the most difficult location to be in on the planet during that time.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in WWII the Polish said "Do your worst!" and the Nazis did.  Sixteen days after the Nazis invaded, the Soviets invaded from the east and did their worst as well.

After WWII ended, the Allies betrayed Poland and gave control of Poland to the Soviets so that the Allies wouldn't have to deal with the Soviets.  All of this after 5.5 million Polish people perished in the war!  Poland's difficult Communist period then lasted for the next 45 years until Lech Wałęsa was democratically voted into office.

The plight of the Polish people during WWII mirrored that of the Native American people who were slaughtered by invaders from distant lands and then corralled off to reservations for who knows what purpose.

So, after WWII Polish people became enamored with a series of books about fierce Native Americans fighting for their lives and their lands.

When the founder of TatukGIS visited Tatuk Lake in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Canada he saw the beauty and felt the quiet power of Canadian First Nation lands and chose the name of that lake for his company.

Tatuk is a Canadian First Nation word.  After much research I was unable to find the actual meaning of the word Tatuk.  But its meaning to TatukGIS is 'indomitable spirit'.  Indomitable means "impossible to subdue or defeat".

Now you know.

TatukGIS on Mac OS X vs. MacGIS Cartographica

I was recently asked the following question in response to an article about the upcoming TatukGIS software support for Mac OS X and iOS (see TatukGIS to Support Windows 8 & Mac OS X with Single Code Base & iOS):

Can you compare TatukGIS software on the Mac to the MacGIS Cartographica software?

Here is my response:

"Greetings,

Thanks for your question.

My experience is primarily with ESRI products, TatukGIS software, and Quantum GIS.  So, I can't do a *fair* comparison of TatukGIS software vs. Cartographica, because I have no hands-on experience with Cartographica.

Also, TatukGIS has not *yet* released the aforementioned products for the Mac, so we don't yet know what the final product will look like.

But, if we assume that the Mac versions of the TatukGIS software will be exactly the same as the Windows versions, then I can say the following based upon the screen-shots and videos I've seen on the Cartographica website:

1. If we are comparing the TatukGIS Editor product to Cartographica, I can say that TatukGIS wins on price-point (US$390 vs. US$490), customizability (you can customize the Editor interface, create custom forms and tools, in addition to having access to all of the code in the TatukGIS Developer Kernel), 3D mapping (this is just plain easy to use and !GORGEOUS-SEXY!), and enterprise GIS database support (ESRI ArcSDE, Oracle spatial, etc.).

It's my guess that TatukGIS also wins on speed and visual display (how pretty you can make your maps look and what range of styles you can use), but I can't prove that.

I think that Cartographica has superior map layout functionality.  This has always been a weak point with TatukGIS software.  Note that you can create a nice layout with TatukGIS software, but to do so you need to modify a text file rather than use a WYSIWYG interface within the software.

I think TatukGIS has always assumed that a simple printed map is good enough for most users and that if they want to make a really nice printed map they will output an image of the TatukGIS view to another piece of software like Adobe Illustrator or be willing to 'hack' a text layout file.

2. If we are comparing the TatukGIS Developer Kernel (DK) to Cartographica it's like comparing apples to oranges.

However it raises an excellent point which is that the ability of the TatukGIS DK to create native Mac OS & iOS GIS applications is going to change the GIS environment on the Mac and the iPhone/iPad. 

The same holds true for the Android environment.  An Italian TatukGIS partner has created a TatukGIS Android development environment (and one for Silverlight as well):

http://www.tatukgisconsulting.com/2012/11/itacasoft-creates-android-silverlight.html

The upcoming TatukGIS Internet Server, revamped for HTML 5, will provide even more development power and flexibility on the server.

3. The free TatukGIS Viewer will also soon be available for the Mac.  The TatukGIS Viewer is one of the most popular free GIS viewing applications in the world.  The Viewer is a slimmed-down version of TatukGIS Editor, without feature editing, enterprise GIS database management, 3D mapping, rectification, and scripting/customization features.

IN SUMMARY, I think the combination of the TatukGIS Editor and the free TatukGIS Viewer will put Cartographica out of business (and not on price-point).

I think many new GIS applications will be created in the Mac environment using the TatukGIS DK.  One of these new products could put Cartographica out of business as well.

I've mentioned this before, and I am biased (but keep in mind I have also been working with all levels of ESRI software and code since 1995):

The TatukGIS DK is the best-kept secret in the GIS industry. 

The TatukGIS DK is the fastest, most stable, easiest to learn, and most feature-packed GIS development suite with the lowest overhead on the market for the money.  Sure ESRI products have more features, but ESRI products are not the fastest, most stable, or easiest to learn and the overhead and costs are not low.  And in a practical sense, most businesses don't need the advanced features that ESRI offers.

Imagine if you could develop an application for the following environments with minimal to no code changes: Windows, Windows mobile devices, Mac, iOS, Android, Silverlight, HTML5.  And I'm probably forgetting a few in there somewhere.

Do you have a picture in your mind yet?

Enjoy,

TatukGIS Consulting"

TatukGIS to Support Windows 8 & Mac OS X with Single Code Base & iOS

(1) With the next release of its Developer Kernel GIS development framework (DK11), the TatukGIS DK will support single code base GIS development on Windows 8 and Mac OS X.

In addition the TatukGIS DK will support GIS development on iOS (the operating system that runs your iPhone).

(2) Also, at that time, the TatukGIS Editor (a customizable desktop GIS) will be available on Mac OS X (as well as Windows).  Thus, customizations developed in the TatukGIS Editor will be available on Mac OS X and Windows using the same scripting code.

TatukGIS DK single code base GIS development on Windows 8 and Mac OS X and GIS development on iOS will be made possible via Embarcadero FireMonkey technology.  FireMonkey is available in Embarcadero RAD Studio XE3, Delphi XE3, and C++ Builder XE3.

A FireMonkey testimonial.

According to Embarcadero, FireMonkey is the fastest path to Windows 8 and Mac OS X Mountain Lion: "With FireMonkey FM² you can now quickly give your applications the Windows 8 UI style and user experience yet still deploy to older Windows versions and Retina ready Mac OS X with native UI fidelity. Your applications will run great on Windows 8 PCs and x86 based tablets including Microsoft's Surface Pro and you can take advantage of Windows 8 capabilities such as gestures, live tile support, full screen behavior, sensor components and deploying natively to Mac OS X with a native user experience."

The TatukGIS Editor