Major
CommunityViz™ project completed for The Orton Family Foundation
Elroi Consulting has completed a two-year project with The Orton Family Foundation (www.orton.org). The Foundation, which publishes the revolutionary suite of GIS-based community planning software tools, CommunityViz (www.communityviz.com), retained us for both our software development and technical documentation skills. Our primary accomplishment was the creation of a module of the suite designed to enable planners to experiment with alternative "build out" scenarios. During the project we were also responsible for compiling, editing, and publishing several versions of close to 1,000 pages in user manuals and help files for all modules of the suite.
Impervious surface extension written for ArcGIS at City of Denver
Elroi
Consulting has just completed a new extension to ArcGIS, written with
ArcObjects in Visual Basic, for the City and County of Denver's Wastewater
Management Division. The extension allows ArcMap users to digitize
impervious surfaces from scanned site plans and orthophotographs. This
reduces field inspection time and increases accuracy of measurement.
Pioneering remote sensing for mine land reclamation
In
the Fall of 2001 Elroi Consulting completed a project for Peabody
Energy, the world's largest coal company, in collaboration with
Wintermoon Geotechnologies. The purpose of the project was to evaluate
the viability of using airborne hyperspectral imaging to determine progress
in the land reclamation activities at an open-pit coal mine. This pioneering
work shows promise for being able to augment labor-intensive field programs,
thus reducing costs and increasing the frequency of assessment.
Adams
County, Colorado, signs me up to Web-enable their GIS and Oracle databases
Adams County, Colorado, is a large county that spans the northeastern portions of the Denver metropolitan area, as well as vast tracts of agricultural prairie land. With GIS growing in the county from the seeds sown in the Assessor, Planning, and Public Works departments, the county now wishes to place its information at the disposal of its employees and the public through the Web. Stay tuned for further announcements. In the meantime, visit the county's non-GIS Web site at www.co.adams.co.us.
Leading environmental software firm, EarthSoft Inc., retains my ArcView programming services
EarthSoft, Inc., of Pensacola, Florida, recently retained me to perform commercial software development in ArcView. EarthSoft's EQuIS software combines a strong database for managing environmental data, with powerful links to many of the leading data analysis and visualization software packages, including ArcView. Using EarthSoft's ArcView extensions, a GIS user gains direct access to a suite of software, including EQuIS, RockWorks, GMS, and EVS. EarthSoft is one of the world leaders in this field, and you can read more about them at www.earthsoft.com.
Stories, Stories, Stories...
In a publishing frenzy I have recently had articles published in Directions, ArcNews, and ArcUser, and of course, in my own newsletter, GIS Software Techniques & Implementation. Look for several more articles in the upcoming issues of ArcUser.
My
latest newsletter features a one-of-a-kind interview with ESRI's Clint
Brown
The November 1999 edition of my GIS Software Techniques & Implementation newsletter features an interview with ESRI's Manager of Software Products, Clint Brown. Clint is one of the top echelon staff at ESRI who rarely gets out into the limelight. We all know what makes Jack tick. But how about the other shakers and movers at ESRI? How does ESRI come up with a new product? How many programmers does it take to put out so much software, anyway? Read all about it.
Article on Three-Dimensional GIS Published in ArcUser Magazine
An article I wrote on three-dimensional GIS databases and ArcView has been published in the popular ESRI publication, ArcUser. The article can be read on-line at www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1099/3database.html. Find out about importing 3D data into ArcView 3D Analyst from CAD, mine planning and geologic modeling software, borehole databases, and more. Also learn about why you should bother importing the data to GIS.
Daniel Elroi now a regular columnist at DirectionsMag.com
Starting in August 1999, I have began contributing articles to a great on-line GIS magazine and resource site. DirectionsMag.com contains feature articles and regular columns, software reviews, on-going software development projects by the site's staff, valuable information about hundreds of vendors, wish lists for various software vendors, free data, and on and on. It's a stimulating site, and I'm thrilled to be able to contribute to it.
My Newsletter is now E-mailed using ListBot.com
As may e-mail list has grown into the hundreds, actually over 1,000 now, I have decided to use ListBot to manage my subscriber list and mass e-mailings. This will give my subscribers more control over when to subscribe or unsubscribe, viewing old issues, and passing along a subscription to a friend. It also frees my time up more for writing, rather than nursing along cranky e-mail software. Check it out at the bottom of my homepage, or directly at www.elroi.listbot.com.
New Free ArcView Extension popular before it is even released
A new free ArcView extension is now available on my Web site (see Software), which imports borehole information into ArcView's 3D Analyst module. Even before being announced in my newsletter, users from around the world, mostly in the mining industry, have began downloading it. A recent e-mail from some exploration folks in Chile reports that the extension works well and has been integrated into their GIS routines.
MAPComposer for Arcplot is now available
I now own the sole copyright, trademark, and distribution rights to MAPComposer for Arcplot. This Arcplot productivity tool has been proven to reduce the time required to create new maps by up to 25% and the time required to edit and update maps by up to 50% over traditional methods. It is designed for the Arcplot user with moderate to advanced experience. Although not yet available commercially as a "shrink-wrapped" product, it is available for licensing on a case by case basis. If you are involved in a lot of map making, map editing, and atlas production, please contact me for more information. Stay tuned for further details in future editions.
I am now an ESRI Authorized Consultant!
ESRI has recently recognized my 9 years of ESRI-based consulting, and 13 years of ESRI-based experience, and has accepted me into the Business Partners program. The main significance to my clients is that I now have an even more direct line to ESRI's technical resources, as well as advance information regarding their software, so I can better assist my clients in making informed decisions.
ARC/INFO 8.0
ARC/INFO 8.0 is now in Beta. To the user who wishes to use it as he or she has used 7.2.1, there is no discernable difference at this point. To the user who wishes to use ARC/INFO through an ArcView-like interface, however, there are exciting new options. My sense is that ESRI is doing a nice job in advancing the technology considerably without leaving people behind. The real question in my mind is whether users will begin taking advantage of the radically different new features without being forced to. Time will tell. In the mean time, it is important to consider the ramifications of these development, and the clues that ARC/INFO 8.0 gives us about the future of ArcView, as regards any new applications development in either ARC/INFO or ArcView.