Cadcorp Software Release Includes Desktop GIS

Cadcorp, the UK-based developer and supplier of GIS and web mapping software, has unveiled its latest release, Cadcorp SIS 8.0. The new release includes a new free-to-use desktop GIS product – Map Express, multiple performance improvements and both new and enhanced core functionality.

Map Express provides support for the same comprehensive set of data formats as the rest of the Cadcorp SIS product family including all Ordnance Survey formats. It allows the user to perform various types of spatial analysis, to carry out both spatial and attribute queries, and to visualise data in 3D. In addition, data can be printed or published in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) or Microsoft Open XML Paper Specification (XPS). The product can be deployed as a stand-alone desktop system or used consume data from other products in the Cadcorp SIS family, or other products that implement Open Geospatial Consortium standards.

Map Express is built from the same core source code as all other Cadcorp SIS products and so shares the same modern user interface. As such it provides a valuable introduction to working with Cadcorp SIS and its concepts. Map Express replaces functionality provided by Map Reader, Map Browser and Map Viewer at the previous release. It is available for download from the Cadcorp website.

New features

New features at Cadcorp SIS 8.0 include the introduction of a new proprietary data format that offers access to the rich set of vector, raster and topological data in Cadcorp SIS, while simultaneously reducing memory requirements. The extensive customisation and automation of facilities already available within Cadcorp SIS have been further extended by adding support for the Python programming language, both embedded in Cadcorp SIS – both interactively, via command-line-based input, and as a new method of augmenting the SIS user interface with custom commands - and by making core functionality available within Python itself. A powerful processing framework has been introduced that incorporates the wide range of editing and analysis tools available in SIS and allows the user to easily automate repetitive tasks.

Amongst the many enhancements included within the release, expression handling has been substantially improved, offering both improved performance and more advanced queries; thematic mapping functionality has been improved and extended, allowing for improved map production and advanced on-the-fly analysis; and the desktop and SIS Control 3D window has been completely rewritten to take advantage of modern CPU and GPU hardware. Desktop products see many additional usability improvements, building on the work already done in Cadcorp SIS 7.1 when the Microsoft Fluent User Interface was included in the desktop version of the system.

Cadcorp’s spatial server, GeognoSIS, gains an entirely new API that has been designed specifically for modern web application development, along with upgraded OGC service implementations and brand new INSPIRE service implementations. GeognoSIS management has been improved with multiple enhancements to GeognoSIS Manager and the addition of GeognoSIS notifications.

Direct engagement

Martin Daly, technical director, Cadcorp, commented SIS 8.0 is a very significant release for Cadcorp. It both builds on the foundations laid by - often invisible - work in previous versions, and lays its own foundations for the future. He said to believe that the performance improvements, the functional and usability enhancements, the processing framework, the availability of Python in SIS and SIS in Python, the new HTTP API for GeognoSIS, together with countless other improvements and changes will all be welcomed by end-users and partners alike. During the design and development phases of SIS 8.0 the company engaged directly with both of these groups more than ever before, giving them valuable feedback and insights into their work and, more importantly, their work. SIS 8.0 is the fruit of that collaboration, he concluded.

Mike O’Neil, CEO of Cadcorp added the company will be particularly interested in the reaction to its free GIS product, Map Express. Its release continues the Cadcorp tradition of making it easy to share spatial data. Users who are new to Cadcorp SIS products might be more than a little surprised by the ability it gives them to drag and drop many different spatial datasets directly into a GIS.