Revolution and GeoInfomatics

Tue May 9 10:40:38 EDT 2006

For those of you interested in maps in general, I've been developing 
a "Dynamic Digital Map" template using Revolution (see 
http://ddm.geo.umass.edu  for downloads & info), and will be giving a 
talk at the U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation - 
sponsored Geoinfomatics meeting this Thursday 11 May, along with a 
colleague Mike Williams (sure glad I'm before, and not after Mike - 
he's a hell of a speaker).

The talks will be webcast at:
http://www.geongrid.org/geoinformatics2006/:

Thursday, May 11 2006
Morning Sessions
9:40 - 12:00
Concurrent session 2: Geologic mapping and databases, Visitor Center
Chair: Peter Lyttle, U.S. Geological Survey
....
10:40 - 11:00
Christopher Condit
Dept. Geosciences, Univ. Massachusetts-Amherst
Dynamic Digital Maps: An Open-Source Tool to Distribute Maps, Data, 
Articles and Multi-Media as an Integrated Stand-alone Cross-platform 
Package via the Web and CD/DVD for Use in Research, Teaching and 
Archiving Information
11:00 - 11:20
Michael Williams
Geosciences - University of Massachusetts
Building a dynamic image-based database: Integrating thin section 
images and data using Dynamic Digital Maps
++++++++++
A little background on this:
>Dynamic Digital Maps, the Open Source DDM-Template and Cookbook
>Christopher D. Condit
>Department of Geosciences
>University of Massachusetts-Amherst
>National Science Foundation - Grant # DUE-CCLI-0127331 2002-2006.
>As part of a four year, $300,000 project, funded to him by the U.S. 
>National Science Foundation, Chris Condit, a professor in the 
>Geosciences Department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst 
>has developed a product called the "Dynamic Digital Map".  The heart 
>of it is an open-source program enabling Revolution users to publish 
>maps, images, movies, text and data as an integrated product that is 
>a royalty-free stand-alone application.  A description of DDMs, the 
>open source code, and downloads of more than 10 DDMs can be found at 
>the URL http://ddm.geo.umass.edu/.  Condit will be teaching a course 
>on how to make DDMs this fall at UMass.
>Description of a Dynamic Digital Map
>A Dynamic Digital Map is a stand-alone "presentation manager" 
>program that displays and links maps, images, movies, data and 
>supporting text, such as map explanations and field trip guides. 
>Made using the cross-platform Revolution programming environment 
>(see http://www.runrev.com), DDMs are WEB-enabled and browser 
>independent. The "DDM-Template" is an open source Revolution program 
>into which one can insert metadata (mostly file names) that enable 
>the program to open maps, images, figures and movies from an 
>organization of directories. A DDM maker can further modify the 
>Template as they make their own DDM by inserting text and data 
>directly into the program, which will be renamed to reflect its new 
>content. A "Cookbook" guides the Revolution user through the steps 
>of building the DDM. Once a Template has been completely modified, 
>stand-alone applications for a variety of operating systems (for 
>example, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) can be made directly from this 
>single Revolution document. DDM examples have been made for two 
>volcanic areas (the Tatara-San Pedro volcanic complex in Chile, and 
>the Springerville volcanic field in Arizona (Condit, 1995a), for the 
>geology of western New England (which includes six field trips), for 
>the Moon (made in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey), 
>and Mars (a superb senior thesis by Selby Cull of Hampshire 
>College). The DDM-SVF includes an automated five minute tour showing 
>how to use a DDM;  the DDM-NE includes an interactive tour.
The DDMs posted on the web (or if you are using this from a CD/DVD, 
in these folders) are standalone programs that run without other 
software. The programs, if run from DVD, access their data from 
specified directories within their home folder.  Alternatively they 
can open data via fast internet connections.  In this case, they 
access their maps and images (in jpeg format), and movies (in 
QuickTime format)] from a file server in Chris Condit's lab at 
UMass-Amherst; any web server using http protocol will work for 
self-built DDMs.  To see any included movies, both Windows and Mac 
based computers must have the latest QuickTime Player installed (free 
from Apple for both platforms, at www.apple.com). Computers with less 
than 512 MB of free RAM will run these programs very slowly at best.
+++++++++++++

The most important missing piece that will make this DDM project 
really "fly" will be the ability to import eps text fields or objects 
into Revolution.   Maps are time-consuming enough to make without 
having to re-make them again (at least the text labels) just to get 
them into Revolution.  Alejandro Tejada <capellan2000 at yahoo.com> has 
written EpsImportV04 to import vector graphics, and I've had some 
success with importing text from his earlier versions of the program. 
It worked slowly, but OK using eps files saved from earlier versions 
of Adobe Illustrator on a PC.  If anyone has any suggestions on how 
to do this, I am very interested in getting it working - please shoot 
me an e-mail! 

Ah, for the SuperCard days when one could simply import PICT files 
directly into SC - I didn't know what a gem I had until it was gone!

cheers
-- 
Dr. Christopher D. Condit,  Associate Prof.,  Dept. of Geosciences    
Univ. Massachusetts,  611 North Pleasant St., Amherst, MA, 01003-9297
ccondit at geo.umass.edu  413-545-0272
My Web Page:  http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/condit.htm
Revolution Dynamic Digital Maps: http://ddm.geo.umass.edu