Eric D. Colburn, PLS

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News-European Environment Agency and Esri Put Map Service in Cloud

August 17, 2010

Redlands, California—The European Environment Agency (EEA) and Esri have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The agreement supports the design and development of ways to share and access essential geographic environmental data provided by the agency’s 38 European member countries.

EEA, which already uses Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) products, will now work closely with Esri to improve the agency’s cloud environment map services. European countries will share their environmental data more easily, while nations, agencies, scientists, and policy makers will be able to quickly access and consume the data for viewing and analysis.

“Our partnership with Esri provides us with innovative solutions to reach out to our key stakeholders and present them with timely and relevant information as they need it,” said Jacquie McGlade, EEA’s executive director. “The agency will now also be able to work directly with citizens in the coproduction of knowledge via open access to data, creation of personalized maps, and simple ways of sharing data among social networks. The two-way exchange of knowledge and expertise between Esri and the EEA underlines just how business and the public sector can work well together to build answers for tomorrow’s challenges.”

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News Adapx GIS Data Collection for GeoPDF, ESRI MapIt, & Mobile Devices

Adapx Introduces New Capturx GIS Data Collection Solutions for GeoPDF, ESRI MapIt, and Mobile Devices at ESRI User Conference

Handwritten data on paper maps and forms instantly scanned and sent to ArcGIS, GeoPDF files, and ESRI MapIt-enabled SharePoint lists using digital pens, Bluetooth and mobile devices

Seattle, 12 July 2010. Adapx, the company that is changing the way mobile teams collect data and collaborate, today announced new Capturx GIS solutions enabling field teams to instantly send georeferenced data collected on paper forms and maps into ArcGIS, GeoPDF files, and ESRI MapIt-enabled SharePoint lists using digital pens, Bluetooth, and mobile devices. The new solutions, along with Capturx for ArcGIS and Capturx Multimodal for ArcGIS, will be featured in the Defense and Intelligence Showcase at the ESRI 2010 User Conference in San Diego on 12-15 July.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News Trimble Introduces New Desktop and GPS Handheld Solution for Utility and  Smart Grid Asset Maintenance and Inspection

SAN DIEGO, July 12, 2010 — Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) introduced today a new version of its Trimble® Field Inspector solution for utility infrastructure and smart grid asset maintenance and inspection. The solution is comprised of the Trimble Field Inspector software for handheld computers and Trimble Field Inspector Desktop software. Scalable and easy to deploy, the solution leverages Trimble Global Positioning System (GPS) and handheld computing technology to automate a wide variety of field applications for electric, gas, water, and wastewater utilities—from smart meter deployments to routine asset maintenance inspections.

The announcement was made today at the ESRI International User Conference.

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Twitter #FollowFriday Professional Land Surveyor Recommendations

Here is this week’s Twitter #FollowFriday Professional Land Surveyor Recommendations:

@iPinda – Edwards Twitter bio says “CAD specialist, AutoCAD trainer and Civil 3D addict” and if you visit his Civil 3D Peanuts blog, you’ll discover that he’s also a part-time freelance AutoCAD trainer and full time CAD application administrator for an international AEC company. You can also learn nice tips and tricks like Importing AutoCAD Objects as Surface data points.

@cad_notes- Edwin is from Indonesia, is an AutoCAD and Revit user, and writes the popular CAD tutorials and best practices blog CAD NOTES. Definitely read yesterday’s post on How to: Draw an Arc with a Specific Arc Length?

@wkfd – WKFD is the Twitter account for the Kung Fu Drafter blog. They are drafters and geeks trying to share information with people with similar interests. I highly recommend visiting The Kung Fu Drafter blog, as it is a fun site and full of information too! This week I enjoyed reading Review: Kung Fu Drafter Reviews AutoCAD Freestyle … blog post.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Geospatial Consortium Implements Land Registry System in Anhui Province, China

BEIJING, CHINA — International Land Systems (ILS), Inc. with the Anhui Agricultural Commission held a commencement meeting for the China Rural Land Certification and Registration Program, a technical assistance pilot project funded by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

The project aims to allow Chinese residents in Anhui province’s rural Feidong county to register farm plots and gain land lease certificates.  States Yang Zhao, Vice-Secretary for China’s Center for Rural Development Policy, “The goal is to further protect farmers’ rights by reducing uncertainty pertaining to land ownership, and by providing clearer and more complete information pertaining to designated land rights for farmers.”  The Chinese government has set the policy framework to protect farmers’ rights through the 11th Five Year Plan, but much work remains to survey individual farmers’ plots and document individuals’ ownership status.

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SYCODE Releases ESRI Shape File Import Plug-ins for AutoCAD, Bricscad, IntelliCAD and Rhinoceros

Panaji, GOA – 28th October, 2009 – SYCODE has released ESRI Shape file import plug-ins for AutoCAD, Bricscad, IntelliCAD and Rhinoceros. The plug-ins will allow these CAD systems to read two dimensional geometric data from ESRI shape files.  

“Recently we noticed an increase in requests for ESRI shape file support from existing and prospective customers,” explains Deelip Menezes, Founder and CEO of SYCODE. “These four ESRI import plug-ins are a direct result of those requests. In fact, a majority of our 200+ products are born this way. At SYCODE, we are happy to develop and offer CAD data exchange solutions to our customers that assist in the smooth flow of data in their internal workflows”.

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TerraGo Announces General Availability of TerraGo Composer

New release for creating GeoPDF-based map books adds dynamic update and editing capability

ATLANTA, GA – August 20, 2009 – TerraGo Technologies®, a leading provider of geospatial collaboration software solutions, announced today the general availability of its TerraGo Composer® version 5 software. The new solution gives organizations the power to easily create, edit and dynamically update digital maps, images and map books leveraging Adobe Acrobat.

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ESRI president Jack Dangermond video at the 2009 Where 2.0 Conference in San Jose, California, talking about Realizing Spatial Intelligence on the GeoWeb. Covered in his talk is:

• GeoWeb.
• WebGIS
• Cartographic Knowledge
• Geographic Knowledge Created in GIS Environments.
• Data and Web Services.
• Sharing of Geographic Knowledge.
• Spatially Integrated Thinking to a Broader Society
• Leveraging Investments Developing Basemaps.
• Leveraging Investments Developing Thematic Datasets.
• Leveraging Investments Developing other Spatial Assets.

Watch the video. Read the rest of this entry →

A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 204

Here is the A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 204

The main topics covered are:

• ERDAS Labs
• TransAtlas
• Trailview
• WWDC

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast you will also like the VerySpatial.com site.

Professional Land Surveyor Source: A VerySpatial Podcast

If you’re a professional land surveyor, regardless of whether you own your own company or work for someone else, you must see this informative video of the presentation that Brent Jones of ESRI gave at the recent Carlson Users Conference 2009. It is a little long (all good), so grab a cup of coffee, sit back and learn how GIS needs professional land surveyors and how professional land surveyors need GIS, too.

I think that the ideas presented by Brent Jones are right on target and present a road map for professional land surveyors to incorporate GIS into their professional practices and survive and prosper in the post recession economy.

I know that a shiver runs up the back of many professional land surveyors at the sound of that word, GIS. But now is the time for us, with all of the talents and knowledge we posses as professional land surveyors, to help make GIS better and raise it to a level where GIS is survey grade in positional accuracy and quality!