Slashgeo

The geopdf blog links to an article on GeoPDF uses in the U.S. Army. Meanwhile, The Earth is Square discuss Acrobat 3D (previously on /geo). From the article: "TEC was impressed with the GeoPDF concept, which provides a standard format for use and exchange of geospatial data with non-GIS/mapping users. It is a stand-alone file, with image, text, fonts, graphics, customer data, GIS data and metadata all contained within the file. The data is geo-referenced, and the software viewer is free and already on over 700 million computers worldwide. Given all of this, we began the Army GeoPDF project, which is now ongoing. We contacted Headquarters Marines to let them know what we were up to, and they jumped on board. We are now able to easily create products using the data we have and deliver that information up and down the command chain in a familiar file format that works with a viewer already loaded on their computer.

We mentioned GeoPDFs a year ago, now All Points Blog informs us GeoPDF gets a toolbar with new features: "The ability to view data in a variety of projections, Right click to link a MBR to a Google Map, Import ShapeFiles, Output from GeoPDF to KML." This GeoPDF toolbar works only with Windows at the moment. Related, the USGS offers 55,000 Quadsheets online with 37 layers in GeoPDF format.

The Free Geography Tools blog has a post about the new GeoPDF features. Some of the high point are the ability to import KMZ/KML files, reprojecting shapefiles on the fly, content creation for Google Maps/Earth, and support for a lot more coordinate systems. For more information and to check out the video tutorials, please visit the Free Geography Tools blog for the links.

From the GeoPDF blog : "In previous versions of Map2PDF for ArcGIS there was no way to view the GeoPDF back in ArcGIS. The latest release of this application allows you to do this! We are now able to bring in all the PDF map frames and layers then toggle them on and off just as you would a standard ArcGIS layer. Because it is treated as a standard ArcGIS layer, you can also export the content back out as a GeoPDF. Create GeoPDF --> work with GeoPDF in Reader --> View GeoPDF and annotations back in ArcGIS for further analysis."

The GeoPDF blog has a lengthy explanation behind the recent decision to submit the format to OGC. Be sure to visit their page for the full details. Here is a snippet from their summary : "I've been asked here and elsewhere, "what is the link between the submission of GeoPDF to OGC and Adobe's geospatial extensions in Acrobat and Reader 9.0?" There is a link, to be sure, but the primary reason that TerraGo has submitted its legacy georegistration technique to OGC is our customers demanded it. There are terabytes (petabytes?) of GeoPDF files out there that use the technique and they wanted to be confident that their investment was secure. That's quite reasonable by any measure. It would be one thing to just post a specification for the technique, a la ESRI's shape file spec [PDF], but wouldn't carry the imprimatur of a standards organization that our customers demand."

From the OSGeo-Discuss list, I learned about OpenScales. Their short introduction: "OpenScales is a user-friendly and fast interface designed to manipulate spatial data : geographic raster viewing, data-vector editing, management of smooth transitions between scales and positions, ... As a free open source and extensible tool written in ActionScript, OpenScales is designed to be easily plugged in your Flex or Air application. OpenScales is a small but powerful core of GIS, so try it and let us know." Some related stories below.