New Open Source Workshop

With cuts being announced seemingly daily at present, many organisations are starting to investigate using Open Source software. But what are the implications of this and will it actually do what your organisation requires? This workshop is aimed at anyone who is interested in using or investigating Open Source or free software for their organisation or department.

The day will start with a discussion the real meaning of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), the real meaning of the licences and the pro's and con's of using FOSS.

The second section will examine in depth what is available in the world of GIS using FOSS, with particular emphasis on web based technologies.

The afternoon will take the form of a code workshop, where delegates can "get their hands dirty" writing some basic OpenLayers applications. Some knowledge of JavaScript is useful here but by no means essential.

(Aug 2010)

Crime Profiler version 1.1 released

Police forces, emergency services and other public safety organisations engaged in making safer communities are under increased pressure to improve services, respond faster, achieve more and take control of crime and public safety. Crime Profiler allows Crime Analysts and law enforcement agencies to slice, dice and visualise crime data for informed decision making. Additionally, keeping the public well informed about local crime and providing a channel to publish law enforcement successes is essential.

Crime Profiler for MapInfo Professional is accessible from the software's main menu bar and provides the user with a wide range of crime analysis tools. Its core functions include hotspot analysis, interactive analytical investigation and temporal analysis. The application's highly visual and interactive charting and graphing capabilities enable law enforcement agencies to clearly map and analyse crime patterns in order to make more informed crime analysis and enforcement decisions.

MapInfo Crime Profiler provides a single, ready-to-use solution for applying common operations and toolkits to enable investigative or research-based crime analysis. It offers a number of features designed to improve the way crime analysis data is analysed and presented across a police agency, including:

• Immediate Access to Data - With MapInfo Crime Profiler, users can select and work with subsets of specific crime data, by series, type, time, locale or other characteristics and then perform real-time "what-if" analysis on the data.
• Ease of Use - Easy to use and interactive hotspot map creations in MapInfo Crime Profiler instantly sees how different settings can change the representation of the data.
• Dynamic Mapping - Mapping functionality allows users to work with map data in a wide variety of formats and types, including aerial photography, street maps, demographics and segmentation maps.
• Visualisation and Analysis - Ability to pinpoint proximity analysis of crimes to known offenders or risk factors and define force boundaries such as beats and patrol areas.

Contact the CDR team for further information or a demonstration of this exciting software application.

You can also read about the Safer Derbyshire Partnership and how they have been using Crime Profiler to great effect by clicking here for a pdf document

(August 2010)

MapBasic and ProViewer v10.5 now available to Download

Following the release of MapInfo Professional version 10.5, you can now download both MapBasic and MapInfo ProViewer version 10.5 from the Pitney Bowes Business Insight website.

MapBasic enables you to automate repetitive tasks, program new functionality or even develop complete applications in MapInfo Professional. This download includes a large number of sample applications, complete with source code, for you to learn from. For those new to programming, MapBasic is a straightforward, BASIC-type programming language. For individuals with programming experience who want to integrate MapBasic into an existing application, this is done using the Integrated Mapping feature.

MapInfo ProViewer is a complement to MapInfo Professional and is an easy-to-use map viewing tool.

Both of these products are free to download from this link.

(July 2010)

Introducing MapInfo Professional® v10.5

We are delighted to announce the launch of MapInfo Professional 10.5. The official launch of MapInfo Professional in the UK took place at the MapInfo User Group Summer Conference in London on 23rd June 2010. For clients on the Annual Maintenance Program, you will receive your new release in the post shortly after this date.

MapInfo Professional v10.5 provides organisations with new and powerful methods for sharing maps across the enterprise. With MapInfo Professional v10.5, organisations can more fully interact with the cloud, including capabilities to publish maps to the cloud and access data from the cloud.

MapInfo Professional v10.5 also includes integration with Bing Maps and increased support for key industry standards such as the OGC Catalogue Services Web interface, streamlining access to data residing in the cloud and additional publishing features. By using the new integrated Metadata Browser capability public sector organisations will be able to easily search catalogues of spatial data hosted internally by organisations across Europe, as mandated by the EU's INSPIRE regulations.

Benefits of MapInfo Professional v10.5 include:

• Ability to Visualise Aerial Imagery - Users can integrate satellite imagery from Bing Maps with maps they've created using MapInfo Professional v10.5.
  
• Link to the Cloud - Organisations can share and leverage maps via the cloud using MapInfo Stratus, providing enterprise-wide access to dynamic maps that users interact with on a daily basis. By directly connecting to the cloud from the MapInfo Professional user interface, organisations are no longer limited to internal data sets, expanding data access beyond the desktop.
  
• More Publishing Options - MapInfo Professional v10.5 supports GeoPDF, which allows organisations to publish both co-ordinate data as well as tabular information to a PDF file.
  
• Increased Efficiency - MapInfo Professional v10.5 reduces the time needed to create detailed, layered maps with multiple-zoom override. Users can now create zoom-dependent layer styles or label values with just a click of the mouse.
  
• Streamlined Access to Data - A Metadata Browser enables users to search and open map files by only typing a few keywords, making it easier to find the data they need. With the MetaData Browsers, organisations using MapInfo Professional can connect to any publicly hosted data catalogue or one that their organisation hosts.
  
• Supports Key Industry Standards and Regulations - Organisations can utilise the MetaData Browser to search any OGC or INSPIRE-compliant catalogues, helping improve data access and meet key regulations and standards such as INSPIRE in the European Union.

Visit CDR on July 2nd at our next Open Day to find out more.

(June 2010)

Aiming for Peak Performance

CDR Group has developed a new software application for MapInfo Professional® to assist Highway Authorities to optimise the spreading of rock salt for winter maintenance.

The Issue

Budgetary constraints and the need to provide value-for money services are key issues for UK Local Authorities. For Highway Authorities, Winter Maintenance (salting) presents particular challenges due to …

• The running costs of salting vehicles and crews
• Cost of salt
• Changeable weather conditions
• High public demand for clear and safe roads
• The investment cost of holding large stocks of salt

Recognising these issues, in 2009 Derbyshire County Council embarked on a major project to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their Winter Maintenance operations.

The Challenge

Derbyshire County Council is responsible for some 5,500Km of road, of which some 2,500 Km are currently designated as requiring salting. These include some of the most challenging and weather affected roads in England across the Peak District. The Authority currently operates 47 front line vehicles with a team of 140 drivers based at five strategically located depots.
The aim for them, is to ensure that all designated routes are speedily salted, salt is not wasted by salting routes already covered or not designated for salting, whilst ensuring that at least 65% of each salting route should involve salting rather than 'dead running'. With a cost of around £30,000 every time the Winter Maintenance fleet swings into action, efficiency is paramount.


The Solution

Derbyshire County Council's approach to this challenge is based on three key features:

• Equipping all Winter Maintenance vehicles with a GPS based control system supplied by TMS2 of Abingdon in Oxfordshire that not only provides routing directions to the vehicle operator, but also instructs the operator when to salt.
• The use of the Authority's MapInfo Professional corporate GIS system to prepare detailed, accurate routes for a wide range of weather scenarios.
• A software solution to facilitate the rapid creation of routes, and to generate for each route the requisite waypoints and control points for input to in-vehicle control system.

CDR's Contribution

Derbyshire County Council turned to their GIS provider CDR Group to provide the software solution to form the vital link between the route planners and the vehicle operators.

To this end, CDR has worked closely with the County Council, to develop, test and commission MISalt. This is an application developed in MapBasic (MapInfo's programming language) to run within MapInfo Professional providing the following key functionality:

• Enabling the route planner to rapidly develop detailed route plans for each depot based upon data such as Street Gazetteers or Ordnance Survey's ITN data.
• Enabling the route planner to designate each part of the route as either 'salting' or 'dead running'.
  
• Ensuring full route connectivity and logical sequencing giving warnings of any errors in the route such as small gaps or wrong direction, etc.
• Warning when sections of a route are being salted more than once (This can actually be necessary on some wider sections of the highway).
• Reporting key statistics such as route length, salting length, sections being salted more than once, route efficiency, etc.
• Enabling the route planner to quickly lay down the necessary waypoints to provide navigational instructions to the vehicle operator, along with the control points that will instruct the vehicle operator to start or stop salting, together with more sophisticated instructions such as to salt all the way around an approaching roundabout or to salt after the roundabout.
• Providing a detailed validation of each route and its associated control points ensuring that the instructions being given are in a logical sequence.
• Enabling the route planner to easily edit / update existing routes or transfer a route from one depot to another.
• Providing full validation after every edit.
• Outputting the file of waypoints and control points that is then input to the TMS2 in-vehicle control system.
• Facilitating the display of all routes from a single depot, and indeed the aggregation of all routes from all depots across the whole County, to help identify any shortfalls where part of a designated highway is not being covered.
• Easily configured to give flexibility in file naming, directory structures, types of background mapping used etc.

Summary

The severe winter weather at the start of 2010 has thrust the issue of winter maintenance into the public and political spotlight, amply demonstrating Derbyshire County Council's foresight in taking steps to improve the flexibility and efficiency of their Winter Maintenance operations.

The availability of a GPS system for salting operations that gives the driver route directions and instructions on when to salt or not, will certainly help the County to deliver the winter service accurately and more efficiently. The system will also reduce the time spent in training drivers that are new to routes not travelled by them before.

CDR Group is pleased to have been able to play a part in this significant project.

(May 2010)

Ordnance Survey Announces Availability of Free Digital Mapping

On 1st April 2010, Ordnance Survey (GB) announced the immediate availability of a range of FREE digital mapping products under the title of OS OpenData™. This has followed recent reviews and the public consultation process held by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The new online service allows users to view, develop, download and order selected Ordnance Survey mapping datasets with no restrictions on re-use.

There are 11 products now available to download or order on DVD directly from the Ordnance Survey website:
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/opendata/
Here you will find a Map Viewer, technical help and supply options.

The following Ordnance Survey mapping datasets have been made available:

Please note that this is not the full range of Ordnance Survey digital data products and the other mid to large scale products are still available to licence at the same costs as before 1st April.

As Ordnance Survey Licensed Partners and Accredited Data Consultants, CDR is committed to the support of our customers who wish to utilise geographic data. Our next Open Day on May 7th will be explaining in depth and demonstrating the free Ordnance Survey data and how to incorporate it within the MapInfo software environment.

We shall also be contacting all of our clients who currently hold a contract in regards to any of these OS OpenData products, you will also be receiving written confirmation of how this launch affects your contract.

CDR Group is able to offer you a professional service to manage and supply the data, configured ready for use in MapInfo for a small administrative charge on an annual basis.

Click here to go to our Ordnance Survey product page.

If you want any further advice, you can contact our team via email or telephone 01433 621282 (lines open Monday - Friday: 9.00am to 5.00pm).

(April 2010)

Vertical Mapper version 3.7 released

The pace of software development continues as CDR is pleased to announce the release of Vertical Mapper version 3.7 for MapInfo from Pitney Bowes Business Insight.

If you want answers from location-based data, Vertical Mapper™ will find them, creating grids, or continuous surfaces of information, from point data by estimating values between known points - without using artificial boundaries.

The list of new features are:-

New Import Raster Data as Vertical Mapper Grid feature which will enable you to convert raster data such as *.bmp file into a Vertical Mapper Grid file.

The supported Raster Data formats:

• Bitmap (*.bmp)
• JPEG (*.jpg, *.jpeg)
• GIF (*.gif)
• ECW (*.ecw)
• JPEG 2000 (*.jp2)
• Portable Network Graphics (*.png)
• Geo TIFF/Tagged Image Format (*.tif)
• Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database (*.SID)
  

Supported Operating Systems:

• Windows XP Professional SP3
  
• Windows 2003 Server Enterprise SP1
  
• Windows 2008 Server
  
• Windows Vista Ultimate SP1
  
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit with 32-bit compatibility mode
  
• Windows 7 Ultimate
  
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with 32-bit compatibility mode
  
• Improved product stability and performance
  
• Support of MapInfo Professional's latest operating environments
  
• Simpler installation and deployment options

Works with MapInfo Professional v9.5 and above. Customers under an Annual Maintenance contract will be automatically receiving their new product very soon.

(February 2010)

HS Gridder version 2 released

CDR is pleased to announce the release of version 2 of HS Gridder for MapInfo. The popular Hotspot and Temporal Analysis tool has been enhanced in response to user feedback and improvements to MapInfo Professional.

The list of new features are:-

Aoristic Select function - select records (aoristic/rigid) by:

• Specific Date/Time Range (e.g. occurred between 01/01/09 - 31/01/09)
• Continuous Weekday/Hour Range (e.g. occurred between Friday 17:00 - Monday 07:00)
• Arbitrary Weekday/Hour Choice (e.g. occurred between 07:00-15:00
  on a Mon, Wed or Sat)
  

User Preferences

• Set colours for hotspot surfaces and time chart
• Set 'time break' value for temporal chart
• Set default names for date/time columns to match your data
• Set default folder location for output files
  

Automation of HS_Gridder

• Run a hotspot/temporal analysis from your own MapBasic program by using a simple settings text file

Uses 'Time' and 'DateTime' data types.

No limit on the number of input points - tested on 1 million points
(previously limited to 32,767).

Added 'translucency' option for hotspot layer.

Enhanced time graph styles retrieve information about settings used to create the hotspot layer.

HS Gridder writes metadata to the tab file, and there is a new menu
item to view this information.

Works with MapInfo Professional v9.0 and above.

(January 2010)

MapInfo Professional v10.0.1 patch now available

This is an incremental patch that will update MapInfo Professional 10.0 to MapInfo Professional 10.0.1 Build 220. This patch can be applied to the release versions of MapInfo Professional 10.0 and MapInfo RunTime 10.0.
This patch is not valid for any pre-releases of MapInfo Professional v10.0, MapBasic, or ProViewer. There are no user interface changes, and it can be safely applied to any localised releases of MapInfo Professional v10.0.

This can be downloaded from the PBBI website at

http://www.pbinsight.com/support/product-downloads/item/mapinfo-professional-v10.0.1-maintenance-release

or from within MapInfo by using the Help menu > Check for Updates

There are Release Notes with the download but in summary, the new release offers:

• Supports Windows 7

• Offers improved co-ordinate system transformation for the UK.

• Improved performance for the Layer Control dialog

• Improved performance for the "Erase" and "Combine Objects Using Column" operations.

• Various bug fixes.
  

Watch out for a further release of Vertical Mapper in the coming months also.

If you need any further advice or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at CDR Group.


(January 2010)

Consultation on access to Ordnance Survey data

The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a public consultation in relation to Ordnance Survey and proposals to allow greater access to a range of Ordnance Survey data from next year.
Ordnance Survey welcomes the consultation and actively encourages partners, customers, stakeholders and future users of OS data to give views on the proposals.

To view the press release from Communities and Local Government, visit: www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1421671.

To view the consultation document, please click here:


(January 2010)

South Kesteven Go Live With Stratus Connect

The Lincolnshire local authority, South Kesteven District Council has recently gone live with their new on-line map service.

The system, which utilises Stratus Connect from Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI), allows residents and visitors to discover information about the area, whether it's resident interested in finding out more about a planning application or a visitor looking for a car park, the maps can help.

Stratus Connect is a Web 2.0 built mapping tool with easy to use navigation and search facilities and brings spatial capabilities and address based searching to further enhance South Kesteven's web site and customer experience.

The landing page has a clear explanation of the data sets available and, crucially, how to use the map portal.

From here the required information can be selected and the application is accessed with the required data set overlaid on Ordnance Survey MasterMap or Raster maps.

The Authority upgraded from the older Exponare product and for their internal intranet GIS capabilities, CDR has installed PlanWeb.

Click here to find out more about Stratus Connect.


(December 2000)

North Yorkshire's Digital Highways

As the largest county in England and Wales North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) has the responsibility to maintain more than 9,000 kilometres of roads - and their associated pavements and verges.
Determined to make best use of modern technology, the Council's Highway Asset Manager Doug Huzzard instigated a major project to create a comprehensive electronic record of the County's highways, village greens and common land.
Following a detailed tendering exercise, NYCC appointed CDR Group to carry out this work. The task involved scanning, cropping and georeferencing paper maps and plans, scanning documents held in registers and files, and digitising the spatial extents of every area of maintained highway.
Of course all of the data is in regular use by NYCC's staff, so in order to minimise disruption a careful programme of work was agreed, whereby CDR collected regular batches of plans and documents and returned them as soon as they had been processed.

In addition NYCC's staff were able to contact CDR at any time to retrieve information that was needed urgently. Likewise CDR were in regular contact with NYCC staff with queries regarding missing or incomplete data, or ambiguous data. GIS Projects Director Tony Witham was delighted with the excellent rapport that soon developed between the two teams, and the valuable assistance CDR received, in particular from Network Information Officer Alan Fullerton and Technical Assistant Nicola Mahood.
In total CDR produced more than 17.000 scanned images, several hundred pdf documents, and digitsed countless polygons using the specialist software they have developed for use within MapInfo.

(November 2009)

Launch of Stratus Connect 2.0

CDR Group is pleased to announce the launch and availability of Stratus Connect 2.0
Connect gives you the ability to share your map-based information across the internet - simply and quickly!

Pitney Bowes Business Insight officially released version 2.0 on 30th September, following previews at the recent AGI Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it was extremely well received.

What's new in version 2.0?

• Find my nearest
  
  'Find my nearest' facilitates self-service for citizens, helping to reduce the burden on call centres. Multiple layers can be set up for 'find nearest' searches and be categorised, for example by transport, health and environment. Search results are shown on a map as clickable markers, and custom markers can be added.
  
  
• Zero vulnerabilities
  
  Stratus Connect 2.0 is fully secured against malicious attacks with zero vulnerability, having undergone industrial strength penetration testing for the web. It also features added support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, with up-to-date browser compatibility.
  
  
• Automated tasks for the administrator
  
  GIS administrators can schedule updates to the gazetteer index on a daily, weekly or custom basis. Critically, several usability improvements reduce the time spent administrating the system and ensure data is live and up-to-date.
  
  
• Newly designed look and feel
  
  Improved end user interface and use of flat colours enables corporate branding standard to be easily modified. Stratus Connect 2.0 also brings Welsh language support for the user interface.
  
  
• New hardware infrastructure
  
  Allowing for deployment option to be more flexible.

If you would like a closer look at this exciting new application, then please get in touch with our Sales Team or attend our Open Day on 13th November.


(October 2009)

Ordnance Survey Housing Seminars

Don't miss the opportunity to hear and experience first-hand how geography can inform better decisions in housing. Register now to attend the FREE regional seminars Ordnance Survey is offering for the social housing sector.

The seminars will be held from 10am to 2pm and will feature a speaker session in the morning. After lunch a workshop session, hosted by Ordnance Survey partners, will offer the chance to experience first hand how geographic information can inform decisions in housing.

These seminars will help managers within the social housing sector to make better use of geography to reduce risk and make the right decisions.

CDR Staff will be at the York event:

21 October - The National Railway Museum, York

You can register online for free at www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/housing09

(September 2009)

CDR Group cements Ordnance Survey Partnership

CDR Group is proud to announce that it has become a Licensed Partner of Ordnance Survey, licensed to distribute their range of digital mapping products. CDR has worked closely with Ordnance Survey as a Developer Partner since digital data became available from Ordnance Survey back in the 1980's.

CDR Group are now positioned to take advantage of opportunities they see arising from the new business strategy being adopted by Ordnance Survey, announced shortly before the Location 09 Partner Conference in May. Sales Director, John Ievers commented, "We have a long and established partnership with Ordnance Survey and we are now looking forward to extending our reach into the market by offering a wide range of Ordnance Survey products. As Accredited Data Consultants with intimate working knowledge of the OS products, we are now able to supply our clients outside of the Public Sector too." Agreements are now signed, products in place and the first orders have already been fulfilled.

The subject of the CDR monthly Open Day on Friday 4th September is "Making the Most of Ordnance Survey Digital Data". This is a free and informal event where we look in depth to discover the ins and outs of Ordnance Survey data, on this occasion. Anyone wishing to attend should contact the sales team for further details and registration; sales@cdrgroup.co.uk

(August 2009)

New MapInfo Version 10 Migration Training Course.

The release of MapInfo Professional version 10.0 this summer has introduced some huge changes to the interface and Layer Control, which lies at the core of the operation of this software application. CDR has taken the steps to design a one day course to help users of previous versions migrate their skills over to the new version. The intention is to give each delegate the information required to effectively utilise the newer features in version 10. Many of these new features are aimed at working more efficiently and you should see many tasks taking less time to perform.

The course covers all aspects of the new features and explains where you may gain advantage. Previous version releases of MapInfo Professional have not really warranted a full day training but it is obvious from our experience and user feedback that this release is worthy of spending time getting to grips with it.

Whilst attendance on the MapInfo Foundation course (MI2) is useful it is by no means required. However a working knowledge of MapInfo Professional is fundamental (e.g. How to open and close files, dealing with multiple windows, layer control etc)

Like all of CDR's training courses both of these courses are fully "hands on" with each delegate using a dedicated PC with the latest software versions installed. Comprehensive course notes are issued to each delegate at the start of the course for no extra cost.

If you or any of your colleagues are interested in this course please contact our Sales team on 01433 621282. We shall be running more of these courses in due course in response to demand - so let us know if September or October is better for you, or you want a course delivered at your offices perhaps.

Click here to go to out Training pages.

(July 2009)

Reveal for MapInfo

CDR Group's workspace and table analysis tool, Reveal, was aired at the recent MapInfo User Group in Birmingham. Darryl Beresford presented "Oh no, my workspace won't open" to the attentive audience of MUGgers. Given the situation of many users creating many tables and workspaces, Darryl explained the issues that exist with trying to manage and repair hundreds and thousands of files. Reveal was developed with the aid of key users to help audit, manage and tidy up the abundance of files being generated by many users. On its first test run at a Metropolitan Borough Council, over 3,500 workspaces were detected, which in turn referenced some 90,000 tables - and that was on just one server!

For more information on Reveal for MapInfo click here

(July 2009)

Introducing MapInfo Professional® v10.0

We are delighted to announce the launch of MapInfo Professional 10.0. The official launch date for MapInfo Professional in the UK is 22 June 2009. For clients on the Annual Maintenance Program, you will receive your new release in the post shortly after this date.

A powerful and user-friendly mapping and location analysis application, MapInfo Professional 10.0 now includes a redesigned intuitive user interface, access to PostGIS, an open source database, and a built-in support for Layered PDF generation. The end result is a cost-effective solution that enables organizations to gain optimal value from their data when making decisions about managing inventory, allocating resources and communicating with customers.

Visit CDR on July 3rd at our next Open Day to find out more, or attend the next MapInfo User Group in Birmingham on July 7th.

(June 2009)

Virtual Whitehaven set for Regeneration

Copeland Borough Council, in partnership with the urban regeneration company West Lakes Renaissance, are leading the economic revival of West Cumbria. The market town and historic port of Whitehaven has a bustling town centre where people come to relax and have fun. The town is notably famous for the invasion by the US Navy in 1777 by John Paul Jones and his fleet during the American War of Independence.

While significant improvements have already been made to the historic harbour and the shopping streets around it, there is scope for more work to bring the rest of the town centre up to a similar high standard. So, backed by West Lakes Renaissance, Copeland BC offered to tender the construction of a 3D virtual model of the town and Pow Beck Valley area, together with a software package for viewing and editing. CDR Group were subsequently chosen along with the Environ Planner software application suite from Virtual Outlooks Ltd.

A survey team from CDR Group spent time measuring the height of every building within the designated regeneration area (using laser equipment) together with digital photographic images of key building facades. The model was then constructed using Environ Builder and Environ Communicator back in the Peak District offices of CDR Group using the three key datasets already available to Copeland. Namely:

• The Ordnance Survey MasterMap™ building footprints
• BlueSky aerial photographic imagery
• NextMap™ digital terrain data

The Environ Builder application will construct the 3D model from the various components, with some global settings like automatically setting building heights and roof types. The Projects Team at CDR were then able to amend individual building characteristics and assign images to facades within the Environ Communicator application. Added to the model also were trees, bollards, street lights, traffic lights, fencing and walls. The bare earth terrain model also required some editing in certain places using the sculpting tool in the software.

The completed model and software was handed over to Copeland BC for use in public consultation exercises. Julia Jackson, GIS Manager at Copeland BC said, "This 3D model will help the Council immensely with the planning process of regenerating Whitehaven and showing the public what development schemes are in the pipeline. We have now taken over the maintenance of the model ourselves, so we can add more detail and planned development scenarios as they arise."


(March 2009)

Getting Engaged

CDR is pleased to announce the availability of the Encom Engage 3D suite of products. Encom Technology Pty Ltd and it's product range were acquired by Pitney Bowes some 15 months ago and has now filtered through to the Partner network.

Building on the many powerful features of MapInfo Professional, Engage converts MapInfo Professional into a sophisticated yet easy-to-use tool for managing, manipulating and displaying virtually any geographically related data set. The Engage product suite gives users the ability to process and view data in ways that previously required a number of software packages.

The Engage product suite encompasses three levels of functionality:

Engage
Engage 3D
Engage 3D Pro

From simple timesaving additions to powerful 3D data utilities, Engage accelerates your MapInfo Professional work with an extensive range of capabilities and interactive analytical functions.

Click here to go to our product page.

(March 2009)

Snow problem doesn't stop CDR - but we are having fun!

It has been a white world in Hope for 11 days but the snow is now receding.
Staff have battled up the hill to work every day in February so far - sometimes having to leave cars half a mile away. Even so, we have still managed to run our monthly Open Day on the 6th and our MapInfo Training Courses, as well as building the odd snowman or two during lunch breaks.
And as the snow turns to rain - the snowdrops are peaking through…

(February 2009)

INTRODUCING VERTICAL MAPPER v3.5

Pitney Bowes MapInfo have just launched a new version of the popular Vertical Mapper™ application for MapInfo Professional®. The program has been updated and improved with over 150 features being addressed. Enjoy new access from the more-familiar MapBasic® programming language to automate repeatable tasks and processes. Some 69 sample applications provide a fast, easy start to leverage Vertical Mapper functionality in your everyday work.

With support for the latest native file format (.tab) enhancements, users will appreciate the expanded capabilities of the new Vertical Mapper file access library, including:

• Access to very large geographic objects. The number of nodes for polygon or polyline objects has raised from 1.1 million nodes to more than 134 million nodes.
• Time and Date field type support.
• Access to all MapInfo Professional® v9.5.1 supported datums and projections.

ADDITIONAL NEW FEATURES:

• Convenient software development kit (SDK) to add custom functionality or automate repeatable tasks.
• Exclusive, never-before-released builds with numerous new functions and enhancements from a combination of public and private sources.
• Windows® Vista operating system support.
• Simplified installation and deployment options including silent install.

Existing customers can now upgrade and even take out an Annual Maintenance contract, as further development work on this product is already underway. Contact our Sales team for a quotation.

(January 2009)

MapInfo Professional v9.5.1 Patch Release

Pitney Bowes MapInfo is pleased to announce the immediate availability of MapInfo Professional v9.5.1. This is a maintenance release to MapInfo Professional v9.5. It is available free to all MapInfo Professional v9.5 customers. You can obtain the maintenance release by
opening MapInfo Professional 9.5 (you must be running this version), and selecting the "Check for Update…" under the Help menu.

This point release has significant new features that will help you in your daily work with MapInfo Professional. Below are just a few of the highlights.

• Translucency support for vector objects and labels
• Dynamic smoothing of maps
• Improved drawing of selections
• Faster redraw of layout windows
• Performance enhancements to remote data
• Faster Object Processing time for Buffer and Combine operations (up to 10x faster)
• Better management of temporary files
• Printing improvements
• Resolution of many outstanding issues
• Silent installation support and more
  

In addition, Pitney Bowes MapInfo are in the process of putting the final touches on their Easy Loader utility. The utility supports the uploading of MapInfo TAB files to popular databases such has Oracle Spatial (up to 11G) and MS SQL Server 2005 with SpatialWare support.

Enhancements to this utility will include support of MS SQL 2008 spatial data upload and the uploading of MapInfo text objects to Oracle 11G Annotation text format. It is expected that the enhanced version of Easy Loader will be available later this month.

(December 2008)

Upgrade those old licences to MapInfo 9.5 before Christmas

It is normal for old versions of MapInfo, pre-version 8.0, to fall into the category: Unable to Upgrade. Now until December 19th 2008, MapInfo users have the chance to upgrade version 7.8 or below to version 9.5.

As a part of this offer, users must purchase MATS (Maintenance and Technical Support) in year one. As it's normally not possible to upgrade legacy versions, this is a great opportunity to secure a copy of MapInfo 9.5 for £600 less than buying new.

Contact our Sales Team for a quote - you will get further discount if you are adding to a Volume Licence of 5 or more licences.

All prices are subject to VAT and carriage.

(November 2008)

New Stratus Gallery launched for INSPIRE

Pitney Bowes MapInfo's Stratus is the next generation of products that delivers end-to-end spatial data management analysis and distribution. It is a set of web tools that harness new standards and technologies to deliver cutting edge spatial business applications.

Stratus Gallery is the first product launch from the new suite - a web application designed to capture, store and distribute metadata. It is based on ISO and INSPIRE Standards and allows organisations to share access to large data catalogues.

The Stratus Gallery console offers the ability to create, edit, delete and publish metadata records with an efficient, intuitive user interface. Stratus Gallery's web-based delivery offers secure access to anyone with a web browser. This also provides the opportunity to devolve metadata capture and management to data owners, making tasks more manageable. The web interface has been built using the latest Web 2.0 technologies and provides a rich user interface.

CDR staff have recently been trained in the product to deliver this key application to the UK market. John Ievers, Director of CDR Group commented "This is a crucial component for anyone responding to the new European INSPIRE Directive. Moreover, as a piece of software, it has delivered a really easy to use application that can be utilised by all. I have always been impressed by software that turns a difficult or onerous task into a painless one."

(November 2008)

PlanWeb and PlanAccess Capable

Following the acquisition by Pitney Bowes MapInfo of GDC Ltd, a number of products have now become available to CDR to sell. Amongst these are the PlanWeb and PlanAccess web mapping applications built upon the MapInfo MapXtreme engine. Keen to get on board with these products, CDR staff have now received the training and backing of the MapInfo technical teams to be able to sell, install and support them.

In the last year, both PlanWeb and PlanAccess have received some additional development and the re-branding into the MapInfo suite of products. More importantly from CDR's perspective was that these products are now positioned as "out-of-the-box" applications whilst retaining the configuration options presented by the Administration modules.

Both PlanWeb and PlanAccess have a large user base amongst the Local Government sector and CDR is aiming to increase that presence. Indeed, our first installation is already underway so look out for further news on that.


(October 2008)

CDR's NEW SCANNING CAPABILITIES

CDR Group has enhanced its data capture service with the purchase of two new A0 wide format scanners. Over the last decade scanning technology has matured and today's scanners offer fast, accurate and economic means to reproduce maps and drawings for use as backdrops in GIS systems or for archive purposes. Gone have the days of waiting for the scanners to warm up, adjusting and calibrating the cameras, plans getting trapped in the rollers, the need for expensive software etc.

After extensive benchmark testing, CDR Group decided to invest in a British Colortrac SmartLF GX42 CCD machine and a Japanese Graphtec CS510_11EN CIS model. Both of these models are capable of scanning an A0 drawing in 8 bit colour at 300dpi in less than 1 minute to an accuracy of +-0.1%.

There is an ongoing debate as to which technology is best CCD or CIS. The CCD (charge couple device) uses an optical reduction method where the document is illuminated by a fluorescent light source, which is reflected by the document surface and then further reflected by a mirror and directed through a lens and received by the CCD. CCD has been the traditional imaging system used in large format scanning. They have the disadvantages of the fluorescent light needs to stabilise and these lights eventually require replacing. The advantages are that they have the capacity to capture a wider colour gamut and hence achieve a smoother graduation of tone and colour and are well suited to scanning photographs.

With CIS (Contact Image Sensor) technology the light from RGB colour LEDs is used as a light source, which is reflected by the document and is then received by the CIS sensor. The LEDs, lens and sensor are integrated into a single module that is close contact with the document. The advantages are that they have less moving parts are more robust and have a very short warm-up time. The disadvantage is that the document has to be in very close contact with the sensors, which may cause problems with laminated or heavily wrinkled drawings and although they produce sharper scans, the LED RGB illumination limits the colour reproduction. This makes CIS technology ideal for CAD and GIS users where capturing a wide range of colours and tones is less likely to be important.

So by having both types of technology in-house CDR Group are well positioned to scan most types of plans, drawings, posters etc. to the highest standard. Nevertheless, CDR Group has maintained its existing high resolution A0 glass backed Kontron digitising tables for those projects that are just not suited to scanning.

Scanning plans is not just like photocopying - there are many issues to consider. Firstly there is the condition of the plan: is it ripped, stapled, creased, have attachments, covered in sellotape or glue. Much of this can be overcome by placing the original in a suitable plastic wallet, otherwise a bit of manual restoration will usually improve the situation.
If the scanning is for archive purposes only, then little post processing is required, but for more complex projects then issues such as despeckle, cropping, deskewing, ortho-rectification, geo-referencing, rubber sheeting, colour balance need to be addressed to produce the final image.

With scanning projects file sizes are critical. Scanning at an unnecessarily high dpi (dots per inch), or high colour depth to a lossless format may result in some extremely large files which not only consume a large amount of memory but often cause transfer and storage issues. In most cases a 300dpi at 8 bit colour stored to a Jpeg format will suffice.

So have you considered freeing up some room, making your data available via intranet or internet, or just archiving all those plans, drawings, photos, land gazetteers, TPO's, Planning Applications, old drawing books, plan chests, tanks etc. - just give us a call to discuss.

(October 2008)

Matchmaking in Calderdale

Calderdale Metropolitan Council wanted to migrate their Local Land Charges (LLC) records into the planning system used within their Planning Service. As they had already created a full digital complement of Basic Land and Property Units (BLPUs) Calderdale did not want to create new spatial extents for the LLC records, instead the intention was to match the address data held within each LLC record to their Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and automatically generate the desired extents.

Unfortunately as we all know, the best laid schemes etc etc! The address data held in the LLC database had no defined address structure and was in some cases inaccurate or partial. When Calderdale conducted trials with their address-matching software they found that only a low level of matching could be achieved without extensive manual intervention.
With insufficient internal resource available to check the 30,000 LLC records within the desired timescale, Calderdale selected CDR Group to carry out the address-matching on their behalf. (CDR had previously carried out projects such as the digitising of Land Terrier records for Calderdale).
In consultation with Calderdale, CDR proposed a methodology whereby the address information in each LLC record would be compared not only to the LLPG data but also to a number of other sources of address information in order to maximise the chances of obtaining a match. In the case of a successful match to the LLPG, the address held within the Gazetteer was transferred to the LLC record so as to standardise the address data. In all cases the location of the match was checked by the operator, who also assigned a confidence value to the address match.
The sources of address information used were, in order of importance:

• Calderdale's Local Land and Property Gazetteer
  
  
• Calderdale's Basic Land and Property Units - these occasionally contained additional information not held in the LLPG
  
  
• Ordnance Survey's AddressPoint data
  
  
• Map Sheet references - many of the LLC records held a reference to the associated Ordnance Survey half kilometre square
  
  
• Text strings extracted from Ordnance Survey MasterMap data
  

CDR's proprietary data-processing software (written in MapBasic and working in conjunction with MapInfo Professional software) presented the operator with details of the LLC record and facilitated a series of automated searches through each source of address information in turn allowing the operator to select the best possible match. The location of this match was then displayed on screen against a background of OS MasterMap mapping for the operator to verify that the spatial location was sensible for the record concerned. Where a single individual LLC record referred to a number of properties, the software generated multiple records to be matched successively to each property.

This procedure resulted in 81% of the LLC records being matched to an LLPG record with a High confidence level and a further 6% being matched with a Good confidence level. Only 365 records were not matched at all.

(September 2008)

Introducing MapInfo Professional® 9.5

We are delighted to announce the launch of MapInfo Professional 9.5. The official launch date for MapInfo Professional in the UK is 23rd June 2008. For clients on the Annual Maintenance Program, you will receive your new release in the post shortly after this date.

MapInfo Professional version 9.5 is the latest release of the powerful yet easy-to-use desktop location intelligence solution available. MapInfo Professional v9.5 provides new data creation and editing tools, enhanced access to the latest databases and industry standards and expanded programmability supporting Microsoft .NET

Visit CDR on July 4th at our next Open Day to find out more, or attend the next MapInfo User Group in Bristol on July 2nd.

Click here to go to the MapInfo pages.

(June 2008)

Dambusters remembered 65 years on

A service and fly-past has been held to mark the 65th anniversary of the World War II Dambusters mission only a few miles from CDRs offices.

A Lancaster bomber flew three times over Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire, which was used by the original pilots to train ahead of their famous raid. A Spitfire, a Hurricane, two Tornadoes and a Dakota transport plane joined the fly-past. CDR staff took a short break to view the events and Bruce Nowell got a bit closer to take the picture shown here. There is a link to the BBC News video if you would like to see more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7404052.stm

(May 2008)

Benefits of licensed data (BoLD) campaign

The Ordnance Survey - Great Britain's national mapping agency - has launched a new resource to explain the benefits of licensed data, as well as guides and case studies.

By adopting best practice and ensuring that the mapping you use is properly licensed you can take advantage of the following benefits:

• Whether dealing direct with Ordnance Survey or through a partner organisation you have the reassurance of using location-based information from a trusted content provider with data sourced from the master map of Great Britain.
  
  
• Being legitimately licensed supports your reputation in the marketplace.
  
  
• Maintaining an up-to-date licence is a legal requirement for use of Ordnance Survey data. Not having the correct licence could invalidate your indemnity insurance and result in costly legal fees.
  
  
• Mapping can be supplied in wide variety of formats suited to specific needs.
  

Click through to the website www.bestpracticemakesperfect.co.uk to find out more

(April 2008)

The user event you can't afford to miss

Interact 08, the Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software user event, is being held on the 29th and 30th April at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel (at the NEC site). You can choose your own conference experience from over 50 different session areas so it's bound to be of real interest to you. Whether you're a new or advanced user, you can't afford to miss Interact 08.

Who should attend

• All users from beginner to expert
• Pitney Bowes MapInfo Users
• Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software Users
• Thought leaders and business strategists
• Decision-makers and business managers

Event highlights

• Mike Hickey - opening plenary session
• Thought provoking discussions
• Face to face technical support
• Case studies
• Successful strategies for software application
• Handy hints and tips sessions

Click here to visit the Interact'08 website

(March 2008)

No Excuses - Recycle Lamps

CDR Group has just released its first Microsoft Virtual Earth web application for Recolight. Recolight was established by the UK Lamp industry in 2005 primarily for the purpose of operating a WEEE Compliance Scheme on behalf of Lamp Producers in the UK. Two key objectives of Recolight are:

• Finance and manage the separate collection and treatment of waste Gas Discharge Lamps in an environmentally sound manner.
  
  
• Provide information to all interested parties, including Distributors and End Users, as to best practice concerning Lamp Recycling procedures and encourage the development of an effective collection network for end-of-life lamps prior to shipment to the recycling plants for treatment.

Modern Low-energy light bulbs, as well as fluorescent tubes and gas discharge lamps contain small amounts of mercury, which require proper disposal and recycling. Whilst there are usually facilities through Local Authority sites for household users, Recolight has established a Compliance Scheme to meet the obligations of the producers of the UK Lamp industry.
CDR had already supplied the Geographic Information System, MapInfo Professional to Recolight to help manage the recruitment and geographic coverage needed for recycling sites to be set up prior to the Scheme going live.

Recolight revamped its website this year to include a "Find the Nearest" facility using the Microsoft Virtual Earth engine as a highly cost effective mapping platform. CDR provided the tools to export a GeoRSS feed out of MapInfo, which is then added to the Virtual Earth map content. Additional features were added to give driving routes and directions to the nearest Open Commercial Collection Point. There are frequent changes occurring to the database and a refresh of the website data is made on a regular basis.


(March 2008)

MapInfo Professional 9.0.2 Patch Released

Pitney Bowes Software has made version 9.0.2 of MapInfo Professional available to download. Registered users of MapInfo professional version 9.0 can download the patch for free by clicking here or from the Help menu, by selecting > Check for Update.

The patch release addresses a number of known issues with Licence Registration and improving the raster handling tools.

There are also some New Features to this release:

• Upgrades to the curved labelling capability
  
  
• Various issues related to working with databases, Geocoding, importing/exporting, localisation, selection/querying and more
  
  
• New projection support for Ireland and Germany
  
  
  
  

(December 2007)

HOTSPOTTING MADE EASY - REALLY EASY

CDR Group are proud to announce a new business arrangement with Portolan Technology of Australia to sell their HS_Gridder for MapInfo product.

Initially developed for Victoria Police, HS_Gridder is a MapBasic tool to assist with the spatial and temporal analysis of crime locations within MapInfo Professional. The tool was designed with speed and ease of use in mind for identifying crime hotspots but can be used equally as well for other point datasets. So easy, there are only 3 buttons on the toolbar!

The program uses kernel density methods to identify and map crime hotspots (clustering). There are a number of options to generate hotspots, including the ability to view the hotspots only or a full surface depiction. The output is provided in a MapInfo grid file (.mig), which is typically a very small file size, and can be made to appear translucent in the map window.

HS_Gridder also performs temporal analysis on crime data, counting records by day of week, hour of day, or a combination of these. It uses the aoristic method when analysing times, so that 'From' and 'To' times are considered and output is given in graphs and charts.

Seen as a vital tool for local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, the cost for a single licence is only £250 + VAT, with a generous sliding scale for multiple users. Surrey Police in the UK have already purchased this as a Site Licence.

Contact the CDR Sales Team for further information and a PowerPoint presentation.


(October 2007)

CDRs Survey Team have been TAMPing the Streets of Stockport

Earlier this year, CDR Group was awarded a contract by Stockport MBC to undertake a survey of highway and street furniture assets to populate inventories in support of the development of their Transport Asset Management Plan (TAMP).

The collection of information on highway assets in a Local Authority area presents a formidable task in both time and cost. In terms of value and importance, the highway carriageway has undoubtedly the most significance, but the remaining "street furniture" also has a major impact on maintenance budgets and thus has a need to be considered in any asset plan.

The option of carrying out a detailed survey of the Authority's entire highway network was rejected not only on grounds of cost, but more importantly because of the need to quickly generate data to assist in the formulation of the TAMP. Instead, Stockport MBC adopted the principle of requisitioning detailed surveys of carefully selected representative sample areas and then extrapolating the results to the Authority's area in total. 45 sample areas were chosen that provided examples not only of different road classifications, but also of different epochs of housing developments, and different land uses (industrial / commercial / residential). The areas included everything from fast dual carriageways and congested 'A' roads, to quiet modern suburban streets, older terraced housing, pedestrianised shopping precincts and local and district centres with higher quality 'aesthetic' street furniture.

By adopting simple modest proven technologies, CDR were able to provide Stockport MBC with a timely economic solution to aid them in developing their TAMP.

A case study document of the successful project can be downloaded as a pdf here.

(October 2007)

MapInfo Professional 9.0.1 Patch Released

Pitney Bowes Software has made version 9.0.1 of MapInfo Professional available to download. Registered users of MapInfo professional version 9.0 can download the patch for free by clicking here or from the Help menu, by selecting > Check for Update.

The patch release addresses a number of known issues with Licence Registration and improving the raster handling tools. This has improved support for many raster image formats, including:

• JPEG
• JPEG2000
• ECW
• GeoTIFF

(October 2007)

What's new in MapInfo Professional 9.0 Web Seminar - 12th September and 3rd October

What's New in MapInfo Professional Version 9.0

Attend the 'What's new in MapInfo Professional 9.0' web seminar on Wednesday 12th September and see for yourself the great new features and updates in the latest version of the premier desktop mapping software:

• Learn how MapInfo Professional 9.0 will help you to easily produce large numbers of maps with the new Layout Template capabilities.
  
  
• Take your analysis into a whole new dimension. MI Pro 9.0 has added support for visualising and analysing time based data! Analyse service delivery times, incident times and location, up time and down time of asset availability, any GPS data with a time element and more!
  
  
• Save time and effort by directly using popular CAD and GIS data formats with MapInfo's new Universal Open capabilities.
  
  
• See the new curved labels, multiple hotlinks, new symbol fonts, on-the-fly indexing and other frequently requested features from the MapInfo Professional customer base.

Get up to version 9.0! This session will cover the new features and capabilities in MapInfo Professional version 9.0. In addition, some information on the near and long term road map for releases beyond version 9.0 will be discussed. Click here to book your place on the What's New in MapInfo Professional 9.0 - 12th September - (14:00 - 15:15 GMT)

Can't make this date? This seminar will be running again on 3rd October. Click here to book your place on the What's New in MapInfo Professional 9.0 - 3rd October - (14:00 - 15:15 GMT)

Find out more about MI Pro 9.0 by visiting www.mapinfo.co.uk/getup

MapInfo, the Meridian Logo, Be Location Intelligent, MapInfo Professional and other product and service names used herein are registered or otherwise protected trademarks of PB MapInfo Corporation, all rights reserved.

(September 2007)

MapInfo ProViewer version 9.0 now available

Free Download ProViewer version 9.0 now available

Use MapInfo Proviewer to share maps and analyses with co-workers and clients. Visit the Proviewer page and find out how to download your free copy.







(August 2007)

Learn How to Create Better Maps - One Day Practical Workshop

Do the results from your analysis let you down?
Are you interested in developing your cartographic skills?
Do you want to learn from the professionals?

If any of these apply to you, then you will be interested to hear that the British Cartographic Society is running an event on 6th September 2007 at University of Chester.

Cartography Workshop: An Introduction to Better Mapmaking is a highly valuable one-day practical workshop designed for anyone who works with digital data and wants to enhance their understanding of mapmaking.

Designed for those with little or no experience, the workshop introduces the best ways to create a map which not only looks right but communicates its message well. Learn from expert cartographers for £195 plus VAT.

If you want to further develop your knowledge of mapping then why not add on another day? On Friday 7th September, you can also attend Mapping 2007: Putting the Pieces Together, The British Cartographic Society's annual conference.

Full details of both events can be found by clicking here

For further details or for an agenda email training@citiesrevealed.com or call Training4GIS, organisers of both events, on 01223 880077

(August 2007)

CDR Group delighted to be amongst the first

Ordnance Survey® of Northern Ireland have announced the first set of GI experts to be appointed as Licensed Partners and CDR Group is delighted to be amongst them.

OSNI® Licensed Partners are companies who have completed the OSNI® Licensed Partner Programme, gaining a good understanding of OSNI® data, strategies and processes, and work in a close partnership with OSNI®. Each Licensed Partner has completed a rigorous programme to obtain their licence, including verification of the GI expertise in their company, attendance at a seminar and signing of an agreement.

You can be confident that, if you choose an OSNI® Licensed Partner to supply your GIS, they have a detailed knowledge of OSNI® data and products. CDR also has access to the most up-to-date OSNI® data products so that we can provide the best solutions tailored to your business requirements.

This latest endorsement follows from the many years of CDR experience in Northern Ireland, having first supplied DoE with STC25 software back in 1991 and Belfast City Council with MapInfo in 1999.


(June 2007)

Introducing MapInfo Professional 9.0

We are delighted to announce the imminent launch of MapInfo Professional 9.0. The official launch date for English Language MapInfo Professional is 15th June 2007. For clients on the Annual Maintenance Program, you will receive your new release in the post shortly after this date.

MapInfo Professional version 9.0 is the latest release of the most powerful yet easy-to-use desktop location intelligence solution available. MapInfo Professional version 9.0 enables you to accelerate your analysis through an assortment of new features:

• New direct access to CAD and GIS data formats
• Leverage new, time-based analysis capabilities
• Create better looking maps using new templates, fonts and curved labelling
• Increase your productivity by using wizard-based processes and new preference settings
• Free MapBasic - MapBasic is a powerful programming language that enables customisation of MapInfo Professional to create specific applications to suit users needs.

Find out about MapInfo Professional 9.0

• Learn more about MapInfo Professional 9.0 New Features
• Compare MapInfo Professional 9.0 with past versions >> Comparison Chart
• Register for MapInfo Professional 9.0 Online Web Seminars
• View an Introduction Video
• See MapInfo Professional sin Action! View a Multimedia Demonstration

To find out more visit: www.mapinfo.co.uk/getup.part

MapBasic is FREE with MI Pro 9.0

With the release of MapInfo Professional version 9.0 we are pleased to announce that MapBasic will be made available as a free download from the MapInfo Web site.

New Pitney Bowes MapInfo Maintenance and Technical Support (MATS) program

We are pleased to introduce the new MATS program! MATS is a combination of Product Maintenance and Technical Support services. MATS is a cost effective way to keep up-to-date with MapInfo Professional releases and obtain technical support.

To find out more visit: www.mapinfo.co.uk/getup.part
email: sales@cdrgroup.co.uk
or phone 01433 621282 to speak to one of our sales team.

(June 2007)

Not Just a 3D Model

CDR Group is pleased to announce a new business partnership with Virtual Outlooks Ltd of Lancaster, to take the product Environ Planner to market. Two early adopters of the Environ Planner software were the South Lakeland and Barrow Councils, who used the product as the basis for a successful government backed e-Innovation project to use 3D visualisation in the planning process.
The synergy arose as CDR has been supplying the Geographic Information System, MapInfo Professional to these Councils, which also utilises the 3 essential datasets used to construct a 3D model:- NextMap™ digital height data, Ordnance Survey's OS MasterMap™ building footprints and aerial photography drapes.
Digital Terrain Models were nothing new to the experienced CDR team but they recognised that that this software had something pragmatic to offer and specifically designed to deliver 3D technology to aid Planning and Regeneration.
"3D town centre models look fantastic but we had been put off by price tags of tens of thousands of pounds and just like a traditional map, they are out of date the very next day following publication. The Environ Planner software breaks this mould by giving users a dynamic setting to easily amend the existing and to add new developments to the landscape - and very accurately too" commented John Ievers, Director of CDR Group.
"We can provide Large Scale models of the whole authority area (not just the town centre!) populated with procedurally generated generic buildings from existing data, over a moulded landscape, with proposed and new developments "dropped-in". Our sophisticated tools allow the accuracy and detail of the building models to be edited and refined to the level of detail required for any particular project" commented Roger James, Director of Virtual Outlooks.




(May 2007)

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

The theme for the open day on May 4th is Mobile Data Capture.

This informal drop in session has been organised to offer you the opportunity to see the advantages of mobile data capture with PDA devices when undertaking on site projects.

Maps4Site has been designed to allow users to collect asset information on site quickly and accurately using GPS or background reference maps in both MapInfo and ECW raster format. The data can then be exported in Industry Standard formats for merging back to corporate databases.

It won't cost you anything to attend and if you are interested simply give us a call to let us know you're coming along.

(April 2007)

To Our Valued Customers:

On March 15, 2007, Pitney Bowes announced that it has entered into a merger agreement to acquire MapInfo Corporation.

"I firmly believe, as does our management team and Board of Directors, that this is the right move, at the right time, with the right partner - Pitney Bowes. This is all about creating a better future for our customers, our employees, and our partners. For MapInfo, it will always be about Customer First. This is first among our core values and is a priority shared by Pitney Bowes.

Even though we made the announcement on the 15th March, the merger is expected to close in the next two months. Upon closing, it is anticipated that MapInfo will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes within its software segment. As a combined entity, we will be delivering better products and services.

In the interim, this merger will not affect your relationship with MapInfo. Our current offerings will continue to be supported. Your MapInfo contacts - including your Sales Representatives, Client Managers, and Service Managers - will all remain the same. They will be contacting you with new information as available. Please contact your account team with any questions.

We sincerely appreciate your business. I will continue to lead MapInfo and will personally ensure our unwavering commitment to your continued success."

Kind regards,

Mark Cattini
President and
Chief Executive Officer

(March 2007)

CDR Open Day March 2nd

The theme for our open day will be Creating Data Reliably.

This informal drop in session has been organised to give you the opportunity to find out how to manage a data capture project. We'll be presenting all the issues you need to address when undertaking a big chunk of data capture or even Positional Accuracy Improvement. If you are considering such a project please feel free to come along and 'pick the brains' of our projects team. We will also be introducing our new data capture training course, the first one of which is being held on April 26th.
Simply give us a call to let us know you're coming along and we'll put the kettle on!

Click here for more details.

(February 2007)

When North Lincolnshire Council were feeling the pressure as Christmas approached, CDR stepped in to supply experienced MapInfo GIS operators to work on-site with the North Lincolnshire team.
The Asset Management Department were hard at work producing detailed plans of all the Authority's Housing Assets prior to agreeing a Housing Stock Transfer. The aim was to have all the documentation completed by Christmas. Property Asset Manager, Rachel Harvey said "CDR's help in providing operators at very short notice was invaluable in enabling us to complete our project to time."
CDR has continued to assist North Lincolnshire with other on-site MapInfo work in the New Year.

(February 2007)

NEW Data Creation Training Course added to Schedule

A new training course has been added to the CDR schedule - MI5 MapInfo Data Creation. The 1 day course aims to equip the user with all the necessary skills to carry out data capture, maintenance and manipulation tasks. Particularly useful if you are using Ordnance Survey MasterMap. The course has been designed as a result of customer feedback from the 2 day Foundation Course. Whilst the Foundation course covers data entry and drawing techniques, there are users who require a greater understanding of the many features in MapInfo that are available to aid data capture - as well as some of the hot tips and tricks.

So much of GIS relies on accurate and up-to-date data - which emphasises the importance of getting the task of data capture done correctly. CDR's Projects Team has a wealth of experience in data capture operations and the new training course will be drawing on some of the real-world issues that we encounter.

Click here for further details.

The course qualifies for 4 points towards AGI Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

(February 2007)

Next MapInfo User Group Meeting, London, 16th January 2007

CDR will be at the next MUG meeting at the Institution of Electical Engineers, Savoy Place, London on Tuesday the 16th January 2007. Nearest Underground stations are either Charing Cross (Bakerloo/Northern) or Temple (Circle/District).

"This conference is a very important one as not only have we got some interesting presentations and two extremely useful workshops, we also have John O'Hara - the new boss of Mapinfo's operations outside the USA - tee'd up to tell us about the changes over the past year at Mapinfo and what it could mean for our community.

There has been major change within the Company and a new Management Team have given quite a lot of attention to the views of the UK & Ireland User Group as expressed by the committee & myself. It is really important to the success of the Group and the MapInfo community at large that we follow this up with a good turnout to hear what John has to say.

As always, details of the meeting and booking facilities can be found on the web site www.muguki.com so please pass this email on to anyone else in your organisation who may be interested in attending.
Your subscription covers entry to the conference, there is nothing else to pay. However, we do need to give the venue an idea of the expected attendance so please, please book asap !

If you have any problems in making a booking e.g. getting an official order number in time etc, please email the organiser@muguki.com immediately and we will do what we can to expedite your booking.

Very much hoping to see you there."

Jac Cartwright, Chairman of MUGUKI

(January 2007)

CDR's Trainer/Consultant/Programmer/Tree Pruner has reached the ripe old age of 40 today. Doctor Who fanatic Darryl was presented with a limited edition Gold Dalek cookie jar for his birthday (amongst other presents).

Can you think of a suitable caption to go with this photo of Darryl? Click here for our feedback form to enter a caption under notes.

(5th November 2006)

The Northern Regeneration Conference 24 - 25 October 2006

With the focus very much on delivery, this year's second annual Regeneration & Renewal summit will assess what has
been achieved in the last few years to grow the North's economy.

Over two days, gain insights into the ten hottest economic drivers to help propel the North into one of the top global economies:

1 Local Government Reform
2 City Regions
3 Art and Culture
4 Enterprise Growth
5 Double Devolution
6 Science and Innovation
7 Infrastructure and Transport
8 Skills Development
9 Property Development
10 Sustainable Housing

CDR will be exhibiting at this event at the Magna Centre in Rotherham.

Click here for more details.


(October 2006)

CDR training courses now with added CPD

CDR Group are pleased and proud to announce that all of our MapInfo training courses have been approved for Association for Geographic Information (AGI) Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation. This means that delegates attending CDR's training courses can allocate points toward their own CPD programmes or the Royal Geographic Society Certified Geographer (C.Geog GIS) programme.

This award recognises the structure, currency and relevance of all the courses. If you are interested in attending the Entry Level, Advanced Level, MapBasic Essentials or Vertical Mapper course please contact our sales team. See the relevant training page on this web site for the number of points gained for each course.


(September 2006)

Following the successful launch of Environ Planner in May 2006, the CDR Group is pleased to announce a free half day seminar in conjunction with Virtual Outlooks Ltd. detailing the use of Environ Planner and its use for 3D Town Planning and Regeneration projects. "Practical 3-D" is here!

Environ Planner is a suite of software for 3-D digital terrain modelling. South Lakeland and Barrow Councils worked in association with Virtual Outlooks Ltd, to develop this powerful application. The pilot project received match funding from the ODPM (now DCLG) from its e-innovation budget. Environ Planner is now more than just an interesting concept!

CDR Group, as specialists in Geographic Information Systems, realise that
3-D Mapping is not a new capability, especially with the abundance of digital data available today. CDR do recognise that Environ Planner offers powerful features and capabilities that make the communication of proposed developments very impressive:

• Rapid generation of buildings with height and roof styles

• Highly accurate terrain models

• Visual impact calculator

• Walk the streets or fly overhead to view the model

• Visibility wedges and camera towers

• Import GIS data and third party models

The seminar takes place on September 21st at CDR's offices in the Peak District, 1:30pm for 2:00pm start.

If you require further information, please contact the sales team on 01433 621282.


(August 2006)

MapInfo ProViewer version 8.5 now available

Free Download ProViewer version 8.5 now available

Use MapInfo Proviewer to share maps and analyses with co-workers and clients. Visit the Proviewer page and find out how to download your free copy.


Free Download EasyLoader 8.5 now available

EasyLoader is a utility that allows you to upload MapInfo tables into your remote database system. Click here for more information.


(August 2006)

CDR GROUP PLANNING TO PUT BARNSLEY ON THE MAP

CDR Group are pleased to announce the successful award of a data capture contract a bit closer to home – by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. This contract is for the capture of 50,000 Planning Application records from 1976 to the present, from old paper records, microfiche and scanned documents. Barnsley MBC are long-established clients of CDR, having been involved with the supply and implementation of MapInfo® Professional™ software and services for deploying geographic information within the Council. CDR’s Browse-A-Map solution was installed in December to deliver the Council’s Local Development Framework maps to the public from the Barnsley website. CDR are also providing a range of training courses over the next couple of months in the MapInfo software application, from Entry and Advanced Level, to programming with MapBasic.

(July 2006)

OSNI Launch Northern Ireland Mapping Agreement

Under the new Northern Ireland Mapping Agreement (NIMA), Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland will supply Geographic Information to all Northern Ireland Civil Service Departments, Agencies and NDPBs, at zero net cost, for a period of 3 years. Also, under the agreement, local Councils will be able to purchase OSNI data at a significantly reduced cost.

NIMA has been developed to improve the quality and efficiency of services delivered by the Northern Ireland public sector through the increased use of Geographical Information Systems. 18 products are available through NIMA including: large-scale vector data, various raster map scale products, the 800,000 address records of Pointer® and Orthophotography.

CDR will be exhibiting at the OSNI event at Stormont on 26th June 2006, presenting the details of the agreement to eligible organisations. Contact OSNI or CDR for further details.

(June 2006)

CDR Announce the Release of MapInfo Professional version 8.5

MapInfo Professional v8.5 is due for release in June 2006 with new features that are in direct response to customer requests. There are a number of exciting new features that make this a valuable upgrade. Further details can be found here. Clients already in an Annual Maintenance contract will automatically be receiving their new products shortly.

New Upgrade Policy: Very old versions of MapInfo Professional will no longer qualify for upgrade pricing

As from 1st October 2006 customers with MapInfo Professional v7.0 and earlier, will no longer qualify for upgrade pricing. These customers will be required to purchase a new license at full price in order to receive the latest version of MapInfo Professional. Customers with v7.5 and later will continue to qualify for upgrade pricing.

We would like to offer you this 'last chance' opportunity to upgrade before this policy comes into effect and to enter into maintenance (maintenance is only available when making a purchase). Remember that we can also combine old licences into a Volume Licence, if you have 5 or more licences, to gain from even lower costs.

Please note that upgrade prices are rising by 10% from June 12th 2006.

If you would like to see a presentation of the new features - why not come along to one of our Open Days at CDR Group. Feel free to visit our offices in the Peak District on the first Friday of every month for a drop-in session to discuss any of your GIS requirements over a cup of tea - with no strings attached. Just give us a call to let us know you are coming. The first of these open days has been scheduled for July 7th.

For further information on any of the above items please contact our sales team who will be happy to advise you.

(May 2006)

CDR PREMIER PARTNER STATUS

This photo was taken at the recent MapInfo Partner Conference in Stratford-upon- Avon. It shows CDR's Sales Director, John Ievers (left), receiving the new Premier Partner plaque from MapInfo's Group Sales Director EMEA, Steve Broughton.





(March 2006)

South Kesteven reaps the benefits of Location Intelligence

South Kesteven reaps the benifits of Location Intelligence.
South Kesteven District Council, a mostly rural but highly progressive Local Authority.

Recognising the power of a web-based Location Intelligence solution for the delivery of both public facing communications and internal data sharing, South Kesteven DC deployed MapInfo Exponare in March 2005, through MapInfo partner CDR. South Kesteven already report significant increases in efficiencies across the council. 'MapInfo Exponare allows us to do precisely what we want to do', says Andy Nix, IT Support Manager.
'Although it's still early days, Exponare is already knocking down internal and external communications barriers whilst helping us to streamline our processes and support efficiency drives across the council.'
'Exponare is a new generation solution, compatible with our core platforms like the .Net environment, providing an excellent fit with our drive to share Location Intelligence internally whilst providing a public interface which communicates effectively with our processes. 'CDR helped us to deploy MapInfo Exponare which now presents the public with a valuable planning and environmental service and has been rolled out across the 400-plus council users to centralise critical data such as grounds maintenance for contractor relations, planning data and communications with key departments such as environmental services.
'Roll-out internally is now complete, providing access to all council users while the external, web interface is already serving the public on key environmental and planning services - it's extremely helpful for a small rural council like South Kesteven.'
'We selected MapInfo Exponare through CDR because nothing else on the market was designed to address the holistic need we had to implement one central solution to such a wide range of need. This was coupled with the fact that it was an easy to deploy solution requiring no programming and yet took spatial data into our core operational systems and delivered on our main corporate objectives.'
South Kesteven is a predominantly rural community (population of around 150,000 spread over more than 365 sq miles) and effective council communications requires efficient public interaction. Key drivers like e-Govt directives and ODPM Priority Outcomes have helped South Kesteven and many UK councils, to focus on efficient delivery of public services. Exponare offers both depth and breadth of capability due to its strong emphasis on central deployment and management, data integration, ease of use and its ability to be configured by non-programmers. It allows for the efficient sharing of information across an organisation and is a simple, powerful solution that makes location-based information an everyday business tool.

(February 2006)

CDR GROUP ON BOARD WITH A PRESTIGIOUS UKHO CONTRACT

CDR Group are pleased to announce the successful award of a digitising contract with the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton (part of the Ministry of Defence). The award follows a stringent series of tests to achieve accurate digitising of old Admiralty surveys into a computerised format. Indeed, the contract demands "double-digitising" of the information (similar to double-entry typing), where both sets of results are compared to ensure the utmost accuracy. The contract demands tight deadlines and high levels of Quality Assurance, which CDR has been able to demonstrate in winning this contract. The resulting data will be used by the UKHO in its digital mapping systems.

(February 2006)

MapInfo Professional Maintenance Release and Google™ Earth Utility now Avaliable

Maintenance Release v8.0.1 (Build 33)

A maintenance release is now available for all MI Pro 8.0 users. Users can either manually enter their serial number and version number here or use the Install or Help > Check for Update feature in MI Pro to access. This maintenance release may be applied to any commercially available version of MapInfo Professional or MapInfo Run Time v8.0.

For detailed information on the content of the maintenance release please see the release notes included in the download.

MapInfo enables Google™ Earth users to benefit from Location Intelligence

MapInfo has made available a utility that will enable MapInfo Professional customers to share maps and analysis results with Google™ Earth users. The Google™ Earth utility is a free download and is available to users of MapInfo Professional version 8.0. To download the tool, users can use the Help > Check for Update menu command in MapInfo Professional or manually enter their serial number and version number here.

(January 2006)

MapRite wins Innovation Award 2005

We are pleased to announce TENET has won the AGI Technical Special Interest Group Innovation Award 2005 for our Positional Accuracy Improvement (PAI) solution MapRite.

Presented by Ed Parsons the Chair of AGI Technical SIG "MapRite from TENET ITMapping Ltd demonstrated the application of both geometric and semantic mapping to the problem of applying Positional Accuracy Improvement (PAI) and data cleaning to land parcel data. This means that, as well as moving a land parcel, it attempts to determine the relationship of the parcel to the underlying base map.

This information is used to determine the equivalent relationship in the changed base map according to business rules. The process refines the alignment with base data.

We feel that this is the application of innovative technology to a widespread business need, allowing businesses to improve both the accuracy and quality of legacy data."

MapRite remains the leading PAI and Data Quality solution with over 50 new users in the last 12 months.

If you would like to know more about MapRite or would like a demonstration then call CDR Group on 01433 621282 or contact the sales team.

(January 2006)

More than 600 NHS organisations are to have direct access to Ordnance Survey's most detailed geographic information under a ground-breaking pilot agreement.
The agreement covers the use of Ordnance Survey data by NHS organisations in England, including Acute, Care, and Mental Health Trusts, Primary Care Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities and Cancer Registries.

Ordnance Survey is working with the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre to support the wider health sector through greater use of Ordnance Survey data. As you may already know, geographic intelligence helps to power effective and confident health planning and implementation of strategy.
Among the many vital applications of geographical information systems (GIS) in the health sector are the identification of health inequalities, causal analysis and trends. These factors can guide strategic decisions on the targeting of services to clinical hot spots, investment priorities, the extension of patient choice and the supply of health advice to the citizen.
Health service managers can also use Ordnance Survey data to support decision making on performance management, estate planning, efficient routing of mobile services, asset management, feasibility studies, scenario modelling, epidemiology analysis, and all forms of internal and external communications.
CDR Group already deal with a number of Trusts in the NHS and it is expected that this deal will open up GIS to many more practitioners through the use of MapInfo Professional software.
Click here for more details.


(November 2005)

Patch for MapInfo Professional v8.0

This is an incremental patch that will update MapInfo Professional v8.0 Build 18 to MapInfo Professional v8.0 Build 21. This patch can only be applied to the release versions of MapInfo Professional v8.0. This patch is not valid for any pre-releases of MapInfo Professional v8.0, MapBasic v8.0, MapInfo Professional Runtime v8.0 or ProViewer v8.0. There are no user interface changes, and it can be safely applied to any localised releases of MapInfo Professional v8.0.

Click here for more information and to download the patch or click in Help>Check for Updates whilst in MapInfo Professional v8.0.

FURTHER MOVEMENT IN PAI ACTIVITES

CDR Group has recently delivered solutions to a new batch of clients tackling Ordnance Survey’s Positional Accuracy Improvement Programme. CDR has been a Partner to TENET for both the resale and use of MapRite™ software in support of project work for well over a year now. The end and start of a new financial year for Local Authorities has seen another flurry of activity, building upon CDR’s expertise in tackling this thorny issue of re-aligning GIS data with Ordnance Survey’s new releases of digital map data.

Recent sales of the MapRite™ software – complete with training and support services - include Neath Port Talbot CBC, Teignbridge DC and Calderdale MBC. Meanwhile, CDR’s project team has successfully undertaken bureau work for West Wiltshire DC and ongoing work with Derbyshire County Council, following a pilot exercise. As Ordnance Survey’s PAI programme nears completion, there remains a great deal more work to be carried out.

MAPINFO PROVIEWER v8.0- NOW AVAILABLE!

Use MapInfo ProViewer® to share MapInfo Professional® maps and analyses with clients and colleagues. ProViewer allows others to view and manipulate your creations - even if they do not have MapInfo Professional®.
Click here for more details

Ordnance Survey Accreditation for CDR Group Staff

CDR Group's already high level of expertise has been further enhanced by two of its key members of staff being awarded the status of Ordnance Survey Accredited Data Consultants. John Ievers (Director) and Darryl Beresford (Trainer/Consultant) have both been awarded the qualification after intensive training and examination by OS.

This means that CDR group can offer an enhanced service to its clients old and new, including detailed knowledge of OS MasterMap, its uses, structure and implementation. The accreditation also includes a deep understanding of OS's Positional Accuracy Improvements that many organisations are currently dealing with the implications of.

CDR announce online Streetlight Fault Reporting facility

Responding to customer demand, CDR have added a Streetlight reporting facility to their Browse-A-Map product. Users are able to interface GIs datasets through a simple web browser interface...

1. A general location can be found easily using a post code or street name search.
2. Any individual streetlight can then be identified and selected.
3. A form then prompts users to report any problems or faults back to the data custodian immediately.

"The idea is to allow Local Authorities to fulfil the G5 and G14 [GIs] requirements of the Priority Outcomes document [published by the ODPM in April 2004] quickly, with minimum fuss and expense." - Ben Farrow - CDR Software Development Team.

Try it out by following this link.

CDR Group Pick Up A Prestigous Web Mapping Oscar

Following the successful launch of Browse-A-Map at AGI'04, CDR Group has been awarded a prestigious "Oscar" in this years Web Mapping Contest , held by Directions Magazine.

The award was for Best Home Grown Map Renderer judged by Steve Lombardi of Microsoft:-

"… you meet a surprisingly quick and versatile map renderer built on .NET that can deal with MapInfo and ESRI formatted data and handles raster imagery in TIFF or JPG format."

The concept is simple and easy to deploy and without great expense.

More information is available on-line here.

Malicious Application Targets MapInfo Professional

MapInfo Corporation has confirmed the existence of a malicious application written in MapInfo MapBasic language that targets MapInfo Professional versions 5.5 or higher and MapInfo Professional-based applications. This application has the potential to corrupt data used in MapInfo and spread to other MapInfo Professional users who share that data. It does not harm operating systems or other non MapInfo/MapBasic-based programs.

Click here to download a .pdf document from the MapInfo website that provides more information about the program and its potential effects on your system and data. It also provides information about how to detect if your system has been infected and recommended courses of action to remove it.