Encom Discover and Discover 3D 2012 introduces a more accessible and intuitive 3D GIS environment for MapInfo Professional users. With its extensive range of features purpose-built for geosciences application, Encom Discover 2012 continues to unlock the power of MapInfo Professional that extends beyond geologists and geoscience professionals. Many users are now making use of the Hydrological modelling in Discover to define river catchments.
This release includes:

• Visualisation and analysis of 3D vector models on drillhole cross-sections
• Automatic notification of maintenance releases
• New data capture and validation tools
• Display and modelling of multi-banded grids, as well as a wealth of other new features and improvements

Discover 3D 2012 also includes:

• New onscreen navigation controls
• Users can easily display voxel models on their cross-sections for detailed 2D analysis
• Point cloud datasets can be clipped to defined volumes for advanced calculations
• Logical TAB file handling, and
• A free Discover 3D Viewer which allows your 3D environments and models to be shared with anyone!

And more....

Get in touch with CDR to arrange a 30 day evaluation of the software for yourself.

(July 2012)
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We are delighted to announce the launch of MapInfo Professional 11.5. The official launch of MapInfo Professional in the UK took place at the MapInfo User Group Summer Conference in Birmingham on 20th June 2012. For clients on the Annual Maintenance Program, you will receive your notifications by email shortly after this date for a digital download of the new software.

The primary focus of the 11.5 release is enhanced usability. This means that the many common tasks are easier and therefore quicker to perform, requiring fewer mouse clicks. Also the quality of the output is enhanced making work look more professional. Finally there is a continuation to integrate products, such as MapInfo Manager and Stratus to give a better experience across the suite of Location Intelligence applications.

Version 11.5 introduces key customer benefits through the following capability enhancements in the area of:

• More effective legend creation through the new Legend Designer
• Complete faster table operations in the Browser Window through easier access to common functions plus new sort/filter capabilities.
• Edit metadata direct in MapInfo Manager for up to date and accurate shared records
• Ability to use multiple monitors for your work enhancing productivity
  

And more...

Visit CDR on July 6th at our next Open Day to see for yourself.

(July 2012)
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CDR Group was recently approached by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) for help in mapping the cruising ranges of lifeboats. The RNLI utilise over 330 active lifeboats based at 235 lifeboat stations around the coastline of the UK and ROI.  These lifeboats can travel at speeds of 25 knots and have a range of up to 250 nautical miles. Determining the areas that can be serviced by each lifeboat within target response times is a critical factor in the RNLI’s operations.

Calculating isochrones (lines of equal distance or time) from points on a linear coastline such as parts of Eastern England is relatively simple.  In the complex marine geography of, say, the north-west coast of Scotland the task is significantly more difficult.

Following detailed discussions with the RNLI regarding their requirements, CDR Group developed MICruise.  This is a MapBasic application running within MapInfo Professional® that rapidly calculates marine isochrones from any given coastal location or set of locations.

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 330 active lifeboats from 230 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and has more than 160 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824 its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 139,000 lives.
www.rnli.org.uk

(April 2012)
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As we just get over the latest weather glitch (blizzards causing havoc in the Peak District in April), we are looking ahead to a busy summer of events and product releases.

The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) continues to host a number of very useful seminars, meetings and conferences and CDR Group will be exhibiting at the AGI North Conference in Manchester on 3rd May.

Click here for other events.

The MapInfo UK User Group has it’s summer conference at the ICC in Birmingham on the 20th June where CDR Group will also have a stand.

If you want to keep up to date with all things MapInfo related, then Pitney Bowes Software have just published online “The MapInfo Professional Journal”. Here you will find useful tips, tricks and information. Sign up here.

Don’t forget to check your MapInfo for updates – we are now on version 11.0.4 with version 11.5 due for release in June.

We have also scheduled another one day Vertical Mapper Training Course on the 17th May, for those interested in the 3D and grid analysis that Vertical Mapper offers.

Easter has interrupted our schedule of monthly Open Days but keep a look out for your invitation to our next themed presentation on May 4th. Get in touch with our Sales Team if you want to be added to our mailing list.

(April 2012)
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Pitney Bowes Software is pleased to announce the latest update to MapInfo Professional. This release is available for free to MapInfo Professional v11.0 users. You can obtain this update by opening MapInfo Professional 11.0, and selecting the “Check for Update…” option under the Help menu.

Click here to download the v11.0.4 patch.

Thank you for your support and for your business.

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

(April 2012)
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CDR Group has teamed-up with Hope Digital to provide a new service that delivers site-centred Ordnance Survey laminated maps. You can specify the location of anywhere in Great Britain to centre a customised map at a range of 4 scales to suit your own needs. Not only will it be printed to your area of interest – it will be laminated in the all-weather Aqua3™ coating. With Aqua3™ you can still fold the map without the lamination cracking, it is tearproof, it is lightweight and you can rewrite on it.

The Aqua3 Series 10, 25, 50 or 250 Ordnance Survey range puts you in the centre of your map.

Aqua3 is the first site centred map to include magnetic data provided by the British Geological Survey. If you're a keen walker, horse rider or organisation based in any outdoor activity, take a closer look. The benefits of using Aqua3 are that all maps are printed using UV inks. The papers used are synthetic so are less affected by water and over-laminated to protect the print. Available folded or flat for wall use, the choice is yours.

Scales available are:

• 1:10 000 10cm = 1 km Full colour. Details include street and road names, brooks, rivers and generalised buildings
• 1:25 000 4cm = 1km The best scale for walking and navigation on foot
• 1:50 000 2cm = 1km A very popular OS map scale for long distance walking or cycling
• 1:250 000 4cm = 10km A good old fashioned road map covering a vast area in surprising detail

The Aqua3 Series also allows you to add text notes in the key section. Great for recording grid references, emergency contacts or your personal itinerary.

(January 2012)
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Pitney Bowes Software is pleased to announce the latest update to MapInfo Professional. This release is available for free to MapInfo Professional v11.0 users. You can obtain this update by opening MapInfo Professional 11.0, and selecting the “Check for Update…” option under the Help menu.

MapInfo Professional 11.0.3 is a cumulative update that includes everything that was updated with 11.0.1 plus additional fixes. You can apply this update to MapInfo Professional 11.0, 11.0.1, or 11.0.2.

New in v11.0.3

• Browser window sorting has been improved for this update. The Sort dialog box no longer opens a new Browser window. Instead, it sorts the existing Browser window.
• The MapInfo Professional 11.0.3 update adds support for Google Earth Enterprise Tile Servers. If you have access to a Google Earth server, then you would create TAB and XML files for each Google layer that you wish to use. There is no support for a public Google server; this feature lets you get data from a private Google Earth Enterprise Server.

Version 10.5.3 patch

For those customers who are under Annual Maintenance but have not yet upgraded their copy to version 11, you may have noticed that from January 1st you have not been able to access the Microsoft Bing™ Imagery. You will need to apply the 10.5.3 patch to continue to use the Microsoft Bing™ imagery until the end of 2012. Nominated representatives for each client will have received an email with details on how to obtain this patch. If you have any difficulties just contact the CDR team.

Thank you for your support and for your business.

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

(January 2012)
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As part of their wide range of GIS services to clients, CDR Group has been making historic maps and drawings accessible for more than ten years.  Their skills were recently called upon by the London Borough of Southwark.  The GIS Manager at Southwark, Stuart Carter, had discovered an old archive of maps.  Recognising the quality and potential interest of these maps Stuart realised that it was a shame if they were to remain hidden away. Stuart therefore engaged CDR Group to make this historic record of the Borough available both internally to the Borough and externally to the wider public via the internet.
The 82 maps Stuart had uncovered were Ordnance Survey maps from 1894 and 1922 but later amended by the London County Council between 1936 and 1952. The maps covered the whole of the Borough of Southwark and were each about A0 in size and were at a scale of 88 feet to the inch (or 1:1,056 for you younger people!).

CDR’s task involved firstly scanning each of the maps using our large-format scanning equipment. Each of the images was then cropped along what is known as the “neat line”. The cropped images were further manipulated to produce a true rectilinear image with the top edge of the map being horizontal. The fourth stage is to generate geo-referencing data for each image so that they can be loaded into a GIS such as MapInfo Professional. This was successfully completed and the public can view the finished data on Southwark’s website under the “Maps” tab, along with the modern day mapping and imagery.

(November 2011)
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CDR will be exhibiting at The Mapping Showcase 2011 event as part of The London Mapping Festival (LMF). This is a new, free of charge event dedicated to the diverse range of mapping-related technologies and services available in the marketplace.
The event takes place on Thursday 1 December 2011 at the Emirates Stadium in London, Mapping Showcase 2011 will comprise a commercial exhibition, informative presentations, a range of interactive workshops and lots of fun activities throughout the day. 

The event is designed to bring together attendees across the public and private sector interested in the latest mapping innovations, products, technology and services. It will especially appeal to those within property, utilities, transport, government, environmental, insurance and technology markets.

Free keynote talks and workshops will cover an array of mapping-based themes within the GIS, cartography, GPS, surveying and computing industries.
To register for a place, go to http://www.londonmappingfestival.org/mapping-show-2011

Pop in to see us on our stand where we shall be showing examples of our work in and around London.

(November 2011)
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Following feedback from customers, Ordnance Survey has now completed a six-month pilot project to deliver the next generation of user support information for OS MasterMap.
Recognising that the current user guide and other support materials for OS MasterMap could be improved, and using OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network™ Layer (ITN) for the pilot, they have developed new documentation to help users get more value from OS MasterMap more quickly.

A 'getting started guide' (GSG) pdf has been written by a technical author with expert knowledge of the ITN layer. The GSG is a major step towards helping people work out whether they should be using ITN, and if so, helping them through the key hurdles and decision points in implementing the product.
The 50 page technical specification has been moved to an online resource, with all the diagrams and tables in standard web pages, so you can easily bookmark and reference useful pages.
There are also overviews of the common ITN queries, with relevant screenshots to help you visualise how the data can be applied to solve everyday problems:

• Relating ITN data to other OS MasterMap layers and third-party data
• Working with Road Routing Information and Path Routing Information

Next steps

There will now be a review period to assess the benefits realised, before further projects to update other OS MasterMap user documentation are started.

User feedback required

The Ordnance Survey really want to find out whether this new style of documentation is the improvement that users require. Please send any feedback on the ITN GSG or online support pages to: osmastermap@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Keep an eye out for your invitation to CDR’s December Open Day, when we shall be presenting ways of using ITN in routing applications.

(October 2011)
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Announcing the NEW Version of MapInfo Manager PBBI's spatial data management solution designed to allow organisations to harvest and catalogue their metadata.

The new version incorporates a host of new and improved features and greater integration with MapInfo Professional and MapInfo Stratus.

New Features

• Support for SQL Server and PostGIS databases
• Harvest non-spatial data!
• Harvest MWS format workspaces
• Metadata Editing: New “Find and Replace” capability
• More control over synchronising metadata
• Improved integration with MapInfo Professional
• Easier use of thumbnail images of your data
• Application-level security

A key element of the MapInfo Manager application is the improved productivity associated with the whole process of building catalogs from masses of data. Harvesting data and adding metadata records to Catalogs is now available as a
combined operation for even more efficient data management.

Contact the CDR sales team for more information or a demonstration.


(Sept 2011)
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CDR Group is proud to be a sponsor of the London Mapping Festival.

The London Mapping Festival (LMF) 2011 – 2012 is an 18 month programme of activities designed to promote the unique range of mapping, innovative technologies and applications that exist for the Capital. The festival will showcase all mapping-related disciplines including cartography, surveying, GIS, GPS and remote sensing.

The activities are organised by LMF supporters (both commercial and non-commercial organisations) and combine existing events with new specially organised ones to provide something for everyone. These will include workshops for schools, public lectures, professional conferences and mass participation activities.

CDR became involved with this exciting initiative following a project to scan and incorporate some historic mapping of Southwark – which can now be viewed online by clicking here

There are a range of activities for all and more details can be found at the LMF website by clicking here

(August 2011)
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There is now a free tool available for MapInfo Professional that allows you to manage the many windows that are regularly used. Most users will have come across issues when dealing with lots of Map, Browser, Legend, Info Tool, Statistics and Layout windows. With this tool you can:

• Clone any window
• Store the size and position of certain window types
• Restore a closed window
• Dock all window types
• Lock all window types
• Put windows on Tabs
• Use the “Auto Hide” function on all windows (like the Layer Control)

WindowHelper version 1.5, has been made into a floating, dockable window in its own right, that also shows a list of currently open windows. What is more, this tool is completely free to download and use.

As WindowHelper uses some of the same capabilities as the new Layer Control, WindowHelper requires MapInfo Professional 10.5.2 or later.

One extremely happy user has already been quoted as saying “WindowHelper Rocks!”. What greater endorsement could you need?

In order to download this free utility click on the link below:

http://www.pbinsight.com/support/product-downloads/item/windowhelper

(July 2011)
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We are delighted to announce the launch of MapInfo Professional 11. The official launch of MapInfo Professional in the UK took place at the MapInfo User Group Summer Conference in Bristol on 21st June 2011. For clients on the Annual Maintenance Program, you will receive your notifications by email shortly after this date.

MapInfo Professional v11.0 addresses key usability and business problems related to spatial data creation, analysis, access and spatial data management. The new browser window offers advanced data entry options and follows the latest industry practices that result in a simple yet effective alphanumeric data entry experience. MapInfo Professional’s direct integration with MapInfo Manager promotes effective use of an organisation’s spatial data. The all new Premium Services option makes road level contextual data or navigating a map as easy as clicking a button or typing an address.

Benefits of MapInfo Professional v11 include:

• Faster tabular data creation and analysis via the all new Browser Window. There is improved ease of use and productivity when working with tabular data based on using Microsoft grid controls to provide better navigation.

• There is enhanced support of 64-bit operating systems. Users can address up to 4 GB RAM instead of 2 GB. Memory hungry operations benefit from this improvement such as:

• large geographic data processing tasks such as combining several of regions together

• opening or exporting large image files

• creating geo-registered PDF files with attributes.

• Bing Maps premium services are now an add-on option to MapInfo Professional. There is access to hybrid and aerial imagery as before, along with the ability to search on a location and move the map to that location

• Direct integration with MapInfo Manager, enabling efficient searching, accessing and management of spatial data throughout an organisation.

• And more...

Visit CDR on July 1st at our next Open Day to see for yourself.

(June 2011)
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CDR has had a long relationship with the Cotton Grass Theatre company, since it first helped stage the production of Blue Remembered Hills in the grounds of Birchfield Hall 16 years ago.

Now the theatre company has a new production of “Street Child” by Berlie Doherty - It is based on the true account of the boy who inspired Doctor Barnardo to set up his ‘Ragged Schools’ and ‘Cottage Homes‘ for orphans.



(May 2011)
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Announcing the NEW Version of MapInfo Manager PBBI's spatial data management solution designed to allow organisations to harvest and catalogue their metadata.

METADATA
Simply put, metadata is data about data.
All Government organisations face continual challenges with discovering data, and then enabling efficient and appropriate access to that data. The high level goal of implementing the INSPIRE directives can be met with MapInfo Manager.

Metadata is not just for those seeking to comply with INSPIRE though - metadata is critical to any business.
You should consider deploying an internal use metadata catalogue for the purposes of improving the overall finding and using of information within your organisation.

MapInfo Manager is part of the solution from PBBI to help our customers meet their INSPIRE requirements.  MapInfo Manager is INSPIRE compliant.  The metadata catalogue adheres to the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalog Services Web (CSW) standard. 

MapInfo Manager is a server based catalogue that can be accessed by anyone with a browser but also from within MapInfo, where you can search, interrogate and even open the data into your MapInfo session.

Contact the CDR sales team for more information or a demonstration.

(May 2011)
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As of 1st April 2011, the new Public Sector Mapping Agreement for England and Wales came into being. The PSMA is centrally funded through Communities and Local Government (CLG), who have entered into an agreement with Ordnance Survey to provide geographic information. This means that public sector bodies will not have to pay separate fees to use Ordnance Survey data provided through the PSMA.

The PSMA will enable geographic information, including high specification OS MasterMap® products, free at the point of use for all public sector bodies. It is expected that the agreement will deliver significant efficiency savings and improvements in public service delivery, as well as more effective joint working between public sector bodies.

The agreement has been set for 10 years and opens up Ordnance Survey data to many more bodies who did not previously have ready access to this data or whose licence differed to other bodies. By the end of the first week of April over 600 public bodies had signed up to the new agreement. The most popular dataset ordered has been the new OS VectorMap® Local followed by the 1:25,000 scale raster mapping.

For more information and to sign-up to the new agreement visit
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/public-sector/mapping-agreement/index.html

Of course, we should point out that not all Ordnance Survey products are covered by the PSMA – OS Land-Form PROFILE®, OS Land-Form PROFILE® Plus and Points of Interest. As Ordnance Survey Licensed Partners, CDR Group are in an ideal position to supply these additional products – just get in touch for a quotation.

(April 2011)
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At our March Open Day, we launched the new version of Browse-A-Map. After months of development and beta testing, the New Browse-A-Map follows with the same concept of ease and affordability. (Other products are available for the Enterprise).

New Browse-A-Map is a rich web mapping application based upon Open Source software that allows your users to share geospatial data using nothing more than a standard web browser. Data can be published from a number of standard spatial data sources, enabling true Cloud computing.

The application includes the facilities to quickly pan, re-centre, zoom, find features and retrieve attribute information from data stored in various file formats. Simple theme files, analogous to workspace or project files used in other systems, define and control the mapping available to users.

Click on the image or visit www.browse-a-map.co.uk for more information and a live demo. Choose a theme pulling mapping from ViaEuropa (OS OpenData®) or OpenStreetMap or OS OpenSource® data in British National Grid.

(March 2011)
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Ordnance Survey launched their new Pricing and Licensing Model at the end of 2010, which aims to enable greater access to its products and geographic datasets under a simplified structure.

Among the changes to be presented is the introduction of terms to allow partner businesses to licence and resell almost all Ordnance Survey products, including its flagship dataset, OS MasterMap Topography Layer. Partners will also have greater flexibility in how they can onward license Ordnance Survey products, with the choice of how much or how little they want to include in their offerings. This will give customers greater choice of where they source their Ordnance Survey data.

CDR has signed up to the provision of the new datasets, which includes; 1:10,000 scale raster, Points of Interest, LandForm Profile+, OS MasterMap Topography and Integrated Transport Network.

When combined with the free availability of data through OS OpenData, the new pricing and licensing model means high quality digital mapping has never been more accessible. Indeed, CDR has already supplied the new data to clients in the New Year.

(January 2011)
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The MI Pro v10.5.1 patch is available!

This is an incremental patch that will update MapInfo Professional 10.5 to MapInfo Professional 10.5.1 Build 108. This patch can be applied to the release versions of MapInfo Professional 10.5 and MapInfo RunTime 10.5.
This patch is not valid for any pre-releases of MapInfo Professional v10.5, MapBasic, or ProViewer.

In MapInfo Pro click on Help > Check for Update in order to obtain the patch.

The release notes are on the website here

Highlights

• Support for Microsoft Office 2010
• Performance Improvements Accessing DBMS Tables
• Progress and Resolution to over 50 Outstanding Issues

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

(November 2010)
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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)
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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)
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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 Software 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)
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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)
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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)
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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:

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)
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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 Software.

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)
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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)
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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)
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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 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)
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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.

(January 2010)

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 Software (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)
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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)
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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 Software 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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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.

(June 2008)
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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)
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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.
  

(April 2008)
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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

(March 2008)
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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)
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