MiraMon v.3: More functionalities for more users.

SUMMARY

• Introduction
• New features in vesion 3
• How and where to upgrade?
• MiraMon Courses
• The MiraMon Map Reader

Introduction

This is to invite you to know and enjoy version 3 of MiraMon, which was launched in a limited way last May and which is now ready for being formally offered.

As you already know, the MiraMon Project is aimed at developping a powerful Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing software which can be a useful, rigorous, fast and affordable tool. With this text, it is our pleasure to introduce you to MiraMon version 3 and some of its main features. Before doing so, let us give you a few words on the current state of the MiraMon project.

MiraMon started and continues being developped thanks to many hours of dedication and personal enthusiasm. Fortunately it has also been growing and improving thanks to the solid and motivated participation of its collaborators, to its intensive use in research projects, to the direct financing by the public administration and private firms for specific developments, and, of course, to the licenses and varied contributions, economical and of content, of all users that each week join the project.

We are very pleased to announce you that of today there are over 750 registered users in 10 different countries and that several thousand copies of MiraMon Map Reader have been distributed via Internet and thematic CD-ROMs. Also, hundreds of students in different universities take each year undergraduate and graduate courses in GIS and Remote Sensing using MiraMon. Taking into account that up to the present MiraMon has not been formally publicized but has only been presented in static information in Internet and recommended by direct contact of user to user, we feel very grateful to the GIS and Remote Sensing community for their support to the program.

The Centre for Ecological Research and Forest Applications, CREAF, deserves our sincere acknowledgement for hosting the project and helping it grow qualitatively and quantitatively. CREAF not only gives MiraMon a home but its numerous staff members who work in many different ways on the land also help to continually correct and improve it. Their work in thematic cartography generation, data analysis, remote sensing studies, field work, statistics and software development among other matters certainly constitute an inestimable contribution to the project.

An important role in the development of the program is also due to the Department of Geography of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, UAB, where several people work in key fields for the future development of MiraMon, not to forget the students that continually show us how to improve functionality and user interface aspects.

As you can see in the text below, and first of all by using the program, we have improved or corrected many aspects and new features have been added. In particular, we truly believe that the new tool which integrates arithmetic operations, reclassification and logical analysis will be chosen for your analysis and data exploitation tasks.

Although the program keeps trying not to loose the ease of use that characterizes it, we have thought about the convenience of offering courses of different level and subject to allow users, who often do not have the time to dedicate to in-depth learning by themselves, to fully address the many functionalities added to the pogram, the integration of these functionalities powerful batch processes (BATs) or in meta-programming, and the many underlying concepts. Below you will find more information on this.

Finally, we expect that the reduced price for upgrading the program to version 3 proves justified to you given the current improvements in the program. Remember that by subscribing the upgrade you will be able to have access, for at least a year, to the improvements and enhancements of version 3 that will be made available in the MiraMon Upgrade Service (MUS) web page. In this sense, we are convinced that the differnet tools for analysis, digitizing, symbology, etc. that are being prepared will make your work easier and more enjoyable and will offer you more sophisticated possibilities.

Sincerely,

Xavier Pons

Bellaterra, 26th of July of 1999

New features in version 3

1. An advanced tool for raster analysis: the logico-mathematical MiraMon calculator.
   This new tool integrates:
   • reclassification
   • logical operations
   • about 50 mathematical operations
   in a unique (!) environment and expression (other existing tools, when available, do not allow to mix these three types of operations with full capacity).
   
   Clic to see some exemples

   MiraMon calculator allows to operate with any graphical layer in any directory with any other graphical layer in any other directory. It does a rigorous treatment of NODATA (flag values) values and performs all operations in double precision (15-16 significative digits). Besides, the complexity of the expression is unlimited.

   Moreover, operations are much faster than similar tools in other environments.

   The numerical type of the results can be defined in authomatic mode (the calculator chooses the optimal output format and whether it is better or not to perform and extra compression) or manual mode (bit, byte, integer, long, real, ...).
   
   

2. Point symbology has been improved (legends can have different symbols and sizes simultaneously), and these improvements have been also adapted for the cartographic series in a consistent way.
   
   
3. Points and labels can be directly digitized in the topologically-structured format. These allows for the entering of multiple attributes and multiple records (relations of 1-to-many type) during the process of data enter. Also, if desired, MiraMon can control the integrity of the alphanumerical data by reference to the appropriate data dictionnaries, or thesaura.
   
   
4. A new and advanced tool that allows the transfer of attributes between topologically- structured vector layers and which can handle one-to-many relationships for any type of layer and case and to relabel in any of the following modes:
   • Do not relabel (it ignores new labels when there exist old ones)
   • Overwrite previous labels
   • Add new labels and keeo the existing ones.
   Besides all this, relations of equality can be established between information fields of the donor and receptor layers even when field names are not equal.

   As it was already usual in MiraMon, relabelling with redundant labels with the same attributes is considered of utility when labelling large and complex polygons. Therefore, this is allowed and is not considered to be an error. However, the presence of multiple coherent labels is informed in the reported file so that it can also be controlled.

   Examples:

   • From points to polygons: Typical labelling of polygons. Each polygon receives the attributes from the points that fall inside them. In this example and in the following ones, each donor can give several records from several fields (e.g. each point that labels a building can have as many records as people living in it and as many fields as the number of attributes to be stored for each person.
   • From polygons to poins: Given a layer with meteorological stations (points), we want to load to the database of the PNT the municipaliyt, town, (polygon) where the station is situated.
   • From arcs to polygons: Given a layer with municipalities, towns, (polygons) we want to load to the database of the POL all roads (arcs) which go through+ the municipality.
   • From polygons to arcs: Given a road layer (arcs), we want to load to the database of the ARC the municipalities (roads) which is crossed by every road segment.
   • From polygons to polygons: Given a layer of municipalities (polygons) we want to load to the POL database the geological units (polygons) which correspond to each municipality.
   
   
5. A better application to install the program. This applications registers the extensions so that files can be more comfortably handled from the Windows Explorer and which allows that in successive upgrades the MiraMoon.PAR file maintains the user preferences for the pre-existing parameters.

You can find examples in File maintenance, Spatial data management, Database management, Geometry, Image radiometry, Image processing, Raster-vector conversion and Import/Export to other formats.

We would emphasize the new MMZ compression and uncompression, Creation, compression and uncompression of raster images, Obtain structured points from DBF tables, Raster densifying and change of resolution, 16 Vegetation indices, Orthophoto generation, etc, in addition of small but practical tools as Conversion of Degrees,Min,Sec to Deg/Rad or Compute solar position from any place, date and time.

In addition, version 3 also improves and includes many other aspects which you can read at:
http://www.creaf.uab.es/miramon/new_note/usa/notes/new_v3g.htm

Version 3 will also include:

• Authomatic overaly of any topologically-structured vector layers.
• Easy cut of any type of topologically-structured vector files (previous versions only could perform this operation on raster layers and on topologically-structured layers of point type.
• Mosaic of any type of topologically-structured vector layers (previous versions could only perform this operation on raster layers and on non-structured vector layers of any type).
• And much more...

How and where to upgrade?

1. To have a license of version 3.
2. To have internet access to the MiraMon Upgrade Service, MUS (http://miramon.uab.es) and to download the upgrades.

1. With respect to the first point, there are three user types:
   • 1.1 Users which acquired the license of MiraMon later than the 3rd of May of 1999. These users already have a license of version 3 and can go to point 2/. The key diskette of these users has a number '3' written in red in the left uppermost corner.
   • 1.2 Users that acquired the license of MiraMon before than the 3rd of May of 1999 and later than the 20th of July of 1998. These users will receive an upgrade license which will need to be installed in their PC before going to point 2/.
   • 1.3 Users that acquired a license of MiraMon befor the 20th of July of 1998. These users must acquire an upgrade license and install it in their PC. The acquisition has a cost which is half the price of the number of licenses owned. For instance, if you have only one license you will have to pay 10000 Pta. plus shippling and handling costs. If you have 5 licenses you will have to pay 25000 Pta. plus shipping and handling costs.

     Users of group 1.3/ can acquire an upgrade a the following http address:
     http://www.creaf.uab.es/miramon/order
     and formalize their payment with a credit card, bank deposit or check. The previous internet address will give you detailed information on price list, payment methods, etc.

     Once the upgrade has been installed please proceed to point 2/, but not before.

   
   
2. As for point 2/ you need only to download version 3 from the MUS. If you are not subscribed to the MUS yet, you can do it at:
   http://www.creaf.uab.es/miramon/mus

It is important to note that:

• Without an upgrade license, version 3 of MiraMon does not work.
• Upgrades are, as licenses, dependent on the user, that is to say customized. Please do not mix upgrades from one user and licenses of version 2 from another user since you would even loose your version 2 MiraMon license.

MiraMon Courses

The Campus has an affordable and comfortable Hotel, but you can also make a reservation in Barcelona and know the Gaudí's capital.

We teach MiraMon courses at several levels, and also specialized courses in digitizing and topology building, orthophoto and DEM generation, etc. Courses for groups are welcome.

If you feel interested, please contact at:
e-mail: cursos@miramon.uab.es.

MiraMon Map Reader

This project combines the power of the GIS with the power of diffusion of the web. The application allows the integration of the databases of the Department of the Environment in a single tool, in a unique window which is accessible to everybody. This web page which allows access to the data of the Department of the Environment which are permanently updated is the start of an ambitious project which we hope to grow and consolidate in the years to come.

Although the Department of the Environment has been the impulsor of the project, any user of MiraMon will be able to publish maps in the MMZ format. This format is very compact and includes in a single file which hangs from your website all rasters, vectors, databases, documents, hyperlinks, etc, tied together in the same way you may have designed for your intranet. Publication prices in this format are very affordable (around 3500 PTA per MMZ map) and the subscription forms in packs of 10 maps will appear in the next weeks to come in our web page.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you are registered users of MiraMon, we advise you NOT to intall the MiraMon Map Reader, since ALL its functionalities and many more are included in MiraMon version 3.

Once you install MiraMon version 3 you will have the flexibility to access layers in MMZ format and the best functionalities of your complete MiraMon version.