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SpatialNews Press Release
Laser-Scan UK Ships Gothic 4.0
Laser-Scan UK has started shipping a major new version of its Gothic product family to its prestigious
customer base. Gothic 4.0 is a commercial off the shelf (COTS) product that brings together a set of
major advances that were initially implemented to suit specific customers. It blends these with a set of
more general product developments and performance improvements that push forward the boundaries
of geodata management.
The Gothic family is based around an object-oriented spatial database and toolkit, and includes the
mapping and geodata production application LAMPS2, the Integrated raster/vector GIS called IGIS, the
data capture application VTRAK, and the Integrator toolkits. Gothic is trusted by National Mapping
Agencies (NMAs) and large commercial mapping and geodata suppliers worldwide to safely handle
their valuable corporate spatial data through update, production and exploitation flowlines.
The established Gothic family already had capabilities way beyond those of most mapping and GIS
systems. The Gothic database is versioned, handling explicitly the way that the world changes through
time. It handles vast continuous datasets, with no sheet or tile boundaries. It is an object database,
storing a model of the real world in a rich schema which can handle the references and family
relationships (a canal is both a transportation medium and a water feature). It dynamically builds and
maintains topology (the knowledge of connectivity, adjacency and sharing). The objects have
behaviours that are automatically activated to ensure data integrity, and which add intelligence to the
map features.
Among the major advances in Gothic 4.0 are:
? Support for stereo photogrammetry for 3D data capture, update, and visualisation, including close
integration with SOCET SET from LH Systems.
? Gothic Integrator: Java Edition (GI:JE) - a new API, toolkit and sample code provides access to the
Gothic database and active spatial object functionality from a Java environment. GI:JE is well
suited to building high-throughput web-mapping solutions. The new Java-callable
O-O API allows easy programming of Java servlets and applets to present information in a
geographic context, so crucial to modern e-business solutions.
? A new FME Plug-in provides import and export from some 60 different transfer formats and spatial
databases.
? Undo/Redo of interactive edits allows easy recovery from mistakes, and simple trial of ‘what if’
scenarios, including complex topological interactions.
? New editing tools, including 3D edit and warping of backdrop rasters
? Improved DTM creation, including edge blend, validation, 3D visualisation and flood fill
? New format and data model support, including military formats and XML.
? Output to Adobe Illustrator (.AI) format for finalising in Illustrator or Freehand
? Scalability improvements to handle databases with thousands of datasets and versions
? Performance improvements, particularly in attribute and spatial indexing, and in caching of recently
accessed information.
Laser-Scan’s Chief Product Manager Paul Hardy says “Gothic 4 is a major step forward for Laser-Scan
which has often been called ‘the best-kept secret of the Geographic Information (GI) industry’. Many
organisations are realising that it’s the active object capabilities of Gothic that put Laser-Scan’s products
way ahead of the field.”
Laser-Scan is a member of the YEOMAN Group and is based on the world-famous Cambridge Science
Park.
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