Brazilian GIS Market Meets at MundoGEO Connect

At the largest geospatial conference in Brazil, geospatial technology users are meeting at MundoGEO Connect 2011 in Sao Paulo this week. As the photos from the exhibit hall reveal (see photos below; click for larger image), this is a vibrant community focused on data collection, image processing and related data management issues.

MundoGEO Connect is a three day conference and exhibition sponsored by the publisher of InfoGEO and InfoGNSS. Emerson Granermann, conference chairman, said that over 2500 attendees have registered for the event.

Clearly, the healthy Brazilian economy has led to widespread growth of the geospatial technology marketplace. The solution providers here represent the major geospatial software solution and surveying hardware providers.

With this growth comes an emphasis on coordinating geospatial activities within the government. Luiz Paulo Souto Fortes, PhD, director of geosciences for the Insituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE) provided the keynote address to the delegates and addressed the need for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). He discussed the recommendations of the 6th Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas United Nations to establish and coordinate policies and technical standards for SDI. Dr. Souto Fortes was also representing the OGC and discussed the importance of establishing a set of standards and technical specifications from which to manage data and metadata.

Joel Campbell, president of ERDAS, also keynoted the opening session where he discussed "Dynamic GIS" (see video) that is comprised of four key elements. These four key concepts include geospatial technology that is Internet enabled, interoperable, mobile and and leverages cloud computing. He added that it requires data that is timely, accurate and authoritative.

The conference continues with keynote speakers from Safe Software, Topcon, Leica Geosystems, RapidEye, and ISPRS later this week.

Bentley Systems Simplifies Product Suite, Focuses on 3D GIS

Bentley Systems announced today that they have simplified their product offerings of the Bentley Map V8i (SELECTseries 2) by reducing the number of geospatial products that they sell. Concurrently, the company said they are bolstering each product with specific functionality to meet the workflows of select user communities. According to the company:

• Bentley Map PowerView
  • For the visualization and editing of 2D/3D geospatial information – this product replaces Bentley PowerMap Field
• Bentley Map
  • For editing, analysis and management of 2D/3D geospatial information – replaces the Bentley Map V8i SS1 and Bentley PowerMap
• Bentley Map Enterprise
  • An entirely new product for enterprise editing, analysis and management of 2D/3D geospatial information

Bentley is staking its ground on 3D. I've covered Bentley's 3D intiatives just recently in a report last October. This announcement further strengthens Bentley's marketing efforts with actual product realignments. So what is actually "new" in this realignment? Again, according to Bentley, these features have been added:

• Viewing and editing of geospatial data from virtually all file-based GIS formats, spatial databases and rasters (either natively or through the Safe Software FME plug-in)
• Native support of Oracle Spatial 3D objects
• Decision making using spatial analysis (especially in 3D)
• Advanced 3D object editing
• Built-in map finishing
• Cadastral fabric editing and maintenance
• Producing data models and editing tools for different geospatial applications (i.e. the FAA compliant airport data model that we already ship with Bentley Map)
• Fully-documented, extended API open to all users
• Long transactions in Oracle Spatial (2-tier, no server license needed)
• Advanced image management (rasters, doc conversion, textures for 3D solids)
• Oracle Georaster viewing
• 2D and 3D modeling in the same environment (see image at right)

Bentley, as they have in the past, continue to work closely with Oracle. Users will be able to do long transactions in Oracle Spatial without the need for a server licence. In addition, Bentley is looking to help users who work on big projects with large file sizes and hence have made an effort to closely link Bentley ProjectWise with Bentley Map for more effective team collaboration.

The new Bentley Map product line replaces Bentley PowerMap Field, Bentley PowerMap, Bentley PowerDraft for Mapping, Bentley Cadastre, and Bentley CADscript. For more information, go to the Bentley Map website.