I was quite busy in the last few months. Not that I forgot the blog, but I had to work on some features like plot, display model, wastewater inspection editor, electric for central europe etc.etc.. There is so much to say about Topobase 2009 that I'm preparing now several bogs which will describe it.
Robin likes the Lego (and after some hours of playing, you can find Lego pieces all over the living room...). What he likes the most is to create one construction, then to destroy it and then to start again. In order to be efficient in the rebuild process, it would be fantastic to have a pre assembly of a preassembly of Lego pieces, for example, one roof or one complete wall.
Topobase provides this function. We name it template or smart assembly. The user can create groups of features (one transformer with two elbows or one pole with one aerial transformer or one manhole with three valves, for example) and use this group to efficiently create several features in one step.
Create an excel sheet with the following information (attribute names depend of the feature class):
NAME_NUMBER
GEOM.X
GEOM.Y
Z
ORIENTATION MyNewPoint
200000
600000
400
57
Load the data in the point Form through Excel Import.
And that’s it !
Accessing data is one of the most important aspects of a GIS. In our Topobase Framework data access the central piece of the API. Every 'read from' and every 'write to' the database goes through this data layer.
The data layer is based on the ADO.NET data provider from Corelab and it has all the standard ADO.NET capabilities. It also fully supports Oracle object types like Oracle Spatial and capabilities like Transactions, Parameter binding and Connection pooling.
Additionally we support typed access to all the Topobase metadata (Topics, Feature classes, Domain tables, Topologies, etc…) and the data itself (Features and domain values). Working with the features in your database is then very simple. Here is an example that shows how you can insert a new point feature into the Feature class MYPOINT:
// Get the feature class from the feature classes metadata array
Topobase.Data.FeatureClass myPointClass = myConnection.FeatureClasses["MYPOINT"];
// Create a new feature for the MYPOINT feature class in the memory
Topobase.Data.Feature myPointFeature = myPointClass.CreateFeature();
// Assign a point geometry (coordinates 4 and 7) to the new feature
myPointFeature.Geometry = new Topobase.Graphic.Point(4, 7);
// Insert the new Feature into the database
myPointClass.InsertFeature(ref myPointFeature);
You can find more details about how to read and write Features from and to Topobase in the Developer Sample 2: 02_ReadWriteFeatures in the <Topobase install directory>\Development\Samples directory.
Topobase and Topobase Web are based on Autodesk Map and MapGuide Enterprise, respectively. These two applications are installed with Topobase and can be fully used. In both cases, the data are stored in Oracle. Everything is open, since the data (no blob or proprietary format) and the metadata can be read with a simple SQL tool.
Here is an overview of the architecture:
For more details information, I invite you to read the Topobase Architecture whitepaper (Download AutodeskTopobaseTechnicalArchitecture.pdf)
Topobase provides standard GIS functionality like topology, intersection, spatial analysis, but also provides out of the box solutions to manage utility networks, such as electric, gas, water, and wastewater. We name these solutions "vertical applications".
For the user, it is quite simple. Install Topobase and define what you want to use, for example, the wastewater application. All business rules, workflows, topology rules, specific functions, and data model are configured. You can start data creation immediately.
I have found a nice description of a wastewater network (Download san_mateo_sewers.pdf). With Topobase, you can manage and analyze the entire wastewater network.
To simplify your life when you want to create a new Topobase Plug-in we have created Templates for Visual Studio 2005. Such templates are available for projects and project items such as VB.NET or C# classes and XML files, HTML pages and Style Sheets for all the .NET languages and technologies. If you are not familiar with VS templates at all take a look at the MSDN website.
We have extended the set of templates for Topobase-specific projects and files. Here is a list of available templates:
To install the Topobase Templates, copy the project template named CSSimpleTopobasePlugIn.zip from the <Topobase install directory>\Development\VSTemplates\ProjectTemplates\Topobase\ directory to the Visual Studio custom template directory (usually My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\C#\).
To create a plug-in:
Not sure if you’ve already noticed it, but every button or menu item you see inside the Topobase panel comes from a plug-in. The entire Topobase architecture is based on plug-in technology. This gives of us all many possibilities to customize, configure and extend the Topobase solution. You’d like to see some examples? No problem. Here is a list that shows how you can extend Topobase with plug-ins:
In fact, many of the Autodesk Topobase components are based on plug-ins created by our developers. Some examples are the Workspace Management and Administration dialog, Map Interface, COGOs, and the reporting tool.
So let’s take a look at some code. In this code fragment you can see what a plug-in class looks like. This plug-in class extends the context menu of all point feature classes in the Document Explorer with one new menu item. The capabilities of the menu item can then be anything you like.
// Create a new class which is derived from our Document Plugin class.
// A Document Plugin will automatically be loaded per document when a workspace is opened.
public class MyDocument : Topobase.Forms.DocumentPlugin
{
// Create a new MenuItem object.
public Topobase.Forms.MenuItem myMenuItem1 = new Topobase.Forms.MenuItem();
// Override the OnInit method to add our own menu item.
public override void OnInitMenus(object sender, Topobase.Forms.Events.MenusEventArgs e)
{
// Obtain the context menu to which you want to add your new MenuItem.
Topobase.Forms.Menu pointMenu = e.Menus.Item(Topobase.Data.FeatureClassType.Point);
// Add your MenuItem with the text “My MenuItem1” to the context menu.
pointMenu.MenuItems.Add(myMenuItem1, "My MenuItem1");
// Add a click event handler to the menu item, there you can implement the logic.
myMenuItem1.Click += new MenuItemClickEventHandler(MyMenuItem1_Click);
}
... // other code
}
Take a look at the folder C:\Program Files\Autodesk Topobase Client 2008\Development. Then go to the Samples subfolder and take a look at Sample 10: 10_Document_ContextMenu. There you have a fully functional C# or VB.NET solution, which creates a plug-in and extends the context menu.
In a previous blog I mentioned the ROI for Topobase projects. In summary, the highlights of the study published by IDC (full text: Download idc_topobase_utility_roi_whitepaper_nov_2007.pdf) are:
- Implementing Topobase had an average 3-year Return on Investment of 518%
- Topobase helped to reduce annual equipment and operational costs $1.8 million per 100 users by greatly enhancing the ability to ensure the right equipment (trucks, cabling, pipes, etc.) was ordered and delivered to the right location in a just-in-time fashion.
- Topobase also delivered $1 million annual productivity benefits by reducing the number of users per project while at the same time increasing the number of projects completed.
I always say to Robin: "Don't become an engineer like Daddy, work in a Swiss bank!" Maybe that's a bad tip! :-)
... don't worry, I'm not angry ;-) You can download (Download TopobaseElectric.zip ) the slides that we presented with Vanessa Rojas and Alan Saunders. The topic of the presentation was the new Topobase Electric application. We will post some films of the live demo soon.
See you next year at AU !
