Logic Map

The Map and Image Processing System

The TNT Project File

A single data structure, the Project File, holds raster, vector, TIN, CAD, relational database, and text objects. A single Project File can be as large as the limits imposed by your operating system (Windows, Mac OS, LINUX or UNIX). A flexible hierarchical structure lets you define logical levels of nested folders. Conversion processes let you move objects between types.

Raster objects of any dimensions and numeric type can be directly edited with a full-featured draw/paint process. Editing tools include line drawing, paint brush, shape tools, flood/fill bucket, text, box copy, flip, move, and color palette manipulation. Raster editing can be used for tasks such as photo-interpretation, annotation, and artistic or cartographic finish work on presentation materials.

Vector objects can contain point, line, polygon, and label elements in a rigorously defined topological relationship. The system maintains exact vector topology so TNTmips can correctly handle feature boundaries, areas, overlaps, and intersections. Vector editing tools add, copy, move, and delete elements. A vector object can be overlaid on other project materials for visual reference during editing. Vector elements can be assigned database attributes to control their display and manipulation according to logical selection criteria.

TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) objects contain point and line information. A TIN object represents a continuous surface in three dimensions as a set of triangles computed from irregularly spaced 3D points. TIN objects provide a highly efficient tool for processes that perform computations related to surface and volume.

CAD objects contain point, line, and polygon elements, but unlike vector elements, they can also contain geometric shapes and blocks, and are not subject to the rigorous constraints of vector topology. CAD objects give you easy access to project materials from engineering projects, and are a good choice for on-screen drawing and editing in applications such as photo-interpretation. CAD objects in the TNT object editor can work over a reference object (such as an image), so elements can be created, moved, copied, modified, combined, and set in the drawing order. CAD elements can be assigned relational database attributes, so they can be displayed and manipulated according to logical selection criteria.

Database objects can exist as separate objects, or can be attached to the elements in raster, vector, or CAD objects to provide transparent access to tabular reference information. Relational database objects can hold attributes, styles, labels, numeric values, and any kind of text. You can query related database objects to do everything from implementing powerful GIS manipulations to selecting display styles according to an element or feature's attributes.

System Characteristics

Any Computer Platform

TNTmips will probably run on your computer no matter what kind of computer you have. The software engineers at MicroImages have crafted a single sophisticated system in one set of source code that is compiled without modification for each platform. You get exactly the same features and interface on a PC with Windows as you get on a workstation or Macintosh. The competitive computer market and its advancing hardware technology mean you can have robust computing power, even on a laptop, at a low price. TNT Project Files require no conversion or translation to be used on different platforms, so even if you have a network of different types of computers, you can easily access your project materials from any machine. Thus you could use a less expensive computer with TNTmips to run a color scanner or X-Y digitizer, and move to a faster computer for computationally intense processes.

TNTmips runs under today's most widely accepted operating systems. The X Window System manages the TNT environment transparently, so that the TNT products on a Windows computer has a Windows look and feel, on a Mac computer, it has a Macintosh look and feel, and on UNIX, well, the X Window System is native to UNIX.  UNIX (including LINUX) computers support the X Window System and OSF/Motif directly. PCs run TNTmips through the unique MicroImages X Server (MI/X), which runs in all the current flavors of Microsoft Windows. Macintoshes run Apple's X11 for Mac OS X. No matter what kind of computer you have, TNTmips offers the same user interface and feature set. TNTmips makes it easy for you to work on any machine you have, wherever you are, and whenever you change platforms.

TNTmips offers the same tools and features in every process where they are appropriate. For example, the same raster object display tools for zooming in, zooming out, panning, color manipulation, histogram display, and cell value inspection are available wherever a process requires a display window for raster objects. You can also define your own custom tools to access from the window manager's pop-in menu.

TNTmips displays objects of any size in every process that displays project materials. Any combination of raster, vector, and CAD objects can be layered for display. For these complex displays, a selection of simple controls scroll your view in any direction. Of course, you can zoom out so that the largest objects in the composite display automatically fit within the display window, or you can zoom in for close inspection. A unique raster pyramiding technology provides fast redisplays of large raster objects at any zoom level. For example, a 6000 x 6000 SPOT satellite image can be displayed at Full View in about 3 seconds - the display process does not bog down with time-consuming resampling operations.

Databases created in TNTmips or existing in dBase, R:Base, INFO, ASCII, and other formats can be attached to objects and keyed by field to raster cell values, or vector and CAD elements. Then in many processes you can query a relational database to select elements for processing and to control display styles based on the query. For example, symbol color and size for points that represent pumping stations could be selected from a relational database that contains a pump capacity value. TNTmips database query is a key capability in support of all the GIS manipulations possible in TNTmips.

TNTmips automatically accommodates all color data types and display hardware. 8-bit color data uses a variable 256-color palette for color composite or pseudo-color. 16-bit and 24-bit color work from fixed palettes of 32,768 and 16,777,216 colors respectively. If your computer is using a 16-bit or 24-bit display mode, TNTmips will still manipulate any 8-bit object with a color map. If your computer is using an 8-bit display mode, TNTmips automatically renders 16-bit and 24-bit color images from a dynamically optimized palette of 256 colors. TNTmips performs all such color manipulations automatically so they are completely transparent to you.

Raster object cell values can be used as elevation values to create color 3D draped surface images in parallel or perspective views. You can rotate the point of view, change the z-scale, and otherwise manipulate the display in a quick wireframe preview. The process also displays vector and CAD objects in 3D, independently or in any overlay combination with a raster object. Thus you can create a complex 3D display that combines an elevation raster, a "draped" image raster, and multiple 3D vector and CAD overlays.

Relational databases that contain attributes for vector and CAD elements may be queried dynamically to determine complex display, plotting, and drawing styles. You can design and use custom point, line, and polygon fill patterns to differentiate features and portray complex conditions. Point elements can be displayed as customized symbols of any design, size, and color. Polygons in raster editing, CAD, and vector processes can be filled with solid or partially transparent multicolor patterns. Choose from the standard sets of patterns and styles, or use the flexible style editors to create an endless variety of your own designs.

Hardware Peripherals

Wide Peripheral Support

TNTmips works with an impressive array of hardware peripherals. External drives, CD-ROM, DVD, color scanners, X-Y digitizers,  video devices, color printers, film recorders - TNTmips supports all kinds of input, output, and storage devices in every size and price range. You are never limited to a single proprietary hardware configuration. Any external device that works with your computer is likely to be supported by TNTmips.

Printer Support

State-of-the-art color thermal transfer, liquid and solid ink jet, sublimation, bubble jet, laser, and electrostatic devices are supported in formats as large as 44 inches wide, both through protocol standards and by custom drivers. PostScript® support makes TNTmips compatible with a wide array of printers. TNTmips also supports printers that work with PCs through the Windows printer drivers. TNTmips also prints to files in a number of formats, so your print files are easily portable. 

Direct Input Devices

You can use many direct image input devices in TNTmips. Color scanners as large as 44 inches wide can transfer image materials such as maps and photographs directly into a Project File or to a display window. Likewise, support is available for video devices, digital cameras, and X-Y digitizing tablets. TNTmips supports the TWAIN specification for image scanning and video capture.

Video Capture

If you have the optional computer hardware required, TNTmips lets you digitize frames from standard video sources in color, black and white, or color infrared. Airvideo, for example, is a very fast and inexpensive way to obtain current natural resource imagery from low-altitude aircraft. The raster objects captured from airvideo can be displayed with line and polygon overlays so you can quickly georeference the new images, rubbersheet or warp them, and then update your CAD and vector materials by visual editing.

X-Y Digitizing Tablets

The TNTmips object editor and georeferencing processes fully support X-Y digitizer tablets. Your X-Y digitizer can be used to create CAD or vector elements directly, or to add georeference control from a published map to a raster, vector, TIN, or CAD object. X-Y digitizing can also be a good choice for computerizing paper line drawings when automatic conversion by scanning is impractical.

Data Import

You can easily import materials into Project Files, and export Project File objects to external data formats. TNTmips supports more import and export formats than any other professional system on the market. Just a sampling of the raster, vector, CAD, and database formats include: TARGA, TIFF, PCX, SPOT, LANDSAT, ARC/Info, DXF, MOSS, DLG, DGN, DEM, GRASS, TIGER, GSMAP, ERDAS, ERmapper, Mapinfo, MacPaint, IDIMS/IDIPS, TERRA-MAR, EPPL-7, PCIPS, TYDAC, DTM, GIF, VPF, EOSAT, CCRS, CAT scans, MRI scans, World Data Bank II, Digital Chart of the World, dBaseIII, dBase IV, R:Base, Info, ASCII, and user-defined formats.

Preparation

Map Projections

TNTmips supports every standard map projection and allows you to define your own custom projections to match those used anywhere in the world. When you georeference project material, you can choose whatever map projection you want. Supporting processes can translate objects between map projections, so all of your materials can have the same reference framework. TNTmips processes automatically reconcile map projections, so even if your materials are in different coordinate systems, scales, or orientations, TNTmips displays and processes them in the selected projection without altering the source material.

Rectify and Register

Rectilinear map properties can be established for project materials that have distorted geometry, such as oblique airslides or airvideo. You can enter map control points manually, by visually identifying features, or you can use a georeferenced overlay object and establish the spatial relationships with tie points. Once map control (or other reference framework) has been established, a selection of numeric warping, resampling, rectification, mosaicking, and merging methods are available to correct the geometry of your project materials and fit them together evenly.

Object-to-Object Registration

You can derive georeference control for any raster, vector, TIN, or CAD object by using another as a reference. The reference object need not have the same geographic extent or cell size as the target object, as long as it presents common features that can be marked with tie points. Thus, for example, you can tie a road intersection visible in an airphoto to the corresponding feature in the scan of a reference map. Once you have established georeference controls for your project materials, other TNT processes automatically present and use them in the correct geographic relationship.

Interactive and Automatic Mosaicking

The objects in your Project File may be pieces of a larger whole. Automatic and interactive processes let you merge raster, vector, TIN, and CAD objects containing such adjacent sections. Raster mosaicking may combine pieces of a large paper map that was scanned in sections, or multiple airvideo frames of a study site. The mosaic process allows contrast matching and trend removal to give the final product a smooth, continuous appearance. Vector mosaics resolve intersections of overlapping objects to retain correct topology.

Intersection and Merging

You may have project materials that must be combined intelligently, such as two vector objects: one with a land development proposal imported from a CAD system, and another with sensitive wildlife habitat mapped from airvideo. TNTmips intersection and merging processes let you locate, measure, and produce maps of areas of overlap. You can also specify "dissolve" conditions to remove boundary lines between polygon elements with similar attributes.

Elevation Mapping and Orthoimage Creation

TNTmips can use the spatial information contained in pairs of stereo images to derive an approximate surface of the overlap area. When you establish tie points between the stereo pair, the process can create an elevation surface in a raster object. Such elevation information can be applied to raw imagery to correct spatial displacements and produce an orthoimage with map-like geometry.

Surface Fitting

A number of surface fitting methods let you create an elevation raster object from the surface defined by a 3D vector object. For example, one application would be to use the smart line- following process in TNTmips to vectorize the elevation contour lines in a USGS topo map from which you could create an elevation raster object with one of the numerous surface fitting techniques. Alternatively, you could create a complete surface from a sampling of discrete elevation points collected by a GPS field survey. In both cases, you are able to specify the scale, cell size, or row and column dimensions of the output raster object.

Classification and Interpretation

Interactive, semi-automatic, and automatic classification processes in TNTmips can map, measure, and categorize land cover or other image features. Multiple raster objects representing things like multispectral, magnetic, or thermal imagery let the processes find characteristic numeric signatures that represent categories such as vegetation types and conditions, surface clues to geologic mineral deposits, and other feature classes not easily mapped by direct visual interpretation.

Statistical Measurements

Knowing the statistical qualities of your project materials is important for many tasks. TNTmips provides raster object statistics such as a histogram display, surface area, and cell value mean, variance, and standard deviation. You can also generate a two-dimensional correlation histogram to represent the similarity of two raster objects. Statistics for vector and CAD elements include line length, polygon area, perimeter, centroid, and maximum dimension.
 

Pin Mapping

The TNTmips pin mapping feature lets you quickly display points from relational databases with other project materials. For example, you could prepare a table of species locations collected in the field by a GPS team, and then display these points over a map or photograph of the area. You can display dynamically labeled bar graphs or pie charts at the points, based on queries of multiple fields in the databases. TNTmips lets you display the points directly from the database; you need not convert your point lists to vector or CAD objects first.

Automatic Vectorization by Scanning

A suite of processes lets you create line and polygon elements automatically from scans of your line-oriented project materials. The TNTmips processes you use can include scanning, binary conversion, geometric rectification, mosaicking sections, trimming to map extent, raster editing, thinning raster lines, automatic vectorization, vector thinning, and assignment of vector element attributes.

Smart Line-Following

TNTmips offers a unique smart line-following process that lets you create line and polygon elements interactively from scans of your line-oriented project materials. Smart line-following creates line elements directly from grayscale or color raster objects. Because it uses the line color in a raster object, the process works well on "problem" line features that are hard to vectorize accurately by other means, such as convoluted brown contour lines. Smart line-following also produces the true position of the curved line, not a sparse, jagged approximation created by a tired X-Y digitizer operator.

Buffer Zone Creation

The vector buffer zone process creates polygon elements that define buffer zones around selected vector elements. Use database queries to map areas around nesting sites, streams, wetlands, or other areas of interest. The raster buffer zone process creates a proximity map (raster buffer zone surface) around point or line elements. The farther from selected elements, the higher the cell values in the output raster object.

Polygon Fitting

Several different methods can solve the classic problem of fitting polygon elements around swarms of points representing observation events. These polygon fitting processes let you control how tightly the inscribing polygons fit the observation points, and how much weight to assign to lone-point outliers.

Watershed Analysis

TNTmips can analyze an elevation raster object to derive the watershed that drains into any selected seed point. Watershed analysis determines many intermediate aspects of an elevation surface: flats, depressions, flow accumulations, pour points, and flow paths. Watershed analysis is useful in tasks such as erosion studies, selecting sites for farm ponds, and evaluating flood control plans.

Viewshed Analysis

Elevation raster objects can be analyzed to derive the viewshed for a selected point and observation height above the surface. The viewshed boundaries that are determined are useful in natural resource management for selecting scenic views. Viewshed analysis is also useful for communications or radar applications that require line-of-sight tower locations.

Shortest Path Derivation

The shortest path process analyzes a network of line elements in a vector object and finds the shortest or least-cost distance between a sequence of two or more points. You can use complex queries to restrict the solution to line elements selected by attributes (representing arterial streets, for example), or draw an elastic box to limit the search area. Shortest path analysis is usually applied to questions of routing vehicles, commercial transport, and public transportation.

SML: Customization with the Spatial Manipulation Language

TNTmips provides a powerful and flexible Spatial Manipulation Language (SML) that lets you perform an endless variety of custom analyses on multiple input objects. An SML script can be a simple one-line command, or a complete, structured program with variables, compound expressions, functions, program statements, function/procedure declarations, and logical programming constructs. You can even create icons to execute SML scripts from the Windows desktop, or add your scripts directly to the TNTmips menus or custom toolbars.

TNTsdk for TNTmips

If you have TNTmips, you can purchase TNTsdk for TNTmips, the custom software development kit. TNTsdk takes you a step beyond SML and gives you access to the proprietary C programming libraries created by MicroImages for software development with the X Window System, OSF/Motif, and TNTmips. Adding your custom processes to the TNTmips menu is as easy as placing it in the proper subdirectory on your system. TNTsdk also includes OSF/Motif libraries, and MI/B, the MicroImages (Motif Interface) Builder, which writes C code for you as you design complete interface windows interactively.

Presentation

Screen Layout

Complex displays of multiple objects and descriptive text can be defined with a reusable screen layout definition. You can select and arrange objects, and then modify or re-create that display. The layout definition is not bound to a particular dated version of the objects involved, so updates and modifications in an ongoing project can be displayed easily.

Map and Poster Layout

An interactive color layout process lets you create and save definitions for complex large-format printing. What-you-see-is-what-you-get control lets you select and position multiple raster, vector, CAD, TIN, and text objects, and arrange them in drawing order (so, for example, highways print over streams). The map layout process can label map features automatically with fields from related databases. Flexible annotation tools let you add explicit textual notations and graphic interpretations, and you can select from a variety of stadia bars and map grid features in any scale and projection.

TNTlink for TNTmips

Every TNTmips includes TNTlink, the product that lets you create massive HyperIndex® stacks: hierarchical and spatially related atlases of image and database materials. You can create map and image atlases with vector, TIN, or CAD overlays keyed to database records. You can publish your stacks for use with TNTview, TNTatlas, and TNTserver, our internet map server.  Create a wide variety of spatial database applications: parts catalogs, facilities management, medical imagery, technical handbooks ... all can benefit from the flexible, logical, image-keyed, spatial database presentation TNTlink makes possible. Publish your HyperIndex stacks for use within your office or around the world, so a large number of installations can access a single standard stack on a wide variety of computer platforms.

Database Report

You can create new databases or print tabular reports from relational databases attached to the elements in raster, vector, TIN, and CAD objects. In the report specification, you select fields, column headings, field formats, column spacing, and borders. The process can coordinate information from multiple related tables. Select elements for processing from a point file, by on-screen selection, or by logical query.

Display and Annotation Fonts

All of the TNT display and hardcopy processes provide direct support for external TrueType annotation fonts. You can produce maps and posters with labels, legends, and annotations at any size in any TrueType font on your computer. For special annotation needs, you can use an external TrueType font editor to create and modify special symbols and characters. Then add them to a TrueType alphabet and use them immediately in TNTmips.

Interface Fonts

You use any TrueType fonts for menus, messages, and other interface elements.  In addition, as an X application, TNTmips uses any BDF font for the text in its graphical interface and system messages. BDF fonts are distributed with the X Window System, including MicroImages' MI/X, and are widely available on UNIX systems.