Toolbox

Along the border between extreme northern Maine and western New Brunswick, Canada, two surveyors, one Canadian and one American, have found a better way to survey in the region’s challenging conditions: they’ve discovered RTK. Faced with the same problems ­­­­– fewer control monuments, many lying beneath a cover of snow much of the year, limited cell-phone coverage; rugged terrain and UHF transmission limitations – the two men were led to the same Ashtech Professional ProMark 500 RTK solution. Michael Cyr, owner of Northern Maine Surveyors in Madawaska, Me., works across the St. John River border from Gaetan Soucy, proprietor of Arpentages Gaetan Soucy.  Read More

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), has introduced its “Vehicle for Games” curriculum for post-secondary students. The 16-week curriculum provides hands-on training for the entire game development pipeline, from concept art to creating an engine-ready asset. This free* web-based curriculum is designed to be used with Autodesk Maya modeling, animation, rendering and visual effects software, and Autodesk Mudbox digital sculpting and texture painting software. A six-month student trial version of Maya* and a 30-day student trial version of Mudbox* can be downloaded for use with the curriculum. Read More

ESRI has just released a new version of the free ArcGIS Explorer, a downloadable globe viewer with geographic information system (GIS) functionality. The new release builds on an intuitive design, improving access to geoprocessing services and expanding available maps in the Basemap Gallery. The release also features an Analysis Gallery that allows users to directly connect to and use geoprocessing services. Read More

The magnificent image clarity and pleasing colour balance of the 50cm GeoEye-1 satellite imagery over New Zealand now provides an option for agencies to cost effectively update portions of their aerial photography coverage.   “The availability of GeoEye-1 archive data makes adoption of GeoEye high resolution imagery feasible for many government agencies. The DIY archive search tool makes it easy to confirm the availability of new data,” says Dr Gail Kelly, Business Development Manager of AAM. A powerful combination is now available comprising subset resolution imagery from GeoEye and 5m resolution imagery being captured this month by the RapidEye constellation of satellites. Read More