Manifold, topology and modular structure

I get a request for someone who studies Geomatics in the UTEM in Chile and a teacher has delegated him a task on Manifold, so I take to post about it.

1. Does Manifold support topology?

Yes, for this we must activate the shared editing option “edit / shared edit”

Thus, vector content that shares nodes within the precision may associate its neighborhood. It applies both for reprojection and manual objects edition.

To define the accuracy apply right click on the layer, properties are chosen and there can be precisely specified conditions that apply to both the snap and for spatial analysis, topological cleanup “shared edit”.

In the example I’m showing, I have these objects, although independent, when move a node, all points that converge and are within the chosen accuracy for this layer will move.

If it had not been active shared editing, this would have been the result:

Same happens for polygons, points and lines chains; by the way, Manifold supports a layer to have these three types of objects without requiring to be separated by exclusive layers.

It is also interesting to understand that the figures may be in different layers, provided they are displayed on a map, for that matter, could be on a layer with plots boundaries in lines form, while the other layer has polygons. Even in the extreme could be nodes in the points form… I know it’s madness that there is no cadastre but usually happens in water systems where there are valves and wells. Editing a node modifies different objects that match at this point, if they are active within a same view (map).

This was the biggest weakness of the ArcView 3x versions; GvSIG supports topological control, and Bentley has implemented it in a cadastre application called “Bentley Cadastre”

2. What is the modular structure of Manifold?

I will only include the price of the 32 bits version, to give an idea of ​​how prices behave as it is climbing in versions.

a) Personal Manifold is the basic version. $ 245

b) Professional Manifold, in addition to the Personal version, which includes IMS features. $ 295, the runtime license for this version is worth $ 100

c) Manifold Enterprise additionally includes native access to DBMS databases, you can also do multi-user editing to data from different sources IBM DB / 2, Oracle, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 (“Katmai”), PostgreSQL / PostGIS, ESRI SDE basis of personal version … among other things it includes editing files in .e00 format $ 395

d) Manifold Edit Database Administration, this version includes greater data management capabilities for companies that have a lot of data and users; includes support for IBM DB / 2, Oracle, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 and PostgreSQL / PostGIS including batch export to Oracle. $ 795

There are three extensions, which can be purchased separately or in an option pack of $ 225:

• Business Tools, includes several tools for spatial management, including Topology Factory, raster to vector data conversion (as well as ArcScan) and topological cleaning. $ 95
• Geocoding Tools (tools for geocoding) $50
• Surface Tools (tools for managing surfaces, profiles and 3D animation) $145

e) Universal Manifold is the Enterprise version plus three extensions above featured $ 575; the runtime version of this release is worth $ 225

f) Manifold Ultimate, is the version of Database Administration plus three extensions $845

… A needed clarification, to move from one version to another, only is needed to buy activation key features, it means that a Manifold version includes all, activations are purchased only as needed.

3. Is it a Manifold data GIS model?

Damn, this question is more complicated and I can not find much in the Manifold website.

Here is a link to the object model, I do not know if there is something else and I do not feel able to answer this question … but here can be more.