Blue Marble Geographics announced that they will be demonstrating the latest advances in coordinate conversion technology with the Geographic Calculator 7.0 at INTERGEO 2007. This pending major release of their comprehensive, flexible and powerful coordinate conversion tool introduces coordinate transformation that allows users to select the datum shift of their choice. Most coordinate conversion tools available today force users to transform between WGS84, and thus introduce inaccuracies in their transformations. The Geographic Calculator 7.0 allows the user to select the appropriate datum transformation for their geographic area.
Blue Marble’s geospatial translation technology is used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations. Blue Marble is known for their expertise in coordinate conversion and geodetic transformation of geospatial data.
Calculator 7.0 will introduce a new folder structure based on geographic area with coordinate systems organized by country. The naming conventions for all coordinate reference systems and transformations are based on industry and ISO standards. Coordinate transformations are documented, with all necessary parameters and sources clearly visible. Users can select appropriate horizontal or vertical datum transformations quickly and confidently.
“Other translation tools require that the user converts their coordinates through WGS84,” states Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham. “This technique can introduces inaccuracies, be they at the sub-meter level or hundreds of meters in error. One wrong decision in the middle of the transformation process can destroy even the most accurate base data. Many software vendors are not even aware of the errors they are introducing or where in the process this is happening.” The Geographic Calculator is the only prominent GIS tool to address this issue.
As in all versions of the Geographic Calculator, this release will support the latest version of the OGP’s European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG) database. The GeoCalc datasource is the largest coordinate system library available and includes support for horizontal coordinate transformations between RT90, SWERER99, ETRS89 and the German based Ntv2/BeTA2007 grid shift files. GeoCalc also offers support for several custom local mathematical projections, including a specialized Swiss Oblique Mercator, Hungarian EOV grids, Krovak, and specialized European Stereographic. Version 7.0 will also support local and global Vertical Datum transformation models such as EGM96, and several IBERG systems. Calculator tools allow users to easily define custom or local systems by guiding the user through the appropriate process.
Source: Blue Marble Geographics
