Pipelines
The end of the year brings some new features and improvements to existing TatukGIS functionalities. Today, we introduce the TatukGIS Pipeline tool - a simplified geoprocessing commands interpreter.
Pipelining addresses customers' need for way to a execute complex analyses in a quick, easy, and repeatable manner. Pipelines can be thought as a system for enclosing a series of basic geoprocessing operations (e.g., opening, creating, and saving layers, executing vector and raster operations, etc.) into an easily manageable workflow, without need for any coding/scripting skills.
For example, suppose a user wants to:
- open a vector layer with points,
- interpolate the points into a grid,
- colorize the grid, and
- generate contour lines.
Let's take a look at how this sequence of operations can be performed using a pipeline (note that lines beginning with a ';' are only comments):
Base.Say "Start"
GIS.Close
Layer.Open Result=$src Name=source Path="c:\data\temperatures.shp"
Layer.CreateGrid Result=$dst Name=grid CS=$src Extent=$src Width=1000 Height=1000
Interpolation.Kriging Source=$src Destination=$dst Field=TEMP
Layer.Close Layer=$src
Ramp Layer=$dst
GIS.FullExtent
Layer.CreateVector Result=$cntr Name=contours CS=$dst Extent=$dst ShapeType=Arc
Layer.AddField Layer=$cntr Name=NewField Type=Float Width=3
Contour Source=$dst Destination=$cntr Field="NEW FIELD" ContourBase=15 ContourInterval=1
GIS.ZoomToLayer Layer=$cntr GIS.Update
Base.Say "Done"
The result is:
To make pipeline creation even simpler, the TatukGIS Editor contains a pipeline editor plug-in that is available under the Tools menu:
An existing command can be selected from the list. Double-clicking on the command line opens a dedicated pop-up dialog box with available options:
Pipelining is implemented in the TatukGIS Developer Kernel in DK sample - Pipeline.
The list of available operations is still being developed and we are open to customer suggestions. For example, we plan to add more vector related operations, such as triangulation, etc.
Pipelining is a part of TatukGIS Developer Kernel (DK) and available on all platforms. See TGIS_Pipeline class.