The Swedish company pcSKOG AB has released the 2011 version of its forestry management program, pcSKOG Gård. This program is used by forest owners to create and effectively use forest management plans. The focus of the 2011 version is simplification of the program user interface for greater ease of use and implementation of an efficient integrated mapping solution. The development with the TatukGIS DK (.NET edition) has enabled implementation of useful new features for project management, real-time GPS, sketch map editing, support for web map services, etc.
This is the first version of pcSKOG Gård developed with the TatukGIS DK - previous versions were based on ESRI ArcView. With the 2011 release, pcSKOG has progressed technically from the ArcView 3.2 GIS engine, Paradox database, and data storage in ESRI SHP files to the TatukGIS DK GIS engine, SQLite database, and data storage in a geodatabase.
pcSKOK products are used by the majority of forestry management companies and forest owners in Sweden and customer response to the pcSKOG Gård 2011 version has already been very positive. During the next few weeks pcSKOG will release DK based upgrades of its other forestry management related software products.
New or improved features of the pcSKOG Gård 2011 version are described below
Easier and better map
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Version 2011 introduces new management of the forestry plan map. ArcView has been deleted to make room for an integrated mapping software, effectively combining two products into one. Much energy has been invested into designing a mapping program that feels intuitive and easy to use. The map rendering is lightning fast and supports more data formats - such as wallpapers. All functions are grouped for easy access. |
Real-time GPS
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The new mapping software has real-time GPS functionality to view the current location, georeference a data point, log a path, etc. |
Web Map Services
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Maps from web-based map services, such as the map of Sweden, can be directly opened and viewed as a base layer for a forest management plan. Other web map services can be added by entering a URL. pcSKOG has added web map services offered by the National Land Survey (map of Sweden), County Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Open Street Map and Mapquest. More is on the way! This makes pcSKOG the natural hub for digital maps! |
See multiple maps at once and save the map presentation to a project file
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The mapping solution supports viewing several forest plans at once. It is possible to save a multi-layer map presentation as a project file, including the appearance and other properties of each map layer. Use of the project file makes for more efficient user interaction with the forest plan. By opening a saved project file at a later time, the user is right back to where the work was left off. |
Geotag Photos
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The map now supports handling images that are georeferenced / geotagged, i.e., associated with a set of x,y coordinate values. This is an effective way to document some situations - a picture says a thousand words ... Geotagged images can be added to a section that appears in the Title Data page. |
A department table in the map
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It is now easy to navigate and make selections of services through a department table under the Map tab. As a bonus, it is also very easy to find the right stocks on the map. |
For more about pcSKOG, refer to the company web site at www.pcskog.se.