It is based on proven COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) software components, combined with expert design and development services.

Key features

These are some of the ways that Mantle ETM scores over older methods of terrain virtualization:

• Cost-effectiveness.
• Ease-of-use.
• Effectiveness.
• Proven technology.
• Regular updates.
• Scalability.

Cost-effectiveness

Mantle ETM reduces the manpower required to develop and deploy terrain by offering a high degree of automation at every stage.

Ease-of-use

It is is designed with accessibility in mind. Users can quickly learn to create and edit terrain on the fly. With the VBS Geo-editing tool, it leverages a content library consisting of more than eight thousand 3D models. And edits can be stored and curated centrally.

Effectiveness

Mantle ETM simplifies enterprise-wide terrain handling for simulation and visualization by providing you with a cloud-capable terrain server that can be integrated with your existing terrain creation capabilities.

Terrain generated using Mantle ETM

This greatly improves the effectiveness of this software system.

Proven technology

The platform is based on robust COTS components, including:

• TerraTools components for generating artificial terrains.
• VBS4’s Blue Data Pipeline technology for procedural enhancement.
• VBS World Server components for terrain storage and other server functionality.

Updated regularly

Mantle ETM components are updated regularly with new customer-driven requirements and bug fixes. It benefits from significant internal investment. This drives feature improvements such as curated global base data and extended support for new runtimes and streaming terrain formats.

Scalability

Mantle ETM can be deployed on the cloud or on a local area network. It also supports synchronization between servers so that data can be distributed and backed up safely.

Terrain challenges and solutions

Creating a high-fidelity terrain simulation is difficult and challenging. It requires good source data, building correlated terrain for multiple runtimes, synchronizing data between different simulation clients, storing the vast amount of source data, utilizing classified and other restricted data, and editing data, all “on the fly”.

Historically, these challenges required separate specialist teams to build terrain data, disconnected from the point-of-need users. In order to obtain the required finished terrain, the old methods resulted in high costs and long lead times. Mantle ETM solves all these problems.

A Mantle ETM installation integrates with your existing terrain capabilities. It delivers a cloud-capable custom terrain pipeline that works with your data, processes, servers, and runtimes. It can also deliver a full end-to-end terrain creation and management system from scratch. And it can run from an internal server on a local area network too.

As BISim releases Mantle ETM, CEO Arthur Alexio explains

About BISim

Founded in 2001, Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) is a global software company at the forefront of simulation and training software development for defense and civilian organizations. Its engineers use the latest game-based technology to develop high-fidelity, cost-effective training and simulation software products.

Thousands of military personnel around the world train using BISim’s VBS software products. More than 60 NATO and NATO-friendly countries, and over 300 system integrators and prime contractors deploy its VBS technology.

• More information about BISim and MantleETM.

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Geo Week Details

Geo Week will take place 6 – 8 February 2022, in Denver, CO. The conference includes an impressive list of conference sessions and speakers with over 50 sessions and 125 speakers exploring content and best practices in 3D capture, working in the built environment, gaining ROI on BIM, defining what’s possible with LiDAR, and much more.

Presenters will be presenting leading organizations, including software giants like Autodesk, Esri, and Hexagon Geosystems. Other organizations with speakers include industry giants like GM (General Motors), The Beck Group, USGS, Draper, and NASA, among others.

Some featured sessions include:

• BIM Projects Approaches
• The Digital Twin In Action
• Locating and Mapping Underground Infrastructure
• 3D Technology in Transportation
• AR/VR/XR Applications
• Mapping for Transportation (Road and Rail)
• Exploring How 3D Technology Will Define Our Future Workflows
• Advances in Processing of Point Clouds

Geo Week will have multiple tracks with content clearly identified as relevant to one or more of the audience groups feeding into Geo Week. The International Lidar Mapping Forum (ILMF) audience has historically been comprised of precision measurement professionals in surveying and mapping who use airborne and terrestrial lidar and related remote sensing technologies. The AEC Next audience has historically been comprised of professionals in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) that use technologies such as reality capture, automation, AI, and XR to bid and manage projects and improve workflows. The SPAR 3D audience has historically been comprised of professionals who use 3D capture, scanning, visualization, and modeling technologies across a variety of verticals.

Geo Week is a super conference and expo merging AEC Next, SPAR 3D and Lidar Forum conferences into one combined event.

“We’ve witnessed the growing convergence between geospatial and the built world,” said Lee Corkhill, Group Event Director at Diversified Communications, organizer of Geo Week. “We believe the market is ready and eager for this next step of leveraging the confluence of technologies for improved collaboration, increased efficiency, and better outcomes. Much of the conference content and technology being showcased will reflect and support this increasing integration. At the same time, we recognize that individuals and organizations are at differing levels of adoption, and so there will be ample content that is more focused on what were traditional AEC Next, ILMF, and SPAR 3D topics.” 

Educational Resources

Geo Week will provide education, technology, and resources for professionals in industries including AEC, Asset & Facility Management, Disaster & Emergency Response, Earth Observation & Satellite Applications, Energy & Utilities, Infrastructure & Transportation, Land & Natural Resource Management, Mining & Aggregates, Surveying & Mapping, and Urban Planning & Smart Cities.

More than 80 companies have confirmed booths on the Exhibition Floor with additional companies being confirmed every week and more than 100 associations and media companies are signed on as supporters.

How To Register

Geo Week takes place February 6-8, 2022, with conference programming and exhibits Sunday, February 6 through Tuesday, February 8. Additional features of the programming are vendor-delivered Product Previews, Exhibition Theaters, workshops, and programming hosted by ASPRS, MAPPS, and USIBD. Visit www.geo-week.com for more information on attending or exhibiting. Register before December 10, 2021 for early bird rates. 

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Nearmap AI datasets

The launch marks Nearmap as the first among aerial imagery providers to offer both AI analysis and high-definition, frequently updated aerial images on a commercial scale. Nearmap AI datasets will allow users to automatically identify ground features, from tree overhang to residential footprints, track changes, and verify insights against current aerial imagery at a massive scale.

Available to businesses and governments in Australia and the United States starting today, Nearmap AI will make it easier for organizations, regardless of size, to access and use AI-driven location intelligence to plan, manage and run their operations. For example, local governments will be able to use Nearmap AI to remotely appraise property developments and detect changes in public construction projects, while insurers can integrate the AI datasets as part of their underwriting and claims management processes.

01 – Nearmap aerial imagery is consistently sub-3″ GSD per pixel, showing consistent clarity, precision, and fine features that are several times sharper than free satellite images. All rights reserved.

“Our customers are the key drivers of our innovation, and they have been telling us about their increasing need to quickly gather location insights that can enhance their productivity and give them a competitive edge,” said Dr. Rob Newman, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Nearmap.“Nearmap AI is a product innovation breakthrough that has been in the making for some time now. What’s unique about it is that it combines the best of both worlds — data analytics and high-definition, frequently-updated aerial imagery. And when you add Nearmap tools for measurement, search and location identification, businesses get a solution that will exponentially help scale up their insight gathering efforts, with richer and more accurate data.”

Nearmap AI datasets are integrated with consistent, verifiable aerial imagery from Nearmap’s extensive library. The product capitalizes on highly-accurate machine learning models, tailor-made by Nearmap experts, and deployed at massive scale across its high-definition aerial images.

Innovative use cases across insurance, utilities and government

With Nearmap AI, users can instantly identify key features on the ground at massive scale and track changes over time, using data layers on the Nearmap Mapbrowser platform.

Professionals across insurance, utilities, and local government will be able to explore a variety of use cases, as reflected in the strong demand among early industry adopters during the beta period. These include:

• Automated property analytics, to facilitate risk underwriting and claims management

• Digital underwriting and claims processing

• Supplementary datasets to enrich risk modeling

• Property appraisals, including detecting changes in developments

• Assessments of development applications and permits

• Change detection for property valuations

• Public safety and planning

“We believe Nearmap AI will profoundly change the way we plan, build and maintain our cities and infrastructure today,” said Newman. “With this combination of data analytics and high-definition aerial imagery, local governments, for instance, will benefit from a birds-eye view and automatic analysis of their cities’ evolution, to inform their planning and construction efforts.”

Easy access to AI insights and high-definition aerial imagery at scale

To access Nearmap AI, subscribers can purchase online or offline export credits, valid for an annual contract period, which will allow them to export AI-derived location intelligence content. Customers will be able to access AI Layers, which overlay Nearmap’s high-definition, regularly-updated aerial images in MapBrowser. They can also download relevant datasets for use within their own native systems through the AI Parcel Export function.

A freshly-processed set of AI dataset packages, available at launch, will allow automatic analysis and identification of ground features and changes over time. Current attributes include tree overhang, construction sites, residential footprints, roof materials and shapes, solar panels, pools, and trampolines. The list of Nearmap AI attributes is set to expand as Nearmap continues to deepen its product innovation efforts.

Technology leadership in the expanding location intelligence market

The commercial release of Nearmap AI marks the culmination of more than three years’ worth of research and development by a dedicated team of close to 20 Nearmap data scientists and machine learning engineers and comes after an earlier beta program with a select pool of customers. To date, Nearmap has analyzed more than one million square kilometers of imagery across Australia and the U.S., constituting more than 90 million properties.

The new Nearmap AI product release represents another significant milestone for the company as it continues to invest heavily in its core technology and customer proposition, developing differentiated and high-value content types to its growing customer base. This follows the successful commercial rollout of Nearmap 3D and roof geometry in 2019, which further anchored Nearmap as a leader in the expanding location intelligence market.

About Nearmap

Nearmap brings the real world to you. Nearmap delivers high-resolution aerial imagery as a service to businesses across the world, powered by industry-leading geospatial mapping technology. Using its own patented camera systems and processing software, Nearmap captures wide-scale urban areas in North America and Australia multiple times each year, making fresh content instantly available in the cloud via web app or API integration.

Every day, Nearmap helps thousands of users conduct virtual site visits for deep, data-driven insights—enabling informed decisions, streamlined operations, and robust bottom lines.

Founded in Australia in 2007, Nearmap is one of the ten largest aerial survey companies in the world by annual data collection volume and is publicly listed in the ASX 200. For more information, visit https://www.nearmap.com/us/en.

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Autodesk InfraWorks Update

The goal by Autodesk is to improve BIM + GIS workflows across the software pipelines of various infrastructure design and engineering professionals. The connector can be used to build an InfraWorks model directly from GIS data published to Esri’s ArcGIS Online.

All the data in GIS from Esri’s ArcGIS comes into InfraWorks. This information flow between these two leading apps means that when the Esri-based GIS data is updated the InfraWorks model can be updated and refreshed.

01 – Autodesk InfraWorks updates to support first “in product” features tying in Esri-based GIS data directly into InfraWorks.

The latest update to InfraWorks includes other new features and improvements. It is now possible to edit vertical curve values directly in the Curves Properties panel. There is now Delayed Model Regeneration to help keep designers moving forward and not waiting for whole model refreshes each time they make small adjustments to the model, like moving a curb.

InfraWorks views are accessible via web and mobile devices but the feature now includes a bookmarks and detailed model data view. Finally, BIM 360 users will see account and project name data clearly when accessing projects in multiple and different BIM 360 accounts. This is a BIM 360 improvement that carries over to better workflows for InfraWorks.

For more on Autodesk InfraWorks or the partnership between Autodesk and Esri visit here.

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That’s because the Esri ArcGIS Desktop Virtualization Appliance with NVIDIA GRID graphics virtualization technology is here. Now, geographic information systems (GIS) applications, like Esri ArcGIS Pro, can be delivered to users in the field, on any connected device.

At one point you could only use ArcGIS Pro on high-end workstations. With NVIDIA GRID, users out in the field or in other locations can get the same experience once limited to desktop computing, but the application stays hosted in the data center giving access remotely to many types of professionals in field and remote from the office.

Esri’s new hardware visualization device can exist in the data center, providing remote access to GIS information to users in the field (image: Esri. All rights reserved)

Whether for city planning, military operations, facilities management or natural resource conservation, all sorts of organizations use ArcGIS Pro. Schools, governments and businesses use it to analyze data, create maps, visualize scenarios and share information, in both 2D and 3D environments. This is an incredible time saver that gives professionals real time feedback.

The Ability to Work Outside

GIS is about understanding information about the outside. But without virtualization, its use has largely been stuck inside office walls. Limiting accessibility to people on site. Now professionals in the field can map out the environment to see what they are dealing with.

The Esri ArcGIS Desktop Virtualization Appliance makes it easy to virtualize ArcGIS Pro, so those in the field can be just as productive as people back at the office. It’s based on the Dell Precision Appliance for Wyse, and uses VMware vSphere 6.0 and Horizon View. NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology divides and shares the GPU, so up to 16 concurrent users can enjoy a high-end workstation-class experience.

The Esri ArcGIS Desktop Virtualization Appliance makes it simple for IT managers interested in virtualizing ArcGIS Pro to spin up a proof of concept or deployment. They can integrate it into an established virtualization environment within a matter of hours. And set-up is a snap using Dell’s Quick Start Tool to install and configure the VMware desktop virtualization instances.

Architosh Analysis

Ersi and NVIDIA are teaming up to give professionals who rely on ArcGISPro the ability to work in the office or on site without the limitations of hardware. Virtualization creates mobility in the field so professionals can use the data in a 2D or 3D application to map out geographic environments. You can visualize your data in both 2D and 3D. You can store as many maps as you need in the same project, and you can open multiple maps at once and view them side by side. You can visualize the layers you’re editing in both 2D and 3D so you can see features from all perspectives. Editing involves creating, updating, and maintaining geospatial information that is stored and organized in layers. Geoprocessing provides a rich suite of tools for performing spatial analysis and managing GIS data in an automated way. You can share everything from whole projects to maps, layers, tasks, and other components of your work on site.

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Continuing on with other key news from the event, Graebert™ GmbH–the pioneer in developing high-performance CAD solutions across desktop and mobile devices –announces ARES® Map™, the latest addition to the company’s growing family of CAD solutions.

ARES is powered by Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

ARES Map is powered by ArcGIS® Online from Esri® (Redlands, California US), the world leader of Geographic Information Systems(GIS) technologies. ARES Map is also based on the acclaimed ARES Commander™engine –Graebert’s popular DWG-based CAD platform, trusted by more than 7 million professionals worldwide as part of their daily workflow. Maps, floorplans, and any infrastructure created with ARES Map are saved natively in DWG and also contain smart GIS-enabled information associated to the entities.

GIS and location intelligence applications are the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization, and combine maps and data to help organizations make better choices. Common usages of GIS include infrastructure management, real estate site selection, route/corridor selection, evacuation planning, conservation, natural resource extraction, etc.

Ability to convert CAD into GIS entities

Esri’s users will find that ARES Map helps them to easily convert CAD information into smart GIS-enabled entities. They will be able to choose a coordinate system among hundreds of projected, geometric or vertical options to best align the CAD file with the rest of the World. Connected with Esri’s servers, users will benefit from Esri’s professional base maps and readily available feature services. They may also access their own GIS information from an ArcGIS Online account to display and manage synchronized data sets. The hundreds of CAD features of ARES Map simplify both the modifications and the collaboration with other CAD Software using the popular DWG format.

01 – ARES Map combines all the CAD features required to create and modify DWG drawings, with the option to add GIS intelligence to specific CAD drawings.

CAD professionals will also see in ARES Map an unlimited source of productivity gains. Powered by ArcGIS Online, ARES Map provides best-in-class base maps such as street maps or satellite images for any location in different scales. Users may also connect with Esri’s feature services to display useful information such as roads, networks, population and more.

David Totman, Industry Manager for Esri commented that “Esri is very excited to be collaborating with Graebert around ARES Map. The Graebert team has been working with our key developers to offer the best integration with our GIS technology. From an Esri business development perspective, I see this as a unique opportunity for our mutual customers to leverage their CAD and GIS investments. Bridging the gap between CAD and GIS workflows will be easier than ever with the ARES Map product.”

Wilfried Graebert, Founder and CEO of Graebert explained that “CAD software are typically file-based whereas GIS software structures information in databases and web services. The solution with ARES Map has been to bring together two technologies that are very differently structured and to build a dual-core engine capable of seamlessly converting, combining and saving in both modalities.”

Wilfried Graebert further commented: “We are very excited to be working with Esri, the leader in GIS, to offer Esri users and CAD professionals another opportunity to expand their customer offerings with cutting-edge Esri and Graebert technologies.”

ARES Map runs on Microsoft® Windows® 7/8/10 and supports DWG 2013 –2016. Esri users will discover this new hybrid technology at Esri’s European User Conference taking place in Salzburg from October 14 to 16. ARES Map will be distributed through partners. Companies interested to try ARES Map can contact Graebert for an early access–for more details visit www.aresmap.com.

About Graebert

Graebert is a leading developer of CAD software, solutions and services. They are recognized as a true innovator in the CAD industry and have more than 30 years of expertise. Their DWG-based CAD systems were the first to run on modern Windows®, Mac® and Linux® concurrently with the same code base. Graebert is also a pioneer in mobile CAD technologies, first on Windows and now Android®with ARES Touch™. Most recently, Graebert introduced ARES Kudo™, a full DWG-based CAD platform for the Cloud.

Graebert’s product portfolio is anchored by ARES Commander—a powerful, DWG-based CAD software with 2D and 3D modeling capabilities —which also enables developers to create standalone CAD applications. Overall, more than 7 million professionals use their ARES based CAD technologies in more than 100 countries. They also specialize in building surveying software and services. The SiteMaster™ line of  “as built” surveying solutions, as well as worldwide surveying services are included under Graebert’s iSurvey™ brand and division.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, Esri software is used in more than 350,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit them at www.esri.com.

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