Jurnal Kej. Awam Jil . 10 nu 21997

THE POTENTIAL OF SLIMPAC AS AMANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM SOFTWARE

- AN OVERVIEW

by

Dr. Mohd. Zulkifli Mohd. YunusDepartment of Geotechnics and Transportation

Faculty of Civil Engineering .

Abstract

The selection of GIS software applications vary with the purposes andrequirements ofusing it. The two major applications for GIS software are for

. management/information and design analysis. The surveyors Land InformationManagement PACkage (SLIM) is basically developed for management ormonitoring purposes and some design applications. Studies on areas ofapplications. specifications, operations. data sources. data organisations andinformation presentation shows the potentials of SLIMPAC as a ManagementInformation System Package.

INTRODUCTION

SLIMPAC is a computer application system for capturing, processing,organising and displaying spatial and related descriptive data. It IS designed toinput, store. manipulate, display and output land survey data; spatial and non­spatial. It can be used to solve many of the current problems associated withmanaging and accessing map and map related information (parker, et ai, 1986).SLIMPAC is designed arid developed ' at the Department of Surveying,University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The development process started in 1985and was upgraded to a new version in 1988. In mid 1989. SLIMPAC wasintroduced to the British computer market as a Management Information .System package; a tool of a Geographic Information System software package.SLIMPAC has its own characteristics, where descriptive information and mapfeatures are stored independently.

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SLIMPAC is mainly based on two commercial computer software packages i.e.AutoCAD (graphic system) and Superfile (database system). In total, it hasbeen developed with four commercial packages related to each other:

a) AutoCAD. b) Superfilect- DESQViewd) . Pascal Language

AutoCAD is operated as the SLIMPAC Graphics program; it will display datain graphics mode. All inbuilt commands which exist in AutoCAD are beingused fully. Several commands are created to make the SLIMPAC Graphicsmore powerful. Superfile operates as the SLIMPAC Database program; data orinformation can be extracted in any textual form. It provides Applicationprograms which are not difficult for a user to understand.

DESQview is being used as a window and memory management program. Alloperation in SLIMPAC are controlled by DESQview. It also allows transferringdata and fast access to programs; another program can be run without closingthe previous program. The usage of Pascal in SUMPAC istowrite programswhich operate and run the SUMPAC program itself. It is also important forextracting data contained in Superfile for the usage in SLIMPAC Graphics(Mohd Zulkifli, 1993).

This study .was undertaken to identify SLIMPAC capabilities, weaknesses andproblems in information handling via SLIMPAC application areas,specifications and their operation.

SLIMPAC APPLICATION AREAS

The usage of SLIMPAC is wide. It can be applied in many aspects in fieldssuch as surveying, engineering, architecture or administration that involvesinformation and management. Generally, the package is used for landinformation management Some of the'SUMPAC applications are: .

a) investigation- A user can use SLIMPAC to investigate exisnnginformation. For example, to investigate which company brarich have thehighest profit for a certain month and hatch it into a current map.

b) property terrier- This is very useful for any person involved in landproperty management such as surveyors or land agents. A user can getdetailed information concerning a land parcel whether from the graphical

. feature or textual database records. For example, area, committeeresponsible, valuations and charges of a certain land parcel.

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c) proposals- Many proposals can be tested before the plan is certified. Thisprocess could be comprehensive and automatically documented includingcolour maps and3D visualisations of the site. This is useful for 3D surfacemodelling.

d) planning and analys is- Development of a new shopping centre can bequickly planned in an existing map provided by SLIMPAC. A developershould know which type of shopping centre can be most profitable fortraders and ,customers. As a guidance, an analysis' of socio-economicfactors referenced to each postcodeor district will give some potential toplanning. This information can be extracted from the database records.

e) development- This is not very different from planning. Detailedinformation of land parcels for a potential development area such as sitearea, shapes, parcel valuations, list of owners or current planningapplications can be studied. These can be immediately extracted throughthe database records for the proposed development area.

l) facilities management- This is one of the advantages in the application ofSLI~PAC. A user can use SLIMPAC facilities; map and database recordsto obtain the detail information of location, construction and condition of apublic utility. For example, the detail information of an upstream sewernetwork can be obtained from a selected sewer line feature within the mapor textual database records. ,

g) descriptive , information 'query- Another function of SLIMPAC is toprovide information in descriptive or textual form. Any textual informationqueries can be obtained directly and independently through this facility.For example, a user can extract the slim of land parcels chosen from acertain address posteode. '

SLIMPAC SPECIFICATIONS

The following are some of the SLIMPAC software specifications:, ,

a) SLIMPAC consists of two different types of data that are inter-related toeach other; graphical and descriptive data. Graphical data are shown in amap or a drawing using AutoCAD software and the related descriptivedata are shown as attribute using Superfile. ' '

b) Information within SLIMPAC can be searched independently orsimultaneously and exchanged through its Graphics or Database programs.

c) SLIMPAC extends AutoCAD' standard commands for its graphicalfunctions, such as the "FSET' command that is usedfor selecting graphicalfeatures. '

d) The SLIMPAC standard commands allows both simple and complexqueries of the data. For example, information on buildings of a certaindesign built before a specified year with a certain value could berequested,

e) Map information can beinput from many sources and the scale, coloursand symbols of the displayed map can be changed using inbuilt commands.

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1) Textual records associated with the map features displayed on the screencan be viewed simultaneously.

g) SLIMPAC provides "HELP" facilities for any process if problems occurwithout referring to the instruction manual.

h) The quantity of descriptive information and number of field records in theSLIMl?AC Database program is limited only by the capacity of thecomputer. All descriptive data are stored only in one file.

i) Types of descriptive data are flexible. It can be character, numerical orjulian date. .

j) SLIMPAC provides commands in its Database program to look for anorher .associated records, link models, print, change or alter the database recordsfrom a current record.

SLIMPAC OPERATION

The operations of SLIMPAC are divided into three categories'; input, processingand output. Data sources are needed in SLIMPAC for input and arere-structured for processing. A user can have the information resulting fromthe processing stage either directly on a screen or printed out as a hard copy.Figure I shows the system operations in SLIMPAC.

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Figure 1 SLIMPAC system operation

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Data sourcesThe capabilities of SLIMPAC in capturing data sources are not limited.SLIMPAC consists of various types of data either in digital or non-digital form.Data in digital form can be concerned with different types of data structure. Itcan be obtained from other computer systems; spatial data has already beenformed into features and non-spatial data might already be associated with it.Many of the data sources in this category are obtained from the OrdnanceSurvey (OS), for example. data in Ordnance Survey Transfer Format "(OSTF)and Digital Map data for Customers (DMC) format. All types of data in thisform must be converted into AutoCAD Drawing,eXchange Format (DXF) fileformat when they are to be used in SLlMPAC. The conversion programs areavailable in this package. For example, program OSTODXF allows a user toconvert digital data from OSTF. OSTF+ and DMC file format to DXF fileful1D~ , .

SLIMPAC also allows a user to input data from field survey, photogrammetryor digitising, Some data provided by OS are incomplete, such as the positions oftrees not being shown in the digital data form, A field survey should be carriedout to find their positions on a map. Data obtained from this survey areconverted to ' DXF file format from a data recorder (e.g. Psion) through LandSurvey System (LSS) software or another . supported DXF file software.Currently. conversion programs to capture data sources from photograrnmetryare still under development. Another way to input data, is to directly digitise ,plans into the package. interior spatial information can 'be obtained fromarchitectural plans in this way. SLIMPAC has the facilities for interiorinformation queries either from feature selection in drawings or throughdatabase records or both. To fulfil this facility the only way to obtain, datasources for interior spatial information are to digitise it from some type of plan,for example. room plans and floor plans. ..

Other than the above method to obtain data sources. SLIMPAC also needsdescriptive or textual data to fulfil its role as an integrated package ' in GIS,applications. '

Data organisationBefore any software package is developed for GIS purposes. data classificationsmust be defined. SLlMPAC classifies its data organisation into two categories ,for its applications. The categories are: '

a) graphical data andb) descriptive data

Graphical dataGraphical data are classified by the objector phenomena on the ground. It isreferred to geographical data. Geographical data are referenced by usingstandard coordinate systems to locations on the earth's surface (Burrough.1986). .

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SLIMPAC divide graphical data into three categories (Figure 2):

a) Un-intelligent featuresb) Semi-intelligent features andc) Intelligent features

Each category is classified into different layers according to its features. Afeature is "something which is discretely defined, comprising anumber ofspatial and descriptive elements, treated as an indivisible set. (i.e. a set ofspatial elements having acommon descriptive element.) e.g, house, tree, drain"(Hosken, J988). A layer is a basic element of data storage; different kinds of agraphical data can be stored in different layers. The number of layers inAutoCAD is unlimited,depending on the computer storage space. This term iswidely used in CAD system.

a) Un-intelligent featuresThe un-intelligent features are the main data sources representing surface detailsin layers within AutoCAD. They can represent background detail in thedrawing. Ani data sources can be input in this classification to fulfil the user'sneed. This type of feature will be used to fulfil itself as its function or forcreating semi-intelligent or intelligent features.

Data sources for these features can also be obtained from the field survey.photogrammetry and digitising from another maps or plans. Un-intelligentfeaturecategories and examples are shown in Figure 2. .

b) Semi-intelligent featuresData sources for these features are adopted from the un-intelligent group. Thereare no descriptive or textual database records for these features in SLIMPAC.Semi-intelligent features are needed to maintain any graphical view on thescreen within layers. The examples of some features are pavements, buildingaccess and steps. Figure 2 shows a level of semi-intelligent features and itsexamples.

c) . Intelligent featuresThe data sources for this category are obtained from the original data sources;un-intelligent features such as OS-Water, OS-Road, new survey and others.

. These features are created to relate to the appropriate associated textualdatabase records .

Intelligent features are divided into three classes:

i) Area featureii) Line featureiii) Point feature

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Intelligentfeatures

Semi­inteRlgcntfeatures

~n-intelllgent.eatures

[

!-ine -[features

Point -[features

Figure2 Graphlcal da "ta catego ' •" nesmSLIMP" ~C

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Gardens

" Roads

Sewers

Control points

Manholes"

~dmin-sltehmits

Pavements

Os-water

Newsuney

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An area feature is defined as an entity containing series of points connected toeach other to form a closed polygon. The definition of a line feature is an entityshown by series of more than one coordinate in a clockwise order. A point is anentity containing a single coordinate set either in a two dimensional (XY) orthree dimensional coordinate system (XYZ). Types of dati for all the abovefeatures are according to their form. For example. the data type for area featuresare all the area types such as buildings, car parks, etc.

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Descriptive dataDescriptive data or non-spatial information is attribute information that isrelated to the graphical data; i.e, textual information for the graphical features.Superfile is a commercial database management system for storing textualinformation on micro computers. It is a package to store any sort of informationsuch as feature number. name of department, address, postcode, etc.

Superfile is very adaptable. It keeps all its records in one database file. It storesany number of records. Each record can consist of any number of fields ofinformation. Records are most easily created and edited using Forms. Superfilecan have 'any number of types of records . Superfile accepts any record as longas it uses valid tags. It imposes no particular shape on records. A record cancontain whatever tags (field names for records) a user likes. Records are easy tofind, erase and add. Records containing different types of information can belinked together by common items to make a relational database. The order ofrecords in the database tends to be random, since new or altered records areadded at the physical end of the single database file. In SUMPAC, Superfile isused to store, retrieve and manipulate all descriptive information withoutrestrictions in a single computer file. It can be accessed via special index files.

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SLIMPAC classifies its textual information into two forms:

a) . main formb) associated records form

Main form constitutes the important general information related . to the.. graphical data. This form is used to link with graphical features; a main form isrelated to each intelligent feature. When a user chooses any graphical featureand wishes to obtain its textual information, first. this form will be displayed'with the information on unique feature number, centroid coordinate, area,feature name and the detailed description of a feature. This form also provides acolumn to telate it to other forms called associated record forms.

Associated records form is a sub-form, continuation from the main form. Anyfurther information considered with the graphical feature can be obtained fromthe main form via this associated record form. A user is allowed to create anassociated record form from the previous associated form; SLIMPAC providessuch commands to relate the main form to any associated record forms.However. a user should declare a total maximum number of the form used in acurrent project. SLIMPAC limits its maximum form in each project to fiftyforms only.

Information presentationThe operation to present Information in SLIMPAC is carried out by twomethods:

a) map informationb) textual information

Map informationPresentation of map information is managed by :AutoCAD. "It representsgraphical surface detail into different layers in different categories.

When features are selected in a map, SLIMPAC will hatch the selected featureswith different colours . A user can only obtain information about a SLIMPACfeature number shown on the graphics screen. If SLIMPAC holds a largespatial dataset , it is better to divide them into several sites. Each site shows adifferent AutoCAD map drawing, but all related textual information is held in asingle database. Map information or map drawings of any area can be producedon a multi-pen plotter. .

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Textual informationThe majority of queries made on information can be done through the databaserecords. Using the SLIMPAC Database program facilities , a user can insert anyquery information into a blank fOI11l to obtain complete information for afeature . .

Both ' information, map and textual, can be operated independently orsimultaneously. A selected feature from the descriptive database either from themain form or .an associated record forin matching a required model 'can bedrawn (displayed) in theSLIMPAC Graphics. The reverse process of searchingthe textual information describing a drawn feature from the map is alsopossible.

The textual information for a selected feature can be produced directly to theprinter. The layout is the same as the form seen on the computer screen after aquery is made using the available commands. This information ' can also beobtained as a hardcopy in "Reports" form style that is available using theSLIMPAC Database. . .

CONCLUSIONS ·

SLIMPAC, the Surveyors Land Information Management Package is a new toolfor GIS applications. SLIMP AC is used for any operation related to informationand management. It can be applied for investigation, property terrier, proposal,planning or analysis, development, descriptive information query and facilitiesmanagement.

Various types of data can be input in SLIMPAC either in digital or non-digitalformAl! descriptive data in database records are held on a single computer.However, this will change where the current database can be 'held on a fileserver (i.e. a remote Computer) and accessed from several locations. Graphicaldata types are classified into three categories; un-intelligent , semi-intelligentand intelligent features. ' .

In future, SLIMPAC data will become more intelligent. The OS will providemap data with a topological structure, With careful design, all spatial and non­spatial information collected can be transferred to other more powerful systemsavailable. Currently, an extension to SLlMPAC already permits the transfer ofdata (map and textual) in semi-structured from AutoCAD and Superfile toARCIINFO GIS software which was developed by Environmental System

. Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) (parker, 1989). .

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REFERENCES

[lJ Burrough, P.A. (1986), Principles of Geographical Information Systemsfor Land Resources Assesement, Clarendon Press,Oxford.

[2J Rosken, E.J . (1988), -The Design and Implementation ofa ComputerisedLand Survey Information. Management Package, PhD Thesis, Dept. ofSurveying, Universityof Newcastle upon Tyne.

[3J Mohd. Zulkifli Mohd. Yunus (1993), 'A Role ofGraphical andDatabaseSoftware in-SUMPAC, Buletin Ukur (Surveying Bulletin) - Faculty ofSurveying, UTM. vol. 4 no, 1, January 1993.

[4] Mohd. Zulkifli Mohd. Yunus (1994), 'A Case Study of SUMPAC DataProcessing for The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne Campus', BuletinUkur (Surveying Bulletin) ~ Faculty of Surveying, UTM. vol. 5 no. 2, May1994.

[5J OS, (1988), . A summary of the Ordnance Survey Specification forDigitising Large Scale Maps, Ordnance Survey, Southampton.

[6J OS, (1989), Working Party to produce National Standardsfor the transferof digital map dota: National Transfer Format, Release 1.1., OrdnanceSurvey, Southampton.

[7] Parker,D., Rautenbach, A.M., Hosken, E.J. and Ritchie, Aj. (1986),SLIMPAC.. System - overview, user information, system information,Internal reference document, Dept. of Surveying, University of Newcastleupon Tyne.

[8] Parker, D. (1989), Land jnformati~n Systems in GeneralPractice ..AnIntegrated Approach, Paper presentedat the Universityof Warwick forSurveying and Mapping 1989, 10pages.

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