TerraExplorer - 3D Geospatial Viewer & Dissemination Tool

Cutting-edge 3D GIS desktop viewer and creator

TerraExplorer provides powerful tools and a high-resolution 3D environment in which to view, query, analyze and present geospatial data. With TerraExplorer's robust and extensive capabilities and interoperability, stunningly realistic 3D visualizations can be created by overlaying the terrain with unlimited data layers, 3D models, virtual objects and more.

Skyline Software Systems

Herndon, US

Description

TerraExplorer is a cutting-edge 3D GIS desktop viewer and creator that provides powerful tools and a high-resolution 3D environment in which to view, query, analyze and present geospatial data. With TerraExplorer's robust and extensive capabilities, realistic 3D visualizations can be created by overlaying the terrain with unlimited data layers, 3D models, virtual objects and more. Analysis In addition to basic measurement and analysis tools for distance, slope, and volume measurements, TerraExplorer features advanced capabilities, including 3D plane area measurement, imagery comparison, and dynamic 3D viewshed. Display Imagery and elevation layers of unlimited size and resolution in a wide range of formats can be overlaid on the terrain and seamlessly integrated with feature layers and multi-resolution, stream-optimized 3D mesh model layers for easy visualization, access, and analysis of 3D geospatial data. If a new layer is based on a source that uses a different coordinate system, the layer can be reprojected to the project's coordinate system. Point, line and polygon features can be displayed and used to display advanced layer information based on their attribute data. TerraExplorer also includes an extensive set of objects: 2D and 3D, dynamic, buildings, models, point cloud models and video, that can be displayed on the terrain, as well as advanced terrain objects that allow terrain modification within TerraExplorer Pro. A flexible clipboard mechanism and sophisticated duplication tools make it easy to copy, paste, and position objects on the terrain. Realism is enhanced with environment settings that include lighting effects, horizon distance, fog color, sky texture, cloud display, and shadow color. Spatial Queries TerraExplorer provides advanced capabilities for manipulating feature and 3DML data and analyzing spatial relationships. Various spatial operations can be performed on a layer’s features, including merging features into a single feature, clipping one polygon from another, exploding a multi-part feature into its individual component features, and exporting selected features to a new file. Complex spatial and attribute queries are supported. Features can be filtered based on attribute value or based on their spatial relationship with a specified polygon, line point or object. A buffer zone can be defined to include features within a certain radius of the selection. Publishing Data SkylineGlobe Server streamlines the TerraExplorer workflow, enabling complete projects and layers to be optimized and published directly from TerraExplorer Pro to the cloud server. Through a single publishing operation, the data is made available to all TerraExplorer clients: Desktop, Mobile, and TE for Web, as well as standard geospatial clients such as WFS/WFS-T/WMS/WMTS/3D Tiles (Cesium). 1 Creating and Sharing 3D Presentations TerraExplorer’s presentation tools enable you to create a presentation, in which you communicate a specific view of the 3D World, by combining a customized flight route with a particular display of the project. Your presentation consists of one or more steps, in each of which you control the display of the 3D World, including current camera position, layer and object visibility, system time, and popup messages and captions. Presentations can be easily converted to standard video files. Optimization Advanced tools allow conversion of model files and of point cloud data from various formats to a stream- optimized Skyline-proprietary format for improved display performance as well as download rate. The Extract Terrain tool extracts and creates a subset of a local or remote terrain database for easy distribution.

Specifications

Data management: Spatial reference system

From data source

Security options for access

Y

Search on file content

Y

Version management

Y

Geometry types: Lines

Line segment

Points

Point

Surfaces

Polygon

Raster

Reference

Other: License or freeware

Open source

Training

Y

Main applications

TerraExplorer Pro, Photomesh, TerraBuilder

Related products

SkylineGlobe Server

Distinguishable features

supports many formats, publishable to offline kit - completely offline disconnected projects can be made

Extensions

Extensive API allows tools to be added easily.

2D Editing: Select

By drawing attributes

Remove

By select

Graphic transformations

Scale

Coordinate transformations

Yes

Mosaicing

Yes

Generalization

No

2D Construction: Positioning in relation to other element

Parallel

Positioning by coördinates

Y

Positioning by snapping

N

Storage: Type of data storage

File

Input formats

Dwg

Export formats

Dwg

Native storage format

File

Compression

Y

Visualisation: Types

Color

Change view

None

Thematic mapping

Choropleth

Temporal

Yes

Interoperability: Web standards

None

Spatial database management systems

None

Messaging protocols

None

Extensions

none

Metadata

None

Publish standards

KML

Available API’s

Yes

General: Year of last update

2019

Supported operation system

Windows

Main GIS category

Enterprise GIS

Year of introduction

1996

Supported hardware

Multi-Core, 4 or 8 cores recommended; 4GB RAM Recommended: 1GB Video RAM recommended with Pixel and vertex shader 3.0