Introduction to TUMONZ Tutorial

An Introduction to TUMONZ Tutorial Purpose To provide a general understanding of the what TUMONZ is, its functionality and the data sets it includes. What is TUMONZ? TUMONZ is essentially two products: 1. a GIS (Geographic Information System) that loads and displays spatial data and is equipped with a number of important mapping related functions and tools, and 2. spatial data sets. Why is TUMONZ Special? There are many applications in the international market place that render onscreen large spatial data sets (both vector; - ESRI shape files are the most common format, and spatially referenced aerial photos). There are also many applications that provide a range of drawing tools. So What is so special about TUMONZ? There are three general reasons: 1. Firstly, most applications loading large spatial data sets rely on high end hardware to overcome the memory burden. (If you ever have the opportunity in another application, try switching on all layers in a data set like the NZ Topo set and see how it crashes you average home PC.) The same data sets that TUMONZ is loading and displaying are quite different from the originals in structure. Data sets are converted into the unique TUMONZ data structure which makes use of some very important proprietary technologies so that the burden on computer memory is always low no matter what layers are ‘turned on’ and how extensive the land & sea surface is. 2. Secondly, TUMONZ is entirely ...