Viewer/Manifold display of Crater Lake region enhanced by curvature layer.

Videos

Seeing is Believing

Live Action Videos

This page provides videos for Manifold® Release 9 and Manifold Viewer, the fastest desktop GIS packages on the planet, automatically parallel and using all the CPU threads and GPU cores in your computer. Faster GIS is Better GIS.

Curious how Manifold compares to Esri products? See the Faster than Esri collection of videos. Do in seconds what takes Esri minutes or hours.

Manifold Release 9 is only $145, fully paid. Everything in the Release 9 videos on this page is only $145. Amazing! That's the fully paid price for Manifold System Release 9. The fastest and most powerful GIS ever created now also has the world's lowest cost of ownership.

Image at right: The Speed Demo with 1280 GPU Cores video shows how Manifold can enhance terrain elevation surfaces with complex curvature calculations, accomplishing in 2 minutes using GPU parallelism what takes non-parallel code five days.

Featured Videos

Using WMS

GetCapabilities · GetMap · GetFeatureInfo - A fast-moving tutorial video that covers a lot of ground, showing how to work with WMS sites served by Manifold Server. Manifold Server not only creates web sites as an Internet map server, it also automatically provides OGC WMS access to those sites using WMS connection strings.

The video begins by launching three example websites published to the web by Manifold Server, briefly demonstrating those sites and showing how to get attributes for objects shown using the Info button in the web user interface.

The video then moves on to showing how to use URL strings in a browser to get the capabilities of the WMS server using GetCapabilities requests. Next, it shows how to use a GetMap request to generate an image of the desired size in the browser covering a specified bounding box region of the map.

After that we show how to use GetFeatureInfo URLs in a browser to get attributes for objects in the map in a specified location. The video covers use of both projected coordinates, like in Pseudo-Mercator web maps, and also latitude and longitude coordinates in maps using lat/lon coordinate systems.

10 Minute Tutorial - WMS from Manifold Server

New in Release 9 : WMS serving - Universal and Server editions of Manifold Release 9 have the built-in ability to host websites using Manifold Server. What's new is how Server automatically creates a WMS server page when you create a GIS-enabled web page with Server. There's no programming required and no extra configuration required.

In the first two minutes, this video shows how to connect with an WMS client to a WMS data source automatically created by Server for the example demo page from the Manifold web site.

Next we show variations, like how transparency works, and how to connect to an alternate version of the project that has been set up to use a different background layer, a hill-shaded terrain elevation layer for the entire world.

Multiuser Editing

Fast and Easy Multiuser Editing - See how easy it is using Manifold Release 9 to do simultaneous, multiuser editing of the same layer.

Manifold supports simultaneous multiuser editing of layers when those layers are stored in a multiuser database like PostreSQL, Oracle or similar. However, we can also use a simple multiuser file database like SQLite that is a lot easier to set up.

This video shows how incredibly easy it is to set up a GPKG file (the spatial equivalent of SQLite) for multiuser editing. In moments we create a Manifold map of Mexico that can be edited by multiple users working on different machines at the same time. Super!

Cache for Faster Web Layers

Persistent Cache for Websites - Universal and Server editions of Manifold Release 9 have the built-in ability to host websites using Manifold Server. Websites hosted on Server often use third party web sources for background layers, such as image servers from Bing, Google or OpenStreet Map.

This video shows how to set up a persistent cache in an SQLite file that automatically serves tiles from third party web sources to the website without having to repeatedly fetch the same tiles for many different visitors to the website. Using cache can provide dramatically better performance, and it can save money when an API key must be used to fetch tiles from paid sites like Bing or Google.

The video shows how using an SQLite file to host the cache, which for most websites eliminates the need to stand up a more complex database such as PostgreSQL, Oracle or similar enterprise class DBMS.

Edit a Running Website

Dynamic Editing of a Live Website - Update data and edit layers in a website without pausing it or shutting it down. We use Manifold Release 9 to create a website that shows parcels in a town that have been saved to a simple, easy to create, multiuser file database in a GPKG file.

That allows Manifold to serve a website that can be browsed by visitors while simultaneously desktop sessions of Manifold can be used to dynamically update the contents of the website without shutting down the website. That is perfect for websites that show parcel data for towns, where administrators can use desktop sessions of Manifold to update information such as the owners of parcels or to correct the shape of parcels.

The video also shows how to take a few moments to create an external cache that allows re-use of tiles served by OpenStreet Map or other third party web layer suppliers. The project served to the web gets data from two external data sources, both of which are multiuser and both of which are created with just a few clicks. Super!

Screen Shots Gallery

For a gallery of screen shots, including links to amazing images that span three monitors, visit the Gallery page.

For a gallery of Manifold System Release 8.00 screen shots, examples and links to live Internet Map Server (IMS) web sites, please visit the Release 8.00 Gallery page. Manifold System Release 8.00, the world's best classic GIS, provides so many rich capabilities it needs a separate Release 8.00 Gallery page.

Viewer is Free

Manifold Viewer is a read-only subset of Manifold Release 9. Viewer provides phenomenal capability to view and to analyze almost all possible different types of data. Manifold Viewer is built on the Manifold engine so Viewer retains Manifold parallel CPU speed and Manifold parallel SQL. Viewer is free to download and use: Many of the videos on this page use Manifold Viewer to demonstrate Manifold technology so you can try them for free using a free Viewer download. Videos on this page apply to both 9 and Viewer.

SQL for ArcGIS® Pro

Manifold's SQL for ArcGIS Pro is a new add-in for Esri's ArcGIS Pro desktop GIS. The add-in provides spatial SQL for Esri file geodatabases in your ArcGIS Pro project in tight integration with ArcGIS Pro.

SQL 15 Minute Tutorial - Find Common Borders with Point and Click Tools

The SQL for ArcGIS Pro add-in for Esri's ArcGIS Pro package provides superb spatial SQL, but in addition it also provides a wide range of point and click tools that encapsulate very sophisticated SQL functionality in point and click panes and dialogs. We use point and click dialogs to extract shared border lines from a map of Canada, the US, and Mexico, doing a spatial self join and other spatial manipulations to produce a new, clean feature class with impeccable geometry.


SQL 5 Minute Tutorial - Add Fields to a Feature Class and Populate

In less than 5 minutes using SQL for ArcGIS Pro, we add three new fields to a feature class in a file geodatabase and then we populate 3500 records with text and numeric values, all with just a few clicks. Way faster and easier than ArcPy or dialogs!


SQL for ArcGIS Pro - Install and Activate

See how to install and activate SQL for ArcGIS Pro, and then how to launch the add-in and do real SQL with file geodatabases! The first three minutes show the super easy installation and activation process with the rest of the video showing a quick start to writing and executing SQL queries, including use of the query builder.


Release 9: What's New

See new videos!

First Look - Serve Maps to the Web in 3 Minutes

First Look - Serve Maps to the Web in 3 Minutes: New! Serve maps to the web in less than 3 minutes with no Internet server or map server required, and no programming. Manifold Universal and Manifold Server licenses now include full map serving built in with no other programs required. Everything is built into Manifold. Create the map display you want in your Manifold desktop like usual, save it, and then in less than one minute publish it to the web. This video shows how.

The video first shows how to publish a map to the web with a few clicks, browses it in a Bing browser, and then shows how easy it is to change the map being served: simply edit the map in Manifold as you like, save the map project and then with a click launch the web service again and the web page is updated. The video also shows how easy it is to add layers from other sources like other web sources or databases.

The video also shows how to serve maps from the inexpensive Universal license, from a command line. A $195 package is used to serve over 85 GB of map data in a really fast and responsive web page, with no programming, no need to learn how to install, administer, and maintain IIS or Apache, no need for third party map serving applications or technologies like MapServer or Leaflet, no need to learn web development, and no need to rebuild tile sets or go through other hassles when changing the maps being served. Super!

Big Images and Web Maps

Stack Many Big Images in a Web Map: Working with Manifold Release 9 we create multiple versions of a 60 GB image without increasing the size of project. The different images all show data from the same table, but with different styling for hill shading using different Z scales.

Hill shading that looks good at a particular scale will look too dark or too intense when zoomed farther in and will look insufficiently shaded when zoomed far out. Manifold allows creation of many images from the same data with each such image styled for what looks good at a particular zoom level. You can then stack the different images in the same map, using the Layers pane zoom ranges settings to turn the images off and on as you zoom in and out. The video shows how easy all that is to do, with various facilities to make it easy to match the zoom levels at which different layers turn off and on. The video also shows how to set up a legend to show the thematic format for terrain despite there being many layers in use to show the same terrain.

The video closes with a quick demo of how to publish the created map as a web page using Manifold Server: a few clicks and you have a web page with no programming required, and no web server or map server required. Manifold does it all in one small download!

Clipping and Azimuthal Maps

How to Create Azimuthal Projection Maps: An azimuthal projection shows the Earth as it might look from a spot hovering overhead a particular location, showing one hemisphere of the Earth. A classic problem using such coordinate systems to display vector data is that vector objects which are on the hidden side of the Earth will still be displayed if they are not clipped.

Using the example of a Vertical Perspective projection centered on Europe with a viewpoint 5000 kilometers above the Earth, this video shows a quick and easy way using Manifold Release 9 facilities to clip unwanted objects or parts of objects from the display. The video also shows how to use raster layers in such displays, including image servers like Google Satellite. Works in the free Manifold Viewer too!

Set DPI as Desired

5 Minute Tutorial - DPI in Save as Image: The new Save as Image dialog in Manifold Release 9 provides a DPI setting that controls rendering of text and shapes to enable a good match to higher resolution images, using settings that are typically used for printing or graphics arts work. This fast video shows examples using Save as Image using default, computer monitor resolution of 96 DPI as compared to higher resolution at 600 DPI.

Custom Views

5 Minute Tutorial - Custom Views in Save as Image: The Save as Image dialog in Manifold Release 9 makes it easy to create images from custom views of maps with just a few clicks. Besides the usual "current view" what you see is what you get mode, you can choose an extended view beyond what the current window shows, a full view that shows the entire extent of all visible layers in the map, or a custom view to get the extents of a particular layer, or otherwise exactly the extents you want.

The video shows how to use custom views, including a really fast and easy way to create images that cover only those regions within a grid or within a rectangle drawn. All the images generated are fully georegistered so you can use them in any coordinate system aware software and they'll line up perfectly. Super!

Capture Map Displays as Images

First Look - Save Map Views as Images: With just a single click, use the new Save as Image command in Manifold Release 9 to save map views as images, for use in other programs or publication on the web. This fast paced video shows how using default dialog settings, and it covers how with a few more clicks you can create a wide range of desired images and export them with just one more click. Fast!

The video covers options for the view created, to rapidly create a "what you see is what you get" image of the map display, to create a larger image at the same scale, and more. See how to create more detailed images using more pixels, and how to control whether that extra resolution is used to drill deeper into scale or to show the same scale with higher resolution for greater DPI settings.

The video also shows how to create layers for "hybrid" displays, where vector objects or labels are rasterized with the space between them kept transparent. That makes it easy to layer such images within graphics editors or in other GIS packages. Created images are perfectly georeferenced, so you can drag and drop them into GIS settings.

The video closes with a fast example how to pick extents manually for images if desire. Wow! Lots of info in a fast, easily understood video. Also works in the free Manifold Viewer.

One Click Legends

First Look - Legends in Maps and Layouts: See how easy it is to add legends to a map window in Manifold Release 9 with only a single click: the new legend capabilities provide fast, easy legends in map windows. We can also add legends to print layouts in a single click as well. The new system provides both fast and simple legends as well as the capability to fully customize print layout legends for those who wish to use a vast toolbox of different formatting capabilities. The video also shows how legend formatting is saved in a map's properties, so we can alter or create legends for map windows either programmatically or using SQL. Super! The entire video is filmed on a Windows 11 system.

Label Overlaps Between Layers

5 Minute Tutorial - Label Overlap Modes: Label overlap modes make it easy to control how labels can overlap or not overlap even between different layers in maps. This short, fast video shows how, using Manifold Release 9 in Windows 11. Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!

North Arrows

First Look - North Arrows: A fast, short video providing a first look at North arrows, a new capability in Release 9. See how easy it is to add a North arrow with a single click in the Layers pane. Double-click the North arrow layer in the Layers pane to configure North arrow options like the style, colors, text and more.

North arrows in Manifold automatically adjust bearing to point north when the projection / coordinate system changes, using a sophisticated algorithm to set the bearing for wherever the North arrow has been placed in the map. No need to manually set the bearing of the North arrow. Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!

Scale Limits Made Easy

5 Minute Tutorial - Min Max Scales for Layers: A quick look at the new system for setting scale limits for layers in Manifold System Release 9. The new system is more convenient than before because now you can set both minimum and maximum scale in the same dialog. Scale boxes also feature a new drop-down menu that includes all other scales that have been set, to make it really easy to pick a scale used by a different layer to coordinate when layers turn off and on. Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!


Super Easy Server Administration

10 Minute Tutorial - Manage Services: Manifold Server is a high speed, fully parallel multiuser spatial database built into Manifold Release 9 Universal Edition that can share projects to many users running Manifold clients like Release 9, Manifold Viewer, and SQL for ArcGIS Pro.

The video shows the new Manage Services dialog that allows launching Server instances as Windows Services for really easy launching and management of Server instances. Launch Server with no need to use Command Prompt windows and command lines, and start and stop Server instances as desired. Super!


Launch Web Pages from Manifold

Transform JSON Data and View Webcams: We use Manifold Release 9 to extract data from JSON text to create a map of webcam locations in France, allowing us in Manifold to rapidly click to view what any webcam shows. We take advantage of Manifold's unique ability to work with data in tables to rapidly accomplish a task that would be painful, if not completely impossible, in any other GIS.

We begin with a Javascript .js file that we scraped from a Leaflet web map application that shows traffic webcams in France. We use Notepad to prep that .js file for use as a .csv. We import the CSV into Manifold and then we use the Transform pane to quickly create object geometry and to extract individual JSON named values from a JSON string field into new, individual columns for each record, including a "url" field that gives a URL for viewing each webcam.

We style the url field to allow Manifold to automatically launch that URL in a web browser when we want. We show how to replace web character specifications in text fields with french characters, replacing text like "\é" with "é" to match the original French.

We create a map using Bing streets as a background layer, so we can pan and zoom around France and view any webcam in the map. All the above takes only 15 minutes in Manifold, start to finish, showing every detail with no editing to cut out any time. Super! Works in the free Manifold Viewer too!

Note: The video shows techniques to manipulate data scraped from the web into a form useful for GIS. However, many governments around the world publish information on the locations and URLs of traffic webcams in formats like CSV or shapefiles that require no transformation. Download traffic webcam data from your local government site and create a Manifold project that lets you click on webcams near your home, to see how traffic might affect your travel plans!


First Look - Manifold Server

Introducing Manifold Server, Manifold's new, high speed, fully parallel, multiuser spatial database. Covering in the first 15 minutes the essentials of launching Server, using Server to share data, and connecting to Server from Manifold, the video continues to show different options and key advantages of using Server.

See how to make multiple, simultaneous connections to Server, to share the same data between multiple users at the same time. Launch multiple Server instances on the same machine to share different constellations of data and databases.

Launch queries for server-side execution for breathtaking speed and performance. Connect to databases within Server through automatic tunneling. Connect from the same client to multiple Server instances on different machines to use dozens of threads on different machines for parallel computation and rendering. Amazing!


First Look - Choice Styling - Pop-up Lists

The first of two videos on using Choice styling for table fields in Manifold Release 9.

Choice styling is used for two purposes: first, to provide a pop-up list of allowed choices when editing a field, and second, to provide aliases for values that can show the contents of a field in more understandable form. This video shows how to quickly create a pop-up list of allowed choices.

We create a list of allowed choices, and then we add points to a map that shows different types of power plants in the Pittsburgh region, picking the type of power plant from our pop-up list of allowed choices. We show how the pop-up list is available in the Info pane when adding new points to a map, and also in table windows when editing fields in tables.


First Look - Choice Styling - Aliases

The second of two videos on using Choice styling for table fields, showing how choices are used to provide more understandable aliases for what might be cryptic values.

We work with a vector layer that shows land use / land cover (LULC) classification codes for different places in the San Francisco Bay area. USGS numeric codes for land use classification are standard, but they are difficult to remember and can lead to error-prone editing.

We can make our lives much easier by creating a choice table that for each numeric code provides a "Show as" alias that is a text description, for example, showing "Residential" instead of "11". We see how the Choice styling is automatically used within tables, the Info pane, within Labels and so on. It's way easier.

We also compare using Choice styling with joining a description column in the classic way, showing how Choice styling is dynamic and much better for editing.


First Look - Edit Traverses

Traverses specify borderlines for areas or lines by describing the segments followed to draw the figure, beginning at a starting point and then going in a given direction for a given distance, then the going in a given direction for the specified distance for the next segment and so on. Traverses are used in surveying for parcel descriptions and in general purpose GIS for drawing figures parametrically, as in drawing a line at a given angle for a given distance.

Manifold Release 9 has the rare ability to edit traverses on the fly, either when interactively creating a new traverse, or to edit existing traverses imported from parcel or other traverse descriptions. The video shows how easy it is to edit traverses in Release 9, including how with one click you can automatically adjust a traverse so it closes precisely, using the mathematically sophisticated "compass rule" to automatically adjust angles and distances throughout the traverse. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!


Release 9 - Five and Ten Minute Tutorials

Even faster - Short tutorials that take only five or ten minutes for key workflow.

5 Minute Tutorial - Find Flatter Areas in Terrain

In under 4 minutes we find flatter areas in terrain that are suitable for airports, better farm land, or for hobbies like falconing. We use the free Manifold Viewer, the free, read-only version of Manifold Release 9, running in Windows 11.

In a few short, really easy steps we first import an SRTM file that gives terrain elevation data and we create a map using Bing Streets as a background layer. Next in a couple of seconds we create a Slope layer from the terrain elevation layer and then we color it so that regions with slope less than 5 degrees (which we reckon are "flat" enough for our purpose) are transparent, allowing the underlying base map to show through. Finally, we add a satellite imagery layer so we can choose to see either a street map of regions that are flatter or satellite photography showing the actual terrain.

All that is done in under 4 minutes, actually under 3 minutes if you don't count the explanations of each step. Fast and easy!

This is the video version of the Example: Find Flatter Areas in Terrain user manual topic.

10 Minute Tutorial - Very Big Table Windows

New in Manifold Release 9: Manifold now displays up to 2 billion records for interactive viewing in table windows, automatically displaying all records for tables stored in Manifold projects and allowing user choice of the display viewport from 5000 records to all records in the table for tables stored in data sources outside the project, like Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL or other databases.

The video shows the speed of working with nearly 1.295 million records in a local Manifold table, and shows how to set options for choosing a display size for tables in external databases. Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too! Fast and easy!

10 Minute Tutorial - Manage Services

Manifold Server is a high speed, fully parallel multiuser spatial database built into Manifold Release 9 Universal Edition that can share projects to many users running Manifold clients like Release 9, Manifold Viewer, and SQL for ArcGIS Pro.

The video shows the new Manage Services dialog that allows launching Server instances as Windows Services for really easy launching and management of Server instances. Launch Server with no need to use Command Prompt windows and command lines, and start and stop Server instances as desired. Super!

5 Minute Tutorial - Fill Missing Pixels in Rasters

A short video that shows how with just a few clicks we can fill in pixels that are missing from a raster by interpolating from nearby pixels. The new Fill transform in Manifold Release 9 provides three capabilities, all of which are covered in this video. We can fill all visible pixels with the same value, we can fill all missing pixels with the same value, or we can fill all missing pixels with values interpolated from the nearest visible pixels. We also see how to copy and paste styles for rasters. Super! Works in the free Manifold Viewer as well.

5 Minute Tutorial - Show only Selected

A very short video showing off the new Selected button in Manifold Release 9. One click toggles attribute tables from showing all records to just showing selected records, with fast and safe updates. We also show using the Select pane to do statistic selections, choosing records that are in the top 30th, 10th, or 90th percentiles with a single click. Works in the free Manifold Viewer too!

10 Minute Tutorial - Find Similar Lines

A fast paced video: we have two layers with roads in each layer. Our task is to find roads in both layers that are aligned with each other. However, the two different layers come from two different organizations so the roads are not identical and they do not have any attributes in common. We therefore cannot do a simple spatial join that assumes that the same roads which appear in both layers are exactly coincident.

Instead, we use buffers to find roads in both layers that are similar to each other, where the roads mostly follow the same paths. This workflow works for both Manifold Release 9 and also the free Manifold Viewer.

This is an ambitious video with lots of steps, that uses a variety of Manifold techniques to solve a demanding problem where there is no obvious single step solution. It uses buffers, joins, previews, topology overlay, selection, table windows, computed fields and more. A lot of action in what is a relatively short video.

10 Minute Tutorial - Lat Lon Styles · Labels · Languages

See a fast paced demonstration how to change latitude and longitude styles in tables, to see how those are immediately changed in labels in maps that use those fields, and in the Info pane as well, with spectacular formatting capabilities in Manifold Release 9.

We cover various formats for latitude and longitudes, like decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes and so on, including the ability to automatically format latitude and longitude values to handle different ways of using N, E, S, and W letters in format. We cover other formats as well, including dates, URL hyperlinks from text, and numeric vector combinations that include longitude and latitude values.

One click can also set the language-country combination of your choice: Manifold knows over 600 languages and will automatically translate days of the week and the names of months into any of those languages. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!

10 Minute Tutorial - Create and Use a Survey Form

The first of three videos showing how to collect data in the field with Manifold Release 9. We create a new survey form using the KoBoToolbox ecosystem, the same ODK/Enketo based technology used by Esri's Survey123. We create a form to collect information and locations for restaurants in Chartres, France. We use the form to capture data for a restaurant, automatically syncing collected data into our Kobo server. The next video shows how to connect Manifold and automatically harvest collected data.

10 Minute Tutorial - Connect to Data Collected in the Field

New! This video has been updated to note automatic refresh of KoBo data. This is the second of three videos showing how to collect data in the field with Manifold Release 9. The first video showed how to create a survey form and to use that to acquire data for restaurant locations.

This video shows how easy it is to form a live connection to the KoBo server storing our survey data, automatically linking tables and drawings into our Manifold projec.t We create a map of restaurants surveyed in Chartres, France, using a satellite layer for background. We add labels and see how when we add more data using mobile or other devices, we can refresh to automatically capture those new locations in the Manifold map. Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!

5 Minute Tutorial - KoBo to PostgreSQL in One Click

The third of three videos on working with data collected in KoBoToolbox. This short video shows how in one click in Manifold Release 9 we can connect to our KoBo server, and then copy and paste data from the KoBo server into our organization's PostgreSQL DBMS server. It's that easy! The video also shows how to save data from KoBo into a shapefile or into any of hundreds of other formats or data sources.

10 Minute Tutorial - Fast Table Editing with Transform

See how fast and easy it is to edit tables using the Transform pane in Manifold Release 9. Repetitive edits applying similar changes to different fields can be done fast - really fast! - with highly efficient workflow. Best of all, on the fly previews make it easy to use sophisticated editing techniques like the regular expressions used in this video without fear of getting something wrong. The video shows a real life example of restructuring a table scraped from a NASA website that shows total and annular eclipses of the Sun from 2021 to 2100, converting the table from awkward form as published by NASA into more usable form. Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!

5 Minute Tutorial - Styling Fields in Tables

Check out the wonderful new ability to style fields in tables in Manifold Release 9: with just a click change how numbers, dates, times, geometry, and more can be presented in a very wide range of formats, with automatic adaptation for different language styles. Automatically switch from using dollar signs and US-style decimal points for currency to German style euro signs and European-style decimal commas? One click and done! Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!

5 Minute Tutorial - Labels from Fields and Expressions

A quick look at the new label system in Manifold Release 9 that makes it easy to create labels from fields and expressions. Create label text from multiple fields and also using expressions, taking advantage of any of the hundreds of SQL functions provided in Manifold. A new addition to the Style pane for labels makes it really easy to edit label text, including a full expression builder. Works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!

5 Minute Tutorial - GoTo a Latitude, Longitude Coordinate

When working with maps in Manifold Release 9 it's easy to "GoTo" any latitude, longitude spot with this quick hack. The video shows how to enter coordinates for any spot desired and to instantly pan and zoom the map view to that location. Works for any layers, vector or raster, and works for the free Manifold Viewer, too!

5 Minute Tutorial - Spatial Joins are Easier in Manifold

Spatial joins are easier in Manifold Release 9 than in other GIS packages, like ArcGIS Pro or Q. This short video takes a classic QGIS tutorial on spatial joins and shows how to do the same thing quicker and easier in Manifold The video uses the free Manifold Viewer so anybody can repeat the video at home.

We first import two shapefiles, one that shows the boroughs of New York City and another that shows the locations of nursing homes in New York. Next, we do a spatial join that adds up the capacities of the nursing homes in each borough to create a Total Capacity field for each borough, and then we thematically format the boroughs by Total Capacity.

The process is easier in Manifold because there's no need to create a new shapefile like you have to do in Q. Manifold can simply update the boroughs layer on the fly with a new attribute field that is the result of the join. All this works both in Manifold Release 9 or the free Viewer.

10 Minute Tutorial - Drag and Drop

Drag and drop files from Windows Explorer into Manifold Release 9 or Manifold Viewer to open projects, and to import or link files and databases into a project. This video shows how easy it is to import or to link one file or many files, using many different formats, all at once into a Manifold project. Easily import or link into a project or into data sources within projects. You can actually drag and drop a shapefile from Windows Explorer directly into an Esri geodatabase data source. Super! Drag and drop is so fast and easy you'll never use the File menu again! Works in the free Viewer too, the quickest way to pop open files in Viewer.

10 Minute Tutorial - TileMaskRange Expressions

We learn how to use the power of Manifold Release 9's many SQL functions without needing to learn SQL. The Transform pane's Expression template allows us to apply individual SQL functions, to transform rasters, vectors, and tables using hundreds of powerful SQL functions.

The example tutorial shows the TileMaskRange function in action, used to knock out unwanted pixels in images, marking them as missing pixels to make them transparent. We first apply the function to knock out unwanted black border pixels from a Landsat image, so the Landsat image can be seamlessly overlaid on other satellite backgrounds. Along the way we see how Previews can show us what will happen next, to guide our choices of parameters. We also show how to invert mask effects.

Next, we use the function to knock out thematically formatted pixels in a terrain elevation raster to create dramatic and useful raster contouring effects. All this works in both Manifold Release 9 and the free Manifold Viewer as well. This is a video version of the Example: TileMaskRange Expressions topic.

5 Minute Tutorial - Find Surrounded Parcels

A recent thread in the Manifold user forum asked how to find all parcels that are completely surrounded by a single other parcel, to find locations where easements may be hosting cell phone towers, or other isolated parcels. This video shows a fast and simple way of finding such parcels using Manifold Release 9 that is way easier than what you have to do in other GIS packages, like ArcGIS Pro.

In less than five minutes of actual work, we use the Join dialog to do a quick self-join, we use the Clip editing command to create an overlay, and then we do a spatial select. Done! What's complicated in other packages is easy in Manifold because of faster and easier to use commands and user interfaces. Works in the free Manifold Viewer too!

"This shows why Mfd's approach to GIS is so good. Flexible tools that allow rapid GIS gymnastics. While version 8 was really great at this, 9 has the join dialogue and now cool drawing tools that add to the quiver. The rapid application of the tools from the minimalist interface makes finding solutions so much more enjoyable." - Forum post

10 Minute Tutorial - Editing with Erase

The new Erase command in Manifold Release 9 removes portions of areas, lines, and points that are erased by drawing new areas or with existing areas. This fast-paced video shows three different examples, including freehand erasing, using areas to erase in different layers, and borrowing an area from one part of a map to erase in different parts of the map. Erase is very fast, flexible, and intuitive, minimizing the number of clicks required for powerful editing. Works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

"What a great video and set of tools! After just a few days of extensively using these tools, editing multiple drawings just became a lot more easy and straightforward. This is indeed an outstanding addition to Manifold vector data editing tools." - Forum post

5 Minute Tutorial - Editing with Clip

Spectacular new editing commands in Manifold Release 9 provide super easy, fast, and powerful interactive editing, the fastest and easiest way to edit vector layers in any data source.

The new Clip interactive editing command makes it easy to create areas that automatically follow boundaries of existing polygons, to create complex new areas. It's also easy to create new lines that are clipped to complex boundaries. See how in this short video.

Also see how to combine the Clip command with the new Merge editing command to edit polygons "in place" in whatever data source we want, including Esri geodatabases, PostGIS, data sources, GPKG, shapefiles or any of hundreds of other data sources. Super! Works in the free Manifold Viewer too.


Newsflash - Merge, Clip, and Split

See a three minute, video providing a first look at how to use fast and easy, new editing commands in Manifold Release 9.

  • Merge - Instantly combine multiple areas, lines, or points into a single area, line, or point with fast choice of how attributes should be merged.
  • Clip - Create a new area or a new line and in the same step clip the area or line precisely to the boundaries of overlapping areas, either inside the overlapping areas or outside.
  • Split - Draw a line and instantly split existing areas and lines, with fast choice of how to split attribute values.


5 Minute Tutorial - Create a Multiband Landsat Image

Landsat data provides images in individual bands, such as Bands 4, 5, and 6, for visual red, near infrared and shortwave infrared. Creating large, multiband Landsat images using many Landsat tiles can involve combining dozens of individual band images.

Manifold Release 9 is perfect for the job, because it can handle many large rasters effortlessly, merging them instantly, and then combining bands into false color RGB multiband images. Manifold does all that with easy to use, point and click dialogs. No need for programming.

This fast-paced video shows how in under five minutes of workflow, including importing the original Landsat data downloaded from USGS. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

5 Minute Tutorial - Scrape an Esri Feature Server

Working with web-based Esri feature servers? If you want your own copy all the vector features (points, polylines, polygons) those servers provide that's easy to do with Manifold Release 9.

This video shows how to connect to a typical Esri feature server, how to drill down and open the feature layer desired, how to copy all the features and to paste them into the local project. It's all a simple matter of point and click, copy and paste. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

5 Minute Tutorial - LAS Point Statistics by Area

Save thousands by using Manifold Release 9: The "LAS Point Statistics by Area" tool in Spatial Analyst for ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro adds attribute fields to polygon features for LiDAR points that fall within those polygons, adding the minimum, maximum, and mean Z values in each polygon, as well as the point count of LiDAR points in each polygon, and also the standard deviation of Z values in each polygon.

The video shows how to do the same thing in just a few clicks in Manifold's point-and-click Join dialog. No need to buy Spatial Analyst. Manifold includes the Join dialog and thousands of other capabilities, all for only $145. Save thousands of dollars and enjoy easier workflow too!

Manifold also is much easier than using expensive products like LAStools, and costs far less in labor than writing your own code in Python, PDAL, or other lower level tools. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

5 minute Tutorial - Georeference Many CAD Layers

Georeferencing CAD layers is a common task in any GIS. Manifold Release 9 makes it a lot easier with fast, simple workflow that avoids extra effort and lets us recycle what we've already done.

This video shows how we can add a few control points just once and then georeference an entire stack of CAD layers imported from a DWG without adding more control points or repeating any work. If the DWG contained a hundred layers we could do them all!

This is much easier than the complicated, more labor intensive procedures in Esri or other GIS packages. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

5 Minute Tutorial - Georegister a Drone Photo

See the fast and easy way to georeference drone photos for use in GIS and online web mapping: Learn how to georegister (georeference) a drone photo to line up with Google imagery for full GIS use and for use within Google Maps and other web mapping applications. This video uses exactly the same drone photo used in Esri's ArcUser example of how to georeference a drone photo in ArcGIS Pro. The difference is that using Manifold is faster and easier. This is a video version of the Example: Georegister a Drone Photo topic.

All this works in the free Viewer, so you can download the data from links in the magazine article and try it yourself. The same workflow works for georeferencing both raster and vector layers in Manifold, unlike Esri where two different systems, a georeferencing system and a "spatial adjustment" toolset, with two different user interfaces are used to georeference raster images or vector images. It's way easier and faster in Manifold, and you get on-the-fly previews to help choose control points.

All that for only $145, plus thousands more GIS capabilities? Amazing!

5 Minute Tutorial - Georegistration

In just five minutes we learn how to georegister (gereference) a vector drawing with an unknown coordinate system to a known-good map. Georegistration is a key capability that allows us to cast raster images and vector drawings into geographic context, so they can be used as GIS layers in maps. We can georegister aerial photos and drone photos, scan paper maps and georegister those for use in GIS, we can georegister CAD drawings, and we can rescue vector drawings and raster images that once had coordinate systems but were published in formats that failed to preserve coordinate systems. Super! Works in the free Viewer, too. This is a video version of the Example: Georegister a Vector Drawing topic.

5 Minute Tutorial - Clip Part of an Image

A short Manifold video that shows how to create a new image that is part of a source image. We often work with large rasters where we need only part of the raster, so we would like to get a copy of only part of the bigger raster in a smaller image. This video shows how. Using a large, four channel image of the region near Cheyenne, Wyoming, we clip out part of the image to create a smaller, three channel image showing a storage area in Warren Air Force Base. Works in the free Viewer, too.

5 Minute Tutorial - Convert Raster Data Type

In less than five minutes, we use the Transform pane to convert the data types of two raster images. First we convert all three channels of an RGB photographic image from using uint8 (unsigned integer) to float64 (64 bit floating point) in all three channels at once, keeping pixel size and raster size the same. Next, we do a cartographic example, converting a terrain elevation data set from using float32 (32 bit floating point) to using int64 (signed, 64 bit integer). Easy! All this works in the free Viewer, too.

5 Minute Tutorial - Previews

Manifold creates visual previews for transformations so you can see what commands will do before you alter data. Better still, getting fast previews let you do "what if" data exploration with very rapid workflow, adding new layers and exploring changes in the data like no other GIS can do. See how easy it all is in this fast paced video that shows how to find real estate in Portland, Oregon, from which all five regional mountains are visible, for the very best views! Works in the free Viewer, too.

5 Minute Tutorial - Connect to an OSM Vector Server and Harvest Data

In just a few mouse clicks we connect to an OpenStreetMap server providing vector data, we create a map with Bing Streets as a background layer and use that to zoom into our area of interest, the cathedral city of Chartres in France. We drop the OSM layer into the map and watch it fill in with vector objects automatically pulled from the OpenStreetMap servers for our area of interest. We select objects in the view and copy them, then paste them into our Project, which is all it takes to automatically download ("scrape") vector data from the OpenStreetMap servers into our local computer. We select all objects with a "buildings" tag to extract building footprints from the mass of OSM data we just grabbed, and we create a new drawing showing just building footprints. Wow! All that in only five minutes! This is a video version of the Example: Connect to an OSM Vector Server topic.

5 Minute Tutorial - Fast and Easy Contours

In less than five minutes we launch Manifold, open a 5 GB project that contains a raster surface imported from a 14 GB Esri .grd file giving terrain elevation in a region of Montana. We then create contour lines every 100 feet from an elevation of 800 feet to 2900 feet in a mere 10 seconds. We then change parameters and create contours again, once more in only 10 seconds. Wow! The video shows off the new Transform interface, and how it remembers settings to make iterative workflow even faster than before. This video shows how to use the new Transform user interface to do the same contours shown in the Manifold vs Arc - Contour Lines - 11 seconds vs 20 minutes video comparing Manifold contouring speed with Esri contouring speed.

Download the montana_map_v2.zip (3997611 KB) Manifold project file used in this video and try it out in the free Viewer on your own computer, to see how Manifold really is way faster than Arc + Spatial Analyst.

"Contouring is so much better in 9. Beyond the speed, the preview option makes trying different contour steps easy [...]. Much more enjoyable to use." - Forum post

Have a taste for really slow Arc operations? Download the montana_grd_v2.zip (4708526 KB) original .grd file imported into Arc in the video, as a 4.7 GB zip file that unzips into a 14+ GB .grd file. Download the file overnight, unzip, import into Arc and then confirm Arc really does take over 20 minutes to create contours that Manifold creates in a few seconds.

5 Minute Tutorial - Split Highways by State

In only five minutes we use the Split template cut operation to split interstate highways in the US by boundaries of US states, and then we transfer a state name to highway lines within that state by using the Join dialog. We round out the video by styling the result for a really super display. Works with the free Viewer, too! This is a video version of the Example: Split Highways by States topic.

Tutorials

Learn Manifold fast - watch the tutorial videos.

Georeference a Scanned Paper Map

In only five minutes of actual work we use Manifold Release 9 to georeference a 157 MB scanned paper map so it can be used as a layer in GIS. The scanned map is a historic map showing Davy Crockett National Forest in Texas, downloaded from the Library of Congress website.

Compare the speed and ease of use of georeferencing in Manifold to georeferencing in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro. A YouTube video from an Esri user shows this exact same scanned paper map being georeferenced in ArcMap. Compare Manifold workflow to Esri workflow and you'll agree it's a lot easier, quicker, and less confusing in Manifold. Fast GIS is fun GIS! All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

Georeference a Whole World Image

We see a map we like on a web site so we make a screenshot. How to use that map in GIS? Easy! We georeference it using Manifold. The video shows how to georeference an image scraped from the web that shows the geology of continents as they were 200 million years ago. We mark four control points in the image, then we roughly mark four corresponding control in a Manifold map using Bing as a background layer. In the Register pane we edit the coordinates of those control points to be even +/- 90 and +/- 180 degrees, and then we press Register. Done! The video also shows how we can import and georeference a second image similar to the first, without needing to add any control points, just re-cycling the ones we created before. Super! Less work is great. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

Georeference a Historic Map using a List of Cities

We use Manifold Release 9 to georeference a scanned paper map downloaded from the Library of Congress that shows slave populations in Southern States in the 1860 census.

The scanned map shows locations of cities, which we will use as control points. We create a drawing to quickly mark the locations of cities in the scanned image. Next, we download a modern map of cities in the US and their locations. We can use the list of cities in the modern map as a source of control points for the target, saving us from having to enter them manually.

Manifold automatically matches names, ignoring those that are not needed, from the modern map during the georegistration process. Super! Watch Manifold georeference a 10,500 x 8,380 scanned raster in a few seconds. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

Georegistration - Save and Load Control Points

Georegistration (georeferencing) in Manifold uses control points to match features visible in the raster image or vector drawing to be georeferenced with corresponding features visible in a known-good reference. This video shows how with a single click we can save or load control points. Because Manifold saves control points as ordinary vector drawings, we can take advantage of that to make mass changes to control points if we like. In the video we use two versions of a scanned map, one with a gap in the middle and in the other where the gap is closed. Control points that were placed in the version with a gap can be easily adjusted, dozens at a time, for use in the other version, saving a lot of repeated work. The video also shows Manifold georegistering a large scanned image in moments, using all 24 hypercores in a 12 core Ryzen processor. Amazing! All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too!

Previews in Multiple Windows

A second look at previews, using the free Viewer to show visibility zones from parcels near the sea. Use Viewer to see if a real estate parcel has a view of the ocean! We show how previews persist and allow us to use other tools, like the Tracker to make measurements, without losing the preview. We can even open the same map in different windows and get different previews in those different windows, switching back and forth and the Transform pane automatically switches context, remembering the right settings for each window. We take a look at the new opacity/transparency capability for previews as well. Amazing that you get all this in a free tool! Works in Manifold Release 9 as well.

Create USGS File Names with Transform

This fast paced tutorial shows the speed, ease of use, and efficiency of the Transform pane together with the error-eliminating use of previews to check work before transforming valuable data. In less than 10 minutes of actual work, we extract and transform data from a USGS map index file to create our own index of NAIP file names that will allow us to directly fetch high performance JPEG2000 files from the USGS archives in Amazon's cloud. Super! The clean, fast workflow Manifold's Transform pane provides, coupled with visual previews every step of the way if desired, cannot be duplicated by any other GIS - nothing else comes close. This is a video version of the Example: Create USGS File Names with Transform topic.

Select and Transform Part 1

A first introduction to the new, super fast and smooth user interface for Select and Transform panes. The new UI remembers context to allow repetitive and iterative workflow without having to constantly enter and re-enter parameters, automatically remembering settings just used. We see how Manifold allows rapid choice of units, automatic creation of new results fields, and new drawings using new fields, all instantly. Simple and intuitive controls allow exactly the selection and results desired. Works with the free Viewer, too!

Select and Transform Part 2

We continue our tour of the new user interface for Select and Transform, using a raster terrain elevation data set near Livermore, California, to explore how fast and easy it is to manipulate rasters. We can have multiple versions of the same raster in the same table with multiple different visualizations, updated on the fly as we point and click through Transform templates. The new UI retains context for iterative operations to eliminate having to enter and re-enter parameters that haven't changed. We fill sinks to prepare for watershed analysis, and then we create watershed lines. We create contours and then in seconds re-create contours as areas, as lines, and using different steps, recycling the same settings effortlessly. We close out the video by computing Plan Curvature on the terrain and then blend layers with opacity to enhance terrain visualization, bringing out details in flatter parts of the terrain. Super! All that for $145, and free in the free Viewer package!

Download and Install

A step by step guide using the free Manifold Viewer to downloading and installing either Manifold Release 9 or Manifold Viewer. The video shows installation in both Windows Installer and Portable installation form, how to download optional support for MySQL and PostgreSQL, and how to download an example project. We then see how easy it is to configure Viewer to connect to FOSS and other databases, and how to launch Viewer. We import a shapefile, and then we connect to a MySQL database to browse and view the database. Super! Everything shown works for both Viewer and for Manifold Release 9 as well!

Manifold Viewer - Introducing Viewer

An updated introduction to Manifold Viewer, the free, no-strings-attached, viewer from Manifold. We import a shapefile and show how easy it is to overlay on web served map layers. We import multiple terrain elevation tiles from Space Shuttle SRTM data and merge them into a single 100MB+ data set with beautiful formatting and hillshading. We then blend the synthetic, hill-shaded terrain with Bing satellite imagery and Google transparent labels to create a spectacular, enhanced view of Mt Rainier. Viewer is read-only, but we show how to create a screen shot image that we can edit in Paint to save custom images for use on websites and in publications. Amazing! All this in free, automatically CPU parallel and GPU parallel software from Manifold. (Version 3 video)

How to Use Example Projects

Manifold publishes example projects in Manifold Release 9 format that can be opened and used by the free Manifold Viewer or by Release 9. Example projects provide a great way to get started with Viewer or Release 9, to follow along with User Manual topics or Videos, and to publish resources like collections of image servers. In this video we download example projects from the Manifold website and then pop them open in Manifold Viewer. We look at the Server Sights collection of interesting views in Google and Bing, and in the Nuclear Reactors project we learn how to use an alternative image server to get around censorship in Google and Bing. We see how the ArcGIS REST Servers example project provides a collection of image servers that we can recyle to use as base maps. We learn how it's easy to save servers from that collection as Favorites to use later on with a single click. Works perfectly either in the free Viewer or in full Release 9!

Manifold Tutorial 1 - Navigation and User Interface

Welcome to Manifold Release 9! Learn basic navigation moves, user interface, and more in this fast paced video. Watch for a quick launch into effective use of this amazing new tool. Applies to the free Manifold Viewer too. Download the project used from OSM_Venice.mxb (117338 KB), a Release 9 format .mxb archive project (open in 9 or Viewer and it automatically expands into a .map) (Updated version 4 video).

Manifold Tutorial 2 - Add Data and Create a Map

The second tutorial continues the Venice example, showing how to import data to create the example map. We see how to import data, how to link it while leaving the data in place in a shapefile, how to copy and paste from other Manifold sessions, how to link in projects for dynamic access, and how to copy and paste data sources. We create labels from imported data. We import a terrain elevation raster and style it. For extra credit we extract just the data we want from a larger OpenStreetMap data set, select a further subset based on attributes, and then we export that result as a shapefile for use in other packages. Works for Viewer, too. (Updated version 4 video).

Manifold Tutorial 3 - Export Data and Print a Map

A third tutorial using our Venice map. We add points to the landmarks layer, showing how to add attributes and how labels automatically are created for those new points. We then export data in various ways, exporting a drawing to a shapefile, exporting an entire map to an Esri geodatabase, and saving a map in compressed archival form. Next we create a database connection to a PostgreSQL server and we copy and paste a drawing from the Manifold project into the PostgreSQL DBMS. Easy! Finally, we create a layout, we add the map to the layout, add a text frame and then we add an automatically created legend, tinkering with the legend to suit our taste and showing how to use "pick and select" workflow. Last but not least, we print to PDF and open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to show the PDF printed perfectly. Note: Viewer does not do layouts and printing. (Updated version 4 video).


Videos

Manifold publishes many videos on the Manifold Sales YouTube channel. Clicking on a thumbnail image in the list below launches the video in YouTube. Most recent, new videos appear at the top of the list.

Two Hardware Videos - Hardware videos from a software company? Sure! Manifold's staff includes world-class hardware talent from innovative computer systems and leading CPU and GPU companies, like Intel, to ensure Manifold software provides maximum price / performance on real-life hardware.

That's why only Manifold delivers automatically CPU and GPU parallel products, and why Manifold running on relatively inexpensive and simple rigs absolutely crushes software running on expensive hardware that has not been designed with expert understanding of modern hardware. Manifold delivers unbeatable performance on all hardware, from inexpensive systems to mammoth configurations with thousands of cores.

Manifold Hardware - David vs. Goliath - Part 1

A hardware video, taking a look at some of the hardware used in Manifold videos, including Manifold E boxes used for software development. Part One of the David vs. Goliath comparison shows the 48-thread Threadripper machine shown in various videos, and compares that in size to an ultra-small 8 thread Ryzen 3 mini-ITX motherboard. In the David vs. Goliath comparison, which machine will be faster? ...David running Manifold Release 9, or Goliath running Esri ArcGIS Pro? Stay tuned to see!

Manifold Hardware - David vs. Goliath - Part 2

Part two of the David vs. Goliath hardware comparison takes a closer look at the tiny, mini-ITX, Ryzen 3 system that plays the David role, showing the low-profile case that makes for a highly portable, low cost system that's great for GIS. The video discusses various options for even more power in such very low cost, high performance, super portable rigs with superb keyboards and great displays.

Manifold Hardware - David vs. Goliath - Part 3

Part 3 of our David vs. Goliath series compares software performance on our two systems: how does Manifold Release 9 running on the tiny David system, a mini-ITX system with only four Ryzen 3 cores and 8 threads, compare to Esri's ArcGIS Pro running on the mighty Goliath system with 24 AMD Threadripper cores and 48 threads?

We re-run the rendering shootout between Arc and Manifold, with Arc given the heavy advantage of running on the 48 thread Goliath machine and rendering only 22 million lines, while Manifold has to perform with the huge disadvantage of running on the 8 thread David machine and rendering twice as many (!) lines, 44 million lines. If you know Manifold, you know Manifold on the tiny, inexpensive David machine absolutely crushes Arc running on the bigtime, expensive Goliath machine.

We follow that up by seeing how fast Manifold can do contours on the tiny mini-ITX box, redoing the Contours video. Manifold takes only 16 seconds to create detailed contour lines for a large terrain elevation raster, while Arc takes 20 minutes to do the same on the mighty Goliath machine. People spend thousands of dollars on expensive hardware trying to get faster performance out of Arc, but a $145 Manifold package running on a tiny, inexpensive machine will run way faster. Run Manifold and you get a way better experience on the job doing GIS.

Works in the free Viewer too, which is just as fast!

Rendering Shootout - Manifold / PostgreSQL / Q

See how fast Manifold Release 9 is as a standalone, desktop application compared to QGIS running as a client to an enterprise-class, PostgreSQL/PostGIS spatial DBMS. Which is faster? The answer may surprise you.

This video follows up the Rendering Shootout video comparing Manifold, ArcGIS Pro and QGIS, using the native desktop storage technology for each package: .map files for Manifold, Esri geodatabase for ArcGIS Pro, and GPKG for QGIS. Manifold was dramatically faster than Arc or Q, both of which were unusably slow with 22 to 44 million features.

This shootout compares Manifold running both standalone and as a PostgreSQL client to Q running as a PostgreSQL client. The PostgreSQL server is on the same machine, so there are no network delays.

The result? Running on exactly the same hardware, Manifold is dramatically faster displaying larger data. For only $145 Manifold delivers parallel performance running as a standalone desktop application that is way faster than Q running as a client to one of the fastest, most respected, spatial DBMS servers on Earth. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

Rendering Shootout - Arc / Manifold / Q

See how Manifold Release 9 compares to ArcGIS Pro and to QGIS when rendering 44 million roads. We pop open exactly the same data in all three packages and see who wins.

The shootout features 49 layers that show roads in each "lower 48" US state plus the District of Columbia, 22 million roads in all. To compare rendering of 49 separate layers with one big layer, we also use a single big layer that has all 22 million roads in the same layer. The single big layer is stored in the Manifold project file, in a GPKG database file in QGIS, and in an Esri file geodatabase in ArcGIS Pro, using the "native" storage for each of the three packages. Guess who wins?

See the incredible speed of Manifold, rendering over 44 million lines on screen and panning and zooming instantly. For only $145 Manifold delivers parallel performance running on an ordinary desktop PC that is far faster than any other GIS, even those costing many thousands of dollars. All this works in the free Manifold Viewer too.

Create a Layout with 48 States, Alaska and Hawaii

A common task in GIS is to create layouts for presentations that show different parts of the world at the same time, but grouped closer together than they are in reality. We create a layout that shows the "lower 48" part of the United States together with Alaska and Hawaii, with Alaska and Hawaii shown closer to the US and resized to allow convenient use in presentations. The same data set is used in all three frames so we can conveniently thematically format or otherwise alter the "states" drawing and automatically update all three views in the layout. (Data is from Natural Earth, which draws Michigan using a state boundary that includes the water part of the Great Lakes.)

Visibility of Towers using a Free Tool

Use a free tool, Manifold Viewer, to compute the visibility of towers from a landscape, creating a map of regions from which towers are visible. Knowing the visibility of structures from different parts of a landscape is a key part of planning and community decision making, whether the structures are tall buildings, cell phone antennas, tall TV antennas, wind turbines or other structures. The free Viewer makes that easy to do. Viewer is read only but it's easy to make screen shots of the results for use in publications, web sites, etc. Works in Manifold Release 9, too!

Finding NAIP Imagery with Viewer

The US Government NAIP project photographs the entire US at 1 meter or 60 cm resolution, typically every three years. NAIP imagery is a great, free resource for GIS use, but finding desired image tiles and directly downloading them in high performance JPEG2000 format can be cumbersome. In this video we learn how to use the free Viewer with Manifold's free NAIP file grid project to rapidly get exactly the NAIP imagery we want. Works with Release 9, too!

New Features - Info Pane

Lots of new features to cover, beginning with the brand new Info pane, which replaces the former Record and Contents pane in a new, super-efficient and useful pane. In the video we see how easy it is to use the new Related tab in the Info pane, which provides on-the-fly lookup from other tables, like an on-the-fly join. Opening a tax parcels drawing we use the Related tab to instantly see the owner of each parcel we pick, with the system automatically looking up the owner for each parcel from a separate Owners table. Super! Works with Viewer, too.

Join Dialog Part 7 - Convert Vector to Raster

A fast video showing how to convert a vector drawing into a raster image using the Join dialog, a classic vector to raster conversion. We start with a vector drawing of polygonal areas where each area has a classification attribute, a numeric code for the land cover within that area. We create a raster image where each pixel has a numeric value that is the same as the classification code for the area containing that pixel. The video shows how to choose pixel size and with a few clicks rasterize the vector drawing. Works in Viewer, too! This is a video version of the Spatial Join Example: Convert Vector to Raster topic.

Create RGB from RGBA using Join

We use the Join dialog to create a three channel, RGB image from a four channel image, all in under a minute with a few easy clicks in the Transform pane and Join dialog, no SQL required. Manifold can present four channel images however we like, using the fourth channel or not for transparency, but many simpler packages may insist on using the fourth channel in a four channel image as an "alpha" transparency channel. That causes wrong effects when the fourth channel is infrared or some other data channel and not alpha. The solution is easy, to quickly create a three channel image and to export that, so there are only three channels in the resulting TIF or other exported file, without any fourth channel to confuse other software.

Shuffle Channels with a Raster Self Join

See how easy it is to rearrange channels in an image using the Join dialog. That's called a self-join and it is super easy to do! We rearrange channels in a four channel image from the NAIP program that has Red, Green, Blue and Infrared channels into a Color Infrared presentation that can be exported in use for software that cannot map display channels on the fly. Next, we show another example of saving a terrain elevation raster to a second channel within the same image, so we always have a backup that can be instantly restored if desired. All that in under five minutes! Wow!. Works in the free Viewer, too.

Knock Out Pixels Using Join and Alpha

Use the Join dialog to "knock out" (make transparent) those parts of an RGB image we do not want to see. In just a few minutes using point and click dialogs and no SQL, we use a drawing that contains areas (polygons), showing areas of interest, to create a one-channel mask image that has zeros for pixel values within the areas, and 255 for pixel values outside the areas. We then Join that mask image into our RGB image as a fourth channel. We can then style the RGB image to use the fourth channel as an Alpha (transparency) channel. That has the effect of leaving visible only those parts of the image within the areas. We can use that image to great effect to show photographic coverage in some parts of a map, overlaid on terrain or street maps or other visualizations. Super!

Join Dialog Part 6 - Raster to Raster Joins

Learn to do raster to raster (image to image) joins quickly and easily in the new Join dialog with a very useful example: take three gray scale images with one channel each and combine them into a single RGB image using Join. Next, we combine two RGB images by joining a blurred image into a full resolution image, to blur parts of the full resolution image that we want to hide. That's a useful technique to respect privacy or for security purposes. Works in Viewer, too.

Color Infrared for Free

See how easy it is to have many different visualizations of the same image, at the same time, without increasing storage space at all. This fun video shows how to use NAIP four band imagery (red, green, blue, and infrared) to see the same data at the same time as a natural color RGB image, as a false color infrared image, and as higher contrast or other effects in both natural color and false color infrared. Works in Viewer, too.

Join Dialog Part 5 - Vector to Raster Joins

We transfer attribute values from areas (polygons) in a drawing (vector layer) to pixels within those areas in a single-channel terrain elevation image (raster layer), showing how values can be calculated for pixels in regions where areas overlap. After doing the transfer in a default way, updating the single channel in the raster, we show a different workflow, using the Join dialog to automatically add a second channel to the raster and then transferring area values into that second channel. Works for Viewer, too. This is a video version of the Spatial Join Example: Transfer Drawing Attributes into Image Pixels topic.

Join Dialog Part 4 - Joins into Queries

Everybody knows the Join dialog can take data from either tables or queries and join it into a target table, but amazingly, the Join dialog can also use a query as the target table as well. This fourth in the series of Join dialog videos shows how we can use the point and click dialog to do a join into a query, using the power of the query to organize how the joined data flows into tables the query uses. We do a simple query first, and then we show how to do a join into only selected records. Super! Works with Viewer, too. This is a video version of an example shown in the Edit - Join topic.


Join Dialog Part 3 - Raster to Vector Joins

The third, action-packed video on the new Join dialog shows effortless raster to vector joins using a point and click dialog with no SQL required. Everybody thinks of joins as just between tables, but taking data from a raster to load into attributes in vector objects is just another join. We use a single-channel raster that shows terrain elevation near Livermore, California, and use a point and click join to transfer the height of the terrain to points in a drawing layer above that terrain. Next, we switch to a vector layer of parcels as areas, and transfer the average height of the terrain under each parcel, the maximum height and the minimum height, all done effortlessly with a point and click. Along the way we show how to customize the update query to round values. Easy! Works in Viewer, too. This is a video version of an example shown in the Edit - Join topic.


Join Dialog Part 2 - Joins between Tables

A fast-paced video showing three examples of joins between tables, with no SQL required: We add a Publishers field to each title in a list of books (one to many) and then we show how with a single click we update the table to incorporate changes made and new data added. Next, we add three new fields to the Publishers table to harvest data from books (many to one) to create fields that contains a list of titles, the average sales price of a book and the last publication date. Finally, we show how to alter the saved query to update the list of titles into JSON format. Wow! Works in Viewer, too. This is a video version of an example shown in the Edit - Join topic.


Join Dialog Part 1 - Spatial Joins

See the new Join dialog in action, effortlessly doing spatial joins without SQL. This is so easy and convenient even SQL experts love to use it! Using a map with two layers, a cities layer showing cities in the US and a states layer showing states in the US we add the name of the state for each city to the cities attributes. Next, we take data from the cities layer and add it to the states layer, summing up the populations for cities in each state to get a total population for the state, plus maximum and minimum city populations in that state. The same dialog works with table to table joins and image to drawing joins as well. Works in Viewer, too. This is a video version of an example shown in the Edit - Join topic.


Layers Pane and Column Widths

A short video for Manifold Viewer and Manifold Release 9, showing how to use the Layers pane to quickly set the width of all columns in a table at once, or setting widths in only some columns to better fit contents or titles. Includes a quick demo on zooming to selections in many layers in maps at once. Fast and easy!


Manifold vs Arc - Contour Lines - 11 seconds vs 20 minutes

See Manifold do in 11 seconds what takes Esri's ArcGIS Pro over 20 minutes. Manifold creates contour lines in 11 seconds for a 26000 x 38000 terrain elevation raster, with ArcGIS Pro taking 20 minutes and 46 seconds for the same thing. Amazing! The video uses ArcGIS Pro because ArcMap crashed every time this data set was tried. The video also shows how Manifold will preview what it's about to do, so you can be sure the contour job is set up the way you want, avoiding any errors. It's quicker for Esri users to export their data to Manifold, create contours in a few seconds, and then import back into ArcGIS Pro than it is to wait around for 20 minutes for Arc to do the job. New! - In addition to this video, check out the updated video showing use of the new Transform pane user interface, for even more convenient contours.

Download the montana_map_v2.zip (3997611 KB) Manifold project file used in this video and try it out in the free Viewer on your own computer, to see how Manifold really is way faster than Arc + Spatial Analyst.

Have a taste for really slow Arc operations? Download the montana_grd_v2.zip (4708526 KB) original .grd file imported into Arc in the video, as a 4.7 GB zip file that unzips into a 14+ GB .grd file. Download the file overnight, unzip, import into Arc and then confirm Arc really does take over 20 minutes to create contours that Manifold creates in a few seconds.


Cutting Edge - What's New in Legends

See the latest improvements in legends, including fast application of changes in formatting to many legend frames at once, quick alignment of legend frames, changes to samples and much more. Suggestions from users like you are rapidly evolving legends into a fast, flexible and convenient tool to create clear and clean legends.


Manifold vs Arc - Euclidean Barriers - 7 seconds vs 1 minute

Calculating Euclidean Distances around barriers is a brand new feature in Esri's Spatial Analyst, so cool and useful that Manifold has implemented Euclidean computations around barriers as well, but in fully parallelized form that runs significantly faster than Spatial Analyst, typically taking 7 seconds for what requires a full minute with Esri. The video shows Euclidean Allocation, Euclidean Distance, and Euclidean Back Direction compared to Manifold Release 9, with all calculations working around barriers in both cases. Works in the free Viewer, too! Download Viewer and see the incredible speed of Manifold on your own computer!


Manifold vs Arc - Paths around Barriers - 7 seconds vs 8 minutes

Computing Path Distances and Costs around barriers in rasters is a complex task for any high-end GIS. We compare Manifold System Release 9 to Esri's Spatial Analyst running in ArcMap, using the geoprocessing tools Cost Back Link, Cost Distance, and Path Direction using Vertical Factor. Manifold is fully parallel and runs all 48 threads in the machine at 100% utilization, while the Esri toolset is only partially parallel, running a maximum of 9 instances with less than 30% utilization. The result is Manifold can do in 3 seconds what takes Arc 25 seconds, with Path Distance taking 7 seconds in Manifold but 8 minutes in Spatial Analyst. Whoa! That's 70 times faster for Manifold. Everything shown in the video works in the free Manifold Viewer, too!


Manifold vs Arc - Costs and Paths - 9 seconds vs 12 minutes

An ambitious video comparing four Spatial Analyst geoprocessing tools - Cost Back Link, Cost Distance, Cost Allocation, and Path Distance with Vertical Factor - to equivalent tools in Manifold using a 5300 x 5300 terrain elevation raster. Works in the free Viewer, too! Manifold takes only three or four seconds to produce what requires two minutes in ArcMap with Spatial Analyst to produce using the first three tools. The big surprise is how Manifold takes less than 9 seconds for the Path Distance computation, while Spatial Analyst takes over twelve minutes. Arc users will often use Manifold as a power processor for big data crunching that takes too long in Spatial Analyst: it is far quicker to export data to Manifold, do the job in seconds and then import it back into Arc, than it is to wait for long jobs in Arc.

Seen above: 100% utilization of all 48 threads of a 24 core, 48 thread AMD Threadripper CPU. The vertical bar at the right edge of each box shows how Manifold launched 100% of that thread to calculate Path Distance. Wow! Running fully parallel is how Manifold can do in 9 seconds what takes Spatial Analyst 12 minutes. Spatial Analyst on the same machine runs Path Distance with only nine instances at less than 30% utilization, taking 12 minutes. Add Manifold to your Esri toolset for faster geoprocessing.


Manifold vs Arc - 100x Faster on an Affordable Desktop

Watch Manifold do in 0.9 seconds what takes ArcMap plus Spatial Analyst over a minute and a half. That's over 100 times faster! Some comments on previous comparisons have stated that Manifold was so super fast compared to Esri because tests were run on a high-end, Threadripper machine that could run 48 threads. This video shows Manifold is faster even with fewer cores on an affordable desktop system. We re-run Manifold trials on a Ryzen 9 3900x computer, with three different tasks taking only 0.9 seconds, 5.4 seconds and 3 seconds. AMD's 3900x CPU now retails for as low as $400, setting a new baseline for affordable GIS desktop computing. Everything shown in the video works in the free Viewer, too!


Manifold vs Arc - Seven Seconds vs Four Minutes

Finding basins in a 5300 x 5300 terrain elevation raster, we compare Manifold workflow speed and ease of workflow to Esri's ArcMap with Spatial Analyst. ArcMap Standard plus Spatial Analyst costs a total of $5250 so it should work better than a Manifold package that sells for only $145, right? No way! Manifold absolutely crushes the comparison, taking only a single click and seven seconds to do what takes the $5000+ package three geoprocessing operations and four minutes, not counting the time to setup and launch three operations. Works in the free Viewer, too!


Cutting Edge - First Look at Legends

Introducing an experimental Cutting Edge feature before it is documented in the user manual: The video provides a quick tutorial to creating legends in layouts, with advice on how to handle quirks in the initial implementation. This allows intrepid early adopters to take advantage of legends right now, and to provide feedback to help guide and prioritize the many GUI enhancements for legends now in production. Upcoming builds will provide numerous enhancements and automated GUI features to reduce tinker time and to make legends faster and easier to create. Participate in that process to make sure the features you want in legends appear right away!


Manifold vs Arc - Watersheds Sixty Five times Faster than Arc

Another video comparing Manifold speed to Esri ArcMap with Spatial Analyst, this time computing upstream watersheds on a 5300 x 5300 terrain elevation raster for a few dozen locations. ArcMap requires three geoprocessing tool operations calculating intermediate steps, taking a minute and a half. Manifold does the same job in a single click in less than 1.4 seconds, over 65 times faster than Esri. The larger and more complex the geoprocessing, the greater Manifold's speed advantage. ArcMap plus Spatial Analyst cost over $5000 per seat while Manifold costs only $145. Works in the free Viewer, too!


Manifold vs Arc - Fifty times Faster than Spatial Analyst

New! Updated Video: The first video in a series of comparisons. We compare Manifold Release 9 to Esri's ArcMap with Spatial Analyst. ArcMap instead of ArcGIS Pro is used to ensure maximum possible speed with no slowdowns from AGOL connections. Starting with a terrain 5300 x 5300 elevation raster we compare Manifold workflow and speed creating streams (watershed lines) with Esri ArcMap and Spatial Analyst doing the same task. ArcMap requires four operations calculating intermediate steps, taking a total of three minutes and 30 seconds to compute streams. Manifold does the same job in a single operation in under four seconds, over fifty times faster than Arc, and with the convenience of a single click. ArcMap plus Spatial Analyst cost over $5000 per seat while Manifold costs only $145. As data sizes scale up, Manifold gets even faster than Arc. Works in the free Viewer, too!



Closest Rasters - Paths

See how Manifold's new "Closest" tools compare to Esri's "Distance" tools in Spatial Analyst. Starting with a map that has a terrain elevation raster and a drawing with eight point objects, in a mere five minutes of actual GIS work we create a slope surface from a terrain elevation surface, and we create a least cost path from every pixel to the closest point counting slope values as costs. Next we create watershed lines we can use to visualize those paths. We then generate a least cost source raster, from which we create a drawing of area borders that delineate each source point's region. Wow! All that in five minutes! Add a few minutes of tips and explanations and you can see how Manifold can do in minutes what takes hours in other packages. Works in the free Viewer, too! This is a video version of the Transform: Closest Rasters topic.


48 Thread Parallel Watershed Areas

Life is fun with 48 parallel threads cutting through big GIS tasks! In this video we use a 24 core / 48 thread processor to compute watershed areas on a 1 GB terrain elevation raster in 22 seconds, using Windows Task Manager to show how Manifold Release 9 automatically utilizes all 48 threads in parallel for faster computation and virtually instantaneous previews. The machine used is an inexpensive, second generation AMD Threadripper, perhaps the least expensive way to run 48 threads on a desktop. Manifold does a super job of effectively using many threads, automatically parallelizing and dispatching to four dozen threads without the many threads interfering with each other. Try this at home for free using the free Manifold Viewer, which is also fully CPU and GPU parallel.


Copy and Paste Projections

We often want to reproject a map, drawing, or image into exactly the same coordinate system used by some other item. That is easy to do with Copy and Paste. The video shows how with a single click we can change the projection used by a map window to that of any other component. It also shows how to quickly Copy a projection from one drawing, a State Plane coordinate system, and Paste it to reproject a Latitude / Longitude component into that State Plane coordinate system. The video also shows the incredible speed of Manifold, which can reproject an image of the whole world from Bing streets instantly. Use Copy and Paste to quickly copy projections in both Manifold Release 9 and the free Manifold Viewer.


Find Percentages of Open Space in ZIP Code Areas

A recent GIS forum thread asked how to find the percentage of open space in each ZIP code area given a layer of polygons representing ZIP codes and a layer of polygons showing open spaces like parks and green spaces. This video shows how to do that start to finish in a few simple steps, from initial importing of shape files to final results, in just five minutes, with an additional few minutes of explanation what each step does. Works in Manifold Release 9 or using the free Manifold Viewer. This is a video version of the Example: Find Percentages of Open Space in ZIP Code Areas topic, which uses a slightly different workflow, applying the Join dialog. The example topic also includes a useful discussion at the very end, showing how to do the entire workflow in a single query.


Manifold Viewer - Tangent and Non-Tangent Circle Arcs

Got Traverses? Maybe not with ArcGIS Pro. Get them with Manifold! A quick video showing the difference between tangent and non-tangent circle arcs in a traverse. Traverses are not just for US-style surveying, but are useful anywhere we need to define a line, a boundary, or a course by direction and distance. The video shows how dynamic previews in Manifold automatically update displays in the Record pane to different Esri formats for traverses and tangent or non-tangent circle arc segments. That makes it really easy to see what is going on in a traverse, especially for Esri users working with Esri traverse files.


Manifold Viewer - Connect to a DBMS and Save as a Favorite

See how easy it is to connect to a DBMS with the free Manifold Viewer and to then save the connection as a Favorite that can be launched with a single click - no need to re-enter credentials. Viewer is read-only, but we can create Favorites that in future Viewer sessions will appear in the Favorites list. Set up fast, one-click connections to databases, to files, and to other frequently used data sources.


Create Parcels from Traverse Files

Manifold's ability to handle curves and sophisticated geometry makes it easy to create parcels from plat maps and survey documents that describe traverses, using industry-standard Esri traverse files. Also called "metes and bounds" descriptions, traverses are widely used in surveying in the US to define parcels and lines by describing a sequence of directions, distances and curves from a starting point. Manifold automatically handles both tangent and non-tangent curves and the full variety of options used to specify angles, distances and curves. This video shows how it's easy to create a parcel from a traverse file. This works in the free Viewer, too, so anyone can visualize a traverse. Release 9 and Viewer can create Esri-standard traverse files as well! This is a video version of the Example: Create Parcels from Traverse Files topic.


Create Terrain Elevation from a NASA PDS Table

Do in six minutes what can take hours in other GIS packages! We import terrain elevation raster data from a NASA PDS archive and style the images with an elevation palette and hillshading. One of the images was wrongly georegistered by NASA, so we import the original LiDAR point data from a table in the PDS archive. We transform the imported table from 0 to 360 degree longitudes into +/-180 longitudes, construct a geometry field, and then we create a drawing from the table that shows the LiDAR point data in the table. Next, we use Kriging to create a terrain elevation raster from the LiDAR point drawing, and then we style that and hillshade it so it can be exactly overlaid on a Bing satellite layer to enhance the satellite photography with terrain relief. See how Manifold's wonderfully efficient user interface and blisteringly fast parallel performance makes GIS work fast and easy! This is a video version of the Example: Create Terrain Elevation Raster from a NASA PDS Table topic.


Speed Demo - 22 Million Roads

See the phenomenal speed of Manifold, popping open a project with 22 million vector roads at once with instantaneous opens and instantaneous, no-delay panning and zooming, even when reprojecting 22 million vector objects on the fly. Amazing! This demo opens a 10GB project of all roads in the continental US, over 22 million of them, in 1/10th of a second and then pans and zooms instantly. Everything goes super-fast, not just viewing but editing too: We open a second project with over 842,000 roads in Pennsylvania and copy and paste those into the 22 million line project in seconds. Find and display entire counties of roads by FIPS number instantly. You get all this speed using Manifold alone on a typical desktop machine, doing tasks that are impossibly slow in other GIS packages.


Editing Drawings - Create Lines with Curves

A very short video showing how to create lines in drawings using straight segments and also circular arcs. We create a line in a map of Paris showing our walk around circular ponds. Manifold can create polylines using straight line segments for classic polylines, or using curved segments that are circular arcs, ellipses, or splines for very smooth curves, a much faster and easier technique than clicking many points. Super!


Editing Drawings - Create Areas

How to create areas (polygons) in a drawing. We digitize a lake by tracing over a background satellite image layer from a web server. This quick video shows how editing tools in Manifold make it easy to digitize objects very quickly, correcting any errors with no stress or fear of getting it wrong. Includes a quick demo of snapping.


Custom Area Labels

Manifold can automatically label objects in maps. In the case of areas, Manifold can automatically label areas and will also dynamically move those labels as we pan and zoom in a map to keep as many areas labeled as possible. But what if we want fixed labels that stay in positions we specify, but which automatically take their text from attributes for areas? That is easy to do, as this video shows. Works with the free Viewer, too!


Joins are Easy

A new video for Release and Manifold Viewer:  Joins allow us to combine columns from two different tables using a short, simple, really easy query in SQL. This fast-paced video takes the mystery out of using Joins by showing a simple example that is easy to follow. We have a map of US states with the name of each state, but not the population. We also have a table with a list of US states giving the population for each state. We use a JOIN to add the population for each state to the map, so we can color the map in a thematic format based on the population for each state. We show two ways to do this: first, by creating a new table that is a combination, and second, by using a query that creates a result for us on the fly. We show how to create an index in each table in just a few quick clicks, for really fast performance. We use Manifold Viewer, the free version of Release 9, so anybody can try this at home for free, to learn about SQL, learn how to do JOINs and learn about Manifold.


Manifold 9 - Rearrange Channels in an Image

Manifold Release 9 and Manifold Viewer can work with images using any arrangement of data channels, quickly and easily specifying how those channels should be interpreted as display outputs. The Style panel allows us to quickly specify whatever assignment we want, without changing the data in the image. Sometimes, however, we want to change the actual channel arrangement within the image and not just the interpretation. This video shows how that is extremely easy to do in Manifold, with even a visual preview provided before the change is committed. Fast! Easy! ...and, it works in the free Viewer, too! This is a video version of the Example: Rearrange Channels using an Expression topic.


Manifold Viewer - Know Your Limits

See the new Limit transforms in fast and beautiful point-and-click action. The Limit, Limit High, and Limit Low transforms make it easy to edit even very large rasters with a point and click. This video edits a hill shaded terrain elevation data set surrounding the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. We open the same raster image in two side-by-side windows so the effect of each transform can be seen compared to the original. Super! The video uses Manifold Viewer that anybody can download for free, or you can use Release 9 too. Stay tuned for the math joke at the end... know your limits!


Manifold Viewer - Fill in Missing Pixels

The latest editions of Release 9 and Manifold Viewer provide point-and-click filling of missing pixels in rasters, including images and terrain elevation data. This quick video shows how easy the new Fill transforms work, providing an instant preview to guide what we do. We fill in missing data in a Space Shuttle SRTM terrain elevation data set for the Italian Alps in the Northeast part of Italy. We also see how to copy styling for terrain elevation, including hill shading, from one raster to another. Easy! The video uses the free Manifold Viewer that anybody can download and use for free. Works in Release 9, too!


Manifold Viewer - Portable North Arrows

Continuing on from the preceding Rotated Views video, we explore a more sophisticated way of creating custom North arrows that can be easily repositioned and recycled. Instead of creating a North arrow that is a combination of two objects, we use a tiny SQL expression to create a computed geometry field within a single object that automatically tracks any changes, such as creation of new North arrows, resizing or repositioning. Amazing to see all this can be created in the free Viewer! Works in Manifold Release 9 too!


Manifold Viewer - Rotated Views

Learn how to create rotated views, to display maps where North is not always up. The video shows how to create a rotated map of Italy in seconds, with perfect cartographic accuracy. See how to create North arrows, labels, and how Manifold can instantly re-project on the fly to create rotated views of web served layers from Bing street maps, satellite photography and much more. The video uses the free Manifold Viewer and works exactly the same in Release 9 as well. This is a video version of the Rotated Views topic. Download the sample rotated_views_video.map (2048 KB) project to try this video out at home with Viewer. Thanks go out to Manifold expert Tim Baigent for suggesting this technique in the georeference.org forum!

"I didn't expect wms datasources to work with this rotated coordinate system but they do and speed is absolutely astonishing." - Forum post in the above thread.

Manifold Viewer - Blend SRTM and Enhanced Bing Satellite

A fast-paced video using the Eye of the Sahara (Richat Structure) to show how to use a free, read-only product to create great images and illustrations for use in web sites, documents and other publications. In a matter of seconds we import a 1 GB terrain elevation TIFF, add a Bing satellite image instantly, on-the-fly edit the Bing server feed to add contrast, in seconds compute a 7x7 matrix curvature profile - point and click! - and then instantly blend 2 GB worth of layers and inbound Bing web-served imagery to create a fully custom, enhanced display. Includes tricks like saving Styles and queries in Notepad so we can use them later in a read-only, free product. Viewer is fully CPU parallel and GPU parallel, so what takes hours or days in non-parallel systems we can do in seconds or minutes. For Viewer and Release 9. For large, detailed screenshots, see the Five Views of the Richat Structure examples in the Gallery page.


Manifold Viewer - How Matrix Filters Work

The easy, simple way to learn how filters work! Watch this action-packed video using Manifold Viewer that illustrates how matrix filters, also known as convolution filters, work. In addition to explaining filters, the video provides a real-life look at simple Manifold techniques for moving objects around in drawings using the Shift transform, and fast and easy use of Selection and tables to quickly put desired values into attributes. Sound technical? Sure, but in a very easy and simple way.


Manifold Viewer - Create Custom GPU Accelerated Filters in Seconds

A technical video using the free Viewer showing how to create your own, fully custom, fully GPU-parallel, convolution matrix filters, including Emboss, Sobel, Prewitt, and Kirsch edge detection and many more, for use in Viewer or Release 9. Modify the spatial SQL examples in the downloadable example project to specify a custom matrix and in seconds your custom filter can do image processing at GPU-parallel speeds. Viewer is read-only, but you can copy and paste the query text for custom filters to and from Notepad or any other text editor. Download the Custom_Filter_Examples.mxb sample project to try out the video in Viewer or Release 9. For large, detailed screenshots, see the Image Processing using Convolution Matrix Filters examples in the Gallery page.


Manifold Viewer - Speed demo with 1280 GPU cores - 2 Minutes vs 5 Days

Watch the free Manifold Viewer run CPU parallel and GPU parallel with 8 CPU cores and 1280 GPU cores to absolutely crush a job, doing in 2 minutes what would take non-GPU-parallel software 5 days. The video shows Viewer instantly pop open a 4 GB project that contains a huge, multi-gigabyte terrain elevation surface for Crater Lake, Oregon. With a point and click - no parallel code required - we compute the mean curvature at each pixel of the surface using a 7x7 matrix in under two minutes. We combine that with the original surface for enhanced hill shaded effects to better see details. Using an 11x11 matrix takes just over two minutes, a huge computation that takes days in non-GPU-parallel GIS packages. For large, detailed screenshots, see the Eleven Views of Crater Lake examples in the Gallery page.


Manifold Viewer - Synthetic Imagery using Multiple Styles

A video that continues where the "Display Color Infrared..." video left off. See how to link an NAIP four band image instead of importing it, and then how to copy and paste multiple versions of the same image. All of them take data from the same table, but each can be styled, panned and zoomed independently, with views synced as desired. We create a view in natural color, another in Color Infrared CIR, another using a different Infrared display and then yet another view with Infrared used for all three channels, formatted as a palette image using a synthetic palette, hill shaded, and then used to "pan sharpen" a natural color version of the same image. Wow! All that in a totally free Viewer!


Manifold Viewer - Display Color Infrared (CIR) from NAIP Images

Use the free Manifold Viewer to take a 440 MB, four band NAIP image that shows Redding, California, and create a Color Infrared (CIR) display providing a false color image using the Infrared band of the NAIP image. See how easy it is in Viewer with a few mouse clicks to instantly re-assign channels in images. Viewer is so fast that it can import and display 450 MB images in seconds and pan and zoom within those images instantly. This is a video version of the Example: Display an NAIP Four Band Image as Color Infrared (CIR) topic.


Manifold Viewer - GPU Parallel Computation with Viewer

NEW! Viewer now gains automatic, massively parallel GPU computation just like Release 9! This video shows examples running GPU parallel computations - no programming required, just point and click dialogs! - using the Mt_Hood_DEM.mxb sample project we can download from the Manifold website. It includes a speed comparison with a classic, non-parallel GIS, QGIS, and shows how computations can be scaled up to massively demanding jobs that still get done in a few seconds. Amazing, and totally free!


Manifold 9 - Style Panel Quickstart - Labels

Recent builds of Release 9 have added extensive new style facilities for labels, making it easy to choose a wide variety of effects, including sidecar icons, box frames, drop shadows and many others. This video shows how fast and easy point-and-click dialogs make it easy to create exactly the label look you want. Works for the free Manifold Viewer, too!


Manifold 9 - Style Panel Quickstart - Areas

New area style capabilities in Release 9 and Viewer make it easy to rapidly create spectacular visuals that get the story across with clarity and compelling effect. Learn how to use point and click controls to fill areas, control borders, draw "inner area" effects and "outer area" effects for a seeming infinite range of options, all available with a rapid click of the mouse. Use bitmap images for area effects too!


Manifold 9 - Style Panel Quickstart - Lines

Learn how to use the spectacular new style capabilities for lines in Manifold Release 9 and Manifold Viewer to create an endless variety lines quickly and easily. See how to add arrowheads or other symbols to the ends of lines, how to customize lines with repeating symbols, how to start lines with custom symbols and how to add accessory left and right lines for exactly the right effect.


Manifold 9 - Style Panel Quickstart - Points

A fast and easy introduction to the new Style and formatting capabilities for Pionts in Manifold Release 9 and Viewer. Learn how to rapidly change colors, symbology, sizes and rotations including the use of vector symbols, fonts and even bitmap images. The new system is "always on" and immediately shows changes in the main workspace for rapid, easy choice of exactly the visual effect we want. This video gets right to the basics used every day.


Manifold 9 - Bitmap Styles

A quick, first look at very extensive additions to Style, enabling use of bitmaps for styles, inner and outer area hatches, left and right line style additions and many other new features.


Manifold 9 - New Style Features

A first look at the new Style panel in Release 9, with over 1300 symbols by default and endless combinations of line and area symbology. New Style features are incredibly fast and easy to use to create just the right effect. This video uses point styles as an example, including thematic formatting. Works in the free Viewer, too! A video version of the Example: Change Point Style topic.


Manifold 9 - Bounded Areas

The Bounded Areas transform template creates areas within regions that are enclosed by lines. The template works with a single click, and automatically reckons any regions enclosed by either intersecting lines or by lines that are coincident end to end. Easy! Works in the free Viewer, too. A video version of the Example: Bounded Areas topic.


Manifold 9 - Copy to Selection

A short video showing how to copy the same, desired value to fields in all selected records. This is a great way to make changes to many records at once in a table. This technique is a life saver when making edits to tables. Works in the free Viewer, too.


Manifold Viewer - View GDB Faster than ArcGIS Explorer

Esri's ArcGIS Explorer product is a free viewer that allows Esri people to view Esri GDB Geodatabases, along with other data. Unfortunately, Esri has stopped producing Explorer and has replaced it with ArcGIS Earth, which cannot connect to and display Esri GDB Geodatabases. Manifold Viewer is a free Viewer that connects to Esri GDB Geodatabases and using Esri's own format can display and work with geodatabases even faster than ArcGIS Explorer. The video compares Explorer to Viewer side-by-side so Esri users can see that if they need to continue viewing GDB Geodatabases for free they can reliably use Viewer for fast, high quality GDB viewing. Download Manifold Viewer for free. Related topics for Viewer and Manifold 9: Example: Connect to an Esri GDB File Geodatabase and Example: Convert an Esri File Geodatabase into a .map Project and Example: Connect LibreOffice Through Manifold to an Esri GDB.


Manifold Viewer - Wildfires

This video has been produced on an emergency basis in response to Northern California wildfires. It shows how to use the free Manifold Viewer to open and work with the Wildfires.mxb (6 KB) project providing satellite-detected wildfire information from US government servers with a consolidated set of layers that support fighting wildfires. The project contains a pre-built map designed for beginners to use that shows the last 24 hours of wildfires detected by MODIS and VIIRS satellite sensing, with many other convenient layers built into the project. Download Manifold Viewer for free. Use Viewer or Release 9 with this project.


Manifold Viewer - Install and Run

For Manifold Viewer and Manifold Release 9 - Shows how to unzip and run a "portable" installation used for Viewer Edge, the latest and greatest build of the free Manifold Viewer. The same instructions for using "portable" installations work for portable installations of Manifold Release 9. The video also shows how to open a pre-made project, using the Manifold_World_Volcanoes.mxb (47 KB) project as an example, and how to import a shapefile and view it in Viewer, changing the styling of points and adding labels. We finish by adding an OpenStreetMaps web server layer. Download Manifold Viewer for free!


Manifold Viewer - Volcanoes

For Manifold Viewer and Manifold Release 9 - How to use the Manifold_World_Volcanoes.mxb (47 KB) project for Manifold Viewer Edge or Release 9, a project that is pre-configured with over 430 point-and-click locations to view major volcanoes all over the world. Includes a map with Bing and Google satellite layers, Google Terrain layer, Street layers from both Microsoft and Bing, all of which make it easy to explore volcanoes even in remote locations where cloud cover or snow prevents a clear view of volcano details in either Google or Bing. Download Manifold Viewer for free!


Manifold 9 - Mass Produce Locations with a Script

Shows how to use the Create Locations script to automatically mass produce a folder full of locations from a geocoded table. We often get lists of places as tables where each place has a name and a latitude and longitude. The script instantly makes a location, like a bookmark, for each record in the table, allowing our users to pan and zoom to that location with a single click. The video shows the script is used to mass produce interesting locations in Google, tourist views of Chateaux in France, and to show a list of castles for sale. Perfect for anybody selling or reviewing real-estate, or just to view historic, ecological, business, military or government locations! A video version of the Example: VBScript to Create Locations from a Table topic.


Manifold 9 - Famous Google Sights

Locations are a great way to publish lists of sights to view in Google, Bing or other web servers. The server_sights.mxb (4 KB) project published on Manifold's web site provides a list of locations often cited on Internet as interesting things to see on Google Maps. View this in the free Manifold Viewer using a project that contains Bing and Google image layers to provide the best possible view for each.


Manifold 9 - Microsoft JSON Building Footprints

Microsoft has recently published vector footprints of over 125 million buildings in the US in GeoJSON format, using a .json file extension. Manifold Release 9 and Manifold Viewer directly import Microsoft's JSON files for spectacular views of building footprints. This video shows how to import Microsoft JSON building footprint files in 9 or Viewer and how to overlay them in a map using video and street map layers. A video version of the Example: Import GeoJSON / JSON File topic.


Manifold 9 - Locations

Manifold now includes a fast, elegant and easy way of saving Locations, like bookmarks, that allow us to return to the same view when working with maps, drawings, images, labels and other windows. This video shows how easy it is to save a location, to visit prior locations, to copy/paste and to modify scale in locations. A Location is just a text string in JSON that we can edit, re-cycle and modify at will. If we like, we can modify hundreds of Locations at once. A video version of the Example: Locations topic.


Manifold 9 - A Walk in the Rain Forest

A recent thread in the Manifold user forum discusses how to use SQL to create lines from a sequence of points recorded with a GPS device. We take user data collected during a walk in the rain forest near Cairns, Australia, and we create lines using a simple application of spatial SQL. Backgrounds use satellite and street map layers from Bing that make it easy to see the intricate walk through the rain forest collecting exotic flora. Just a typical day at the office when your GIS office is a rain forest!


Manifold 9 - Merge Drawings

New builds in Release 9 and Manifold Viewer make it simple and easy to combine multiple drawings into a single drawing. Drawings to be combined can be in different coordinate systems and contain a mix of objects, such as points, lines and areas, and all will be automatically combined into a drawing that has the desired coordinate system. This video shows how to do that in a few effortless clicks with the Merge dialog, no programming required!


Manifold 9 - Merge Images

Manifold makes it easy to combine rasters like images and terrain elevation data from many different files or layers into a single layer or data set. The new Merge dialog will automatically deal with overlaps, different coordinate systems and similar real world complications. This video shows how to merge step by step, and then colors the result with a palette and applies hill shading. A video version of the Example: Merge Images topic. Works in Viewer too!


Manifold 9 - Compare Country Sizes

Many people want to compare the true sizes of countries. In this video we show how to use different capabilities within Manifold to create a display that instantly shows the relative sizes of four countries: United States, Brazil, China and Australia. Very fast and easy! Works with Manifold Release 9 and the free download of Manifold Viewer. A video version of the Example: Compare Sizes of Countries topic. Download the world map of countries in the world.mxb (1221 KB) project for Release 9 and Manifold Viewer.


Manifold 9 - Re-project a Shapefile

New coordinate system dialogs make it easier than ever to re-project data, often in only one click. This video shows how to import a shapefile and then rapidly re-project it into different coordinate systems. We then show how maps re-project their contents on the fly for display and how to exploit that to rapidly show data in different projections.


Manifold 9 - Incredibly Convenient Zooms

Manifold Viewer and Release 9 have long had fast and easy navigation, with quick panning and zooming. New features make that easier than ever: see how with a single click we can zoom in layers and zoom to selections. Incredibly fast and truly convenient!


Manifold 9 - View and Scrape GeoJSON from Geoplatform

See how to view many thousands of data sources in the US government index to online GIS data at www.geoplatform.gov - this video shows how to view GeoJSON data and how to "scrape" data, that is, to acquire your own local copy of vector data served by URLs listed in geoplatform.gov and save it to a shapefile. Scrape data with a simple copy and paste - no need to write Python or any other code. Use the free Manifold Viewer to view and scrape data, and use Manifold Release 9 to export to shapefiles, to other formats or to copy and paste into databases like PostgreSQL.


Manifold 9 - Infinite Undo

A fast and easy method to recover from editing errors, providing virtually an infinite, endless Undo that can restore objects to their prior versions. We show two different techniques, one which is a lifesaver in cases where we may have forgotten to backup tables before starting edits. A video version of the Example: Repair a Wrong Edit using a Backup topic.


Manifold 9 - Drawings from Queries

Manifold can dynamically create drawings from queries, enabling on the fly creation of drawings based on whatever magic we want. This video shows how to create drawings from queries, how to style those drawings, and how to use them as if they were ordinary static drawings. We can copy objects from them, paste into new tables and much more. The video shows how Manifold can automatically write queries for us from which we can then create drawings. For example, make a selection in one map and see that selection updated in a query-driven drawing in another map. Amazing! Works with free Viewer, too. Download the Mexico_queries.mxb (681 KB) example project used in the video and launch it in Release 9 or in Viewer.


Manifold 9 - Point and Click Select by Topology

New topology selection tools in Release 9 make it point-and-click-easy to select objects based on topology / geometric relationships with different layers, such as selecting all rivers that touch areas in another layer. This video uses a map of Europe to show how easy it is to use point-and-click templates for adjacent, contained, containing, intersecting and touching. Works with Manifold Viewer as well. Download your free Viewer and try it today. Download the select_by_topology_video.mxb (874 KB) example project used in the video and launch it in Release 9 or in Viewer.


Manifold 9 - Trace Vector Areas from Raster Pixels

Release 9 automatically creates vector areas based on raster data. In this video we use the point-and-click Trace Areas template to automatically create areas for different regions of Land Use and Land Classification (LULC) in the vicinity of San Jose, California. We use USGS LULC raster data set to instantaneously create a drawing of areas and then we color the drawing using Style. For extra credit, we show how to use a snippet of SQL to instantly add the USGS classification codes for land use to the resulting drawing. Works in Viewer, too!


Manifold 9 - Contour a 300 MB DEM in Five Seconds

Watch Manifold Release 9 or Manifold Viewer create vector contours in seconds for a terrain elevation raster data set that is almost 300 MB in size. Both Release 9 and Viewer running fully parallel, to create contours using all the cores in computer simultaneously. That can run dozens of times faster than non-parallel GIS. Try for yourself using Viewer!


Manifold 9 - Five Minutes for Contours

In only five minutes learn how to use the new contours capability in Release 9 and Manifold viewer. Pre-built templates make the creation of contours point-and-click easy. Release 9 is so incredibly fast we can changes settings like contour steps and see previews of the contours that will be created in real time. Wow! Download the Florida_palette_hillshading_example.mxb (5946 KB) example project in Release 9 .mxb format and try it yourself in Release 9 or the free Viewer.


Manifold 9 - Copy and Paste Part 2

We continue with our look at copy and paste, this time looking at how we can paste using different names for attribute fields. When Manifold can match up attribute fields by name the system will do so, but if we want to use differently-named fields that's easy to do also, as this video shows.


Manifold 9 - Copy and Paste Part 1

The latest builds add seamless copy and paste between drawings, maps and tables. We copy objects from one drawing and paste them into another. Manifold automatically re-projects copied objects from whatever coordinate system the source uses into the coordinate system of the destination. Manifold even re-projects on the fly multiple, different geometries. We can either let Manifold paste automatically or choose options. See how!


Manifold 9 - New Layout Features in 9

Release 9 provides many new facilities for print layouts, allowing easy re-ordering of frames, layer transparency in frames, custom background colors per frame, new text label boxes and much more. This video provides a quick look at highlights, using a landscape paper format for a larger view of the layout onscreen. For background on the many builds leading up to Release 9, see the Manifold Future series of videos.


Manifold 9 - Per-Object Formatting in 9

Release 9 adds new formatting capabilities, including the ability to set the formatting of objects individually instead of using the same formatting for all objects in a layer. The video shows how to turn on per-object (per-record) formatting, to change the style of objects, setting formatting for each individually if desired. The video also shows how individual formatting is saved in human-readable JSON form in a drawing's table, allowing us to manipulate style on a per-record basis programmatically, with SQL or by simply copying and pasting between records. If we like, we can have multiple styles per record saved as well.


Manifold 9 - New Labels Features in 9

Take a look at new Labels features in Release 9 that can be used in the latest, free Manifold Viewer Edge as well. With two clicks we add labels to a map where each label automatically takes its text from fields in a drawing layer. Next we use a single click to create a labels layer that allows us to interactively add a label wherever we want, as a point label or along a line we draw. We see how to turn on per-label formatting so each label can be styled differently.


Before release in 2017, Manifold Release 9 was known as Manifold Future during the Cutting Edge series of open beta builds. Radian Studio was the data-centric product, now deprecated in favor of Release 9. Release 9 is a huge superset of Radian Studio and Manifold Future. Similar user interfaces mean that videos for past releases still provide insight into the current Release 9 product.


Manifold Future - Future Tour Part 1

This video shows how to download and use a portable installation for Manifold Future, the new public beta for transitioning Manifold Release 9 into the next Manifold GIS edition. Almost all Manifold licensees now use Future, and the Future Viewer version of the free Manifold Viewer product also tracks Manifold Future. Part 1 of the tour shows the Contents, pane, layers and layer opacity, one click use of data source favorites, using your own archival favorite and getting record values instantly. If you are using Viewer or Manifold Release 9, download and use the Future version to get access to all these powerful new features.


Manifold Future - Future Tour Part 2 Editing

We take a tour through new, fast and easy editing features in Manifold Future. See why experienced Manifold users post comments in the forum like "It is excellent, beautiful design." and "Everything is right there, we barely have to think. This is really really good." The video shows how to create new objects, how to add fields and vertices and move vertices around, how to edit existing objects and how to use simple selection methods to choose vertices to move together, including moving all objects.


Manifold Future - Future Tour Part 3 Editing

The editing tour continues with a look at how to create branched objects, including how to create areas with holes and islands, how to add branches to lines and how to add coordinates between vertices in existing objects. We finish up by creating an area that traces over a pond in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris using a Google satellite view, and then we add a hole to that area and two additional islands.


Manifold Future - Future Tour Part 4 Edit Attributes, Move a Point

We use Manifold Future to see how to view attributes of objects in drawings, including use of the new Edit dialog to view long, multi-paragraph text fields. We edit fields and see how easy it is to preview edits and either accept them or abandon them. We switch to editing the geometry of objects in a drawing, viewing the coordinate locations and using mouse moves to reposition points. We edit the location of a point to correct an error in a drawing, using Google Satellite view to provide context for the correction. Fast and easy, with previews all the way!


Manifold Future - Future Tour Part 5 Unicode Attributes and IME

We take a tour through Manifold Future attribute editing, showing how to edit attributes in a drawing using the Record panel Values tab and the expanded Edit dialog, including advanced Unicode facilities and use of the built in Input Method Editor (IME) to input text in Japanese language.


Manifold Future - Future Tour Part 6 Cell Context Menu

A short video showing a fast and easy way to copy between cells in tables using the context menu. Also... one step undo of pending changes, setting the value of a cell to NULL and more. The context menu on cells is such a simple thing but it makes repetitive editing of tables much faster and easier.


Manifold Future - 5 Minute Style Quickstart

A five minute, fast and easy introduction to the new Style and formatting capabilities in Manifold Future. In just five minutes learn how to rapidly change colors, symbology, sizes and rotations for area, line and point objects in drawings. The new system is "always on" and immediately shows changes in the main workspace for rapid, easy choice of exactly the visual effect we want. This video gets right to the basics used every day.


Manifold Future - Example: Style Panel Quickstart

A video that repeats the Example: Style Panel Quickstart topic from the Manifold Future user manual in eight minutes of action-packed fun! The video shows how to format points using the Style panel, including simultaneous formatting of multiple style properties using the same thematic format setup. See how to use free meteorology symbols from a popular, free font, how to use letters and other symbols as point symbology and more.


Manifold Future - Example: City Sizes by Population

Yet another fast-paced video that repeats the Example: Format the Size of City Points by Population topic from the Manifold Future user manual. The video shows how to vary the sizes and colors of points in a map by the populations of cities those points represent, a classic example of thematic formatting. See also what the percentage numbers in the intervals list mean and how interval methods are automatically calculated by Manifold based on the data in the drawing.


Manifold Future - Style Introduction

Take a tour through the new Style and formatting user interface in Manifold Future - This video provides a quick introduction to formatting objects with different colors, styles, and sizes, including fast and easy application of palettes, simultaneous formatting of different types of objects and different style characteristics, and much more. See how thousands of point symbols can be combined for an infinity of choices. Wow! ...and that's just the first step with many more formatting, symbology and editing capabilities to come in the weeks ahead! Everything in this video works for Manifold Viewer as well.


Manifold Future - Select and Transform Panes

Using points of interest for the greater London metropolitan area taken from OpenStreetMap we take a first look at the new Select and Transform control panels, now implemented as "always on" modeless panels instead of old-style modal dialogs. We see how rapidly and conveniently we can move back and forth between map windows, table windows and control panels to assemble exactly the selection we want, and then put that to work using the "always on" Transform panel to create buffers. We finish the video with a demo using the huge Australian Waterways set to show how Manifold speed continues to be astonishingly fast, with even interactive dialogs previewing and selecting vast numbers of objects in a fraction of a second. Download the Australian hydrology example project from the Examples page and open the project in in the free Manifold Viewer to try for yourself the incredible speed of Manifold technology, even when working with hydrology data for an entire country.


Manifold Future - Five Minute Filters Quickstart

This video repeats the Filters topic from the Manifold Future user manual. Filters in Manifold Future and Future Viewer provide a fast and easy way to show only those records in a table we want to see. We can apply them very quickly with no keyboarding required. This five minute video shows how, using points of interest in Monaco to show how to combine filters on two different fields, and then we switch gears to show how two filters on the same field can be applied in seconds to get exactly the records we want. Easy, and best of all - no keyboarding!


Manifold Future - Shared Selections

Interactive selections in Manifold Future and Future Viewer provide a quick and easy way to zero in on data of interest. This video shows how windows share a selection so selecting records in a table will automatically select the corresponding objects in every drawing that shows that table. Likewise, making a selection in a drawing will automatically select the corresponding records in the table as well as in all other drawings and drawing layers that display that table.


Manifold Future - Five Minutes for Fast Map Selections

New mouse moves for visual selections in maps provide very rapid selection and deselection of features seen in maps, in drawings and in layers. This video shows how quick and easy the new selection moves can be done in real life, even if they seem puzzling when described with words in user documentation. Take five minutes to learn how these very powerful and convenient mouse moves are easy to do.


Manifold Future - Easy to Use Large OSM Data

It's easy to work with very large tables in Manifold Future or Future Viewer. Some people think that Manifold can only work with what is shown in a window or what is displayed in a few screens of a table, but that's not true: this video shows how Manifold can operate on all the data, all of the time. We start with OpenStreetMap (OSM) vector data imported using native OSM PBF format, showing all the roads and area objects in Boston. Manifold can combine different objects in a single layer so Manifold can correctly import PBF layers that combine different object types. The video shows how with a single click we can select out all lines or areas in a layer and then create a lines-only or areas-only drawing. We close the video with fast and easy formatting for a sharp, distinctive presentation. See also the PBF .pbf, OSM, O5M topic.


Manifold Future - Fast Edits in Any Size Table

Need to make corrections throughout an entire table? See how to use the Select panel to instantly choose records to fix and then a quick click on the Transform panel to edit them as desired. The video shows how edits apply to even huge tables, far larger than can be browsed interactively, and how we can filter huge tables for useful views into our data, including choosing whether we apply filters to the entire table or to subsets we prefer.


Manifold Future - A First Look at Layouts

A quick look at new printing facilities in Manifold Future. Create a layout and drag and drop drawings, images, maps and labels into the layout. Resize and move frames and dynamically pan and zoom within a frame. Future is fully parallel and so are layouts, so changing a layer elsewhere in a project that participates in a layout will dynamically change that frame in the layout. Print to PDF with spectacular fidelity and clarity, or print directly to printers.


Speed Demo - Open 110 GB of Images Instantly

Manifold Release 9 can handle enormous amounts of data on a desktop. This demonstration shows Manifold opening 110 GB of images together in the same map, showing several world cities in high resolution imagery. The demo uses layers from Bing and Google to show how Manifold can combine images from different sources to enhance comprehension. Works with the free Viewer, too!    (Version 2 video)


Speed Demo - Triangulate 300K Points in 8 Seconds

Manifold does in 8 seconds what takes 8 hours in other software. This video shows Manifold parallel technology running amazingly faster than non-parallel GIS. We use Manifold Viewer, the free read-only version of Manifold Release 9, to do a triangulation of 300,000 points. We use Viewer so anyone can try this at home with a free Viewer download. The triangulation takes just over 8 seconds while the same triangulation in some other non-parallel GIS packages using the same data set takes 8 hours. Wow!    (Version 2 video)


Manifold Viewer - Hunting Neolithic Relics v3

Updated video: Connect to your inner Indiana Jones! We use Manifold Viewer to import a database giving the locations of Neolithic monuments in France. We create a map showing their locations, and then we pull out only the neolithic dolmen megaliths. We then find only the very best and largest dolmen and zoom in using satellite imagery to see where they are. Create maps using the free Viewer for use on your next visit to France! Works in Manifold Release 9 too. This video is continued in the Transform a Neolithic Relics Database video.    (Version 3 video)


Manifold Viewer - Transform a Neolithic Relics Database v3

Updated video: Continuing from the Hunting Neolithic Relics video we show how the Transform pane in Manifold Viewer and Manifold Release 9 can be used to transform the data. We see how Viewer can write parallel SQL for you automatically. We see a small dolmen and a big one at ground level, and we get views of the great fortress at Saumur in France.    (Version 3 video)


Maryland LiDAR Sample Map

A quick video showing how to open and use the maryland_lidar.map sample project available on the Manifold Viewer downloads page. The map shows LiDAR data for Charles County, Maryland, loaded on the fly from a web server in Maryland. Using the LiDAR data, a synthetic surface is automatically created, hill shaded and colored on the fly by either Manifold Release 9 or Manifold Viewer. The video shows how to use the Bing and Google web server layers together with the LiDAR visualization.


Explore Archaeological Sites in France

We use a pre-built, pre-formatted, beginner-friendly project to discover almost all archaeological sites in France we can visit, from ancient Neolithic monuments dating back 6000 years to Roman amphitheaters and temples. A GIS expert prepared the project in Manifold Release 9 and published it as a Manifold format map so that anyone, virtually no skills required, can double-click that project open in Manifold Viewer. This video shows a beginner how to click open the project, click open the map and then navigate around, panning and zooming to see interesting sites. On your next visit to France bring Viewer and this freely downloadable project (download from the Manifold Viewer downloads page) with you to see all the memorable sites no ordinary tourist will ever see.


Hunting Meteorites

We use a pre-built, pre-formatted, beginner-friendly project to hunt meteorites worldwide, with tips for finding meteorites in the American Southwest. Using the meterorites.map that is a free download, we use the free Manifold Viewer to see the locations of all meteorites found on Earth and to hunt new meteorites. A great, user-friendly demo for Manifold Viewer users in the US!


Speed Demo - Triangulate 5 Million Points in 3 Minutes

Using a larger data set than the 300,000 point triangulation, this video shows how Manifold parallel technology accomplishes in under three minutes what what takes non-parallel GIS hours or even days. We use Manifold Viewer, the free read-only subset of Release 9, to do a triangulation of 5 million points. We use Viewer so anyone can try this at home with a free Viewer download. What is really impressive is that Manifold is so fast that a preview of the triangulation happens in less than a second. We show illustrations why parallel processing is way faster than single-core processing.    (Version 2 video)


Speed Demo - Do in 1/10th Second what takes others 30 minutes

See Manifold technology in action in an epic and visually beautiful video: Viewer opens a project file in 1/10th second that the US Government providing the data warns will take Esri software 30 minutes to open in the equivalent Esri native format. That's thousands of times faster for Manifold technology. Viewer effortlessly hill shades and styles on the fly 7.5 GB of new, high resolution bathymetry data for the Gulf of Mexico. We also see how Viewer instantly re-projects on the fly over 7 gigabytes of data to match different data sets using different projections for instantaneous panning and zooming. Re-projection can take hours in other packages but Viewer and Manifold do it on the fly, instantly.


Street Address Geocoding using SQL

Using the free Manifold Viewer we do street address geocoding with a simple SQL query. Viewer is the read-only version of Manifold Release 9 but nonetheless retains massive analytic capabilities, including street address geocoding, the process of taking an ordinary street address and finding the spatial location so it can be plotted on a map. We street address geocode the locations of In N' Out burger restaurants using a snippet of Manifold spatial SQL. For advanced geocoding with Manifold and a really cool use of expressions, see the gisadvisor.com video on street address geocoding.


Create a Drawing from a Geocoded Table

A short video showing a common GIS task: take a table with a latitude and longitude value for each record and display that as a drawing of points. The procedure is identical in Viewer and in Manifold Release 9. We use the free Manifold Viewer product so anyone can download Viewer and try this at home.


Create a Geocoded Table from a Shapefile

Shapefiles often have geometry information for the points they contain but do not have in the attribute table any Latitude and Longitude fields. This video shows how to use Manifold to extract Latitude and Longitude values from geometry and to create separate Latitude and Longitude fields for each record in a table. The table can then be exported for use in other applications that cannot read shapefiles or which require explicit latitude and longitude fields. We use Viewer for the video so anyone can download the free Manifold Viewer product and try the example at home.


Meta Table Editing

A technical video showing how Manifold's "Everything is a Table" philosophy opens the door to powerful automation. We change hundreds of queries at once from being read-only to editable by editing the value of their properties in a meta data table, and then we change the coloring of many drawings at once by editing the values of their style properties in the metadata table.


SQL Quickstart

Manifold technology and Manifold Viewer are perfect for database work. This video shows how to open and use the free books.map project that provides all tables and query listings for the example database used in Chris Fehily's first-rate book, "SQL: Visual Quickstart Guide." Viewer and the books.map project are free downloads from the Viewer web site. You can use Viewer to run SQL to follow along in Chris's book without having to manually keyboard any of the examples. Cool!


Fetch Style via Remote Desktop

In this video we show a real life example of copying and pasting Style from meta properties to copy and paste the coloring from one Manifold project into another. We worked on an 820 MB project at home and then forgot to bring it to work. At work we opened the same data and wanted to style it the same way. What to do? Quicker than downloading 820 MB of data is simply using Remote Desktop (RDP) to connect to our computer at home, copy the style used and paste it into the project at work. Done! The video also shows how to use a text file with Notepad to save items for later re-use in Viewer, which is read-only. More convenient, of course, is using Manifold, but for a completely free solution with Viewer we can save the JSON strings that convey Style using Notepad.


ArcGIS REST servers

Learn how to use the example project file containing many web servers that automatically provide imagery and data in a wide variety of themes for almost anywhere in the world. We also see how we can launch multiple sessions of Manifold Viewer and copy and paste items between the two sessions.


Combine Many Areas into One Area

One of the most common spatial data engineering tasks is to combine many polygonal area objects into a single polygonal area object. This operation is often called a "union" or a "merge." In this video we use Manifold Viewer to combine many area objects into a single area object. Viewer is the read-only version of Manifold, so anyone can try this example at home by downloading the merge_and_clip_examples.map sample project. Viewer is read-only, so you'll need Manifold Release 9 to save the results for further processing. However, because Viewer includes all spatial capabilities of Manifold we can use Viewer for a demo that anyone can repeat for free.


Clip Roads to Fit a Region

A very common spatial data engineering tasks is to clip a road network to only those road lines which are located within a particular region, trimming road lines so they neatly end at the boundary of the region. In this video we use Manifold Viewer to clip a road network of many roads throughout Europe to only those roads that are located within France. Viewer is the read-only version of Manifold, so anyone can try this example at home by downloading the merge_and_clip_examples.map sample project. Viewer is read-only, so you'll need Manifold Release 9 to save the results for further processing. However, because Viewer includes all spatial capabilities of Manifold we can use Viewer for a demo that anyone can repeat for free.


Remove Roads from a Region

In this example we cookie-cut all roads in a network using the shape of a region, but instead of keeping the roads inside the region and discrding those outside, it removes roads within the region and keeps those outside. Using Viewer we select roads within the region using attributes in a fast and simple method. Viewer/ Manifold - Clip Roads to Fit a Region Viewer is read-only, so you'll need Manifold Release 9 to save the results for further processing. However, because Viewer includes all spatial capabilities of Manifold we can use Viewer for a demo that anyone can repeat for free.


Use Your Native Language

This video shows how to launch Manifold Viewer or Manifold Release 9 in German language, an example that shows how easy it is to use localization files that change the user interface to different languages. We also learn how to create our own translation with an example showing how to translate the Viewer interface into a different language. Download and use language files for French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese or create your own for other languages. Language files made for either Manifold or Viewer will work with either system.


View an Esri ADF File Showing Yosemite

Esri ADF format, also called ArcGrid format, is used to store many drawings, images and terrain elevation data sets. We import an Esri ADF file that shows terrain elevation around Yosemite National Park in the US and then we color it and hill shade it for better comprehension. The exact same procedure works both in Manifold Release 9 and in Manifold Viewer, the free read-only edition of Manifold.


Speed Demo - Parallel Clipping Speed

Parallel processing using all CPU cores speeds up jobs dramatically. In this video we see Manifold do a spatial clipping operation in 13 seconds on an old and inexpensive $99 AMD CPU that takes PostGIS and Microsoft SQL Server a minute and Spatialite almost four minutes. Those are good packages but they cannot run as fast as fully parallel Manifold operation.    (Version 2 video)


Fix Many Projections at Once

Importing many files at once from formats which do not specify projection (coordinate system) used, we may need to repair many files at once. Because Manifold exposes all characteristics in tables that is easy to do using simple, point-and-click dialogs.


New, Easy Initial Coordinate System Setting

Future Viewer is a free download on the Viewer downloads page that tracks Manifold Future evolution. The video shows a feature of breakthrough usefulness in Manifold Future and Future Viewer, automatic detection and warning when we should manually assign an initial coordinate system when data is imported from formats and sources that do not specify coordinate system information. That takes just one click using the new Contents pane.


Uber Movement Data

Uber's new Uber Movement initiative at movement.uber.com provides free trip time data gathered from millions of Uber vehicle movements that can provide critical insights for cities and researchers into traffic patterns, congestion and travel times. This video shows how to download that data and convert it into GIS spatial form from the CSV files provided by Uber. A spectacular, fast use of a snippet of SQL converts the Uber format into Geometry form that Manifold Viewer, Manifold or Manifold Future can consume and analyze.


Speed Demo with Big Vectors - Australian Lakes and Rivers

A wildly popular set of printed maps and posters emerged a year or so ago from Reddit that showed every lake, river and stream in Australia in incredible detail. The author of that project said his biggest problem was that the GIS he used kept crashing all the time and was so terribly slow at displaying and working with the data. This video shows exactly that same data set in Manifold Viewer, demonstrating the incredible speed of Manifold technology at displaying millions of complex vector objects. Download the Australian hydrology example project from the Examples page and open the project in in the free Manifold Viewer to try for yourself the incredible speed of Manifold technology, even when working with hydrology data for an entire country.    (Version 2 video)


Speed Demo with PostgreSQL - Australian Lakes and Rivers

Following on to the speed demo showing native Manifold speed with over 1.4 million complex vector objects, this demo shows exactly the same data set stored in PostgreSQL and visualized with Manifold, using either Release 9 or the free Manifold Viewer. PostgreSQL is a fast and reliable DBMS so when used for back end storage for a super-fast client like Manifold or Viewer the resulting performance is both reliable and fast. It is not as fast as native, parallel Manifold storage but it is plenty fast enough for many applications while delivering the many interoperability benefits of storage within a standardized DBMS. Manifold is agnostic about data sources so it is happy to apply parallel client speed to PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, GPKG or any other DBMS. Download the Australian hydrology example project from the Examples page and open the project in the free Manifold Viewer to try for yourself the incredible speed of Manifold technology, even when working with hydrology data for an entire country.    (Version 2 video)


LiDAR data from ArcGIS REST server with palette by Manifold

Above: LiDAR terrain elevation data for Charles County, Maryland, from an ArcGIS REST server. Palette and hill shading done on-the-fly by Manifold using discrete palette stepping.


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Curvature enhanced image

Videos demonstrate the speed and incredible ease of use of Manifold: The Speed Demo with 1280 GPU Cores video shows how Manifold can enhance terrain elevation surfaces with complex curvature calculations, accomplishing in 2 minutes using GPU parallelism what takes non-parallel code five days. The image above shows enhanced detail in the rim of Crater Lake, showing terraces in the rim and flow patterns downhill.

About Manifold

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