black box spatial

TNTmips

 

TNTmips is the flagship product in the TNT range. It is a high end software chosen by top-level professional users, while remaining accessible to any level of user. TNTmips is a GIS, a CAD package, an Image Processing System, a desktop mapping system and a spatial database system built into one convenient piece of software. It can use many file formats natively, while also supporting several hundred formats by import and export processes. It includes its own powerful scripting language and consistently outperforms anything Black Box Spatial has benchmarked it against. If you are looking for the strongest, most robust and reliable system on the market, and want to maximise return on investment and maintain low cost ownership, TNTmips is the software for you. Read more here.

 

 

TNTedit

 

TNTedit is a product set a level down from TNTmips, providing all but the full suite of image processing tools. TNTedit is an ideal software for GIS analysts as it allows the horsepower of a high level topological GIS, CAD and spatial database while being exceptionally stable and cost effective. For editing data, creating maps, conducting analyses, scripting tools and maintaining and manipulating data, TNTedit is the cream of the crop. Having the same interoperability as TNTmips, the power and flexibility of the software is second to none. Read more here.

 

 

TNTview

 

TNTview is a product aimed at desktop mapping and cartographic users who assemble, manage and manipulate data for display and analysis. With an excellent entry price it is an ideal tool to allow occasional organisational users to tailor their own maps and displays without serious capital tied up in the resource intensive software many offer as their only options. TNTview is also ideal for personal use, assembling freely available or proprietary data for personal projects. Read more here.

 

 

TNTserver

 

TNTserver is without question the best performing and most flexible map server available. OGC compliant for WMS and WFS, TNTserver can take complex atlases created from TNTmips and have them serving over the web in no time flat. It can also publish single objects, layouts or other compilations directly. TNTserver also cleverly uses web map standards to implement the full features of published atlas, including using GetMap requests in WMS clients to follow hyperlinks built in TNTmips. TNTserver has fantastic licensing packages available, and Black Box Spatial can show you how to maximise return on investment and minimise cost of ownership by using TNTserver to it's full. Read more here.

 

TNTmap

 

TNTmap is one of the many free offerings from MicroImages. TNTmap is available as a windows client or a Mac widget and allows the assembly of data from Web Map Services and display of it in any one of a selection of viewers. TNTmap is an ideal client end application for you TNTserver publications. Get TNTmap here.

 

iTNTmap

 

iTNTmap is an exciting new application for the Apple iPhone or iTouch. It is a lightweight web map service viewer application that runs stylishly and conveniently on your iPhone. See the simulation here.

 

TNTatlas

 

TNTatlas is a versatile viewer for atlases created in TNTmips and other spatial objects. TNTatlas is a free product and ideally suited to data delivery as part of reports or 'knowledge handover' from professional users to their clients. Black Box Spatial's consulting team often use atlases in reports and demonstrations as it is exceptionally robust and reliable, and a very useful tool for end users. Download TNTatlas here.

 

 

TNTsim3D

 

TNTsim3D is a great product that is again free. TNTsim3D is a functional viewer for 3D simulations created in TNTmips. The ability of TNTsim3D to handle large and complex terrains and connect with atlases in TNTatlas makes it an excellent adjunct for data delivery of presentation materials. The Black Box team love TNTsim3D and strongly recommend you give it a try here.

 

TNTlite

 

If you are a student or just wanting to learn spatial sciences, then TNTlite could be the product for you. TNTlite is a fully functional version of TNTmips with a data cap on the size of files used. Many students around the world use TNTlite as a platform for learning and its available with a full set of tutorials and data sets. If it sounds like you, get it from here.

 

 

Why MicroImages?

 

The Black Box Spatial team have been spatial software users for a long time and each have various experiences with a cross section of products. One of the primary tasks assigned in the creation of Black Box Spatial was to find the best software on the market for building systems with and using for our consulting and contracting operations. After a reasonably exhaustive search, MicroImages' TNT suite stood out as the right set of products for us. So keen were we on the products that we leapt at the opportunity to represent them in our parts of the world.

 

Stability

 

MicroImages as a company has been releasing new versions of the TNT products for 20 years. That is a remarkable age for any software company, and is a pointer to one outstanding feature of MicroImages products - they are immensely stable. All software has errors on occasion and as GIS users we had been used to many of them when using alternative products. We even budgeted on eight crashes a day. With the MicroImages products we would be surprised if we reported that many in a year. What's most impressive however is how quickly issues are fixed if you do find one. A core ideal of the MicroImages team is that its how we work together to resolve software errors that counts most. As users, that's what we most want to hear.

 

 

Support

 

Everyone needs it. In the past we have been involved with helpdesk's for other GIS products and know very well how they are conducted in a way that drives sales rather than supporting users.
When you have a support query, you want answers as soon as possible. You don't want to call support and be told it will be looked into and two weeks later you receive a message to tell you its a software flaw. With other products you may be told that if you wait for the next upgrade that will be in 6 months and will cost extra, or you can buy an extension now that you mostly won't need and it will fix the problem - for a price.

 

That doesn't do you or your business any favours. On the other hand the support from MicroImages is quite phenomenal. The MicroImages support team really understand all facets of the software, and while there are specialists when needed, genuine help is never far away. For Black Box Spatial however, the best thing about MicroImages' support services is that they think hard about every query and when customers need functionality that could be added to the software and would benefit all users, it may be built in for the future. This type of support is very user focused, so for Black Box Spatial as high traffic and platform oriented users the level of support available from TNTmips and the MicroImages team is many times better than anything we have ever experienced before and another core reason for using and representing the products.

 

 

Cost of Ownership

 

TNTmips is excellent value for money to start with, but it's the ongoing cost that is really important to most users. The Black Box team have all come from other product backgrounds originally, and as an independent business that needs to work smarter to manage growth, restrictive licensing and high-cost maintenance really hurts. Black Box Spatial delivers systems as web services, and if we did so using other products the more users we have, the more connection licence's we need and the higher the cost of ownership becomes.

 

We also need functionality on tap as every system we build needs facets we've never built before. With other products this would mean having to purchase and maintain new extensions. Often those extensions are 3rd party a nd that in turn raises the time cost in support and ultimately leads to higher cost of ownership. Likewise if we have to add extensions every time we build a new system, what's the return on investment of the original software? Not much is the short answer. Speaking from an economic point of view, building a business with TNTmips and the rest of the TNT suite just makes good financial sense.

 

 

Performance

 

TNTmips and the other products in the suite are fast. Lightning fast when compared to many software's of this nature. Black Box Spatial has massive databanks and that data needs to be processed and moved silently and automatically much of the time. Big data has always been a strength with TNTmips, and our internal benchmarks border on the unbelievable at times. In running a very complex network analysis TNTmips did the job 322% faster than the next fastest GIS product for instance. In reality if the other product could have matched the functionality, the speed of operation would have made it impractical for production use.

 

More notably than outright speed is the sheer power of the software . Where else can you switch from Network analysis to basic cartography, to 3D CAD and then to HyperSpectral analysis without changing software. That is serious horsepower in anyone's language. Moreover since MicroImages team have implemented some clever new concepts on the underlying architecture, the processing power has grown greater still. A MicroImages credo has always been ''Tools, not toys'. We believe that to be truer than ever with the entire TNT suite when compared to other products.

 

 

Flexibility

 

In Black Box Spatial's consulting practice, system integration is a common feature, so we need software that can talk many languages. We are faced with obscure formats, unsupported databases, stubborn suppliers and all the things that go along with integrating corporate systems. When we look to build a solution for a client, we first do our homework on their business as a whole. Typically we have graphical packages, databases, cad systems, other spatial products, hardware based systems, mobile connectivity and sundry other systems in use that we need to pull together into one nice holistic system. TNTmips is like a universal translator in that it can understand and re-communicate to many different sectors. What's more, it can natively use data from 3rd party systems with ease, meaning that operators are in the box seat for dealing with data.

 

It's very common for clients we take on to have invested considerable amounts of money, and possibly chosen products not well suited to their needs. From their perspective, they don't want to pull the pin on a large scale investment and want someone to make it work the way it always should have. If that means they have spent many dollars on a non-relational database built in obscure language for example, they will not be ultimately receptive to being told they can have a spatial system with all the extras as long as they change all their data to fit a new format that will work spatially, but will also mean they can't communicate data back to suit their need. That's why using a product like TNTmips with its massive interoperability makes so much sense.

 

Of course the TNT suite isn't just flexible in a data sense. It is available for Windows or Mac, has a small footprint for a complex software, is non modular so it expands in its delivery as your needs increase. Furthermore, when used in combination with TNTserver, the TNT suite can be used to deliver your data to end users without the need for multiple low usage software licence's. Flexibility is extremely important to Black Box Spatial as it contributes greatly to the cost of ownership and return on investment as noted above.

 

 

Furthermore...

 

There is a lot we could say about MicroImages' products. From TNTmips to TNTmap the suite is right for us and our current clients, so its highly likely it will be right for you too. The best way to really understand it is to have our team come and talk to you about your needs and directions. Please feel free to contact us and we'll discuss your needs one to one.

The TNT suite of software produces unmatched return on investment.

As a professional GIS and Image processing system, TNTmips provides amazing horsepower for high-end users. The entire suite backs this up with products or combinations of products that balance the technical capacity with usability for all skill levels.

 

To run spatial software in-house is an investment in people, hardware and software that can be a trap for the unaware. Because the MicroImages TNT suite provides scaled products and outstanding distribution capacity, you needn't get caught with large maintenance and software licence fees for occasional users, and it doesn't cost you every time an access is made.

 

Furthermore, when you purchase MicroImages TNT software, you buy into a global network of advanced professional users and an unparalleled support system meaning you have the strength of numbers and expertise for getting the highest value from your software.

 

As TNTmips is a GIS, a CAD, An image processing system and a spatial data management system in one piece of software, when you buy TNTmips as a professional user, you have all the tools you need. With TNTmips being able to translate between hundreds of formats, the cost/benefit ratio for users dealing with many and varied data sets is increased further.

 

Talk to us about MicroImages software if you want these things from your software investment:

• Fixed licence and support costs
• Maximum interoperability
• Unified toolset's
• Multiple data delivery options
• Low cost of ownership
• High return on investment